Ships & Modules

Hello and welcome to the first thread in all of EVE (that I have seen thus far) to make the missile damage calculations simple and digestible by your average Joe, who presumably struggled with algebra in high school and never took college level calculus.

I've spent many hours over the last few years trying to wrap my head around the missile damage mechanics, but every time I looked it up, the info I found was frustratingly difficult to comprehend, due in large part to a general lack of explanation as to how the formula works--though many posts did not even have a correct formula.

Well I finally found a page that explains it in a way I, a calculus dropout, can understand. That page is here.

Without further ado, I submit to you my simplified version, which should make the information easier to digest. It is separated by each basic functionality, with common examples provided:

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The most important factors in missile damage are:
1.) the base damage of the missile
2.) target velocity
3.) missile explosion velocity
4.) target signature radius
5.) missile explosion radius

To summarize the effects of these factors:
1.) a faster target takes less damage
2.) a target with a smaller signature radius takes less damage
3.) if signature radius is at least as high as explosion radius, no damage is lost from radius
4.) if target velocity is no higher than missile explosion velocity, no damage is lost to velocity
5.) if target is fast enough to avoid some damage, a signature radius beyond the explosion radius will mitigate the loss (this is why a supercarrier always takes full damage from citadel missiles, even when it is moving relatively fast).


The actual calculation is stated like this: damage = D * min(1,A,B)
in which D (the base damage of the missile) is multiplied by one of the following operators: 1, A, or B, whichever one is lowest. A and B are variables:

A = SR/ER in which SR is target signature radius and ER is target explosion radius.

B is more complex:
B = ((SR/ER)*(EV/TV))^((ln(drf))/(ln(5.5)))
It's a lot easier to read that on the eve university wiki in the link at the top of this post. Alternatively, you can type it into a TI-89 graphing calculator or any other kind that will rearrange the equation to make it easier to read.
SR = target signature radius
ER = missile explosion radius
EV = missile explosion velocity
TV = target intrinsic velocity (this is different from angular velocity, which is used by turrets. Intrinsic velocity is the exact speed listed on the ship's internal speed indicator on the HUD).
drf = the missile's damage reduction factor -- You can find this info in EFT but I will make a list here:

Missile Damage Reduction Factor
rockets: 3 // rage rockets: 4.5 // javelin rockets: 3.2
light missiles: 2.8 // fury light missiles: 3.2 // precision light missiles: 2.6
heavy assault missiles: 4.5 // rage heavy assault missiles: 4.8 // javelin heavy assault missiles: 4.6
heavy missiles: 3.2 // fury heavy missiles: 4.5 // precision heavy missiles: 2.7
torpedoes: 5 // rage torpedoes: 5.2 // javelin torpedoes: 5.2
cruise missiles: 4.5 // fury cruise missiles: 4.7 // precision cruise missiles: 3.5
citadel torpedoes: 5.5
cruise missiles: 4.5

What does this all mean?? A lower damage reduction factor reduces how much damage is lost from the speed or smallness of the target. A damage reduction factor of 1 would make it so that no matter how fast or small the target was, it would never take any reduced damage from the missile. On the other end of the equation, a damage reduction factor of 5.5 (equal to the arbitrary number in the missile damage formula) would yield damage reduction values that are simple and logical, ie. a missile with an ER of 100m and an EV of 100m/s hitting a target with 100m SR and going 200m/s, the missile would deal 50% damage.

So basically, having a smaller drf means that you will have an easier time dealing damage to targets that you are not dealing full damage to. Note that the precision missiles have the lowest drf values. Short range missiles also have a higher drf than their long range counterparts, and rage or fury missiles have higher drf than their tech 1 counterparts.

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So how do I use these numbers to my advantage?

I'll give you a few typical examples. First lets start with a ship many missile lovers will be familiar with: the Raven. We've got a Raven and we want to use it to shoot at a Drake. The more astute of you probably know we won't want to use torpedoes against the Drake, but for the sake of argument, let's just explore what would happen if we did. Everyone in the examples has max skills. Our frenemy drake pilot is sporting a signature radius of 389 meters, and he's orbiting the nearby stargate at a leisurely pace of 175m/s. Our torpedoes have an explosion velocity of 106.5 m/s and an explosion radius of 337.5 m.

To find our torpedo damage, we multiply the base damage by the smallest of the three operators. In this case, the smallest is B, the rather complex one. I got 0.715480862943. This means our 4439 damage torpedo volley will deal about 71.5% of its damage (3176), which will be further reduced by the Drake's resistances. That's not really terrible, all things considered. We didn't lose any damage to the Drake's massive signature radius, only to its velocity.

Well lets say the Drake pilot reacts to the torpedo assault by turning on his afterburner. His velocity begins to climb up toward 384 m/s. If we hit him at full speed now, we'll only deal 34.1% damage (1512). That's not enough damage for us. We'd best change ammo so we can hit harder.

Hello and welcome to using Google: http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Missile_Damage

Thanks, this was useful. Was recently playing around with torp application on the test server but hadn't bothered to look up the forumula. Nice to know that sig radius can compensate for speed; I hadn't realized.

Very nice post.

My God. No. None of this is right. OP has the formula exactly right.

The missile damage formula picks between whichever reduction is greater; SR/ER or the velocity reduction (SR/ER*Ev/V). If both values are >1 it chooses "1", and then multiplies your missile damage by that.

All the exponential stuff does is to scale the velocity-related reduction so that is falls off faster for missiles with a smaller DRF. Anything with a 5.5 DRF will fall off linearly. So in certain cases it can be completely omitted for simplicity's sake. It does nothing for a signature ration reduction.

In this way, a ship with a signature radius smaller than the missile's explosion radius will always get a reduction. A fast ship will get a velocity reduction only if the ratio of Sr/Er*EV/V is smaller than the ratio of Sr/Er.

Mathematically, this would allow for signature radius to completely eliminate all reductions, though in practice this is often impossible due to stacking penalties on target painters.

In order to calculate applied volley damage, you first calculate SR/ER and SR/ER*EV/V independently. Take which ever is smaller (or 1 if they are both greater than 1), and multiply your single missile damage. Now multiply that by all your skill, hull, cumulative module bonuses, and number of launchers. That is your volley damage.

To get final dps, take volley damage and divide by launcher cycle time (don't forget to reduce cycle time by the relevent skills, etc).

An even better approximation would involve considering the damage reduction factor of the missile vs. the base 5.5.