Until my most recent game I had assumed that when beams applied their critical damage, that damage had to be absorbed by the shields.



However, my most recent game was a great case study suggesting that critical damage only applies AFTER absorption.





In my recent game, I had a unique scenario where my enemy and myself both used beam/shield combinations. Our defense was such that we could not hurt each other normally. Only when I used the target locked card was I doing enough damage to overcome his shields. This behavior occurred over many fights, so it was a very consistent behavior (no card = no damage, target locked = lots of damage, normally enough to kill the fleet).



I eventually gained the hero beam card (I don't remember the name) that grants +30% crit chance. I tried it out in the next fight, and actually got a block with it (meaning I had a +50% crit chance overall).



And yet....I did absolutely no damage. Considering that with a 50% chance to do a x3 crit, I should be doing roughly 200% more damage than normal (as opposed to the 20% from the offense card) something wasn't adding up.





I tried it a few more times with the same result. My only conclusion is that critical damage does NOT apply to absorption. Absorption happens first, and then any remaining damage gets a critical chance.



Thinking about it now, it makes a lot of sense in my regular combats. If crits could pound down shields, then the sheer number of beam attacks I was throwing normally should have given me enough crits once in a while to get through his shields. But 10 fights in and I never did a speck of damage to him without the target locked card.





Does anyone else have similar evidence to confirm my theory?

Moved to the strategy guides section as a game mechanics research topic.

I've heard other people here come to the same conclusion.

It depends on what type of beams and shields being used. What was your fleet setup like, Stalker0?

And yet....I did absolutely no damage. Considering that with a 50% chance to do a x3 crit, I should be doing roughly 200% more damage

Actually, x3 multiplier means you are going to do 300% more damage per critical. Now with the random chance involved with critical hits it is possible to whiff every shot even with 50% chance to crit, though not very likely. One battle with the card isn't going to set a good statistical expectation for every battle with that card.





I found a beta thread that did some explanations on how crits work.



/#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14010-fleet-doctrine-practical-evolution

Kreios wrote:




Regarding Critical Hit Calculation

I oversimplified the first few versions of these experiments, assuming that multiplying bonuses to critical hit % and damage was valid in all cases. It is not. It is only valid when the target has undefended HP. For this version, I have simplified my fleet structure for the glass cannons. I dropped the Extreme Fusion modules entirely, using only Neutrino Pulsion for raw damage boost. As a result, all of the names and abbreviations of the ship fittings have changed, as has a considerable amount of calculation.



Weapon Evolution

The removal of the critical hit interactions prompted the re-introduction of kinetic weapons as a selective pressure for defence development. Under previous critical hit assumptions, the beam weapons forced defence development of a much greater pace due to interactions between number of projectiles fired (and deflected) and damage multipliers. That disparity is still there at a lesser ratio than before (2:1 instead of 5:1), so I left it as part of the analysis.



Also, note that I will be adding higher tech weapons early in the selection process because the goal is to drive the opposing fits toward equilibrium quickly. Fine tuning is more likely near the equilibrium position.

It looks like you have to get the shields down before crits begin to work. A shame really; if it was applies before it hit the shields beam surge would have made lower level beams viable against higher level shields. And higher level beams pure rape against everything...