Only the oddest facts for you!

This is a project I have been long thinking inside my head. Only now did I get around to actually do it. The project is: deliver the oddest EVO facts for you! I looked inside the data files and only wrote down the oddest or least known facts of EVO. I didnt write down anything even remotely known- such as that the Plasma Siphon uses fuel. No siree. Only those I am sure nobody knows. Such as the fact that the Nebula Penetration Device reduces the dstance you have to be from the center by 200 pixels. So here it is drumroll please... the most obscure EVO facts!

Did you know that besides reducing interference by 30% (well known), it also reduces the distance by 200 pixels? Twice as uselul!

The UE Cloaking Device continues along the same lines. It reduces it even more, 500 pixels! If you can have both, you have a real killer as you can jump almost from the center!

For the first time, the exact weight of UE & Voinian fighter bays revealed! The UE Fighter bay weighs 120 tons while the Voinian bay weighs 240. Oddly, they also have a cost: UE bay 1.5 mil, Voinian 2.5.

Did you know that even if the Voinian Cruiser comes with 3 fighters, you can actually have 4?

The exact jamming is of the Needle Jamming is 16 (I dont know what that actually means, the Bible only explains strong and weak jamming. 16 of 100?). So thats why they are so effective at stopping Needles- they are the second most effective jammer in EVO!

The Miranu ECM not only increases jamming (by 6), but it has a strange secondary function you couldnt even have imagined: it reduces interference by 10%. Combined by Nebula Penetration Device, you can reduce interference by a whopping 40%!

Here are the exact statistics of Shield Generator and Exp. Shield Generator in frame format. I have only seen them in points /sec format earlier. Shield Generator: -10 frames. Exp: -50 frames.

Emalgha Cannons and Turrets are the oddest weapon in the game. The Emalgha one is the only turret which does not improve on the cannon in any way. Its exactly the same, except that the Turret goes from inaccuracy (6) to a terrible, unacceptable inaccuracy: 20. And the Turret actually has a shorter ranger (35 vs Cannons 40). Quite a price to be paid for a 90° turreting ability! I think ill pass.

The last fact: The exact jamming amount of Zidagar ECM is 64. No wonder all weapons, even the Forklift fly of Zidagar ships! Itrs more effective than the Nil' Kemorya Jammer after the 1.06 patch in Nova!

Yes, it has been a long thread. But it was useful information. And I am sure nobody else would have done the same.

General Cade Smart, on May 27 2005, 08:16 AM, said:

Such as the fact that the Nebula Penetration Device reduces the dstance you have to be from the center by 200 pixels. So here it is drumroll please... the most obscure EVO facts!

Did you know that besides reducing interference by 30% (well known), it also reduces the distance by 200 pixels? Twice as uselul!

Knew it (and posted it on this forum).

Quote

The UE Cloaking Device continues along the same lines. It reduces it even more, 500 pixels! If you can have both, you have a real killer as you can jump almost from the center!

Knew it and posted it.

Quote

For the first time, the exact weight of UE & Voinian fighter bays revealed! The UE Fighter bay weighs 120 tons while the Voinian bay weighs 240. Oddly, they also have a cost: UE bay 1.5 mil, Voinian 2.5.

Knew it, never posted it.

Quote

Did you know that even if the Voinian Cruiser comes with 3 fighters, you can actually have 4?

Didn't know the cruiser only came with 3.

Quote

The exact jamming is of the Needle Jamming is 16 (I dont know what that actually means, the Bible only explains strong and weak jamming. 16 of 100?). So thats why they are so effective at stopping Needles- they are the second most effective jammer in EVO!

Didn't know it and still don't understand its significance.

Quote

The Miranu ECM not only increases jamming (by 6), but it has a strange secondary function you couldnt even have imagined: it reduces interference by 10%. Combined by Nebula Penetration Device, you can reduce interference by a whopping 40%!

Didn't know it.

Quote

Here are the exact statistics of Shield Generator and Exp. Shield Generator in frame format. I have only seen them in points /sec format earlier. Shield Generator: -10 frames. Exp: -50 frames.

Knew it.

Quote

Emalgha Cannons and Turrets are the oddest weapon in the game. The Emalgha one is the only turret which does not improve on the cannon in any way. Its exactly the same, except that the Turret goes from inaccuracy (6) to a terrible, unacceptable inaccuracy: 20. And the Turret actually has a shorter ranger (35 vs Cannons 40). Quite a price to be paid for a 90° turreting ability! I think ill pass.

Almost all turrets decrease range. The blaze turret even changes the speed.

Quote

The last fact: The exact jamming amount of Zidagar ECM is 64. No wonder all weapons, even the Forklift fly of Zidagar ships! Itrs more effective than the Nil' Kemorya Jammer after the 1.06 patch in Nova

Didn't know it, don't know what it means.

Thanks for the cool list.

Here's my own contribution to the weird Override facts list:

• One of the Voinian spöb's (I can't recall its name, but it's northwest of Voinia) uses human civilian ships (shuttles, scoutships, etc.) in its defense fleet.

• There are two systems named "Kelmaon" and it is possible to make both of them uninhabited.

• The Zachit fighter has the 4th-best shield recharge rate of all the ships in the game, but it cannot be used by the player without a plugin.

• A crescent fighter can hold a krait fighter bay.

I believe the spob you are thinking of is Outpost Topel-and it topples quite easily.

The jammers in Override work differently from the ones in Nova. Override's jammers can jam any combo of eight types of seekers: type 1, 2, 3, and 4, and 50% and 100% of all four types (I think).

Frozen Heart can easily be converted to EVC, but Femme Fatale can't (flags don't work quite so well).

This isn't exactly Override, but here it is: The default textures and models in ExoBattle make your ship a Manta.

The Emalgha turret is meant to be fired at point-blank range, making the turret part completely and totally useless.

Anybody else want to see a Turncoat/Crescent Warship in EV4?

The Fuzz Liberation Front has one(1) (repeating) mďsn, but gives no reward and generally ticks the miranu off.

The Igadzra are the only strand to employ the Lazira as a military vessel (another përs)

Before liberated, the hinivar have a Stolen V. Frigate miandering (and fighting) about Voinian space. It is rarely seen.

The route beyond the crescent blocked by Crescent Station is not the only possible route of exodus/ingress--just the only stable one

The crescent and azdgari warships are lined with large crystals along the hull.

Qaanol, on May 27 2005, 09:29 AM, said:

•The Zachit fighter has the 4th-best shield recharge rate of all the ships in the game, but it cannot be used by the player without a plugin.
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Almost right, but not quite. If disaibled, a Zachit Fighter can be captured. And just how do you disaible a ship with no hull? Beam weapons. You can disaible a ship with no hull with a beam weapon, provided that you are EXCEEDINGLY careful. Although actually getting a Zachit fighter and a damaging beam weapon in the same system is an entirely different matter. In order to do this, you would probably need to accept a Zachit mission where you will be followed by Zachit Fighters as AuxShips (AuxShips because they can be boarded/captured) AND the mission involving the Igazra with the prototype beam weapon (the green one). Then, slowly draw the Zachit Fighter over to the beam, and if you're lucky, you may be able to whittle the Zachit Fighter's shields away, and have it disaibled. This is a "one in a million" type scenario, so don't blame me if it doesn't work. I wish you the best of luck if you actually attempt such an insane maneuver. Believe me, you'll earn yourself bragging rights for years to come.

Or, the easy way: Buy a Zidara, go to Zachit, and disaible yourself a Zachit Fighter (if you're lucky, it could take as few as about 25 tries, but will probably end up being nearer to 175), then, board and capture. If you're not unlucky, you'll capture the fighter on the first try. If you are unlucky, then simply keep trying, and I'm sure you'll get it sometime.

This post has been edited by Killer Bob : 28 May 2005 - 10:40 PM

Since when did Voinian cruisers come with 3? I don't ever recall encountering a Voinian cruiser with only 3 heavy fighters.

Oh, another thing to add, one of the Voinian cruiser pers has a same kind of weapon as the dreadnought, it has a Voinian interceptor bay.

Another interesting one I bet no one has ever found out: There is a hidden UE listening outpost behind a planet in the DSN-3966 system, which is one jump South of Sumer

Killer Bob, on May 29 2005, 03:17 AM, said:

Or, the easy way: Buy a Zidara, go to Zachit, and disaible yourself a Zachit Fighter (if you're lucky, it could take as few as about 25 tries, but will probably end up being nearer to 175), then, board and capture. If you're not unlucky, you'll capture the fighter on the first try. If you are unlucky, then simply keep trying, and I'm sure you'll get it sometime.
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This is cool ... didn't know that ... and will try it at earliest convenience.

The Nadir, whos A.I. is being a wimpy freighter, has a turning speed of 3, which means its on crack or speed, and makes the Azdara look like a sluggish freighter. Being outmatched by a Voinian dreadnought, it costs a 100 million while the dreadnought only costs 30 million. Finally, but I'm not sure, but I think the dreadnought is capable of jumping a bit faster than your average large ships.

Qaanol, on May 27 2005, 08:29 PM, said:

Didn't know the cruiser only came with 3.

Didn't know it and still don't understand its significance.

Didn't know it.

Didn't know it, don't know what it means.

Thanks for the cool list.

Here's my own contribution to the weird Override facts list:
<snip>
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Darn, you must like poking inside ResEdit as much as I do! I really tried to only select things people wouldnt know. Im sure the average board member doesnt know that Nebula Penetration Device reduces no-jump radius. The cruiser seems to come with 4, actually, I checked in ResEdit. It must be the memory of a ship info dialog. It said it comes with 3 fighters. But I think it was in 1.01, as I completed the Voinian string with it. Perhaps it has changed in 1.02.

Hoorah, at last something you didnt know! And yes, ECM reducing interference is very obscure.

I dont know either of the jammers either- but The Apple Cřre seems knowlegable. Apple Core, mind explaining how these two fields I talked about work (Needle Jammer & Zidagar ECM)? Is it that because Override can jam any combo of eight seekers, the numbers mean which two of the eight they jam? Like 6 and 4 means they jam types 6 and 4 of seekers? Also, how it it decided exactly how well it works? I think the Needle Jammer works better against Needles than the Miranu ECM works against anything.

When you said thanks for the cool list, it made me feel good. Thanks you too!

Three of the four things dont impress- I knew them already. The only thing I didnt know was that the Zachit Fighter has 4 th best shield regeneration in the game. Heres three things that I hope that do amaze you at least:

The Zidagar Fighter Bays weight is 75. That isnt told anywhere, and you didnt mention it either.

The Igazra Beams shield damage is 4, but armor damage is 0. So its useless on armor.

The Phased Beam Turrets shield damage is 10, but armor damage is 0! So its extremely violent on shields (just as much as a Heavy Fusion Beam is) but useless on armor!

General Cade Smart, on May 30 2005, 11:38 AM, said:

The Igazra Beams shield damage is 4, but armor damage is 0. So its useless on armor.

The Phased Beam Turrets shield damage is 10, but armor damage is 0! So its extremely violent on shields (just as much as a Heavy Fusion Beam is) but useless on armor!
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1. Close, but not quite. EVC and EVO's engines take one third of the original shield damage, and put it into hull damage, and vice-versa, taking one third of the original hull damage, and pumping it into shield damage. That means that it actually does 4 to shields, and 1 to armor. This applies to all weapons.
2. Close again, but same problem. The Phased Beam Turrets will end up doing 10 to shield and 3 to armor.

I didn't know that either of the two had an armor damage of 0. That's interesting. I also had no idea that the Zidigar fighter bay weighed 75 tons, either.

Two interesting facts.
1. Did you know that in EVC and EVO, you can destroy asteroids. It may not work on faster computers, but at least with a 233Mhz G3, if you make a beam weapon that does absurd damage, has an absurd fire rate, stays onscreen for several frames, and is several pixels wide, you can overload the computer, and asteroids will start dissapearing (in silent little bursts of explosions) when the beam passes over them. Cool, no?
2. The afore mentioned damage formula does not apply to Nova. In Nova, you can have a weapon that damages only shield or only hull.

I've discovered much of the secrets by playing EVO, as for the rest, when I was trying to learn how to make a plug-in.

This post has been edited by Coraxus : 30 May 2005 - 06:29 PM

Actually, I got my hands on a copy of EVC 1.0.1 and vaped rocks with plain and simple proton guns.

The Apple Cřre, on May 30 2005, 05:49 PM, said:

Actually, I got my hands on a copy of EVC 1.0.1 and vaped rocks with plain and simple proton guns.
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Really? Wow. What are your system specs?

OK.

It was either a Centris 610 with 24 megs of RAM, or LC 575 with 20 megs of RAM. The framerate wasn't even bad, either. Both systems are still running, too... and actually being used right now.

That, and the govts wouldn't give me any positive legal rating. Maybe deleting a too-new prefs file (1.0.5) would have helped.

In the original Frozen heart, laser turrets looked like Emalgha Cannon shells.

The Apple Cřre, on May 30 2005, 07:02 PM, said:

OK.

It was either a Centris 610 with 24 megs of RAM, or LC 575 with 20 megs of RAM. The framerate wasn't even bad, either. Both systems are still running, too... and actually being used right now.

That, and the govts wouldn't give me any positive legal rating. Maybe deleting a too-new prefs file (1.0.5) would have helped.

In the original Frozen heart, laser turrets looked like Emalgha Cannon shells.
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OK. I see why it killed the 'roids.
Wow, add the RAM up, and you have a whole 44 megs! WOW!
Never had the legal ratings problem. Interesting though. I bet it would give a little more incentive to dominate a few planets though, no?
I know what you mean with the laser turrets. I think that you can fix that with ResEdit

First, the word is spelled 'obscure'. Second the Forklift is unjammable.

killer bob said:

1. Close, but not quite. EVC and EVO's engines take one third of the original shield damage, and put it into hull damage, and vice-versa, taking one third of the original hull damage, and pumping it into shield damage. That means that it actually does 4 to shields, and 1 to armor. This applies to all weapons.
2. Close again, but same problem. The Phased Beam Turrets will end up doing 10 to shield and 3 to armor.

The bible says it's 1/4th, not 1/3rd.

Okay, here are a few more Override factoids:

• It's possible to have a Crescent Fighter hold a Crescent Fighter bay.

• The Plasma Siphon also functions as a fuel scoop. Read following paragraph.

• It is possible to pilot the Strange Asteroid—and to use it as an escort.

The fuel scoop and plasma siphon each have fuel scoop values of 40, and you can have up to two fuel scoops. The freighter has an inherent fuelregen of 100, which the player takes advantage of. Thus, the maximum possible fuel regen rate is an Igadzra-string freighter with two fuel scoops, which has an effective fuel regen value of 200/17, or approximately 11.8 frames per unit of fuel. This is equivalent to gaining 2.55 fuel per second, meaning it takes about 39.2 seconds to get one jump's worth of fuel, and exactly 153 units of fuel (1.53 jumps' worth) are regained every minute.

Having consulted the data files and bible, I now understand jamming in Override. For the most part. Here is my conclusion. If you want the supporting data, read the rest of my post. If not, you can stop after this table.

(color=blue)			ECM System		Needle Jammer		Zidagar ECM(/color)
(color=red)Hunter Missile(/color)		No Jamming		No Jamming		No Jamming
(color=red)Needle Missile(/color)		No Jamming		Maximum Jamming		No Jamming
(color=red)Persuit Missile(/color)		Weak Jamming		No Jamming		No Jamming
(color=red)SAD Module(/color)		Medium Jamming (a)	No Jamming		Maximum Jamming
(color=red)SAE Module(/color)		Weak Jamming		No Jamming		Medium Jamming (b)

Medium Jamming (a) and Medium Jamming (b) are different in cause, but I have not studied their effects at all, so I don't know if one is more powerful than the other.

Here is my explanation:

The ModVal field is stored as a decimal number, but in the case of jammers it is interpreted by the engine as a hex value.1 = $0001
2 = $0002
10 = $000Aand so on. The Seeker field of a guided missile stores the vulnerability of that missile to each of the 4 types of jamming in the middle two digits of its hex value.

Thus, the three jammers and 5 (common) guided missiles have the following properties:

(b)(color=blue)			Jammers(/color)

Name			ModVal			Hex equivalent(/b)
(color=blue)ECM System(/color)		6			$0006
(color=blue)Needle Jammer(/color)		16			$0010
(color=blue)Zidagar ECM(/color)		64			$0040





(b)(color=red)			Missiles(/color)

Name			Seeker Field		Middle two digits of seeker field(/b)
(color=red)Hunter Missile(/color)		$0000			00
(color=red)Needle Missile(/color)		$C106			10
(color=red)Persuit Missile(/color)		$2025			02
(color=red)SAD Module(/color)		$040C			40
(color=red)SAE Module(/color)		$0044			04

Now, the hex values have the following meanings:

(b)(color=blue)		Jammers(/color)
Hex digit		Meaning(/b)
$0001			Weak Type I Jamming
$0002			Weak Type II Jamming
$0004			Weak Type III Jamming
$0008			Weak Type IV Jamming
$0010			Strong Type I Jamming
$0020			Strong Type II Jamming
$0040			Strong Type III Jamming
$0080			Strong Type IV Jamming





(b)(color=red)		Missiles(/color)
Hex Digit		Meaning(/b)
$0010			50% Vulnerability to Type I Jamming
$0020			50% Vulnerability to Type II Jamming
$0040			50% Vulnerability to Type III Jamming
$0080			50% Vulnerability to Type IV Jamming
$0100			100% Vulnerability to Type I Jamming
$0200			100% Vulnerability to Type II Jamming
$0400			100% Vulnerability to Type III Jamming
$0800			100% Vulnerability to Type IV Jamming

This means that the jammers and missiles have the following properties:

(b)(color=blue)		Jammers(/color)
Name			Effect(/b)
(color=blue)ECM System(/color)		Weak Type II and Weak Type III Jamming
(color=blue)Needle Jammer(/color)		Strong Type I Jamming
(color=blue)Zidagar ECM(/color)		Strong Type III Jamming





(b)(color=red)		Missiles(/color)
Name			Vulnerability(/b)
(color=red)Hunter Missile(/color)		Unjammable
(color=red)Needle Missile(/color)		100% Vulnerable to Type I Jamming
(color=red)Persuit Missile(/color)		50% Vulnerable to Type II Jamming
(color=red)SAD Module(/color)		100% Vulnerable to Type III Jamming
(color=red)SAE Module(/color)		50% Vulnerable to Type III Jamming

Now, finally, I will mention the distinction between what I call Medium Jamming (a) and Medium Jamming (b). Medium Jamming (a) occurs when a 100% vulnerable missile is confronted with weak jamming. Medium Jamming (b) occurs when a 50% vulnerable missile is confronted with strong jamming. To find out which is more effective, I would have to make a test wherein hundreds of missiles are fired in each scenario, and count the missiles that get jammed to find a ratio of jammed missiles to total missiles. Of course, it might turn out that both scenarios are equally effective. I don't actually plan to do the testing any time soon.

I also do not know how the engine deals with multiple jammers of different effectiveness levels operating simultaneously. That is, if you have both an ECM system and a Zidagar ECM system, and an SAD or SAE module is fired at you, I'm not sure whether only the stronger jamming is applied, or whether the two jammers are somehow combined to get a single jamming value, or whether each jammer operates and has its chance to jam calculated seperately.

I hope I have made jamming less murky. My first table should have all the information you need.

This post has been edited by Qaanol : 01 June 2005 - 06:15 PM

That..was...allot...to..read... :blink:

Nice summary though, now we know how this blasted stuff works!

It doesn't let me vape rocks in 1.0.4 or 1.0.5, though.

Said Centris now has 40 megs of RAM, but it only addresses 36 for some reason. Could be something to do with stealing the RAM from my dead server.

The laser turret problem was fixed in a Frozen Heart update.

Okay, I just edited my last post so the tables are better formatted and are also color coded. I hope that makes it easier to read.

codebox + tabs > code + spaces

Qaanol, on Jun 1 2005, 06:28 PM, said:

Okay, I just edited my last post so the tables are better formatted and are also color coded. I hope that makes it easier to read.

codebox + tabs > code + spaces
View Post

Your text columns now don't line up in my browser. Since the code box uses a non-proportional font (Courier on my Mac), I would have thought spaces would have worked just fine....

1st example... thin thin thin thin          A line with 10 spaces.
same number of characters are here          Another line with 10 spaces.

2nd example... thin thin thin thin  	A line with 2 tabs.
same number of characters are here  	Another line with 2 tabs.

3rd example... thin thin thin thin      A line with 5 tabs.
same number of characters are here      Another line with 5 tabs.

Hmm. Columns line up in all three cases. It seems to treat tabs just like spaces.

Good work on the actual content, by the way!

Edit: Ah! "Code" and "Codebox" are two different things! I try codebox now.

1st example... thin thin thin thin          A line with 10 spaces.
same number of characters are here          Another line with 10 spaces.

2nd example... thin thin thin thin  	A line with 2 tabs.
same number of characters are here  	Another line with 2 tabs.

3rd example... thin thin thin thin      A line with 5 tabs.
same number of characters are here      Another line with 5 tabs.

OK... Somehow the editing process converted some but not all of the tabs to (pairs of?) spaces, so that now the 2-tab lines in the "codebox" example don't match up. The "code" example still looks right on all lines.

Code (or codebox) + spaces > codebox + tabs

Code (or codebox) + spaces is more forgiving of edits, at least for display on this machine.

This post has been edited by Dr. Trowel : 02 June 2005 - 10:44 AM