How does EMP/Disarm dmg work vs Shields?

I think all these spedcial damages deal 1/3 the value of their damage as 'real damage' to the shields. So 30003 EMP damage deals 10001 damage to shields. Funelweb is a special case that it blocks shockly, which nothing else in the game could do before.

a small note on this, aspis/agis shields can be anoying when you are trying to stun something with a widow, a fully charged shield will block a single widow hit(8000EMP/3EMP=2667 real damage), which has happened to me before to an unfortunate loss of toaster life.

https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/blob/master/gamedata/armordefs.lua#L81

Yes, I guess. I would not suggest to build things with flamethrowers to counter shields, though. I can only think of 3, pyro, comander, and dante, and the flamer weapons have very poor base DPS as is. Gauss's increased effectiveness against shields I think is negligible. Really, something like Cyclopses' megaslow beam is rather effective at helping drain shields. And a weapon like moderator's disruptor pulse gets to pierce shield at a higher shield HP because the EMP damage increases the amount of shield required to block it.

I've got a PR out to start actually showing this kind of info to players:
https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/pull/3654

quote: Is there any reason Gauss has 1.5 modifier instead of 3 like Flamer?

This modifier is a sort of "compensation" for shields preventing piercing. Gauss is far less reliant on piercing compared to flamer so gets a lower modifier.

I don't think the 150% modifier is required and we probably don't even need the 300% modifier. The only weapons affected by 300% are flamethrowers, not things like Firewalker.

still, Firewalker is the most effective against shieldballs of the named units.