The last post gave a brief overview of the battle system as a whole. This post will concentrate on some important aspects of space combat which were not fully explained by the overview, namely target selection, weapons firing and interception. These three parts of the space combat resolution computation are heavily dependent on the strategies and tactics system, which will be explained along with what it affects.
Target selection
The first actual combat step is the selection of targets. Each weapon on a ship or building may select a different target; while this may at first look like it makes no sense (and in the case of e.g. fighters, it is quite true), it is extremely important for bigger ships – if weapons fire was concentrated on a single ship, most of it would be wasted.
Target selection needs to be executed when a weapon has no target, when its target has been destroyed or when a mode switched occurred and the previous target should no longer be fired upon. In addition, depending on the fleet’s current strategy, there is a probability of spontaneously changing targets (for planet-based weapons, this probability is fixed to a relatively low value – 5% in the latest tests, but it may change a lot before the milestone’s release). If there is no need for a new target, then the target selection step is skipped.
At this point, all potential targets are examined. A weight is assigned to each target depending on the fleet’s (or planet’s) tactics settings:
- size-based selection, giving priority to either smaller, bigger or similarly-sized ships (buildings are considered to be medium sized),
- selection based on weapon power, giving priority to either more powerful, less powerful or similarly powerful ships or buildings,
- selection based on countermeasures, giving priority to either the most armoured ships, the least armoured ships, or similarly defended ships (buildings are never armoured in this version).
If the weapon is on an attacking ship, the weight of each target is then modified depending on the fleet’s attack strategy. This includes giving more or less weight to military ground structures and civilian ground structures.
Finally, a target is selected at random, with higher-weight potential targets being more likely to be selected than lower-weight targets.
Weapons firing
Once their target has been selected, weapons that are ready to fire will do so. The probability of success, and therefore various data such as the weapon’s damage or the probability of interception, depend on a set of variables.
- The probability of firing accurately is computed from the weapon’s accuracy, modified by the ship’s experience (buildings do not get experience points).
- The target’s manoeuvrability, modified by its experience, is used by the target to try and escape the shot. Of course, since buildings do not move, they do not escape shots.
- An “advantage” index is then computed, based on: the hit points of both the target and the weapon’s platform, the manoeuvrability of the weapon’s platform, and a modifier that depends on the relative strategies of the fleets (planets do not have a strategy, so the aim modifier of planets versus attack fleets and vice-versa are part of the attack strategy itself).
A bit of randomisation is then introduced, and a success index is computed. This index may indicate that the shot missed, or that it would hit but could be intercepted, or that it will hit. If the shot is successful, the damage it would inflict is then computed. It is based on the weapon’s base damage, and modified by the shot’s success index. It may be increased or damped depending on the fleets’ relative strategies. In addition, really successful shots will be considered “critical”, which will double their damage (the exact multiplier for critical shots may still change).
Interception
It is possible for a fleet’s ships to intercept shots aimed at other fleets, or at the planet if they are defending. When a shot is intercepted, the ship that intercepted it will take the damage instead of the intended target. Strategies which include a high interception probability may for example be used to provide cover for other, more powerful ships.
The probability of a ship intercepting a shot is determined by the fleet’s strategy, by various modifiers (current ship “health”, experience, manoeuvrability), by the amount of shots aimed at the fleet itself (a ship busy trying to escape shots is less likely to intercept a shot aimed at someone else) and of course by how successful the attack was. A ship may only intercept a single shot at each minute.
A note on strategies
As this post shows, strategies define a lot of modifiers applied to ships and planets during combat. A limited number of attack and defence strategies will be provided. Each strategy will have strong points, while being weaker on others. Strategy combinations are important too, as a strategy may be very efficient against another but very weak against a third. In addition, strategies are also involved in the ground combat computation; more details about that will be provided in the next post.