The quantum detonator

[PsilonDependant]

Im at one campaign, an its the end game, trilarians have almost every technology that i do due to espionage.
the 6 other races were elminated already
all im doing now is conquering every colony the AI has, and its tedious when they have warp interdictors at the colonies.

so i got bored and wanted to make suicide bombers with the quantum detonator. yes, the weapon sucks, but gotta have some fun with it.

anyway...anyone know how self destruction/ ship detonation damage is calculated? does the size of the hull affect the damage or is it the armor or structure hp's?

i sent 12 frigate's with phase cloak, teleporter, xentronium armor, and detonator, and each one only did 40-50 damage to an enemy ship with X shielding.

[Brutalisk]

I can't give you a definite answer because I don't remember, but,

size of ship DOES matter. Play a hotseat game and go near a starbase and autodestruct it and you'll notice how many BBs it can take with it

I tend to autodestruct my starbase in cases where the enemy tries to boards it or simply comes too close.

I don't know the precise equation, but even small ships have their use and I believe armor does have something to do with it as well...

I could be mistaken.

[theCzar]

I've one many a battle i shouldn't have by detonating a ship and wiping out a large cluster of missiles/fighters before they reach my planet. This works especially well if take out there fighters, as this leaves the enemy defenceless (and more importantly, attackless if they use a lot of carriers) for 10 turns

case in point:
when attacked by 7 silicoid battleships completely filled with fighters, i had missiles base, fighter garrison and star base.

As there fighters closed in on my star base, i detonated it and estroyed all the fighters, this meant i was able to launch 10 volleys of pulsons from my planet before they could attack (effectively) again, by which time there was only 2 BS's left, and they ran like hell.

It's worth noting the silicoid ships were pretty crap, i think class 1 and titanium.