Flux
All ships in Starsector have a flux system, which serves as a functional "power" limit which may be used to fire Weapons, use Shields or Phase Cloaks, and activate ship systems. These actions raise a ship's flux level, and all ships have both a maximum flux capacity and a rate of passive flux dissipation. Balancing the flux use of a ship is one of the most central mechanics of ship combat.
Basics
All ships have "flux capacity" and "flux dissipation" stats which determine the maximum amount of flux it can accumulate and the rate at which accumulated flux is passively depleted. Most actions that a ship can perform aside from moving (including firing weapons, holding shields and blocking attacks with shields, using phase cloaks, and using most ship systems) generate flux, and these actions will not be possible if the amount of flux they would generate would cause the ship's flux to exceed its capacity.
Hard and soft flux
Flux comes in two types: hard and soft flux. Most sources of flux generate soft flux, and soft flux is always passively dissipating regardless of what the ship is doing. Hard flux is generated specifically when shields block attacks or by an active phase cloak. Hard flux only dissipates when the ship is not currently using a shield or phase cloak and is only dissipated after soft flux dissipation is accounted for. The levels of soft and hard flux are indicated by a small pip on the flux bar, with hard flux being to the left of the pip and soft flux to the right.
Shields and overloading
Shields generate soft flux passively while raised and generate hard flux when blocking attacks, based on the efficiency of the shield times the damage of the attack. If blocking an attack would raise a ship's flux above its capacity, the attack will still be blocked in full and the ship will instead overload. An overloaded ship cannot perform any actions that require flux and will have its flux passively dissipate at half the normal rate. This leaves the ship highly vulnerable to further attack. The length of the overload is based on the strength of the attack that caused it, with every 25 damage of attack strength causing an additional second of overload. The minimum overload duration depends on the size classification of ship and the maximum overload duration is 15 seconds.
| Frigate | Destroyer | Cruiser | Capital |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
Venting
Ships can also choose to actively vent flux, which causes them to dissipate at twice the normal rate. Venting always lasts until flux is completely drained and prevents the ship from performing any action other than moving for its duration. Ships cannot vent while overloaded.
Modifying flux stats
Capacitors and vents
- Main article: Refit_screen#Flux_Capacitors_&_Vents
Ships can be fitted in the Refit screen with capacitors and vents that modify its flux stats. Each capacitor increases the ship's flux capacity by 200 and each vent increases the ship's flux dissipation by 10. Adding a vent or capacitor costs 1 Ordnance Point, and the maximum number of vents or capacitors (separate maxima for each) that a ship can equip is determined by its size classification.
| Size classification | Maximum capacitors | Maximum capacity from capacitors | Maximum vents | Maximum dissipation from vents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frigate | 10 | 2000 | 10 | 100 |
| Destroyer | 20 | 4000 | 20 | 200 |
| Cruiser | 30 | 6000 | 30 | 300 |
| Capital | 50 | 10000 | 50 | 500 |
Hullmods
- Main article: hullmod
Flux Coil Adjunct and Flux Distributor provide flux capacity and dissipation, respectively. For their Ordnance Point costs they are only 75% as efficient as installing capacitors and vents on the ship directly. As such, the main use case for these hullmods is when a ship has already maximized its capacitors or vents and still needs better flux stats. The s-mod effects of these hullmods boosts their efficiency such that they are as OP-efficient as capacitors or vents.
Safety Overrides dramatically alters the functioning of the ship. Amongst many other upsides and downside is that it doubles the flux dissipation rate of the ship, including dissipation added by vents. This allows a ship with safety overrides to mount much more flux-intensive weaponry than it could otherwise handle. However, ships with safety overrides also cannot actively vent.
Design Compromises is a built-in hullmod exclusive to the Anubis. This hullmod has a few positive but mostly negative effects, including reducing the ship's flux capacity and dissipation by 40%. This reduction takes place after all other calculations, so it even applies to stats granted by capacitors and vents and by skills.
Skills
- Main article: skills
Flux Regulation increases the maximum amount of capacitors and vents that can be fitted on all ships in the fleet by 5, and increases the flux capacity and dissipation of the ships by 10%.
Ordnance Expertise increases a ship's flux dissipation by 1.5 per ordnance point spent on fitting weapons. Its elite effect also increases flux capacity by 20 per ordnance point used for weapons.
Other skills such as Field Modulation, Energy Weapon Mastery, and Polarized Armor modify the flux costs of some actions or are related to the flux level of the ship but do not directly modify its flux stats.
Changelog
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