5punk

fellas, someone on ISS forums posted this link to an entry giving one guy's theory of cap recharge rates. I have almost no knowledge of this (except that I have noticed the first piont below definitely seems to apply) but posters on the thread tended to agree with his findings. There's a lot of maths in there and it's a little intimidating but the findings are fascinating (if true). They are;

Cap recarge is not linear, it is closer to a parabola. Therefore, a ship with 100 cap and 100 recharge time will not recharge at 1 cap/sec throughout the charge cycle. What happens is that, from zero cap, cap recharge rate starts low, peaking at around 30% cap and trailing off as the cap gets full. The cap state / cap charge rate is given here. I noticed this the other day when I took a fast frig out to lay in a straight out safe spot. It maintained MWD sustainably for >2000 km when, according to my calculation (assuming linear recharge) it shouldn't have.


The conclusions are that peak cap recharge rate is actually just less than 2.5 times the average linear cap recharge rate and occurs at about 30% cap, which is a big deal, frankly.

That said, cap is instantaneous charge, but mods take cap in chunks, so we can't hope to fit our ships for 2.5 times cap usage and assume that they'll run forever at 30% cap. However, cap charge rate moves through a curve and appears to be 2 times average linear between 15% and 50% cap, which is a much more usable window. The curves suggest that if your mods take no more than 35% of your overall cap in one bite (in the event that they all cycle at the same time) and overall do not exceed 2x your average cap recharge, that your ships cap should be able to sustain it, sitting between 15 and 50%. the possibilities are even better if we're a little cleverer with synchro-ing on/off of our mods, although this would require a brain the size of a planet to calculate in real time, what with mods all having different cycle times.

IF the above is true, our caps are a lot stonger than I, for one, ever thought. Further, once cap is below 50% most people are running for the door (I know I am) so are less likely to see their cap stabilising at a lower level.

OTOH, this guy could just be talking out his .

comments?

I've heard this before a few times, and it's very much true. I run my Jaguar/Rifter with only three bars of cap, and I'm permanently in the last bar because it recharges fast enough at that point (the 33% mark presumably) for me to run my shield booster almost constantly (with the help of a NOS). At more than that it'll drain the cap until it stabilises, and at less I have to run it on and off until it recharges a bit. I've used this setup in my Frigates for quite a while now and it works a treat against larger ships.

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reading the thread will make your brain melt, it did mine. It is full of all of teh maths. In essence, though, all this guy has done is fish for a formula that matches observations. If he's right then the curve will be accurate and can be used, if not it's at least a good indicator that cap recharge is not what it at first appears

I'm planning to test the conclusions though, if we know what the perameters are we can fit to them with confidence. After that, assuming I reach concrete conclusions that we can agree on, I'll write a cap guide. Anyone who wishes to help with this *couch*hehulk*cough* would be appreciated.

Sadly though, the outlaws turn up today so in payback for the crazy eve hours of the last few days, I'll not be on much till the end of next week....

I don't understand the maths or the abbreviations, but I do know my electricity always runs out all the time, and I don't even use energy weapons. Anything to stop it doing this would be welcome.

In the hound it's less of a problem as I try not get too close, and don't need to use the shield, in the thrasher though it's a bit of a lottery. I've had some scary moments where running the shield booster and the invulnerability field at the same time basically sucks the juice straight away as I'm trying to warp out desperately hoping I don't get snagged on an asteroid.

ok, those theories are far too complicated for my head, but based on what I know from dumbed down formulas, and in-game experience I can say the following holds true:

Peak recharge rate is at 33% where your cap acts as following: (Total Cap/Recharge rate)*2.46

Between 26% and 41% your recharge rate is somewhere between the above and the following: (Total Cap/Recharge Rate)*2.2

Below 25% and down to about 10% you get (/Total Cap/Recharge Rate)*1.5

Below 10% is completly bottoms out to about a 0.5 multiplier.

If your cap happens to be sitting higher than 41% you might as well run some boosters, repairer, etc as down as far as 25% your cap wil still come back up to above 41% so it boosts yur survivability. Also, always try to keep your cap above 25%, unless you've got something in reserve to give it a real power surge, like some cap boosters. Below that, at least with me, your odds of survival greatly drop.


Happy Bomber?

Hehulk wrote:Between 26% and 41% your recharge rate is somewhere between the above and the following: (Total Cap/Recharge Rate)*2.2

Below 25% and down to about 10% you get (/Total Cap/Recharge Rate)*1.5

k, this is a little different from the maths on the thread, but I'd sooner believe you a) coz it's you and b) coz your maths is more conservative, so this means that in theory I could fit my ship as follows;

where; Linear cap charge rate= total cap/cap recharge time

Total cap use (per cycle) for all mods = or < 20% total cap, then Total cap use (per second) for all mods = or < 2.2* linear cap charge rate

or

Total cap use (per cycle) for all mods = or < 30% total cap, then Total cap use (per second) for all mods = or < 1.5* linear cap charge rate. Actually, there should be extra higher up to (say between 41% and 51% the recarge rate shuold also be around 1.5* so possibly 40% spread for this one)

I'm going to try this in a quiet corner....

I've noticed this as well, especially when ratting out in 0.0 with my Prophecy. Since I don't use a NOS, I slap on all my guns, couple of cycles of AB to get close, web, hardeners, etc. Once I'm orbit, by cap drops, like you lot have already said, to about one-third full, where it seems to stay. The only thing that makes it drop like a bastard from that is if I start constantly cycling my repper, however if I'm doing that, I know it's time to leave. Quickly.

Well you know what they say, if the cap fits...


/me runs