Mica Goldstone
Space Combat Upgrade

Targeting Lists

This is an explanation of what will happen with the new targeting list for ships only. ie the enemy/support/defend (and now do not target) lists.

[1] As a pirate (PIR) you can attack anyone but you can only support and defend other pirates
[2] You can not add anyone to enemy/support/defend lists unless you have a naval officer or are a pirate. All none pirate vessels without an officer will have its enemy/support/defend lists cleared.
[3] Enemies
-You can add any PIR position
-You can add any posted list to your enemy list
-You can add any posted position to your enemy list
-You can add any affiliation or position you your enemy that you are not allied to
-All allied affiliations will be automatically removed from your enemy lists.
(note that posted allied positions can be added)
[4] You can only support/defend positions that are in your affiliation or an allied affiliation.
[5] Anything on the 'do not target' (DNT) list can not be targeted even if it is on the enemy lists.
[6] Adding Everyone(0) to a list there are different effects in each case:
- Ground enemy/DNT lists: All affiliations are treated as if they are on the list.
- Enemy: All affiliations you are not allied with are treated as if they are on this list.
- Support/Defend: All affiliations you are allied with are treated as if they are on the list.
Use of the DNT list and Everyone allows clear enemies to be defined especially for gound enemy lists.
[7] Ground enemy lists only work at docked and sector ranges. This means that you have to add to enemy list to attack from a planetary range (ground assault order does this automatically). Also it means that boarding docked ships and ground attacks will only call in support/defendfrom space enemy lists
[8] Alert status : Can switch off/on enemy/support/defend lists
[9] Political situation order lists all alliances and wars [Make sure you want an alliance public - if you have one]

New related orders:
-Alert Status
-Add to Do not target list
-Remove from do not target list
-Clear Do not Target List
-Declare War (Issue, 4 weeks +ve) - has not in game effect currently - apart from RP purposes
-Political Situation

Political Issues

To clarify issues (since they were a pigs ear). (The intension is to put issues online as part of a online version of the political - that will be done after combat).

Issues are passed/failed immediately when there is a majority for or against. A majority is when >50% of the affiliation votes for or against (after the people who abstain have been removed).

So if the are 31 affiliation votes and no one abstains then you need 16 votes to pass an issue. If 10 votes abstain then you need 11 votes for a majority an issue.

When issues expire with no majority.
[1] Positive issues fail to pass
[2] Negative issues pass by default

Political issues can now be voted on via the online order editor.

Officers

Officer can be promoted from any lifeform as is currently done via the 'Create Officer' order. The officer created is a civilian officer and can not add any enemy, support or defend lists.

The 'Empower Officer' order can be used by any political and converts a civilian officer to a naval officer. Naval Officers can add anyone to their lists enemy, support or defend lists. There is also a option in the create officer order to upgrade to naval officer immediately.

[1] Creating a civilian officer costs 1000.
[2] Converting to a naval officer costs 10000.
[3] All existing officers who are commanding ship will be converted to naval officers.
[4] Ships without naval officers will have their enemy/support/defend lists cleared.
[5] Changes in rank will be immediate and only have political order cost (100) and the rank is attached to the officer item. However at this time rank does nothing
[6]To control who a player can attack who (after creating naval officers) an affiliation can set who it is allied with and who it is at war with. Players can only support/defend allied affiliations and only attack positions that the affiliation is at war with.
[7] Pirate positions do not need an officer to add enemies and there are no restriction on who they can add.

New related orders: -Empower Officer

Posted Lists

All positions on an affiliations posted list can now have a bounty added to them. This bounty is collected when the position is destroyed and it is shared between the positions attacking the posted position.

Only on bounty can be placed at once and this is tied to the political that issued it. That political can reduce/remove the bounty or another political can offer a higher bounty. Bounties can only be placed on your own posted list. When a bounty is changed the old bounty is returned first.

New related orders: -Add Posted Bounty

Squadrons

These are tactical units of ships that can have the same orders issued to all ships in the squadron via one ship.

[1] Squadrons are created via a political order, and the political is placed in command of the squadron created. Any ship he has inside the squadron can issue orders to the whole squadron.
[2] Squadron command can be transferred to another political or it can be
flagged as 'open access' where anyone in the squadron can issue squadron orders.
[3] Squadrons can be disbanded via a political order, and this is done automatically if the commanding political leaves the affiliation or the game.
[4] You can join or leave a squadron via 2 ship orders and ships being transferred or leaving an affiliation have their squadron reset.
[5]Squadron Orders are issued by adding the order 'Start Squadron Orders'. All orders added after this one will be attempted by the whole squadron (not all orders are allowed in squadron orders). Each order is executed by every ship in the squadron before the next order is attempted and movement is only attempted one 'step' at a time.
[6]Each Squadron order is first executed by the ship issuing the order and then by all other ships in the squadron.
[7]Squadron orders can be ended by issuing 'End Squadron orders', and this is automatically issued at the end of a squadron turn if it is not present.

To create a squadron and issue orders you would do the following:

-Issue 'Create Squadron {Alpha}' via a political
-Issue 'Join Squadron {Aplha}' for each ship you want in the squadron.
(You can also use the ID number for the squadron if you have it,
as the squadron must be spelt correctly)

After the squadron has been created you can issue squadron orders:

-Issue 'Start Squadron Orders'
-Then Issue the movement / standing orders you want for the squadron
-Then optionally you can issue 'End Squadron Orders'

All ships that are at the same location as the ship issuing the squadron orders will have the orders run for them.
-The orders will stop processing as soon as a ship in the squadron runs out of TUs or experiences a problem that can not be ignored.
-All ships in the squadron will have their pending orders cleared before the squadron orders are issued.
-After every 'movement step' there will be a check to see if any of the squadron have entered a battle. If one ship enters a battle then all the other ships will be flagged in the battle.
-Ignore Squadron ship can be issued after start squadron orders to ignore on of the ships that would normally be added to the squadron.

New related orders:
-Start Squadron Orders
-End Squadron Orders
-Create Squadron
-Disband Squadron
-Join Squadron
-Leave Squadron
-Squadron Commander
-Ignore Squadron ship

General Space Combat Changes

[1] Targeting computers / sensors are no longer degraded over multiple batteries

[2] Target locking is changed to be in the following order
-Positions attacking you (if you have not ignored it)
-Position on the enemy list
-Posted List if active (own aff)
-Personal General enemy (PIR/AFFs etc)
-Posted List if active (other aff)
-Defending a position (Own Aff)
-Defending a position (Allied Aff)
-Supporting a position (Own Aff)
-Supporting a position (Allied Aff)
-Defending own Aff
-Defending allied Aff
-Supporting own Aff
-Supporting allied Aff

Each point will generate a list of targets weighted based on Target Preference and the chance of actually doing damage to a target, and it will pick one randomly from that list.

[3] Targeting is now weighted based on theoretical damage that can be done (before a ships defence). So ships will no longer try to fire at something they can not hit.

[4] Max targets is now a guideline - if you have more weapons to fire after all your main batteries have been used then you will try to fire at other targets that you can hit .

[5] Indirect fire weapons are now directly flagged as being able to hit anything. These are currently fighters / rail guns / Missiles, however anything can now be flagged as indirect.

[6] Changes to reporting of battle: There is a political summary sent to each account that was at the battle. It includes the battle summaries from each ship that the account had at the battle and a summary of the battle (an enhanced version of the existing battle lineup)

[7] Target Preference: Will allow following to be set, all can have
-'None' to ignore option
-Position Type {Ship/Starbase/Platform etc}
-Ship Description {List of types}
-Armoured {Heavy/Normal/Light/None}
-Size {Small/Medium/Large/None}
-Ignore incoming fire - don't target position attacking you

With assistance of the existing descriptions of ships they boiled down to the following list.....

Transports:
-Freighter - general cargo carriers
-Fast Freighter - any freight but fast
-Ore Freighter - Carries ores
-Passenger Liner - Light ppl carrier
-Troop Transport - Heavy hulls people carrier

Combat:
-Capital Ship - heavy offence/defence 100 hulls+
-Heavy Cruiser - heavy offence/defence Smaller than avoid
-Destroyer - heavy offence/ less defence and smaller
-Interceptor - very fast with light weapons (pinners)
-Gun Boat - very small and fast
-Carrier - uses significant numbers of fighters

Exploration/Survey:
-Sensor Ship - lots of sensors
-Scout - sensors/thrust/ISR
-Explorer - general collection of stuff for exploring.

Basically this will make the set of names short, so that we can use it in the target preferences and it actually reflects what sort of ships we have in the game (now every ship is now put in a category). We can also extend the names for sub classes of the avoid and keep their primary class to make things more descriptive (but still allow proper targeting).


[8] Retarget Option:
- General Option {None/Every round/Every day/Retarget if fired at}
- Target Options {None/if fleeing/if not firing/if not moving}

[9] Combat Efficiency now effects
-Combat Thrust -> speed and dodge
-Shield Recharge (not level)
-Weapons fired
-Point defence systems active

[11] Blockade Celestial Body: This makes sure that any ships leaving or entering orbit of a Celestial Body are scaned by the blockading ship. The scan may still fail due to stealth or cloaking. Any enemy lists are checked as usual with regard to pinning etc if the ship is seen by the blockader.

[12] Weapon Loadouts:

-The weapon loadout is used to decide what ammo to fire from a particular weapon. The quantities of ammo fired are adjusted to comply with the number of weapons you have available.

If you set a missile launcher to fire 1 kinetic warhead and 2 missiles but you have 30 launchers then the weapon loadout will be changed to 10 Kinetic and 20 Missiles.

-Every time a position is updated the weapon loadout is updated for the number of weapons available - it does not check the ammo
-During a battle the number of weapons fired can change as ammo is accounted for.
-Weapons always add the weapon that has the most ammo (and is not already on the weapon loadout) to the list of ammo's to be fire. This should ensure that some
type of ammo is fired if available.

New related orders:
-Target Preference
-Retarget Options
-Weapon Loadout
-Clear Weapon Loadout
-Screen Position

[13] Screening: The is an order to add a ship that you wish to screen, your ship most be faster than the ship are attempting to screen. When another ship tries to lock onto the ship you are screening, you cause the target lock to switch to you. The ship used to screen can be any size however its combat speed and dodge are reduced the same as the ship it is screening.

[14] Ship / Platform Damage

When a platform or ship is hit by a weapon the effects of the armour, shields and scints are first accounted for before the remaining damage is applied to the position. Any damage absorbed by the armour is applied to the armour plates.

-Damage to armour for ships = damage absorbed / (integrity/100)^2 (max x10)
-Damage to armour for platform = damage absorbed * modifier (modifier 1-10 depending on how many excess plates you have on the platform). Ie excess armour burns off quickly.
-Damage is first split between the hulls and installed items in the ratio (hull cargo / (hull cargo + hull area))
-Damage applied to installed items that have cargo capacity if split between the installed items and the cargo in the ratio (installed cargo / (installed cargo + installed area)).


[15] Ship Destruction

Ships can either be blown up due to excessive damage or have an integrity breakdown due to damage combined with the ships lvl of maintenance.

-Chance for Integrity to holding = sqrt((integrity/100) * (1.0 - %dmg/100))*100. If the chance of integrity holding is greater that 80% it will never breakdown.
-Integrity break downs are tested every round where the ship takes more hull damage.
-Ships that blow up to excess damage are taken out of combat immediately.
-Ships that have an integrity break down fight all 4 round of combat and are reduced to debris at the end oft eh day.

Ships that explode are left with 0-40% of their components in the debris field
Ships that have an integrity breakdown leave 20-80% of their components in the debris field.

[16] Starbase shield complexes

When you have active shield complexes and have your shields charged (Charge shield complex order), then you will not fire weapons from the starbase (or launch space fighters). The shield complexes will strengthen the shields and shield rechargers at from between x1-5, and add between 0-200 shield depth. You need 10% shield complexes to get the full effect.

Shield complexes take 4 weeks to charge to full effect after they are activated. They are also very visible on a starbase and can not be hidden by caves when they are active.

[17] The damage done to ground parties is now modified by the terrain that they are in. This reduction in damage is between 0 and 60% depending on the terrain.

[18] Ground Fighters / Ground Bombers / AA
-Ground fighters now act as interceptors with planetary range. They can attack any incoming bombers from a ground target (the bombers could be either space or ground bombers, what important is where they are launched from). 50% of all ground fighters will be converted to ground bombers (unless requested differently).
-Ground bombers have been converted to bombers with a planetary range.
-Anti Aircraft emplacements now act as PD weapons that can target any incoming weapons from a ground target (this includes missiles launched from a ground target like another starbase).

[19] Ground Party combat
Ground parties can no longer use the change spread order. Their spread is automatically set to disperse when they are attacked in space combat and their spread is routinely updated to be the best for the troops / ground weapons that they are carrying.
The is now an order to ‘Ground Assault GP’ which allows you to enter into short range combat with a ground party. If you win the control battle, then you take control of the enemy ground party. The battle is fought at the spread of the enemy ground party.


Other Changes

[1] Changed ship bp TMs to have a list of installed components
[2] Allowed same aff to pickup from debris with no prisoner conversion
[3] Items destroyed in conversion to debris are now reported
[4] Add political report for squadrons
[5] Existing squadrons will be created and placed in the first ships found in the squadron
[6] Fixed build times on ship reports
[7] Added available labs on research and allowed for complexes that add more than 1 lab to the research pool.
[8] Fixed cancel production for agents
[9] Created a HTML for Techmanuals (attached later)
[10] Added political warning for wars and posting
[11] Rewrote issue passing code
[12] Set control to 100% after boarding attempt
[13] Removed agent order 'Remove from list' Add order to 'Add position to do not target list'
[14] Removed a bug where a SB needs space weapons and sensor to fight in planetary ground combat
[15] Reported armour/hull damage in a % on ships and patched required to fix
[16] Totally changed space combat report to be readable
[17] Add 'stealth to point defence' flag to all weapons, allows a % of weapons to no be targeted by point defence if they are so designed
[18] Added required patches for maintenance on the order and on the command report
[19] Reported scientist creation
[20] Improved personnel report
[21]Added resource report that contains same information as the mineral report on resources that you are exploiting at a starbase.
[22] Add ‘Resource Information’ order to give you details on a particular resource that you are exploiting at a starbase.
[23] Added starbase de3scription to print out when you dock.
[24] Fixed problems with asymmetrical tus for travelling certain routes. Made sure that jump routes are the shortest possible.




Howellers
Do Naval officers have rank?

Lets say.. hypothetically.. some avian PD promoted half a dozen officers to admiral today.. does he get any benefit, or did he just waste a few thousand stellars? <g>
Sjaak
QUOTE (Mica Goldstone @ Oct 4 2004, 05:55 PM)
Other Changes

[7] Added available labs on research and allowed for complexes that add more than 1 lab to the research pool.

Do we going to get a new updated rulebook for the new complexes or are the new complexes restricted information???

ptb
QUOTE (Sjaak @ Oct 5 2004, 12:17 PM)
QUOTE (Mica Goldstone @ Oct 4 2004, 05:55 PM)
Other Changes

[7] Added available labs on research and allowed for complexes that add more than 1 lab to the research pool.

Do we going to get a new updated rulebook for the new complexes or are the new complexes restricted information???

I read that as it's been added to the way research complexs work (ie there is a stat that is set to 100 resaerch points or 1 lab point), so potentially there is no new items yet, but there could be?

Alternativly there is new items and i wnat them tongue.gif
Sjaak
QUOTE (ptb @ Oct 5 2004, 01:00 PM)
I read that as it's been added to the way research complexs work (ie there is a stat that is set to 100 resaerch points or 1 lab point), so potentially there is no new items yet, but there could be?

Alternativly there is new items and i want them tongue.gif

Check the new OrderEditor, you can activate and de-active the new structures.

Like Universities, Planetary Shields and Dummy Complexes.
ptb
QUOTE (Sjaak @ Oct 5 2004, 02:20 PM)
Check the new OrderEditor, you can activate and de-active the new structures.

I would love to, however i've been positionless in hte online order editor since the weekend, am hopeing it's sorted after todays turns.
Dan Reed
QUOTE
[6] Adding Everyone(0) to a list there are different effects in each case:
- Ground enemy/DNT lists: All affiliations are treated as if they are on the list.
- Enemy: All affiliations you are not allied with are treated as if they are on this list.
- Support/Defend: All affiliations you are allied with are treated as if they are on the list.
Use of the DNT list and Everyone allows clear enemies to be defined especially for gound enemy lists.


doesn't seem to be working yet...

>TU 300: Add to Defend {1} {0}
Error - You are not allied with the Everyone (0).
Error - Failed to add to defend list.

>TU 300: Add to Support {1} {0}
Error - You are not allied with the Everyone (0).
Error - Failed to add to support list.

Dan
J'ron-P'to
QUOTE (Mica Goldstone @ Oct 4 2004, 05:55 PM)

[9] Combat Efficiency now effects
-Combat Thrust -> speed and dodge
-Shield Recharge (not level)
-Weapons fired
-Point defence systems active

[11] Blockade Celestial Body: This makes sure that any ships leaving or entering orbit of a Celestial Body are scaned by the blockading ship. The scan may still fail due to stealth or cloaking. Any enemy lists are checked as usual with regard to pinning etc if the ship is seen by the blockader.



First post, First dumb Question?

Mica could you please let us know what item [10] should be?
Mica Goldstone
QUOTE (J'ron-P'to @ Oct 6 2004, 08:47 AM)

First post, First dumb Question?

Mica could you please let us know what item [10] should be?

It's a secret ph34r.gif
ptb
probably just a typo like
QUOTE
starbase de3scription