| Fun with math (order of operations)

Yeah, so.. I figured I'd try out a fun build with as many Halberd / Pike Beams as I could bolt on and power up. By some stroke of luck I managed to find THREE Halberd Beams. Got 2 powered, was just about to get the 3rd powered. What I found with two of these things powered was that firing on a ship with a single shield often meant it got cut into pieces on the first volley (cue madman laughter here).

I *ALSO* learned that the halberd doesn't bring down shields, only the ablative shielding on some ships.

Here's the really unfortunate math (fun with order of operations):

If you have 2 x Halberds firing (puting out 2 damage each per each room hit in the strike) versus 2 shields (absorbing 2 damage), the game doesn't treat that as:

[4 damage x number of rooms] - 2 damage absorbed.

Further, it doesn't even treat it as:

[4 damage - 2 damage absorbed] x number of rooms.

What the game actually does is:

[2 damage - 2 damage absorbed] x 2 x whatever (if rooms are even an issue here).

So, basically.. you get absolutely zero damage out of two Halberds firing simultaneously because the shield absorbs 100% of their output.

My initial giddy elation at creating the ultimate death machine was ended quickly when I did no damage in 3 volleys and found myself getting destroyed by a nasty boarding party (my crew were mostly noodle-armed Zoltans). HMS Botswana was blown to smithereens by fucking boarding drones. I think I could solve for the 2-shield layer issue somewhat with an ion bomb or cannon but even then, that's not gonna do me any good later on in the game against 3 and 4 shield-layered ships.

=(