Can someone explain the Q-cannon damage formula to me as it pertains to ship damage. If I have a planet with 100,000 ore and a cannon setting of 10% sector,I know it will use 10,000 ore on the first shot, but how does that translate into ship damage?

Cuda

sector damage if i am not mistaken is 3 ore to 1 damage, so with 100k ore, sector set at 10% using 10k ore, it would do 3333 damage to a ship. i believe it also depends on if it is on mbbs mode or not, but that might just be for atmospheric damage. i know the real answer is posted somewhere on this site, just check old posts.
Slim

sector is ore / 3, so it will do about 3,333 damage. Atmospheric depends on whether the game is set to MBBS mode or not. MBBS mode is ore * 2, non-MBBS mode is ore / 2.

Heres the formulas for q-cannons, remember that for damage inflicted by a
q-cannon the ships defensive odds are not a factor.

Q-Cannon Settings

Standard Mode -
1,000,000 Ore on planet
1% Setting
10,000 Ore used
Sector - 3,333 Damage done
(thus if a ship had 2000 shield units and 50,000 fighters the shields will be destroyed and 48,667 fighters will remain)

Atmos - 5,000 Damage done
(in this case the shields will be destroyed and 47,000 fighters will remain)

MBBS Mode -
1,000,000 Ore on planet
1% Setting
10,000 Ore used
Sector - 3,333 Damage done
(in this case if a ship had 2000 shield units and 50,000 fighters the shields will be destroyed and 48,667 fighters will remain), ( same as standard )

heres the change

Atmos - 20,000 Damage done
(all shields destroyed and 32,000 fighters remain)

basicly sector blast is less effective then atmospheric blast on a single blast basis.

however taken in concert or set up for a series of blasts from all q-cannons in the same sector to the sector the combined blasts can be the most destructive force in the game.