Unsorted Useful/Useless things.

[orchid marlin]

Here are some useful/Interesting things in no particular order or category.

Others may expand apon this "guide" at there discretion so long as the format is copied and information is real.

Firstly is this simplified ballistics chart showing the damage reduction offered by these blocks should a shell hit them dead on :D

Poles and beam slopes can let heat/hesh though under tight.

Ironically this can only occur for beam slopes if they are in the Anti-HEAT configuration as seen below.

Credit: Naautilus
A weapons effective range/accuracy chart

FTD weapon spread isn't a circle but a square at any range.

Credit: Titan4579

Frag missles explode at there COM(Center of mass) in relation to were payload is placed on the missle.

This chart shows the best general angle to release frags for maximum penetration assuming a flat impact angle.
(Does not apply to missiles)

This chart shows the best(general) angle to release frags at to deal the maximum amount of damage to a single block at a flat angle of impact (Useful for sand blasters)
(Does not apply to missiles)

This chart shows the best(General) angle to release frags at to deal the best possible alpha damage to a target when hitting flat on.

Addendum:
The damage appearing to be random in the red section is a result of frags increasing damage as you increase its release angle, thus measured damage is extremely RNG based, the sample size for these tests were all ten shots, spread out over 11 targets simultaneously, for a total of 110 shots, then done ten times for a total of 1100 shots... even then the recorded results were extremely RNG heavy in the red.
(Does not apply to missiles)

This chart shows the difference between Anti-AP beam slope configuration VS Anti-Heat/Hesh beam slope configuration when dealing with HEAT/HESH.

Explanation: The Anti-HEAT/HESH beam slope configuration is a little under 2% better at handling HEAT/HESH.

Anti-HEAT/HESH beam slope configuration.

Anti-AP beam slope configuration.

A picture showing block directional placement VS the simulated path of shells in red lines to show the amount of blocks in the shells path in various configurations.

Shell impacts can occur at 90° degree angles, this could explain why a Shell may appear to miss but still hit.

Explanation: In the large black box there are numbers that show up as 0? and 90? - this is the impact angle shown in the debugger.

Hesh has a max penetration range of 50m in soild armor.

When using the "Target" hot blocks AI aim function the AI will prioritize the hottest blocks on a enemy craft, in the images below we have heat decoys colored from GREEN to PINK, green being the coolest and pink being the hottest.

This is a visual demonstration in game.

Under specific circumstances projectiles can ignore the hit boxes of beams slopes at the edges of these blocks, this is why having unbacked beam slopes is generally considered a bad idea unless you absolutely know what your doing.

The hit box of a projectile is not the entire thing nor at the front but instead at the rear, missiles behave as expected though.

If for some reason you are using checkerboard ERA armor patterns, don't use the beams checkerboarding strategy, this causes massive holes to be blown open within the configuration/tons more ERA to be lost in actual combat.

you shouldn't be using ERA on anything larger than a drone

Unsorted Useful/Useless things.

[dense jasper]

Try flipping the era the other way around as well so it's facing inwards, It's almost the same except hesh/heat will be immediately destroyed before it can spread out, leading to less era destroyed and less damage taken

[zealous adder]

the point of using beams is also so it's not completely useless against anything that ERA doesn't stop

[orchid marlin]

Yes, I am aware.

This was an example that I did a few months ago when someone was insisting they wanted to use ERA in the exact way shown, I was simply showing an alternative method :D