What I'm not hearing though is how it fixed the issue with defense degradation. At levels like in the example here the issue isn't as pronounced... but when you have an off type defense of 30, each WEAPON has to roll against the square rooted defense value of 5... the off type stuff doesn't degrade based off the square rooted value. I'm wondering how this has been addressed, as it's really the biggest issue in defense in the current build.

Well, I'm going to guess that the square root value is still used when the defence is attacked by an off-type weapon. Otherwise, the defence won't actually stop any damage. What's unclear is whether the defences are still additive or now work in series i.e. when the shields finally go down, the lasers contend against the point-defence and then the armour.

In the additive scenario, the on-type defence is worn down faster when it reaches a low value, because off-type defences boost its roll value. Of course, it's always good to roll more than the attack because it prevents bleed-through to the hull.

With defences in series, the on-type defence doesn't get a boost and so less weapons are needed to knock it out. However additional weapons of the same type may not do their maximum damage until the other defences are similarly knocked out. This spreads out the distribution of bleed-through weapons damage.

Oh by the way the defense bug is stupid. I didn't even notice, and I'll be ok waiting for the next update. You guys are ridiculous. So what a weapon is 1 point off. Why don't you try and have them find out the last integer of PI.

While I am glad the Off-Type Defense Bug has been addressed, I am concerned about the way defenses degrade. Using the weapon/fleet setups from the example above:

Ship A1 fires lasers and rolls an attack of 8 ( B's defenses are now 2/5/3 )
Ship A2 fires lasers and rolls an attack of 4 ( B's defenses are now 0/5/3 )
Ship A3 fires lasers and rolls an attack of 7 ( B's defenses are now 0/0/3 )
Ship A4 fires lasers and rolls an attack of 6 ( B's defenses are now 0/0/0 )
Ship A5 fires lasers and rolls an attack of 9 ( B is defenseless until next round )


Now, what if the the rolls happened this way:


Ship A1 fires lasers and rolls an attack of 8 ( B's defenses are now 2/5/3 )
Ship A2 fires lasers and rolls an attack of 4 ( B's defenses are now 0/5/3 )
Ship A3 fires lasers and rolls an attack of 2 ( B's defenses are now 0/(3 or 1)/3 )
...
etc.


So developers, please answer, if defenses are hit with an Off-Type weapon, does the Off Type defense degrade at the value of the attack? or would it degrade at the square of the value of the attack?

If it degrades at the square of the value of the attack (2 ^ 2 = 4) This would replicate the ineffectiveness of the Off Type defense. Otherwise the example you posted shows that it does not matter what type of defense you have on your ships. All defenses (Shields, PD, Armor) will degrade at the same rate when hit by a beam weapon.

Anyhoo, I'm anxious to see this bu rectified. I cannot bring myself to play DA and enjoy it while this Off Type Defense bug is still occuring.

As to the question at hand, It seems now that the best defense will be the cheapest defense as the degradation is the same no matter what you are being hit with. Does this even constitute a fix.

I would like a little more clarification on this too.

We aren't talking about single defense points. We're talking about stuff like a precursor ranger with 20 mass driver defense taking on fleets of ships flinging massive arrays of beam weapons around without taking any substantial damage. A ship with the wrong type of defense is actually LESS vulnerable to damage, which is clearly off. Somebody posted a really dramatic example where a ship with all attack (somewhere in the 300s) fought a ships with something like 10 attack and 300 of the off type defense. The second ship should have clearly lost (since it should be rolling less than 20 on it's defense rolls) but actually ended up winning the battle with almost no damage.

We aren't splitting hairs.

Are you saying that the remainder of the attack does not carry over to the remaining defenses (if any) or HPs? Why are you not taking the sqrt of the off-type defenses?

Following your example if a fleet of 3 fighters each with a doom ray (beam 22) attacked a single ship with 1 of each defense, each doom ray would take out one of the defenses and the defending ship would take no damage!!!

Actually it does show attack rolls, but not defense rolls. Maybe it was just a simplification...

In case you haven't noticed, I was in that thread too
I don't think CodeCritter really meant *lasers* in that example, as if that was the case (and the example is really bad) some of the lasers from the second attack would have then be applied to another defense since the shields had already been depleted.
I think he meant an abstract 10 damage weapon, just for illustration purposes.

What I would like to know it to what degree does this defence bug effect the current game?

Should I wait for a patch?