Useful Equations for Starbound

As the resident math nerd of where I live, I've decided to at least try to help the community of Starbound by making equations. Say you want to figure out how effective a gun that fires A bullets per second that do B damage each with a projectile deviation of C degrees would be on a target D blocks tall E blocks away. Well, I'd say that that gun would deal about ABD/[E*tan(C)] damage per second to that target if E*tan(C)>D and just AB otherwise. What if you want to know... well, I can't think of anything else. That's why I'm asking you. Ask how to calculate something and I'll try to make an equation for it and add it to this post. I will work on the equations I think are most helpful first. I can also try to find best-case scenarios of certain equations, but I don't currently have access to a CAS and calculus takes a while, so that will take longer than equations. (Some of these equations don't require calculus to find the maximum/minimum, so I can answer about some quickly.) I can only get on sometimes, of course, so it might take a while to add things.

Splash damage effectiveness

A=Rate of fire, B=Projectile damage, C=Projectile deviation, D=Target height, E=Range to target

ABD/[E*tan(C)] for E*tan(C)>D
AB for E*tan(C)<D

 

Gotta have 100% accuracy (on aiming at your target) for this to really be effective. Can't wait to see what comes up later. I like this kind of stuff as well.

 

I like this post however I couldn't imagine weapon damage will be that elaborate in game :O hopefully these equations will eventually help in our understanding of what weapon is overall better than another. Chances are however that splash dmg weapons will win out due to the multitude of their DPS when multiple monsters are present.

 

The accuracy required also depends on the accuracy of the weapon, but yes, the only case in which the equation is always correct is if you aim directly at the target. I also assumed that projectiles don't fall over distance and that projectiles spread evenly over the deviation area for each weapon. The equation could get somewhat more complex if either of those things turns out to be incorrect.

 

I'd like to calculate how well splash damage weapons would work, but I'd first have to know how splash damage works in Starbound. I'm not certain if it would deal a specific damage over a specific radius or if it would deal damage based on distance from the center. In the second case, the damage dropoff could be linear, based on a power function, or exponential. I could calculate it for all of these cases, but equations for the last ones could get very complicated very quickly.

 

I'm new to the game, but I'm seeing there have been many big changes in the past year. The equation I'd like to see is how to calculate [Damage Per Second] based on [Damage per Shot/Swing] and [Rate of Fire].

I've tried calculating a Lowest Common Multiple to get a common Rate of Fire, but with decimals and all, it can get kinda lengthy doing it the long way (I've never been great at math).