What is "Hull Mass" and does it have and bearing on the game?
- Thread starter Kled7
- Start date
Hull mass decides the effectiveness of shields. presumably only Fed/Imp fighters can be launches.
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There is a direct correlation between hull mass and shield availability/strength.
My limited understanding of how shipboard launched fighters will work: The ship has to have a large docking bay. Anaconda, Cutter, Corvette, Clipper, FGS, Keelback....mighty have missed one, but you get my drift.
My limited understanding of how shipboard launched fighters will work: The ship has to have a large docking bay. Anaconda, Cutter, Corvette, Clipper, FGS, Keelback....mighty have missed one, but you get my drift.
The whole "fighters to be launched" stuff is well and truly in the dark atm, and if introduced would assumedly run off fighter bays with classes if they need different size ones.
Hull mass contributes to your overall mass, which affects things like handling, but the main one is it affects your shield strength. The higher your hull mass is, the weaker the shield you get. Heavier ships will generally have the bigger internal spaces for bigger shield generators to compensate, but still explains how the shield strength is reached and in some cases gives unusual results. For instance the iCourier has a class 3 internal slot max, but a class 3 shield generator gives it a well known beefy shield because it's got a tiny hull mass.
Notably only your base hull mass makes a difference. Any weight added in the form of weapons, fuel, internals etc. don't touch the shield strength. The idea is that you're stretching the shield over a bigger ship, but they haven't implemented a "surface area" stat and use mass to compensate. Hopefully this isn't something they try to add later
Hull mass contributes to your overall mass, which affects things like handling, but the main one is it affects your shield strength. The higher your hull mass is, the weaker the shield you get. Heavier ships will generally have the bigger internal spaces for bigger shield generators to compensate, but still explains how the shield strength is reached and in some cases gives unusual results. For instance the iCourier has a class 3 internal slot max, but a class 3 shield generator gives it a well known beefy shield because it's got a tiny hull mass.
Notably only your base hull mass makes a difference. Any weight added in the form of weapons, fuel, internals etc. don't touch the shield strength. The idea is that you're stretching the shield over a bigger ship, but they haven't implemented a "surface area" stat and use mass to compensate. Hopefully this isn't something they try to add later
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Hull mass generally indicates the weight of something without ANYTHING attached to it, the bare hull basically, and it does affect stuff as others have mentioned.
The most important metrics influenced are jump range and minimum module sizes (shields/thrusters/?)
Theoretically, the hull mass also determines the acceleration of the ship, together with the thruster size and rating (theoretically in N).
However, the game is arcady and an artistic license trope may apply. Plus, the flight computer heavily restricts the thruster system even in FA off mode.
The hull mass should also influence the hull integrity (at least partially), but it doesn't.
Theoretically, the hull mass also determines the acceleration of the ship, together with the thruster size and rating (theoretically in N).
However, the game is arcady and an artistic license trope may apply. Plus, the flight computer heavily restricts the thruster system even in FA off mode.
The hull mass should also influence the hull integrity (at least partially), but it doesn't.
The whole "fighters to be launched" stuff is well and truly in the dark atm, and if introduced would assumedly run off fighter bays with classes if they need different size ones.
Hull mass contributes to your overall mass, which affects things like handling, but the main one is it affects your shield strength. The higher your hull mass is, the weaker the shield you get. Heavier ships will generally have the bigger internal spaces for bigger shield generators to compensate, but still explains how the shield strength is reached and in some cases gives unusual results. For instance the iCourier has a class 3 internal slot max, but a class 3 shield generator gives it a well known beefy shield because it's got a tiny hull mass.
Notably only your base hull mass makes a difference. Any weight added in the form of weapons, fuel, internals etc. don't touch the shield strength. The idea is that you're stretching the shield over a bigger ship, but they haven't implemented a "surface area" stat and use mass to compensate. Hopefully this isn't something they try to add later
There must also be hidden stats of ships that effect shield strength as well. An Adder has the same hull mass, same size 3 internal slot for shields and gets less than a third the shield strength. 102 vs 335 according to coriolis.io.
I wouldn't call it a "hidden stat", but a lot of attributes for ships are just "chosen". They assumedly give all ships a shield value, and that acts as a multiplier for working out the total shield energy.
Its called base shield value or something similar. Adder have lower base shield value than iCourier.
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Duh, I totally missed that. Makes sense the iCourier has a base of 197, higher than the iClipper, and the Adder's base is only 60.