Basic PvP Mechanics - Agony Empire

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Basic PvP Mechanics

From Agony Empire
Original text by Sanfrey Statolomy. (http://www.agony-unleashed.com/user.php?id.2064) Updated and expanded by Aether (http://www.agony-unleashed.com/user.php?id.3335) . Copyright Agony Unleashed

Contents
1 Introduction 2 Signature Radius 3 Signature Resolution 4 Explosion Radius & Velocity 5 Scan Resolution 6 Sensor Strength 7 Nasty Maths

Introduction
Eve players don't play for long before running into such terms as "signature radius". Over time, most develop some idea about what these terms mean, but when players become concerned with being successful in PVP these terms take on a new importance and require a deeper level of understanding. Understanding the terms explained in this article will help you to deliver more damage to your enemies, to avoid taking damage without necessity, and to understand the impact of electronic warfare in PVP.

Signature Radius
It is easy to see by comparing different ships that the signature radius is relative to the ship class. At first glance the number, measured in metres, seems to simply give players an impression of how big each ship is. However theres much more to it than that! The signature radius of a ship influences how much damage it takes from guns and missiles, how easy the ship is to scan out, and how quickly it can be locked. Everything Is Round Imagine trying to throw a sandwich at a Stop sign. Theres an easy way face on, so youre throwing it at the front of the sign; and a hard way side on, where the sign is only a few millimeters across, and the largest targets probably the post the signs nailed to.

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Now imagine trying to shoot a Tempest battleship. Tall and long, the Tempest should be much easier to hit side on than from the front as it has a much larger cross section when viewed sideways. (See diagrams 1 and 2 below.) Eve doesnt work this way; the clue is in the term signature radius. Eve sees all ships as spheres, for the purposes of treating them as targets. As far as Eve is concerned, your battleship is just a well armed ball with a 400m radius! (Diagram 3.)

1.

2.

3.

As youll read below, its preferable to have a small signature radius. The larger a ships signature radius, the more damage it is prone to take, the faster the enemies can find it with scan probes, and the quicker it can be locked. Things that increase Signature Radius Shield Rigs Shield Extenders Microwarpdrives (only when turned on) Being painted with a Target Painter Inertia Stabilizers Things that decrease Signature Radius Training Shield Rigging skill - only applicable to Shield Rigs Training Interceptors skill - only applicable to Interceptors Training "Electronic Attack Ships" skill - only applicable to Hyena EAF Using halo implants Using skirmish Warfare links Considering the lists above its easy to see that increasing a signature radius (which is bad) is much easier than decreasing it! Sizes of Different Ship Classes Frigates T1: 30-42 meters Interceptors: 30-36 meters Assault Frigates: 33-39 meters

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Destroyers T1&T2: 75-80 meters Cruisers T1&T2: 100-160 meters Battlecruisers T1&T2: 240-300 meters Battleships: 320-500 meters Carriers: 2,800-12,400 meters The above is assuming these ships do not have a mwd turned on and do not have any other size-boosting modules fitted. Sizes of Drones Light combat drones: 25m Medium combat drones: 50m Heavy combat drones and fighters: 100m

Signature Resolution
All guns in Eve have an area of effect similar to that of a shotgun, or an artillery shell. Imagine shooting a tennis ball from 30 feet away with a shotgun sure, the ball would get blown to pieces, but it would only have been hit by a few of the pieces. Most of the pieces would have spread out a little and missed the tennis ball. In Eve, it is easy to imagine this being the case with a blaster after all, they spray out hot plasma and it is intuitive that it could spread. However even artillery shells in Eve have this area of effect, known as the Signature Resolution. One way to think of this is to think of the artillery shell as an explosive charge similar to real life artillery, they dont simply hit something like a bullet does, they hit then explode. That explosion could be small or large, and on really big guns, the explosions really big. The Signature Resolution of a gun measures the size of this area of effect in the same way that the Signature Radius measures the size of a ship. The relationship between the two determines how much of the guns damage the ship will take (other factors contribute, too, though!). Our tennis ball example above describes the situation of a Really Big Gun shooting a little ship. For example, a 1200mm Artillery Cannon I has a signature resolution of 400m, and a Cormorant destroyer has a Signature Radius of only 90m. Therefore the Cormorant will only be subject to a small portion of the damage that the gun is trying to deliver, as the guns total damage will be spread over a circle with a 400m radius, and the destroyer is only 90m in size. In the picture below, a turret with greater signature resolution is shooting at a Malediction interceptor. Out of 15 shots placed you can see that many will miss the ship. On the other hand a turret with lower signature resolution shooting at a Caracal cruiser will be able to hit it many more times. Image:SignatureResolution.png Signature resolution of different turret sizes: Small turrets - 40 meters Medium turrets - 125 meters Large turrets - 400 meters Capital - 1000 meters

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Explosion Radius & Velocity

The explosion radius is the missiles equivalent to a guns signature resolution. In the same way that a gun has an area of effect, so does a missile. A missile will hit for reduced damage if the explosion radius is greater than the ship's signature radius. For example, a torpedo with a large explosion radius will hit for greatly reduced damage on a frigate with a small signature radius. On the other hand, a standard missile will hit for full damage against a battleship. Another factor that decreases damage delivered by missiles is the ship's velocity. If ships velocity is greater than the explosion velocity of the missile. This effect is combined with effects of signature radius on missile damage.

Scan Resolution
The length of time it takes for one ship to lock another is determined by the targeting ships scan resolution, and the targeted ships signature radius. The higher the scan resolution, the faster a ship will lock onto targets; and the higher the signature radius of a ship, the faster other ships will lock onto it. This is why a frigate can lock a battleship in very little time, but a battleship will take ten times longer to lock a frigate. Imagine you are attempting to use a satellite to find a vehicle lost in a forest. The two things that will make it easier to find will be the resolution of the satellites camera, and the size of the vehicle a fire truck will be easier to find on a high quality picture than a motorbike on a low quality picture. Sensor boosters improve scan resolution, allowing the ship lock other ships faster. Sensor dampeners decrease the targets scan resolution, thus increasing its locking time. Generally, Minmatar ships have the highest sensor resolution and lowest signature radius characteristics than ships of other races within the same class. This makes them be able to lock targets quicker than ships of other races, while requiring the most time to lock back onto. Caldari ships generally have the lowest sensor resolution in game. Gallente and Caldari ships have the biggest signature radii in game. This table compares the locking times of a few common ships. These are rough numbers, using the raw ship attributes without skills applied.

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Sensor Strength
A ships sensor strength determines how difficult the ship is to jam with ECM and how easy it is to find using scan probes. Generally speaking, Caldari ships have the highest sensor strength in game, while Minmatar ships have the lowest sensor strength, making Minmatar ships slightly easier to jam and scan down than ships of other races. The sensor strength and signature radius of a ship both determine how easy the ship is to find using scan probes. The lower the sensor strength and the greater the signature radius, the easier the target is to scan out. For example, a rigged Vargur with only basic rigging skills will have a signature radius of 500m, and the paltry sensor strength of 11. Its signal strength will be 500 divided by 11, which equals 45. This makes Vargurs incredibly easy to scan down. In contrast the Rook has a sensor strength of 32 and a signature radius of 173, meaning its signal strength is 5 making it much more difficult to get a 100% result on. Note: Other factors such as the distance from the probes to the target, whether the target is in dedspace, and the probing pilots skills also contribute to the signal strength returned on a scanner results list. A 100% signal strength is required to warp to a probed target. ECCM modules and sensor backup arrays can be fitted to ships to increase their sensor strength, making them both more difficult to jam and more difficult to scan down. ECCM are mid-slot active modules that come in omni as well as racial varieties. Backup arrays are low-slots passive module that come only in racial varieties. When fitting a racial ECCM or backup arrray, be sure to fit the correct one for your ship type! Amarr Radar Caldari Gravimetric Gallente Magnetometric Minmatar - LADAR

asty Maths
For the totally obsessed amongst you, here are the formulas behind the theories above. You do not need to know this stuff!

According to Akita T, the damage formula for turrets is: z is the " o-Hit Chance" a number between 0 (0%) and 1 (100%) T , x = random number between 0 and 1 (generated for each shot) z = 0.5^{[Angular/ModifiedTracking]^2 +[(max(0,Range-Optimal))/Falloff]^2} where Angular = Transversal/Range, and ModifiedTracking = TurretTracking * TargetSig / GunSig If {x<0.01} Then {quality = 3} else {quality = x + 0.5} If {x<z} Then {damage = quality x expected base damage} Else {missed shot} In not so many words, what this means, is that : * DPS goes down a lot faster as chance to hit does * chance to hit is never 100% whenever any transversal is involved * within optimal, after sig adjustments, if " djusted turret tracking"equals target's angular velocity, a you only have a 50% chance to hit, and you deal a bit under 40% DPS overall * you can get hit in a fast, small ship by a large gun with lousy tracking... it just has a very low chance to hit (but not zero)

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According to Stafen, the damage formula for missiles is: Damage = Base_Damage x MI (MI (sig/Er,1) , (Ev/vel x sig/Er)^(K x ln(drf))) Where sig = ship's signature radius vel = ship's velocity Er = Explosion Radius of missile Ev = Explosion Velocity of missile K 0.586 drf = damage reduction factor which changes according to missile type drf for T1 missile types: light = 2.8 rocket = 3.0 heavy = 3.2 heavy assault = 4.5 cruise = 4.5 torpedo = 5.0

According to Blazde, the time it takes for one ship to lock another is determined by: seconds = ((40000 / ScanRes) / (asinh(SigRadius) ^ 2))

The percent chance for ECM to work, according to Trillian McMillan, is: (ECM jamming strength for the target's sensor type) / (target ship's sensor strength) x 100 Example: 6 point of radar jamming strength / 20 sensor strength on Apocalypse x 100 = 30% chance to jam it on first cycle Multiple ECM formula (multiple modules/cycles): Chance_to_jam = {1-[(1-E1)*(1-E2)*...*(1-En)]}*100 With E1, E2... En being each of your jammers' chance to jam the ship. If all your jammers are equal, E1=E2=En, then this formula is simplified to: Chance_to_jam = {1-[(1-E)^n]}*100 n being your number of jammers on the target. Retrieved from "http://www.agony-unleashed.com/wiki/index.php?title=Basic_PvP_Mechanics" Categories: Agony | PVP University/BASIC | PVP University This page was last modified 17:13, 3 September 2009. Content is available under Agony Empire Copyright.

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