Possible Gold bug

Elmo · #1 March 11th, 2002, 04:38 PM

An AI empire sent a colony ship into my minefield. The ship survived, barely, but I also had mines left too. Is this a bug or how it is supposed to work now? Thanks.

Elmo

geoschmo · #2 March 11th, 2002, 04:47 PM

Hmmm, A couple of things may be happening here. First of all, if your mine warheads were level 1, that's why the colony ship wasn't destroyed. They do less damage than the colony component can absorb, so they will never be able to destroy it, so the ship will never be destroyed complately. Not until you upgrade to higher level warheads.

Now, as far as you having mines left, did you accidentally build some mines with no warheads? If so that is why they did not detonate.

Geoschmo

dmm · #3 March 11th, 2002, 05:13 PM

Possible bugs aside, you don't really want to destroy the AI's colony ships. Leaving them crippled does two good things: 1) drains the AI's resources without ever giving it any benefits; and 2)gives you a source of alien colonization tech and population, once you get ships with boarding and repair.

Elmo · #4 March 11th, 2002, 05:21 PM

quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
Hmmm, A couple of things may be happening here. First of all, if your mine warheads were level 1, that's why the colony ship wasn't destroyed. They do less damage than the colony component can absorb, so they will never be able to destroy it, so the ship will never be destroyed complately. Not until you upgrade to higher level warheads.

Now, as far as you having mines left, did you accidentally build some mines with no warheads? If so that is why they did not detonate.

Geoschmo

Geoschmo

Yes my mines are level 1 only and all of them have warheads since I currently only have one mine unit to build.

So warhead damage is not cumulative on any single component? One warhead either destroys it or 1000 mines won't? I guess that is an incentive to build bigger warheads but it seems counterintuitive to me. Thanks.

Elmo

Elmo · #5 March 11th, 2002, 05:23 PM

quote:
Originally posted by dmm:
Possible bugs aside, you don't really want to destroy the AI's colony ships. Leaving them crippled does two good things: 1) drains the AI's resources without ever giving it any benefits; and 2)gives you a source of alien colonization tech and population, once you get ships with boarding and repair.

dmm

Good point. I was too hasty in killing what was left of the colony ship. However the AI is still dumb enough to keep sending ships into my known minefiled so there will be another colony ship to capture before long.

Elmo

mottlee · #6 March 11th, 2002, 05:51 PM

quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
Hmmm, A couple of things may be happening here. First of all, if your mine warheads were level 1, that's why the colony ship wasn't destroyed. They do less damage than the colony component can absorb, so they will never be able to destroy it, so the ship will never be destroyed complately. Not until you upgrade to higher level warheads.

Now, as far as you having mines left, did you accidentally build some mines with no warheads? If so that is why they did not detonate.

Geoschmo

Hmmm Lvl 1X 100 = dead ship!!!!???? or that could be why they leave one sometimes after cleaning out mine field

geoschmo · #7 March 11th, 2002, 06:35 PM

Yes, this is usually a suprise to people. When a fleet of ships hits a minefield, each individual mine warhead impact gets calculated seperatly. The damage for each warhead gets applied to a component on a ship (Randomly I guess). If the damage of that warhead exceeds the structure of the component, excess damage is applied to another component on that ship. If the structure exceeds the limit of the damage applied to it, nothing happens. Partial damage is not saved for the next warhead.

This can result in some weird things with level I warheads. Colony ships gutted except for the colony comp, but completely clearing a minfield in the process. Ships with scattering armor are close impervious to level 1 warheads, since the structure of the scattering armor is more than the damage of the warhead. Nothing else on the ship will be hurt since armor is always damaged first. Only other types of armor on that ship will be destroyed possibly.

I am still confused as to why you had mines left though. Are you playing a simultaneous turn game? If you are and you remotly launched mines in the same turn the colony ship entered the minefield that would explain it. Mines are launched at the end of the turn after the ships move.

Geoschmo

Elmo · #8 March 11th, 2002, 07:49 PM

quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:

snip...

I am still confused as to why you had mines left though. Are you playing a simultaneous turn game? ...

Geoschmo

Nope, just a regular turn based PBEM game. I didn't save the turn but the AI will be sending another colony ship through soon

so if I see it again I'll save the file.

Elmo