Elite / Frontier FFE ship stats
- Thread starter madbilly
- Start date
Thanks Steve. Big rep for Frontier Astro btw, good to see you're still keeping your great website going. 
You say "the stats published in the manual are pretty much all there are" - so is there anything else that you know of?
I was wondering if there was something equivalent to armour or hardness like there is in ED, or more detail on turn rate than the acceleration from the retro thrusters?
You say "the stats published in the manual are pretty much all there are" - so is there anything else that you know of?
I was wondering if there was something equivalent to armour or hardness like there is in ED, or more detail on turn rate than the acceleration from the retro thrusters?
Thanks for the kind words regarding the website [smile]
A few minutes ago I ran a quick experiment using BUFFET and there does seem to be a manoeuvrability rating for each ship, which is independent of the values for the forward and rear thrusters. This isn't mentioned in any of the various docs I've got covering hacking FFE so I think someone like AndyJ is the best person to ask [yesnod]
A few minutes ago I ran a quick experiment using BUFFET and there does seem to be a manoeuvrability rating for each ship, which is independent of the values for the forward and rear thrusters. This isn't mentioned in any of the various docs I've got covering hacking FFE so I think someone like AndyJ is the best person to ask [yesnod]
Okay, waiting on a reply from AndyJ but I did some investigating in the JJFFE and GLFFE source. The ship specs include a "destruction bonus" or "elite points" which is the number of points towards Elite ranking that destroying that kind of ship gives. GLFFE includes something called turn rate but it's not clear to me if this was added for GLFFE, is only related to AI, is directly proportional to retro thrusters etc. or if it's really another stat from FFE.
More investigating required.
More investigating required.
Hi guys,
What values are you looking at Steve? My BUFFET (2.01) only shows the main + retro thruster values... are you looking at the equivalent 'g' ratings next to these?
Yeah sorry for the delay - I had to go look at the source too (JJFFE equivalent)
FFE does alter the turn rate for the larger ships, but I think that it's pretty simplistic:
All of the smaller ships can turn at the same rate it seems.
If you have one of the following ships, then the turn rate is divided by 2 -
Transporter, Lion Transport, Tiger Trader, Imperial Courier, Python Freighter, Imperial Trader
And if you have one of the following, then the turn rate is divided by 4 -
Anaconda Freighter, Puma Clipper, Boa Freighter, Panther Clipper, Tiercel Freighter, Imperial Explorer, Mantis Transport, Griffin Carrier.
Ship strength is calculated as the hull mass multiplied by 4. Damage occurs and can be repaired in 250kg increments - so 4 points per tonne.
When you add a shield to a ship, this adds 64 to the overall strength and so each one is equivalent to 16 extra tonnes of hull mass protecting you.
'hardness' is a bit odd to quantify perhaps.
I've never sat down to figure out what damage the lasers actually do... and I probably won't because it's a per-game-tick calculation!
Mines/Missiles do have set damage values though:
Damage. . . Weapon
10. . . . . XB13 Dummy Prox. Mine
100 . . . . XB74 Proximity Mine
200 . . . . KL760 Homing Missile
300 . . . . LV111 Smart Missile
400 . . . . NN500 Naval Missile
600 . . . . MV1 Assault Missile
800 . . . . MV2 Assault Missile
1000. . . . Thargoid Missile
100 . . . . Mycoid Missile
111 . . . . Nuclear Missile
So if I'm correct, a standard KL760 homing missile should be strong enough to destroy any shieldless ship with a remaining hull mass of 50 or less.
(i.e. fighter ships smaller than an adder)
There is also an exception regarding Energy bombs as they don't affect the Tiercel Freighter, Imperial Explorer, Mantis Transport or Griffin Carrier.
For other ships, I think it does 261 damage so will destroy any shieldless ship that has 65 tonnes of hull remaining or less.
Hope this helps!
What values are you looking at Steve? My BUFFET (2.01) only shows the main + retro thruster values... are you looking at the equivalent 'g' ratings next to these?
Yeah sorry for the delay - I had to go look at the source too (JJFFE equivalent)
FFE does alter the turn rate for the larger ships, but I think that it's pretty simplistic:
All of the smaller ships can turn at the same rate it seems.
If you have one of the following ships, then the turn rate is divided by 2 -
Transporter, Lion Transport, Tiger Trader, Imperial Courier, Python Freighter, Imperial Trader
And if you have one of the following, then the turn rate is divided by 4 -
Anaconda Freighter, Puma Clipper, Boa Freighter, Panther Clipper, Tiercel Freighter, Imperial Explorer, Mantis Transport, Griffin Carrier.
Ship strength is calculated as the hull mass multiplied by 4. Damage occurs and can be repaired in 250kg increments - so 4 points per tonne.
When you add a shield to a ship, this adds 64 to the overall strength and so each one is equivalent to 16 extra tonnes of hull mass protecting you.
'hardness' is a bit odd to quantify perhaps.
I've never sat down to figure out what damage the lasers actually do... and I probably won't because it's a per-game-tick calculation!
Mines/Missiles do have set damage values though:
Damage. . . Weapon
10. . . . . XB13 Dummy Prox. Mine
100 . . . . XB74 Proximity Mine
200 . . . . KL760 Homing Missile
300 . . . . LV111 Smart Missile
400 . . . . NN500 Naval Missile
600 . . . . MV1 Assault Missile
800 . . . . MV2 Assault Missile
1000. . . . Thargoid Missile
100 . . . . Mycoid Missile
111 . . . . Nuclear Missile
So if I'm correct, a standard KL760 homing missile should be strong enough to destroy any shieldless ship with a remaining hull mass of 50 or less.
(i.e. fighter ships smaller than an adder)
There is also an exception regarding Energy bombs as they don't affect the Tiercel Freighter, Imperial Explorer, Mantis Transport or Griffin Carrier.
For other ships, I think it does 261 damage so will destroy any shieldless ship that has 65 tonnes of hull remaining or less.
Hope this helps!
Last edited:
You're not looking at the source of Nic's mod (of GLFFE) are you?
If you are, beware that "ships.c" is from the Anisotropic mod, and that does define turn rates for each ship - but it's not standard for Frontier: First Encounters.
Told you Andy would know!
No, I simply did a test using BUFFET to switch between ships and observe that - for example - a Boa would take much longer to yaw (remember yaw, Elite Dangerous sufferers? [haha]) or roll 360 degrees than my Viper.
Lots of interesting info there. Hope it helps madbilly
Yes, that's what I was looking at. You confirmed my suspicions, I did wonder if that was from the Anisotropic mod... this is all taking me back a few years!
He does know indeed!Told you Andy would know!
No, I simply did a test using BUFFET to switch between ships and observe that - for example - a Boa would take much longer to yaw (remember yaw, Elite Dangerous sufferers? [haha]) or roll 360 degrees than my Viper.
I always assumed that the retro thrusters also applied for up/down left/right thrusters, so yaw/roll/pitch were the same acceleration as reverse thrust.
If the turn rate is actually the simplistic approach that Andy explains then that's completely different! Quite disappointing actually, I prefer my previous delusions
Yes, definitely the kind of info I was after!Lots of interesting info there. Hope it helps madbilly
Definitely helpful, thanks Andy.
So turn rate is very simple, not related to retro thruster acceleration at all. Disappointing, but definitely simpler. For my project I may stick with earlier assumption.
In ED I think "hardness" is a modifier against certain weapon types and against penetration to internal modules. What you describe as the hull mass and ship strength sounds like direct hit points, so perhaps there isn't a modifier like ED's hardness in FFE. Again simpler, to be expected considering all the other calculations FFE is also doing during combat.
If you think about it though, managing to get everything FE2 and FFE managed into a small enough size to literally fit on a 1.44Mb floppy disc (in FE2's case at least) is rather impressive - considering the sheer amount of information in the game to keep track of. I've seen word processing files bigger in file size than the entirety of FE2 was.
TrueProcGen FTW!
ProcGen makes it possible, but it's still a lot of procedures to pack into 1.44MB! I think I read that FE2 files are compressed but FFE ones are not, plus FFE includes some C bits rewritten from the ASM in FE2, which explains some of the size increase. The rest is mainly textures (and the AVIs :x)!Anyway, back OT, there's clearly more "stats" for ships in FFE than is in the manual. Whilst searching through old AFE posts I found lots of info from John Jordan, inc. the fact that every ships has a "maximum range you can hit it from" stat!
I got my info from George Hooper's Guide to Hacking FFE which identifies what are probably the more useful stats for each ship. For example, there's a "zoom" stat which dictates how close the ship appears in certain views, such as the info screens. I was fascinated to learn that there a a handful of ships which are immune to the energy bomb. Good job my laser does the job!
And back to OT: I love the videos! I always have them switched on when I play The Game [woah]
After a little searching I found that Doc in his Utilities section. It's probably where I should have started this search!