Ships: All storms de-cloak ships that don't have advanced cloaking. Storms stronger than 150 MeV affect all ships that do not cloak or were thus uncloaked, and which do not have an Ion Shield.

Essentially, this means that ships with advanced cloak are safe from ion storms while they are cloaked. However, this means they cannot do anything else while inside the storm. Ships with Ion Shield, in contrast, can do any mission without being in danger of getting damaged. The Ion Shield alone will not help them stay cloaked, though.

Ship_new_location_X = Round(Ship_location_X + Sin(Heading) * Distance)
Ship_new_location_Y = Round(Ship_location_Y + Cos(Heading) * Distance)
   ...with
      Distance = 0.75 * Storm_warp^2
      Heading  = Storm_heading * PI/180   (i.e. converted to radiant)

Ship_damage_taken =
   Trunc((Random(200) + Storm_voltage - Ship_mass - 20 * Ship_engine) * Exp_modificator)
   ...with Exp_modificator =
         1        ...if NumExperienceLevels = 0
         1 - (Ship_experience_level / NumExperienceLevels)
                  ...otherwise
   ...plus 50 if ship does not have fuel
   ...at least zero, of course
Ship_damage =
   Ship_damage + Ship_damage_taken
Ship_crew =
   Trunc(Ship_crew * (100 - Ship_damage_taken) / 100)
Ship_experience_gain =
   Trunc(EPShipIonStorm100MEV * (Storm_voltage - 100) / 100)

Minefields: Ion storms can hide minefields from scanning ships. A minefield is hidden if all of the following conditions apply:

  • The storm radius is strictly greater than the minefield radius, i.e. Storm_radius > Minefield_radius.
  • The minefield center lies inside the ion storm, i.e. Distance_between_centers ≤ Storm_radius
  • The scanning ship belongs to a different player than the minefield.

A hidden minefield cannot be swept or seen using beams alone. If the ship can use fighters to sweep (FighterSweepRate nonzero), those will see and sweep the minefield, though.