Guts of Overgating

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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 never lose ships to the void due to mass- or distance-overgating. However, ships get damaged just as much as any other races' due to overgating and if the damage accumulates with any already existing damage to more than 100% the ships get destroyed as usual.

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)/(4*maxSmass) *(5*maxRmass-mass)/(4*maxRmass))), rounded down to nearest 1%.

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 be lost "to the treacherous void". Note that an IT's ships will not vanish.

Vanishing% = 100/3*[1-(5*maxMass-mass)^2/(4*maxMass)^2], rounded down to nearest 1%.

where maxMass is the maximum safe mass for the sending gate.

Note that even overgating to the limit on mass only kills 33% of your ships on average. The survivors would be severely damaged, of course (98%), but they would be alive.

For the 300/500 gate the equation works out to

Vanishing% = 100/3*[1-(1500-mass)^2/1200^2], rounded down to nearest 1%. As a result, ships up to 318 kT will never vanish from a 300/500 gate.

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; each ship has an independent chance to be lost.

(formula courtesy of Bill Butler, tidied up later by magic9mushroom)