I've done pretty well with missile defenses while playing Endless Space so far. Getting killed by missiles? Put in more of best known flak module. Problem solved! But now I'm getting interested in making mods, and I've realized I don't really understand missile defenses very well.
1) Looking at the game's XML files, it looks like there are 4 rounds per phase; missiles fire in the first round then spend the remaining 3 rounds reloading. This means beams/kinetics fire 4 times per phase, though, and for some reason my memory is insisting that they only fire 3 times. Am I just crazy? I started playing during the alpha, did it used to be 3 rounds in a previous version?
2) I know defenses are per round, but how many rounds can missile defenses fire on missiles? Every round they're in flight or only the final round right before they hit?
3) What happens when incoming missiles have a higher evasion rating than my defense modules' interception rating? Do multiple defense modules tag team missiles? So if I had 3 flak modules, each with 5 interception rating, trying to counter 2 incoming missiles, both with 7 evasion rating, two flak modules would target the first missile and one would target the second missile, resulting in 1 missile shot down? I assume any extra interception rating the module(s) has/have beyond what's necessary to take down the missile is wasted.
Best Answer
From my experience so far in Endless space, i know that when your missile fires(one salvo per battle phase) there are 3 parts in each battle phase(those parts are like fire from kinetic cannons 3salvo's per BP). So do the flak defense it fires 3times per BP to enemy missiles targeting the ship which holds flaks(wont target missiles heading towards other ship).
Summarizing:
I have no idea what is written in Xml files, But i do know that there are 3rounds in each Battle phase.
lasers and kinetics fire 3 times per BP(battle phase) along with flak defenses which arent displayed per round but instead at the end of BP in way how many missiles was destroyed, just before explosion.
I am not sure how does evasion/interception works, because i dont know if what they are showing in game is already multiplied by 3(number of rounds) or it is not. But my quess would be that, one flak(5interception) fired against one missile(7evasion) has 5/7 chance to destroy incoming missile(71,4%). Now the question is - is it a chance given per round or per BP?
I would not say that extra interception is wasted. During my encounters with hi-end ships against low-end ships has shown that few good flaks can well defend a ship against dozens missiles of low evasion.
Hope it helps a bit though im not willing to bet my hand on the third theory :)