The Guts of Mass Drivers

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Damage Potential of Mineral Packets

So you always wondered exactly what sort of damage a mineral packet was capable of doing? 

Mineral packets can be flung at speeds from Warp 5 to 3 Warp levels above the driver's rated speed. Exceeding the rated speed will form unstable packets that will disintegrate and lose minerals as they travel. Thus, with a top of the line Warp 13 mass accelerator, you can fling packets at speeds up to Warp 16.

Why would you want to fling packets slower than the rated speed? Simple: the planet you are sending packets to doesn't have an driver capable of catching the faster packets and you don't want to kill off your own colonists.

Packet Decay Rate

Packets thrown over the rated speed of the mass driver decay as follows:

+1 Warp  10% / year
+2 Warp  25% / year
+3 Warp  50% / year

There is a minimum decay of 10kT of each mineral in the packet each year.

Packets decay in both the year they are launched and the year they reach their destination by a prorated amount based on the distance they traveled that year. The decay rate is not of the original amount in the packet, but the current amount.

If you have the Interstellar Traveler trait, packets flung at or below the driver's rated speed decay at 10% per year. Overflung packets decay as if flung at one Warp speed higher.

If you have the Packet Physics trait, the decay rate is half the state stated rate; as is the minimum decay.

Speed and Distance

Warp N means that something traveling at that speed will cover N x N l.y. per year.  Thus, a Warp 16 packet will travel 256 light years each turn!

Damage and Recovery Formulas and Calculation

When a packet hits a planet without a mass driver, or with a mass driver rated beneath the speed of the incoming packet, damage will be done. Note that if a Warp 5 driver flings a packet at Warp 8 to another Warp 5 driver, damage WILL be done to the receiver. Damage is determined by the speed of the packet, not the rating of the driver sending the packet.

Speed
spdPacket = Packet Warp ^ 2
spdReceiver = Rcvr Accel ^ 2

Percent Caught Safely: The percentage of the packet recovered intact.
%CaughtSafely = spdReceiver / spdPacket

Minerals Recovered: The receiver recovers 1/3 of the portion not caught safely.
(packetkT x %CaughtSafely + packetkT x %remaining x 1/3)

Raw Damage
dmgRaw = (spdPacket - spdReceiver) x wtPacket / 160

Raw Damage modified by planetary defenses
dmgRaw2 = dmgRaw x (100% - pctDefCoverage)

Colonists Killed: The number colonists killed is the larger (maximum) of the following:
dmgRaw2 x Population / 1000
dmgRaw2 x 100

Planetary Defenses Destroyed
#destroyed = #defenses x dmgRaw2 / 1000
If #destroyed is less than dmgRaw2 / 20, then it is that number.

Example
You fling a 1000kT packet at Warp 10 at a planet with a Warp 5 driver, a population of 250,000 and 50 defenses preventing 60% of incoming damage.

spdPacket = 100
spdReceiver = 25
%CaughtSafely = 25%
minerals recovered = 1000kT x 25% + 1000kT x 75% x 1/3 = 250 + 250 = 500kT
dmgRaw = 75 x 1000 / 160 = 469
dmgRaw2 = 469 x 40% = 188
#colonists killed = Max. of ( 188 x 250,000 / 1000, 188 x 100) = Max. of ( 47,000, 18800) = 47,000 colonists
#defenses destroyed = 50 * 188 / 1000 =  9 (rounded down)

If, however, the receiving planet had no mass driver or defenses, the damage is far greater:

minerals recovered = 1000kT x 0% + 1000kT x 100% x 1/3 = only 333kT.
dmgRaw = 100 x 1000 / 160 = 625
dmgRaw2 = 625 x 100% = 625
#colonists killed = Max. of (625 x 250,000 / 1000, 625 x 100) = Max. of (156,250, 62500) = 156,250.

If the packet sped up to Warp 13, then:

dmgRaw2 = dmgRaw = 169 x 1000 / 160 = 1056
#colonists killed = Max. of (1056 x 250,000 / 1000, 1056 x 100) = Max. of ( 264,000, 105600) which entirely wipes out the colony.

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Mass Driver Basics