help the oldschool newb :s

[storeslem]

just browsed through the manual, looking at ship stats and combat formulae etc, and got some questions, or maybe not exactly questions.

1: The shiploss formula has a #ship of class divider and a #ships multiplier. Obviously you would want this to amount to 1 (ie all ships of same class) or you lose more ships than you need. It will be completely futile bringing a few battleships with your frig fleet or whatever. Damage done to them will be multiplied tenfold, twentyfold. In essence, battleships are totally useless for any person without battleship pods, as they will allways be very few in numbers compared to the rest of your fleet. You could team with your mates I guess. Also zik steal ships stealing ships from other classes are not exactly useful either, unless those captured ships arent included in the next combat tick. Or are there more than one combat tick? I dont see any immediate reason for this, result is me keeping the option open that the formula means *#ships in class /#ships in class and not simply /#total ships which would also be, err, odd.

2: The Asteroid formula was incomplete, what is needed exactly to get max capture? (25% in one go, or 10% each over 3 ticks roughly)

3: Why do all races have a fixed resource cost ratio, this will mean excess of 2 resource types; the real question being how is this spent?

4: Is the combat system dumbified to be easier on the servers, or have the devs learnt from experience that they are completely horrible at balancing complex stuff ?

5: Why do italian men have a mustache?

thanks,
storeslem

// edit
6: do ships have secondary targets, or do they only shoot one class and stand idly if there arent any targets?

7: oh and when did this round start? all the ppl in my gal are small so maybe it just started right now, then it would maybe be worth to pay for my acc? [i figured this one out already, it hasnt started yet lol]

8: and oh, I might want to change race or do something different, like build some other stuff than I did already. Can I delete this account and make a new one before the round starts?

[Cowmando]

i will answer some of your questions i will leave the rest to people better at explaining things than me

first you only attack for one tick

no seconary targets

the non pod class ships are used for defence and can also be used to make some nice attack combs with your pod class ships

the fixed cost ratio is fixed by the type of roid/refinarys u have and also you can trade resourses

and what you should really be worried about are italian women with mustaches

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally Posted by storeslem

1: The shiploss formula has a #ship of class divider and a #ships multiplier.

Umm, that's not exactly how the combat engine works. I wont go into detail right here because i did that at length in another thread, but when i find that thread i'll paste it here .

Edit: I used an example Here. If it still doesnt make sense, then give me a yell .

2: The Asteroid formula was incomplete, what is needed exactly to get max capture? (25% in one go, or 10% each over 3 ticks roughly)

There is now only one tick of battle. Provided you have enough Pods that survive battle, you will capture 25% of your enemy's asteroids, and depending on your Value compared to their Value, you will also grab some XP which very nicely boosts your Score.

3: Why do all races have a fixed resource cost ratio, this will mean excess of 2 resource types; the real question being how is this spent?

Scarcity of resources promotes other areas of the game, primarily in choosing your targets when you attack, but also promotes in-gal resource trading through the Galaxy fund or if your galaxy is dysfunctional, you can trade your resources with the 'universe' at a fee of 20% (which is quite high tbh). You can do both of those on the Mining Page.

4: Is the combat system dumbified to be easier on the servers, or have the devs learnt from experience that they are completely horrible at balancing complex stuff ?

Both - Having a simpler system means is more easy to see what ships are going to do what, and to what extent. Having said that, most people (especially those who frequent Strategy ) believe that the system is too simplistic, and additional work on the role of EMP needs to be considered. However, the current system as it stands right now strongly promotes offensive play, which is actually really fun. You;d be surprised .

5: Why do italian men have a mustache?

So they dont stand out amongst the women?!

/me flees

6: do ships have secondary targets, or do they only shoot one class and stand idly if there arent any targets?

Indeed, all ships only have one target class, however they will target all types in that class untill they run out of shots or all units in that class are destroyed. There is no random fire, there is no T3=all, there are no secondary or teritary targets.

They can still get shot at though .

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally Posted by storeslem

8: and oh, I might want to change race or do something different, like build some other stuff than I did already. Can I delete this account and make a new one before the round starts?

Well, you cant delete your account per se, you'll need to talk to an admin to get them to delete it for you. If you drop onto #Support an PM Appocomaster, Kal, Assassin or any other Op that is awake, they should be able to sort you out.

But before doing that, i would suggest you click on Preferences and see if you can change your race. If you cant, i might suggest that you Cancel your current research and construction and then hit preferences and try again.

Oh, you might want to have a read of This Thread, which outlines a generally good way for all races to start at the beginning of a round - i wrote it for last round but it should still apply in all instances to this round. I hope it helps

[Paisley]

I'll see if I can be of help.

1. what that formula means that for example... http://bcalc.visionhq.org/?calc_id=1684983977 if you look at this basic calc although there is equal amounts of bs ships. there are less losses to the terran ships due to their amour.
Appocomaster is/will be doing good strategy guides for each race.

2. to get the maxium cap on roids (25%) you need enough roids capturing ships (aka pods) for example if a planet has 1000 asteroids you will need 40 levs (terran bs pod) to cap 250 roids at inti 20. as you can see in this calc. http://bcalc.visionhq.org/?calc_id=371016004 although there are some levs captured the levs fire before the buccs and still capture the roids. However in this calc http://bcalc.visionhq.org/?calc_id=378525875 there a some chims in def which fire before the levs and so full cap is prevented because of the lack of levs at init 20 to steal roids.

If there is a double team up both attacking fleets must have pods in them to get full cap... If there isn't the cap in roids will be reduced.

3. do you mean ship cost?

4. Not sure what you are asking here, do you mean why ships only fire on certain ship class?

5. Who cares.

[Ron7684]

Basically, to answer most of your questions. PA has changed. There is only 1 tick of combat be it attack or defence. And all ships have only 1 target, if there are no opposing ships of that target, they are useless and their firepower is essentially lost.

Just wondering, what was the last round that you played?

[Paisley]

7. sign up the now, ticks start on the 28th..... plenty of time

8. as long as you have not done any engineering priorities, start construction, start research you can at any time change your race before the ticks start

[storeslem]

dead ships = (total damage on class/number of ships in class) * (number of ships/armour of ships)

When I read this formula I assumed the 'number of ships' meant total number of ships in your fleet, since it wasn't specified like numbers of ships _in class_. I understand now that its number of ships of that type, which should have been obvious :s This means of course that you can mix fleets from different classes if ETA ain't a problem, and should have some impact on the race I choose anyways.

Oh, and last round I played was round 9, as you can see from my siggie. That was the round ToT were among the winners right? If it was, then that was the last one Ibe played. Barely made top 100 I think.

[Ultimate Newbie]

Well, good to see that we've helped, anyway

Welcome back

[gzambo]

Originally Posted by storeslem

5: Why do italian men have a mustache?

thanks,
storeslem

cause italian women like it hairy

[Rick James]

actually it's the italian women who have moustaches

[flapjack]

I'd suggest firing all your pilots and captains and replace them with competent people. Anybody who just sits around while frigates tear his destroyer, which was built to fight battleships (for example), apart deserves to be killed!

I'd still suggest modifying the damage (severely) for firing at targets that aren't your primary target, which bigger differences in damage caused as the ship's target and the ship's intended target are further apart. That would keep strategy important as it is now, but it won't make large amounts of ships suddenly useless

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally Posted by flapjack

I'd still suggest modifying the damage (severely) for firing at targets that aren't your primary target,

Whilst its not overly realistic, not much about Planetarion is. The single targeting class thing is solely about making it easier for players to exploit gaps in their enemy's targeting, and to facilitate smaller players to attack larger ones. Even though you suggest to reduce the T2 'All' random fire down quite alot, it will often result in just enough damage being done to make it unprofitable to land etc. Which will have the same impact as having secondary targets pretty much.

Or the old Sentinel back.