Subset Games Forum

I tried making an Ion beam, but sadly that is totally broken, since it adds infinite amounts of Ion damage to the shields within 1 second. So no matter how many shields a ship has or how many ion dmg the beam does, the shields get ion dmg until the shields have no power any more (one remaining).
Zoltan shields on the other hand survive... the beam did 1 dmg + 1ion, should be 2 dmg from beam 2*2 from ion. But only was 2 from beam 2 from ion, what means the ion didnt get applied a 2nd time.

So, is there a way to make Ion on beams work... or is it not possible?

Beam damage should proc across every room it crosses - so if it's a 2 ion damage beam, across 3 rooms, that should be 6 ion to the shield.
Make sure you give the shield only 1 (or 0) damage, as 2+ means it will be shield-piercing which is probably messing it up based on what you said. You could instead give it an <sp> value for shield pierce, though bear in mind if you do, it will apply ion damage to the shield + whatever room it hits, so this is not recommended either.
Do report back how it goes.

No, I have the ion beam only with 1 dmg + 1 ion and zero shield piercing. I even tried hitting only one room. It still breaks down 2 and 3 shields instantly although it shouldnt.

Have you tried changing the beam speed? What's it set to? See if having a low number like 5 makes a difference to having a high one like 80

Ah... Ion beams. I tried doing that once, though I haven't tried testing it with anything with two layers upward of shielding.

DryEagle wrote:Have you tried changing the beam speed? What's it set to? See if having a low number like 5 makes a difference to having a high one like 80

i had 1, 3 and 4 speed. Didnt saw a difference there. And I dont think that will change anything, since I now always try to hit only one room for testing... Still instantly applies enough ion damage to shut the shields down.

I am thinking it's just not possible. I think ftl checks ever frame if its hitting a new room with a beam. So it finds every frame: "hey the beam hits the shield! apply 1 ion"

If I increase the speed of the beam it will maybe cross the entire ship within 10 frames, but 10 frames still mean 10 ion damage to shields.

Do test it on a high beam speed, this game has some odd behaviour when you change numbers that way.
Also, have you tried it with 5 <sp> ? With only ion damage and no weapon damage?

Hmm i remember having similar issues when i tried to make ion beams, thats one of the reason i stop trying. Its like the shield ion damage on beams is multiplied no matter wat.

I only make laser type ion weapons, but as i said too many times, beams on FTL are really forgotten, its like the authors of FTL were thinking "ops, we forgot beam weapons, lets do em in a hurry".

I will be reading this thread more often, since this is something that i want to figure it out as well.

Even with 5 shieldpiercing or 1000 speed and only hitting one room => shields are instant down.

I am giving up.

If someone finds a way pls tell me. Until then I am doing other stuff.