Combat problem...

[geoschmo]

So my ships have missles with range of 16. The enemy planet has medium weapons platforms with APBXI and heavy mount or whatever the Medium weap plat has. Range of his beams is 12. 16 minus 12 is 4, right? So my ships out range his by 4 right? If I set strat to max range they should stand off and fire until he is dead unless he has enough PDC to stop all the missles, in which case neither of us should take any damage right? That's how I figure it, and that's how it happens without fail in dozens of simulations. Every time, my ships take no damage. Zero, none. His plats don't even fire because I never come in range.

But when the day actually comes and I order the attack they close to within range before firing and get picked off by his weapons platforms.

WTF?!?!?

[Suicide Junkie]

You're not being suckered in by missile fire, fighters or sats, are you?
(Ships like to close in and fire PDCs at those things)

[geoschmo]

Nope. My ships do have PDC, but he has no missles or fighters that should attract them. ANd they aren't closing to PDC range, they are just going one space closer than they need to to be in missle range.

The planet takes four space on the combat map. THe way I understand it missle ships at max range should never come any close than 16 spaces from the far side of the planet. That would keep them 13 spaces fomr the near side of the planet and keep them out of range of his beams. And that's how it works in the simulator. Every time.

But in the actual combat replay they close one square closer than nessecary, which brings them in range of his beams.

I can't figure it. Can't figure it at all.

Geoschmo

[dogscoff]

Has it anything to do with the bug fix a few patches back that solved the problem with ships not being able to hit planets becasue planets take up 4 combat squares.

I think there was something about ships closing an extra square or so in order to make sure they were in range of the whole planet and not just some of it.

It doesn't sound like a likely reason for your problem, but maybe..?

[geoschmo]

Well that is apparently what is happening D, but it's a little buggy. It can hit the far side from a certain point, but it's going one square closer than that. It could actually shoot at a target one square beyond the planet from that range. And that is what is bring them under the gun from the planet.

Guess I'll jsut have to deal with it.

Geoschmo

[Slick]

Shouldn't the problem then exist in both real combat and the simulator? It seems that there are many examples of the simulator not acting like real combat.

I am assuming that since you can't simulate planets outside your home system, you chose one of your planets of the same size as the enemy, and that you made your own weapon platform which is identical to the one you saw on the planet to load onto that planet. Maybe there are some differences that you can't simulate that make the difference. What about your ship's experience? If it is high, maybe it figured that it was "untouchable" at the closer range due to defense bonuses, which cannot be simulated in the simulator????

[Wardad]

I thought I read in some thread that max range was set to eight squares.

What is your secondary strategy?

[Grandpa Kim]

From the Version history:

Version 1.60:
1. Fixed - In Combat when targeting a planet, ships will move 1 square closer
so they can hit all 4 squares of the planet.

This is the only change I found, since v. 1.49, that might have anything to do with your problem, Geo. If this too is flaky, this could be the prob.

Has anyone else run into Geo's problem?

Kim

[Fyron]

I tend not to use missiles when the enemy has APBs, cause that is normally a bad idea. So, I have not seen this problem before. Unless, ofc, the enemy makes the mistake of not putting any PDCs on anything.

[ October 05, 2002, 09:16: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
I tend not to use missiles when the enemy has APBs, cause that is normally a bad idea. So, I have not seen this problem before. Unless, ofc, the enemy makes the mistake of not putting any PDCs on anything.

I don't typically use missles much myself, but this particualr enemy is a tenacious little bugger who doesn't know when he's beat. I have him knocked down, but he stubornly refuses to concede so I am attempting to take out his remaining planets. He has Tailsman and Weapons platforms and APB XI at Last count. So those typically relativly harmless weapons platforms now can reach out the full 12 spaces and smack me very hard. I have lost numerous ships trying to rush the planet. It doesn't really matter what weapons I use if I can't get off more than a shot or two per ship. I can send in 100 ships I suppose, but I will take absolutly horendous losses on every planet. And most of my fleet is not currently outfitted with weapons suitable for attacking a planet, but I am working on that. The combat replay is a sight to behold. It's as if my ships simply melt away as they approach the planet.

I thought I had it figured out with missles, cause they have the range to stay out of harms way, but they are not doing it. Well as I said they do it in the simulator, but in real life they get too close.

Geoschmo