Difference between revisions of "Guts of Overgating"

Revision as of 15:45, 8 November 2006

Overgating is defined as exceeding the limits of a stargate; that is, sending a ship farther than the gate is rated for, and/or sending a ship more massive that the gate is rated for. Here are the things to be aware of:

• Both mass and distance overgating cause ship damage.
• In addition to damage, overgating may also cause the gated ships to vanish forever.
• Overgating damage is always less than 100%. However, overgating damage is added to existing damage. If this total is over 100%, the ship will not survive.
• You can never gate a ship more than 5 time a gates mass or distance rating.
• When distance overgating, only the limits of the sending gate are important.
• When mass overgating, the limits of BOTH gates are relevant in calculating damage, but only the sending gate is relevant in calculating the chance of the ship vanishing.
• IT races have a decreased chance of overgated ships disappearing into the void. However, ships that do gate successfully are damaged just as much as any other race's.

Here is the formula for calculating damage from distance overgating:

RangeDamage%=100%*(distance-maxRange)/(4*maxRange)

where: maxRange is the range of the sending gate.

(courtesy Bill Butler)

Here is the formula for calculating damage from mass overgating:

MassDamage%=100%*(1-((5*maxSmass-mass)/(5*maxSmass-maxSmass) *(5*maxRmass-mass)/(5*maxRmass-maxRmass)))

where: maxSmass is the mass limit of the Sending gate. maxRmass is the mass limit of the Receiving gate.

(courtesy SBPosey)

Here is the formula for calculating damage if you exceed both mass and distance ratings:

Total damage%= MassDamage% + (100%-massDamage%)*RangeDamage%

(courtesy Scoop crobers@erol.com)

Here is a formula yielding the probability a mass overgated ship will vanish. The result is an approximation, and is valid for non-IT races. IT's ships will have a lower probability of vanishing. Just how much luckier they may be is unknown (let me know if you figure it out!)

Probability of vanishing= [(100-A)*(5*maxMass-mass)^2/(4*maxMass)^2]+A

Where maxMass is the maximum safe mass for the sending gate

Through curve fitting I have found A=68 works best, this is probably nothing more than 2/3 with rounding and stuff thrown in.

Note that even overgating to the limit on mass only kills 1/3 of your ships on average. Of course they would be severely damaged (98%) but they would be alive.

For the 300/500 gate the equation works out to

P%=[32*(1500-mass)^2/1200^2] +68

For distance overgating the probability of ships being lost to the void is roughly equal to the damage divided by 3. For example, if the overgating causes 60% damage then there will be a 20% chance of losing the ship.

Don't expect your losses to be exactly this number since this is a probability, however it is a nice rule of thumb.

(courtesy Bill Butler)