who shoots first?

[Pablo]

I always thought that the first to move or shoot is the fleet that sits at the other side of a warp point but that is probably wrong. In one of my games I ran with a decent fleet from another big fleet and decided to use the warp point technique. For me it was 3 moves to warp and for my enemy 6. So I expected to warp and wait for him on the other side and then shoot first. But...
He shot first and killed ~30 ships. Anyway I had 90 remaining so I finished him. But this is frustraiting. I heard an opinion that the one who is faster always shoots first. Is this true? What about fighters/satellites then?
Thanx

[geoschmo]

Do I have this correct: Both of you were in the same system. You warp and he follows you through the same warp point and he fires first in the combat?

The way it's supposed to work is the defender is supposed to fire first in combat. It may be that since your fleet was moving that turn the game didn't consider you to be defending the warp point, even though you had finished moving by the time he got through it. If the game decided neither of you was defender it's supposed to be random which goes first. At least that's the way I read the history file. Probably if you had got through the warp point and been able to sit for a turn before he came through you would have got first shot guaranteed.

It used to be always the player with the higher player position going into the game got to shoot first on all the combats. It's never been faster player or anything like that, although that would make some sense.

Geoschmo

[Pablo]

Yes you understood everything correctly. We were both in the same system. I warped first and waited for him.
Btw - I am first in the players' list.

[geoschmo]

So then apparently it was random, which apparently means that the game did not consider you to be a defender since you had moved to the warp point during that turn. Interesting....

Geoschmo

[Pablo]

Yes indeed interesting. It is DNM Gold if it makes any difference. What if I had some satellites/fighters present there? They WOULD shoot first I suppose. And after that? Also random or I would continue shooting with my ships

[Alpha Kodiak]

I had this same thing happen and sent a save game to Malfador. He said that it should have worked with the defender firing first as the second fleet came through the warp point. Apparently, the game didn't realize that one was there first because both arrived in the same turn. Sounds like a bug and Malfador is aware of it. I do not know if he plans to patch it or not.