Mass Effect 1: Weapon and armor calculations (compiled by The Grey Ranger)
Oct 2, 2016 16:08:25 GMT
KrrKs, Darth Dennis, and 1 more like this
Post by RedCaesar97 on Oct 2, 2016 16:08:25 GMT
ATTENTION: The information in this thread was compiled and posted by The Grey Ranger on the old BioWare Social Network (BSN) forums. I am posting this information here so it does not get lost, and also to make it easier to find on these forums. I take no credit for this work. I am unsure if The Grey Ranger is a registered user on this site, so I am posting this information without permission. i only provided some extra formatting.
The original weapons testing was done by Macsbug and Zilod with the weapons formula consolidation being done by Ablated Crayon.
Rate of fire by weapon type:
Pistol 4 rounds per second
Assault rifle 10 rounds per second.
Shotgun 1.25 seconds per round
Sniper rifle 1.75 seconds per round
Here is the base formula for calculating damage per second (by Ablated Crayon):
weaponDamage = (baseWeaponDamage) *(1+s_global) * [1+(s_weapon)(kTwoMods)] * (1+s_carnage) * [1+(kCarnageShot)(s_global) * [1+s_target-kCarnageShot*s_target]
Where:
> s_global = Sum of global damage effects. For example, Spectre Training and Renegade damage bonuses
> s_weapon = Sum of those bonuses said to increase weapon damage. For example, Long Service medal, Pistols, Assassination, Assault Rifle, Scram Rail X.
> kTwoMods = constant value. Equal to 1 if weapon has one enhancement slot, equal to 0.625 if weapon has two slots.
> s_carnage = Damage bonus from carnage ability. This is obviously zero if you are not dealing with carnage, else use the value carnage gives if you are.
> kCarnageShot = constant value. Equal to 1 if the shot is going to be a carnage shot, equal to 0 if it's not.
> s_target = sum of target-specific damage mods. For example, Tungsten and Shredder ammo mods.
About Carnage and Assassinate (from Zilod):
it seem that base weapon damage is DPS (damage per second) but both Carnage and Assassinate are damage boosts on single shots.
Both sniper rifles and shotguns have a ROF (rate of fire) higher than 1 second so their per-shot damage is actually higher than the DPS value.
I ran some tests and I got:
> Shotgun ROF = 1.25s
> Sniper Rifle ROF = 1.75s
For this reason, base weapon damage when calculating Carnage/Assassinate should be multiplied by these values, so:
> Base Carnage damage = base weapon damage * 1.25
> Base Assassinate damage = base weapon damage * 1.75
If you are using Marksman for your pistol, multiply your number from this calculation by the following:
> Basic Markman 1.25
> Advanced Marksman 1.375
> Master Marksman 1.5
The reason for this is Marksman is a direct increase in your rate of fire. I am not quite sure how this would work out with an ammo that lowers your rate of fire (Snowblind rounds) since I have not done round count per second to see if the rate of fire reduction applies to the bonuses from Marksman.
Armor and mods -- including bonuses from skills and immunity -- work like this (with credit to Althernai and Ablated Crayon):
hong asked: When a suit of armor says it has damage reduction X/shield Y, what does it mean exactly?
My theory is as follows. First the shields stop all shots until they are depleted. For example, 200 shields means you have to deal 200 pts of damage to take them down. Once the shields are gone, the armor rating is the percentage of damage reduced. Eg 40 armor means that 40% is taken off any damage inflicted by subsequent shots.
Shield mods increase the total shield amount, eg 200 shields + 120 shield mod = 320 shields. Armour mods increase damage reduction similarly, eg 40 armor + 15% DR increase = 55% DR.
Is this correct?
Althernai: As far as I can tell, the armor addition works as follows: given armor x and damage resistance y (where x and y are expressed as fractions), the total resistance is x + y - xy. So in your example, the total resistance is not 55%, but 40% + 15% - 40%*15% = 49%.
I would prefer to express it this way:
init + (1-init) * (modFrac) = new DR
Where:
0 < init < 1
0 < modFrac < 1
So:
.4 + (.6) * .15 = .4 + .09 = .49
Same as you, but it is more clear what's happening. You are moving modFrac's worth closer to full 100% (1.0) DR. You move a percent of what ground remains to be covered.
Chaw's example: It means that there's a diminishing returns formula at work.
Let's say you have Damage Protection from three different sources (armor, talent, and armor mod, for example) with values of 10% each. Let's also assume that you get hit once for 1000 points of damage.
The first 10% damage reduction reduces the damage by 100 points, leaving 900 damage. The second 10% damage reduction reduces the remainder by another 10%, that is, 90 points, leaving 810 damage. The final 10% reduces this remainder by 10%, which is 81 damage, leaving you to take 729 points of damage in total.
If you had instead had a single source providing 30% damage reduction, you would only take 700 points of damage, since it would have been reduced by 300.
With an addition from Ablated Crayon: And if you did the math from the other direction, like my equation does:
init + (1-init) * (modFrac) = new DR
Apply it three times, once for the skill, once for the armor, once for the armor upgrade:
0 + (1-0) * 0.1 = 0.1 DR
0.1 + (1-.1) * 0.1 = .19 DR
.19 + (1-.19) * 0.1 = .271 DR
Means your final reduction is 27.1% This would be your armor's final 'rating'.
The original weapons testing was done by Macsbug and Zilod with the weapons formula consolidation being done by Ablated Crayon.
Rate of fire by weapon type:
Pistol 4 rounds per second
Assault rifle 10 rounds per second.
Shotgun 1.25 seconds per round
Sniper rifle 1.75 seconds per round
Here is the base formula for calculating damage per second (by Ablated Crayon):
weaponDamage = (baseWeaponDamage) *(1+s_global) * [1+(s_weapon)(kTwoMods)] * (1+s_carnage) * [1+(kCarnageShot)(s_global) * [1+s_target-kCarnageShot*s_target]
Where:
> s_global = Sum of global damage effects. For example, Spectre Training and Renegade damage bonuses
> s_weapon = Sum of those bonuses said to increase weapon damage. For example, Long Service medal, Pistols, Assassination, Assault Rifle, Scram Rail X.
> kTwoMods = constant value. Equal to 1 if weapon has one enhancement slot, equal to 0.625 if weapon has two slots.
> s_carnage = Damage bonus from carnage ability. This is obviously zero if you are not dealing with carnage, else use the value carnage gives if you are.
> kCarnageShot = constant value. Equal to 1 if the shot is going to be a carnage shot, equal to 0 if it's not.
> s_target = sum of target-specific damage mods. For example, Tungsten and Shredder ammo mods.
About Carnage and Assassinate (from Zilod):
it seem that base weapon damage is DPS (damage per second) but both Carnage and Assassinate are damage boosts on single shots.
Both sniper rifles and shotguns have a ROF (rate of fire) higher than 1 second so their per-shot damage is actually higher than the DPS value.
I ran some tests and I got:
> Shotgun ROF = 1.25s
> Sniper Rifle ROF = 1.75s
For this reason, base weapon damage when calculating Carnage/Assassinate should be multiplied by these values, so:
> Base Carnage damage = base weapon damage * 1.25
> Base Assassinate damage = base weapon damage * 1.75
If you are using Marksman for your pistol, multiply your number from this calculation by the following:
> Basic Markman 1.25
> Advanced Marksman 1.375
> Master Marksman 1.5
The reason for this is Marksman is a direct increase in your rate of fire. I am not quite sure how this would work out with an ammo that lowers your rate of fire (Snowblind rounds) since I have not done round count per second to see if the rate of fire reduction applies to the bonuses from Marksman.
Armor and mods -- including bonuses from skills and immunity -- work like this (with credit to Althernai and Ablated Crayon):
hong asked: When a suit of armor says it has damage reduction X/shield Y, what does it mean exactly?
My theory is as follows. First the shields stop all shots until they are depleted. For example, 200 shields means you have to deal 200 pts of damage to take them down. Once the shields are gone, the armor rating is the percentage of damage reduced. Eg 40 armor means that 40% is taken off any damage inflicted by subsequent shots.
Shield mods increase the total shield amount, eg 200 shields + 120 shield mod = 320 shields. Armour mods increase damage reduction similarly, eg 40 armor + 15% DR increase = 55% DR.
Is this correct?
Althernai: As far as I can tell, the armor addition works as follows: given armor x and damage resistance y (where x and y are expressed as fractions), the total resistance is x + y - xy. So in your example, the total resistance is not 55%, but 40% + 15% - 40%*15% = 49%.
I would prefer to express it this way:
init + (1-init) * (modFrac) = new DR
Where:
0 < init < 1
0 < modFrac < 1
So:
.4 + (.6) * .15 = .4 + .09 = .49
Same as you, but it is more clear what's happening. You are moving modFrac's worth closer to full 100% (1.0) DR. You move a percent of what ground remains to be covered.
Chaw's example: It means that there's a diminishing returns formula at work.
Let's say you have Damage Protection from three different sources (armor, talent, and armor mod, for example) with values of 10% each. Let's also assume that you get hit once for 1000 points of damage.
The first 10% damage reduction reduces the damage by 100 points, leaving 900 damage. The second 10% damage reduction reduces the remainder by another 10%, that is, 90 points, leaving 810 damage. The final 10% reduces this remainder by 10%, which is 81 damage, leaving you to take 729 points of damage in total.
If you had instead had a single source providing 30% damage reduction, you would only take 700 points of damage, since it would have been reduced by 300.
With an addition from Ablated Crayon: And if you did the math from the other direction, like my equation does:
init + (1-init) * (modFrac) = new DR
Apply it three times, once for the skill, once for the armor, once for the armor upgrade:
0 + (1-0) * 0.1 = 0.1 DR
0.1 + (1-.1) * 0.1 = .19 DR
.19 + (1-.19) * 0.1 = .271 DR
Means your final reduction is 27.1% This would be your armor's final 'rating'.
