Damage Types
All damage is categorized in to 8 damage types: laser, heat, physical, surgical, mining, energy, radiation and transference. Some ships have resistances or vulnerabilities to particular damage types. For instances, the serenity is particularly vulnerable to mining damage. Some times the player owned version of a ship and the AI controlled version of a ship have vastly different resists. One common example is the Pax. The AI Pax Astralogica is nearly immune to all damage but surgical while the player controlled version, the Pax Astronomica, has moderate resists to everything but mining damage. In addition to ship-Resistances, diffusers can offer additional protection. Also, some specialised base-kits have built in resists.
Forms of Damage
Laser: Always some sort of beam, in the form of a line, lightning, or a "swiss cheese" look.
Heat: Usually heat, there are a few types of pulse weapon in the form of a small purple oval.
Physical: Always a projectile that causes ships to fly back from the impact, with less blowback on the shooter's end.
Surgical: Always some sort of beam in the form of a line.
Mining: Usually some sort of beam, it comes in straight line, lightning, and "Swiss cheese" look, with a few pulse style guns. Most mining projectile/ beams are green..
Energy: Always in the form of some sort of pulse, the energy damage type includes magcannons and torpedoes which track in flight.
Radiation: Always in the form of a beam, this damages a ship's warp drive and will cause a player to eject without a pod or an AI ship to simply lose sheilds but not explode, allowing itself to be captured.
Transference: Always in the form of a beam in a ying- yang shape.
