ApsCalcUI: a calculator for optimizing shells for the Advanced Projectile
System in From the Depths. Written by Ao Kishuba: [email protected]
Special thanks to HerpeDerpeDerp and MrNukealizer, without whom this project
would not have been possible.

For update notifications and useful links to my other documents, join my
Discord repository server: https://discord.gg/GJ794YxSxj

---- HOW TO RUN ----
This package requires .NET 8.0 to run.
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/8.0
If running from the downloaded .zip file, run the executable "ApsCalcUI".
The link to download is available in my Discord repository, linked above.

---- TEST PARAMETERS ----
NOTE: Results for each test will be written to a .csv file in the ApsCalcUI
folder. Open using a spreadsheet program, such as LibreOffice Calc, using 
UTF-8 encoding. If "Comma Decimal Separator" is checked, use semicolon column
separators; otherwise, use comma separators. Filenames are automatically 
generated from current time. An example filename is "2021-07-04_09-12-11-12".

Barrel Count: number of barrels. APS cannons can have anywhere from 1-6
barrels. Additional barrels help cooling, but impose an accuracy penalty and
limit max gauge. At low calibers, barrel count is a cosmetic choice.

Minimum Gauge: smallest gauge to be tested, in mm. Must be greater than 18 mm.

Maximum Gauge: largest gauge to be tested, in mm. Must be greater than or
equal than Minimum Gauge and less than or equal to 500 mm (or the max allowed
by the barrel count, whichever is less).

DIF Checkbox: Check if the inputs will be mounted directly to the firing
piece, as opposed to using clips. This is known as Direct Input Feed, or DIF,
and allows for longer shells (10 000mm in vanilla; 20 000mm with 1 000mm APS
mod), but limits the gun to 4 inputs max, and doubles reload time.

1 000mm APS Mod: if checked, allows the max gauge to be set as high as 
1 000mm. This gauge is not possible ingame without mods.

Impact Angle: Angle of impact from perpendicular, in °. Kinetic damage is 
multiplied by the absolute value of the cosine of this angle: a 0° impact
angle is a perfect hit against a flat surface (beams), and will deal full 
damage against such a surface.
Note that this stacks with angles from slopes: a 45° hit against a beam slope
(45°) will add up to 90° impact angle (a miss), dealing no damage. A 90° hit
against a beam slope (45°) will add up to a 135° impact, dealing about 70% 
damage.
Note also that, as of Alpha 3.5.0 (2022-04-26), Sabot head uses 3/4 the angle
for Kinetic damage calculation purposes.
Hollow point head and CIWS (kinetic with AC 20) ignore impact angle.

Head Indices: modules to be put at the front of the shells to be tested. The
frontmost module on a shell is weighted in certain calculations, and can have
a large effect on shell performance. Some heads, like the Disruptor Conduit,
add functionality. Any module other than the dedicated base modules can be put
at the front of a shell, although the dedicated "Head" modules offer the best
performance for any shell type.
Note that while the optimizer does not include Squash Head (HESH), the 
Shaped Charge Head (HEAT) works as a substitute for calculations. The damage 
numbers will not match HESH damage numbers, but the configurations will be 
otherwise identical.

Base Module: module to be put at the back of the projectile (the part of the
shell which hits the target - excludes gunpowder and railgun casings). The
base modules add functionality or modify performance, and in general I
recommend using some kind of base; test with Base Bleeder versus no base if
no additional functionality is required.
	Visible Tracer: prompts Rate of Fire input. Visible tracer bonus to 
	inaccuracy scales with rate of fire.

Fixed Modules: modules to be included with every shell.
n.b. The input validation for fixed modules is not perfect. Please double-
check to ensure the total fixed module count adds up to 18 or less (17 if
using a base).

Variable Module Indices: the optimizer will test every possible combination
of variable modules. Examples would be Solid Body and Sabot Body for kinetic
shells, or Solid Body and Frag Body for APF pendepth.

Clips Per Loader: number of clips connected directly to loader. Clips cost 
less than loaders and can hold more shells, but are more fragile and 
difficult to Tetris.

Inputs Per Loader: ammo Feeder Inputs per loader/clip cluster.

Ammo Ejector: check to include Ammo ejector, which ejects shells when a clip
or loader is destroyed. Automatically checked if Emergency Defuze is checked,
but can also be included without one (used for GP kinetic shells).
n.b. Beltfed loaders cannot use Ammo ejectors; this option has no effect on 
them.

Max Gunpowder Casings: maximum allowed number of GP casings. Note that GP
casing length is adjustable up to two decimal places, although a decimal
casing counts as a complete module for module count limit purposes.

GP Interval: Propellant amount can be varied by increments of 0.01. By default,
every possible increment will be tested (ie, 0.00 through Max GP Casings, 
adding 0.01 casings between tests). Larger intervals, up to 1 casing, skip
shells but greatly speed testing.

Max Railgun Casings: maximum allowed number of RG casings. RG casings
increase the max rail draw of the shell, but are not part of the projectile,
and so do not reduce the shell velocity for a given amount of charge. This
means a shell with RG casings can be "supercharged" to go faster than it
would under its own max draw.

Max Rail Draw: maximum allowed rail draw. Note that the shell itself will
have a max draw (to simulate the maximum force the shell could withstand).
This "physical" limit is determined by the size of the shell (gauge and
number of components other than GP casings), and the optimizer will take it
into account automatically, regardless of the user-input max draw.

Min Shell Length: minimum length of the shell, exclusive.

Max Shell Length: maximum length of the shell, inclusive. Must be greater
than the smallest possible shell - ie, one with the minimum gauge, made up
only of fixed modules (the form automatically enforces this restriction).

Minimum Velocity: minimum shell velocity. Note that a high minimum velocity
may be impossible to meet within the casing and rail draw restrictions.

Minimum Effective Range: effective range is the distance a shell will travel
in its "lifetime", after which it will become useless. Particularly small
shells may have an effective range of less than 1 km, and may not be suitable
for use on certain craft.

Maximum Inaccuracy: the inaccuracy value the optimizer will use to calculate
required barrel length. Only enabled if the Limit Barrel Length Checkbox is
checked (see below); has no effect otherwise.

Limit Barrel Length Checkbox: enables barrel length limits. Every shell has a
Barrel Length for 0.3° Inaccuracy and a Barrel Length For Max Propellant Burn.
Enabling length limits will cause the optimizer to discard any shell whose
required minimum barrel length (for inaccuracy or propellant burn) exceeds 
the limit. The number entered can represent a fixed length (select "m" from
the dropdown) or a multiple of the gauge (select "calibers").

Pendepth Checkbox: enables the Target Armor Scheme controls. With the box
checked, the optimizer will only count shells which are capable of destroying
the target armor configuration using either kinetic or thump damage.

Target Armor Configuration Dropdown and Buttons: allows the user to input
the configuration of the target armor. Note that all slopes are assumed to
be built with the airgap facing outwards, away from the center of the craft.
Additionally, each sloped block has a "shallow" and a "steep" option, for 
shells hitting parallel or perpendicular to the slope. Shallow angles are 
nearer parallel with the surface of the block, and thus will have a more
severe kinetic damage reduction and a greater ricochet chance.

Damage Type: damage type to optimize.
  Kinetic. Prompts entry of target AC value(s). Note that more than one AC
  value can be entered; each will be run as a separate test.
  
  EMP, Munition defense, and HE speak for themselves, but note that it is not
  possible to convert between the damage types due to the complex damage
  application models used for each type.

  Frag. Prompts entry of Frag Cone Angle in °, as shown in the ingame APS 
  controller.

  HEAT. Calculates HEAT damage for a shell. Note that the resulting
  configurations will be optimal for every pen metric and special factor,
  and even for HESH shells; however, the damage numbers will only match
  what is shown ingame for HEAT shells with a special factor of 1 and a
  penetration metric of 0.5.
  
  Shield Disruptor. Automatically replaces user-given Head List with the
  Disruptor Conduit Head, which is required for shield disruption. Measures
  EMP damage and shield reduction percentage (displayed in the printout as a
  decimal, where 1 = 100% shield strength reduction). Also enables Minimum
  Disruptor Strength field, which sets the cutoff strength below which the 
  optimizer will reject shells.

  Smoke. Calculates smoke strength.

  Incendiary. Calculates fuel, assuming default settings.


Test Type: whether to optimize for DPS per Volume or DPS per Cost. "Volume"
and "Cost" are both marginal - they include the volume (or cost) only of
components which scale linearly with number of loaders. That is to say,
components like the APS firing piece, barrels, gauge increases, &c, are not 
counted, because their proprotion of the cost depends on the size of the gun 
and the Tetris skill of the builder. The components which are counted are the
loader, input, recoil absorbers, coolers, and rail chargers.

Test Interval: the duration in minutes for which the gun will fire. This does
not affect the cost of the gun itself (loader, recoil, charger, cooler, 
recoil absorber, &c), but does affect ammo and fuel consumption and storage.

Storage Type: the type of containers which will be used to store materials.
The Cargo container is the most efficient, but is bulky; generic storage is
more flexible but slightly less efficient; coal has higher health and armor
but is the least efficient at storage.

PPM: Power Per Material of the engine which will supply power for railguns.
Shown ingame on the engine UI. Disabled unless Max Rail Draw > 0.

PPV: Power Per Volume of the engine which will supply power for railguns.
Shown ingame on the engine UI. Disabled unless Max Rail Draw > 0.

PPC: Power Per Cost of the engine which will supply power for railguns.
NOT SHOWN INGAME -- must be calculated manually by dividing power output by
block cost. Disabled unless Max Rail Draw > 0.

Fuel Checkbox: Check if the engine supplyning power for railguns is of a type
which requires Fuel access (as shown on the default tab of the V menu). This
includes Fuel engines and Custom jet engines. Disabled unless Max Rail Draw
> 0.

Verbose Output Checkbox: Check to show detailed volume and cost statistics
(see end of Output section below). Useful mostly for debugging or for advanced
users trying to do additional analysis using raw shell stats.

Raw Number Output Checkbox: By default, all numbers are rounded to the number
of decimal places shown ingame when output to .csv. Note that rounding takes
place AFTER all calculations and does not affect test accuracy.
Check this box to output unrounded values. Note that calculated values (DPS, 
volumes, DPS / volume, costs, DPS / cost, cost / volume) are always raw
because they have no ingame equivalent.

Comma Decimal Separator Checkbox: Check if your computer uses commas to 
indicate decimals (if "five and three tenths" appears as '5,3' instead of 
'5.3'). The output file is in .csv format, which by default uses commas to 
separate columns in the spreadsheet; however, this does not work if your 
system is already using commas to separate decimals. Checking this box will 
cause the optimizer to output using semicolon column delimiters instead.


---- OPTIMIZER OUTPUT ----
The optimizer output always begins with the test parameters entered by the 
user at runtime. Below that are the top shells for each loader length for
which any shells were generated (depending on length and gauge restrictions).
Each shell stat cluster starts with the shell length.

Gauge (mm): shell diameter; caliber.

Total length (mm): length of the entire shell. Used to determine loader size.

Length without casings (mm): length of the part of the shell which will
(hopefully) hit the target.

Total modules: total APS modules used by the controller.

GP casing: number of gunpowder casings, if any. Decimal casing counts can be 
set by adjusting the "Propellant" slider in the APS ammo controller. Not shown
for tests with 0 max GP casings.

RG casing: number of railgun casings, if any. Not shown for tests with 0 max
RG casings.

Solid body/Sabot body/HE body/&c: number of each type of body module.

Head: the module at the head of the shell (at the bottom of the controller).

Rail draw: rail draw, if any.

DPS per cost/DPS per volume: the most important stats, shell damage per second
divided by total cost (and volume) for the duration of the test interval.


Velocity (m/s): muzzle velocity.

Effective range (m): range at which velocity decreases dramatically.

Barrel length for inacccuracy (m): minimum barrel length to achieve desired
inaccuracy (default 0.3°). Note that, unlike the ingame UI, the optimizer 
includes bonuses from Base Bleeder and Visual Tracer in the calculation, so 
this number may not match what is shown in the APS Shell Editor.

Barrel length for ful propellant burn (m): same value as shown ingame.

Damage:
	Kinetic shells will show raw damage, AP, reduction due to impact 
		angle, and effective damage after applying AC reduction.
	Munition defense shells show damage and explosion radius.
	Frag shells show frag count, damage per frag, and total damage.
	HE shells show raw damage (which should match ingame value),
		explosion radius, and an approximation of applied damage 
		equal to raw damage multiplied by explosion volume (divided 
		by 1000 to make the resulting figures more manageable). Note 
		explosion radius is capped at 30m.
        Incendiary shells show fuel (which should match ingame value with
	default settings)
	Other chemical shells will show damage of their respective types.
	Disruptor shells will show EMP damage and shield reduction (decimal%).

Shell reload time: Base reload time, as shown in ammo customizer.

Cluster reload time: Effective reload time, as shown on loader.

Uptime: Percent of the time during which the loader will be providing shells 
to the firing piece.

DPS: Damage per Second.


Volumes and Costs (only shown if "Verbose Output" is checked)
The various volumes and costs shown are the hypothetical amounts of each
type of block needed to support a single loader. The values -- cubic metres
for volume, and materials for cost -- will almost always be decimals because
they are hypothetical and are meant to scale with the gun: rounding errors
aside, the shell with the highest DPS per volume with one loader will have 
the highest DPS per volume with 1 000 loaders; small guns, however, will not
have the same actual DPS per volume or cost stats, because it is not possible
to place 0.3338 cubic metres of gauge cooler.

Loader volume: cubic metres taken up by loader, clips, inputs, and ejector.
If the Emergency Ejection Defuze checkbox is checked, all non-beltfed loaders
will get an ejector (2 volume, 10 cost).

Cooler volume: volume of gauge coolers. Not shown for shells with no
GP casings.

Charger volume: volume of rail chargers. Not shown for shells with no
rail draw.

Engine volume: volume of engine needed to keep up with rail charge. Not
shown for shells with no rail draw.

Fuel access volume: volume of fuel tanks/beams needed to keep up with rail 
charge. Not shown for shells with no rail draw, or if the "Fuel" checkbox is
not checked.

Fuel storage volume: volume of material storage containers needed to hold
the materials the engine will burn as fuel. Fuel access tanks/beams hold 
enough materials to run themselves for 10 minutes, so this number will be 0
if the testing interval is <= 10 minutes. Not shown if the shell has no rail
draw.

Recoil volume: volume of recoil absorbers. Will always be 0 if "Recoil 
absorbers" is unchecked.

Ammo access volume: volume of ammo crates needed to keep up with ammo 
consumption.

Ammo storage volume: volume of material storage containers needed to hold 
the materials the gun will use as ammo. Ammo access crates hold enough 
materials to run themselves for 10 minutes, so this number will be 0 if the 
testing interval is <= 10 minutes.

The costs are the same as the volumes, with three exceptions:

Fuel burned: the amount of materials consumed by the engine to power the 
rails. Will always be 0 for shells without rail draw.

Ammo used: the amount of materials consumed by the gun as ammunition.

Cost per volume: total cost divided by total volume.