Frames

Please edit this as much as you want. (a lot of this info is out of date from a year ago)

While playing OE3, ever find yourself wondering exactly how long something takes? How long for a ship to spawn? How long for a weapon to reload? Why that laser can fire in a solid beam? Well, this page will answer these questions.

Game Time The game time of OE3 doesn't match real time. This is because game time can be stretched longer due to lag and latency. Frame: A frame is the smallest unit of time in which something can happen in-game. Nothing can fire faster than a weapon firing every frame, or happen between frames. The game advances 1 frame for each building you build/sell on pause. There are 10 frames for every game second.

Game Second: The "second" of OE3 is based around energy production. A player with +10 energy exactly (4 mini reactor) will advance exactly 1 energy per frame when buying/ selling barricades (all metal). Thus, it follows that 10 energy exactly are produced every 10 frames, or one game second. Any other +x energy production will produce x energy per second.

DPS Seconds: The "seconds" used by cwwallis to calculate DPS are different than the "energy" seconds. Therefore, cwwallis' DPS is incorrect. The DPS seconds are about 22 fps on average.

Decimals: Note that although game calculations can occur in decimals of a frame, but everything is still rounded DOWN to the nearest frame in-game. This is why units that appear to have the same rate respond differently to ROF/ Spawn rate techs.

ROF mods, Techs/ Spawn rate techs: Unless otherwise indicated, here is the ROF/ Spawn rate formula.

Base reload time(1- x% of 1)(1- y% of 1)= rof, when x and y are rate percent boosts. Ex: Laser with heatsink and Beam doctrine: (3.0 frames)(0.9)(0.85)= 2.3, which rounds down to 2 frames.

Base reload is the time between shots/ volleys+ time needed to shoot/ volley.

Note that since base reload can be decimal, this formula may produce a range of values. For example 3.0 frame weapon may become 2.7 frames (rounding to 2) with heatsink, while 3.5 frame weapon becomes 3.15 frame (no ROF difference). There is no way of teling the decimal values without testing all the possible rate tech/ mod combinations. The effect of the decimal increases at higher rates.

Below is the time needed for spawn rates. For info on ROF/DPS of weapons, see here. proof: http://imgur.com/a/tCkBt

http://imgur.com/a/rjf8P

http://imgur.com/a/97YzV

Ever wonder how much faster hangar rate atually is? Or how much faster Fighter Yards are? (3 times faster!) Or how fast a turret fires? Or how much fire rate ACTUALLY helps?

00.2 seconds = microlaser + rof 00.1 seconds = micro/laser + 2 beamdoctrine + 1 heatsink.

As you can see, there are some interesting things here.

Bugs: Hangar Rate is bugged. It give less than 25% (more like 15%), and it cannot stack, even if you have two hangar rates.

Also here is an example of how a Legion times its hangars.

First, it waits 10 seconds. Then it fires the first piranha from each side. Then it waits .5 more seconds and fires the next 2. Then it waits .5 more seconds and fires the next 2. That’s a total of 11 seconds. Then it takes 10 MORE seconds to fire the next round of piranhas. So that means that the second round of piranhas release at the 21st second, and finish at the 22nd.

That means the more Carrier Racks you add to your carrier, the less efficient it becomes. Adding 1 rack to a Tremor does not exactly double the damage beause each mine set you lay causes future ones to be delayed a bit.

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In order to get timings for frames, you need to set your energy to +10 or + 20 or +30 energy (divide by 2 or 3 to get the frames. Then divide by 10 to get the Seconds. Because 10 frames = 1 second). Then you use pause to time between shots. If you want to advance +1 frame buy or sell a barricade. (barricade is all metal and therefore makes counting energy easy)

http://www.kongregate.com/forums/3/topics/405230-oe3-topic#posts-8737352