Having checked their positions I have repeatedly found that they have been specific in their targeting, i.e. going for weapons, life forms, structures etc.
Extract from the Combat Rules
Specific Targeting
It is possible to designate a specific category of items to aim for. This is set in the combat options. This in no way guarantees that the item category will be hit - the total mass of items in the category is used to create a virtual target within the general mass of the position. This may mean that if only a small mass of the category exists there will still not be a high chance of hitting it.
Obviously the total accuracy of the weapon fired will be used to determine if the specific category designed will be hit. For this reason space fighters and space bombers are the most effective at targeting specific categories.
Here are some extra notes to look at along with numerical values and examples.
When a specific target is set, each weapon is treated as firing up to twice. They first attempt to fire at the specific target and should they miss this, there is a chance of a secondary hit against the target as a whole. Imagine it is a bit like trying to shoot a cigarette out of a lovely assistant's mouth. Should you miss the cigarette, there is a chance that your shot could whistle harmlessly past or blast her face off. Blowing her face off may still destroy the cigarette as a secondary effect.
The primary target no longer includes the target size as you are not firing at the whole target (on a hundred hull ship, this equates to loosing the +3 target silhouette). So you are already firing at a -3.
Further targeting a specific type of item incurs a penalty based on relative size.
This equates to approximately:
Structures -0
Disable -1
Weapons -3
Life forms -9
So if you are targeting weapons, you are effectively firing at -6 to your primary target.
Even if you are firing at structures you are still at a -3 to your primary target.
Should this miss, there is still a chance of a secondary hit (there goes the assistant's face).
This does take target size into account, but you no longer get your base +3 to hit, i.e. you are firing at a -3.
Example:
A GTT ship is firing at a DTR Nebulon.
GTT Ship
Base Accuracy: 6.02
Photon Weapon + 6
Target Type: Weapons
DTR Ship
Your Target Silhouette: 2.92
Dodge: 7.5
Primary Accuracy (weapons) = 6.02+6-(7.5+3) = 1.52 > approx 1.5% accuracy
Secondary Accuracy (whole ship) = 3.02+6+2.92 -(7.5) = 4.44 > approx 18% accuracy
With no targets set:
Accuracy = 6.02+6+2.92-7.5 = 7.44 > approx 50% accuracy
So, it is best to avoid using specific targets against highly mobile targets (an assistant that is bobbing and weaving).
Against targets with high dodges use weaponry that is highly accurate such as space fighters (+12) or tractor beams to bring their speeds down or use a lot of targeting computers to give a high targeting bonus.
Against targets with low dodges, use weaponry that is high accurate to take out specific targets.
e.g. Space fighters targeting weapons on a low dodge ship (2.5):
Primary Accuracy = 6.02+12-(2.5+3)=12.52 > approx 75% accuracy, i.e. 75% of the hits will pump damage directly into the target position's weapons.
Secondary Accuracy = 3.02+12+2.92-2.5 = 15.44 > 100% accuracy, i.e. every shot that fails to hit weaponry will still hit the target (destroy the cigarette by blowing her face off).
At the moment, with only one target type for all weapons, starbases are very inefficient. Ships are effected the same, but they can be specialised to overcome this (like carriers having only fighters on board).
It would also be useful to be able to set the Ammo used by different weapons, allowing more complex tactics to be worked out. Again, ships could get round this by specialising ammo to individual ships, but starbases simply have a stockpile to draw upon.
Mark
| QUOTE (Mandible @ Oct 2 2003, 07:33 AM) |
| Would it be possible.... |
All in due time.
| QUOTE (Mica Goldstone @ Oct 2 2003, 10:50 AM) | ||
All in due time. |
Very Cool
| QUOTE (Mica Goldstone @ Aug 7 2003, 11:52 AM) |
| Further targeting a specific type of item incurs a penalty based on relative size. This equates to approximately: Structures -0 Disable -1 Weapons -3 Life forms -9 |
If I set my target to be Disable, what will be fired upon? Is it just Engines, or does it include anything that effects efficiency (bridges, living quarters, etc)? Or even Ammo too?
Mark
). What I would like to see is what I destroy on the target, not just for the satisfaction but to see if I had disabled or crippled the vessel. Thiscould then allow me to board, capture and interogate the crew rather than just destroy another vessel.
Mind you, after what I have read about re-flagging PIR ships, this might not be the best course of action
Cheers
Jons - SMS
As a follow-up question, if fighterbays are destroyed during a day's combat, do the space fighters continue to attack for that day, and then become unable to be launched the next day as there are not enough bays to launch them?
This does seem sensible, that the function of the bays is just to launch the fighters... after all, the fighter doesn't have to stop just because the bay it launched from got destroyed. But I want to make sure
)Dan
they will still return to the ship, but any surplus that dont have the correct amount of bays do not launch again until new bays are fitted
| QUOTE |
| Imagine it is a bit like trying to shoot a cigarette out of a lovely assistant's mouth. Should you miss the cigarette, there is a chance that your shot could whistle harmlessly past or blast her face off. Blowing her face off may still destroy the cigarette as a secondary effect. |
Scary man: did you actually spend time thinking this through - or did it just spring to mind?
Either way - still scary. 
The William Tell analogy is slightly more romantic.
| QUOTE (drjpd @ Oct 29 2004, 12:30 PM) |
| The William Tell analogy is slightly more romantic. |
but far far less amusing
| QUOTE (Dan Reed @ Oct 28 2004, 08:54 PM) |
| Which of the target categories targets fighter bays? Is it weaponry? |
It would be useful if we had a list of what items fall into which categories - or at least have this mentioned in TMs.
Mark
Weapons that fire (photo canons) and weapons that launch 'ammo' (fighter bays / missile launchers) are the limit of the weapons class (being on the outside of the ship).
Disable is thrusters, engines and jump drives, assuming again these all have external bits on the ship.
Life forms and structures are pretty straight forward as the ermm lifeforms on it, and the thing itself.
However it would be nice to get some offical check of that
