Ion storm

Overview

Ion storms are natural disturbances that travel through space. These electrically charged storms impose a wide variety of effects to ships and minefields.

After the ion storms complete their movement, they will decloak most ships and prevent beams from sweeping the minefields whose centers are covered by these storms. They can also merge to form a more powerful storm.

If a storm gets powerful enough (150 MeV minimum), it can drag (75% of storm speed) and damage starships over the course of its lifespan.

Damage Computations

The formula for Ion storms is shown below:

d = v - m - x + 20(10 - e) + 50f

Where d is the damage added, v is the voltage of the storm, m is the total mass of the ship at the beginning of the turn, x is the ship experience (kept internally), e is the engine position, and f is a flag that determines whether the ship is fuelless (1) or not (0).

Example

A Reptile Destroyer was caught in the 301 MeV ion storm. It's total mass was 96kT, and it sustained 222% damage. It was fueled, and had Transwarp Drives.

222 = 301 - 96 - x + 20(10 - 9) + 50(0)
222 = 225 - x

-3 = -x
x = 3

It's internal experience was 3.