A better system for combat

[Suicide Junkie]

Splitting up the defenders will not help the original problem, which was that player #1 always got to fire first.

In that case, it would be very unbalanced if player 1 was attacking, since he could hit the sats before they fire AND not have to worry about fighting the defender's ships for at least ten turns.

[Urendi Maleldil]

How about just letting the attacker fire first since they are the ones initiating the battle.

[President Delerith]

quote:

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Posted by: suicide_junkie.
Note that if the defenders start at the edge of the combat map, sattelites will be useless in WP sectors.

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Sattelites will be as useless as they are in open space. In fact my idea will transform WP combat in nearly open space combat (only changing starting positions). I don't like my idea.

[Dragonlord]

I like the idea of defenders going first, defenders being the ones who sit still on the warppoint, attackers the ones who try to break through. I also like the idea of simply separateing the fleets and make each fleet start at opposite ends of the combat screen.
I hate the solution of random decisions on who goes first. It would make my military victories/losses MUCH more dependant on luck, and not on skill/ship design.

[Pustov]

If the defender mines damage any of the attacking fleet then the defender sattelites will be there to fire first. And If there are any survivors? the attacker has time to split Its fleet to any corner of the map and at least save a part of It.

[This message has been edited by Pustov (edited 14 October 2001).]

[geoschmo]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dragonlord:
(snip) I also like the idea of simply separateing the fleets and make each fleet start at opposite ends of the combat screen.(snip)

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Yes! This is a great idea. Probably the easiest by far to code is my guess. I mean the game has to place the ships somewhere. Just make it place them on opposite sides of the sector the way it does for normal combat instead of crammed in the center.

We just realign the way we think about warp points. Instead of being a tiny point in space they are a large area that is the size of a sector. Makes sense kind of.

Geoschmo

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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We just realign the way we think about warp points. Instead of being a tiny point in space they are a large area that is the size of a sector. Makes sense kind of.

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What about WP stacks?
I'm with the defender going first, since they're "entrenched" already.

But if there are multiple races going at it on a WP sector, then there is a twist. You'd have to come up with a new list of players every time, and plot who moves when.
Shouldn't be too hard to make lists of 20 players for each combat, though, and once we have that, we can make up any rules we want for who goes first.

Who moves when could depend on Aggressiveness/Defensiveness traits, specialized components (with new hardcode abilities), cloak status, "From" sector type (did they pop out of a sensor obscuring storm?), used-up fleet movement (how many days have we been watching them approach?).

[President Delerith]

Another option to the unfair warp combats is considering the surroundings of the WP unstable for a fleet to stand there. Therefore a fleet standing on a WP should start the combat on a border of the sector and no instant combat will occur.

However I would prefer combat order randomized on each combat.

[AJC]

delete

[This message has been edited by AJC (edited 18 October 2001).]