Except where
noted, all statistics are
pulled directly from the .shp ship description files for
each vessel from the cataclysm.big archive that contains the
game’s resources. A few are pulled from the manuals or
official website. The stats are current as of game version
1.01.
Class:
this is the behavior class specified in the .shp file that
determines to a large extent how the vessel behaves.
Build
Cost:
the amount in Resource Units (RU's) expended to construct the
vessel. Note that these values only have meaning for those
ships that can be built by the player, but I included the
values for the NPC ships also.
Build
Time:
delay (in seconds) required for a ship to be built.
Support
Req.: the number of Support Units (SU's) each ship
consumes while active. Each ship, once built, allocates to
itself this number of SU's, which it keeps until it is
destroyed or retired. If there are not at least this many
SU's available, the ship cannot be built.
Maneuverability:
this is an abstract value, taken from the manual and game
fiction.
Acceleration:
a more concrete value than maneuverability, this describes
the ship’s forward acceleration in meters per second
squared. For example, the Mothership has an acceleration of
10 and a max velocity of 50; it takes 5 seconds for the
Mothership to get up to full speed.
Max
Velocity:
maximum ship speed in meters per second.
Hit
Points:
also referred to as “Armor” in the game literature; the
number of damage points a ship can sustain before being
destroyed. Unlike in Homeworld, in Cataclysm ships will lose
functionality (most noticeably speed) as they are damaged.
Repair
Rate:
for those capital ships with self-repair ability, the amount
of damage that can be healed for a given amount of time. For
example, the Mothership, with a repair rating of 600/5, can
heal 600 points every 5 seconds. Note that repair rates are
different (usually lower) when a ship is under fire.
Sight
Radius: the range (in meters) of a ship's radar
capacity.
Firepower:
this is a fictional value taken from the manuals and
official fiction. The value that is displayed in the Build
Manager is a calculated value that is misleading.
Coverage:
another fictional value, taken from manuals and fiction. It
meant to represent the percentage of the radius around the
ship that can be covered by the ship's turreted weapons.
Mass:
while the .shp file does include a mass value (which is
displayed in the Build Manager), this is an abstract game
value that doesn’t translate directly into tonnage. I have
used the values from the manual and fiction instead, because
they are more realistic (a frigate should weigh 15,000 tons,
not 400) and consistent.
EMP
Stun: the amount of time (in seconds) that a ship is
frozen due to the effects of EMP from an ACV.
Salvage
Points:
the number of points at which Salvage Corvettes can lock on
to the ship; this is usually the number that must
successfully lock on before a ship can be salvaged. This
stat is meaningless for most non-player ships.
Repair
Droids: the number of Repair Droids available if and
when the ship is upgraded to use them. This stat is
meaningless for most non-player ships.
Nav
Lights:
the number of blinking red navigational lights on the ship.
(This is a completely spurious statistic, included for fun.)
Dock
Points:
for those that have them, the number of points at which
other vessels (usually strike craft) can attach themselves.
Leech
Points: the number of spots at which a Leech may attach
itself.
Max
Fighters/Corvettes: for carriers, the maximum number of
each class of strike craft that it may keep docked
internally.
Required
Tech:
a list of technologies that much be researched in order for
the ship to be constructed.
Upgrade
Tech: a list of technologies that may be researched for
upgrades to the ship. For most techs that are researched
after a ship is built, the ship must be upgraded (strike
craft must dock with a carrier/mothership, capital ships
become inactive for a time). Ships that are built after the
upgrade is researched automatically include the new
features.
Weapon
List:
a summary of the weapons on the ship, taken from the .shp
file, grouped by type. When the weapons are grouped in
turrets, the number of turrets is shown with the number of
weapons in each turret in parentheses. So, a cruiser has six
gun turrets with one gun each: 6(1), and also two ion cannon
turrets with two weapons each: 2(2), for a total of 10
weapons. Weapons are assumed to be able to swivel at least a
little, unless they are marked as "Fixed."
Mult.:
the "multiplier" applied to the basic weapon type
damage. In Cataclysm, which allows for various modifiers to
damage, including weapon upgrades and unit experience, each
weapon type and size has a base damage value. Each weapon
mount on each ship has a "multiplier" to the base
damage for that weapon type, to get the specific damage for
that mount (which can then be modified by other in-game
factors). The base damage value is not listed in the .big
files, and may be hard-coded into the game code; we have
extrapolated the values as follows:
Small
Mass Driver
|
7
|
Medium Mass Driver
|
20
|
Large Mass Driver
|
36
|
Small Energy Cannon
|
22
|
Medium Energy Cannon
|
40
|
Large Energy Cannon
|
80
|
Small Missile
|
60
|
Large Missile
|
??
|
Small Ion Cannon
|
5
|
Large Ion Cannon
|
16
|
Small Plasma Warhead
|
50
|
Damage:
the value of damage points dealt by EACH weapon
in the group, including the multiplier. Note that for projectile weapons this is a
one-time value, but for beam weapons, it is continuous
damage done for as long as the beam strikes the enemy ship.
Note that this value may change based on in-game factors.
Range: the distance a bullet or beam will travel before
disappearing. For most capital ships, this value is adjusted for the
size of the firing ship (since it appears to be measured in distance
from the ship’s center point).
Fire
Time:
the time that elapses between shots of the weapon. For beam
weapons, the beam may be active during part of this time. In
the case of burst fire weapons, there is an additional wait
period at the end of the burst.
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