Combat revamp project completed

[SirEmi]

First of all, a big thank you to all that choose to pledge and make it happen.

This is the first project of many updates to come  


Combat revamp completed!

Project details:

=> Three wave combat system added
    + First wave weapons and boarding ships vs. ships.
    + Second wave weapons flyby until defender ships are defeated, no marines.
    + Third wave, attacker units vs. defender stations and planetary forces (weapons & boarding / ground assault).

=> Marines fatigue in combat.
    + Each boarding / ground assault adds 10% fatigue to a marines unit. When unit attacks, an "xx% fatigued" is added in front of the unit name in combat, that indicated the fatigue level.

+ The "Preliminary combat analysis" and battle report reflects these changes. Forces are now split in "Primary forces" and "Protected forces".
+ The primary forces fight first in Wave 1 (weapons and boarding) and Wave 2 (weapons flyby). The Attacker has to defeat the Defender's primary forces before he can get to the protected forces.


Other:
    + You can now set a ship as "Protected". It only works when ship is on the "Defender" side. It will send the ship to the back of the armada in the protected forces group. This is useful if you want to protect a certain ship when defending, but it doesn't do anything if you are attacking. You can set the ship as protected in "Ships", by clicking the icon in front of the ship's name. It will change to a "Shield" icon to indicate the ship is now part of the protected group.

    + You can now disable weapons, shields and armor now. Weapons can be disabled from the ship weapons interface or ship modules, there's an icon for disabling the module on each
    + Shields and armor can only be disabled from ship / station modules view. Planetary modules can not be disabled (because it would become un-attackable).
    + The ship / station power will be reduced by the disabled module power rating.
        - Nukes can't be disabled, but it can still be set to hold fire, however that won't affect the power rating.
    + When a module is disabled, it appears as greyed out when viewing / scanning the ship / station.


Project reward items:
    + Go to Pledge -> Completed or Your pledges project details
    + Power Armor Marines Assault Unit can be delivered now, and are fully functional. They have +75% HP during battle and a starting capacity of 5000 marines. It works really well on planets with fortification bonus. On capture / destroy attacks, it will get 15 HP +75% => 26.25 HP / marine. Also extremely good on ships with boarding optimization.
    + Cloning Facility module available as well. Clones are produced in the module vats and need to be unloaded in a ships / station cargo bay. Passenger tag will be "A group of cloned people" and of course you can talk with them and train them as personnel or marines at no cost, or leave them on Earth if you want to get rid of them. They can't be "cremed" sorry
    + You can still acquire new modules of different marks you may need for the regular price for another 7 days. After that, the QP price will double for these modules (Power Armor Marines Assault Unit and Cloning Facility).

    + For QP investments, you will have to wait until time for delivery changes and you see the QP+interest in "Pledged QP", then you can withdraw it by clicking the cancel pledge action.
        - if the project has been completed for 30 days ore more and you have a QP investment pledge, you will automatically receive the QP investment + interest back. The QP logs will show the returned investment.

Fly safe and most of all, Have fun!  

[lisunken]

SirEmi

How long can the pledge items can be holded in the pledge page?
I also like the new ship defense option. This will bring the game up a level of playing.

[SirEmi]

SirEmi

How long can the pledge items can be holded in the pledge page?
I also like the new ship defense option. This will bring the game up a level of playing.

The pledge items from completed projects will remain there for regular price for 7 days, then the price will double. Eventually, the reward items from completed projects will be added to a list of special items that can be purchased with QP.

Some of these items or similar items will be found via exploration and mysterious encounters, opening a way to combine and upgrade the Mk level via reverse engineering. However these items will remain very rare and special and will only be found as artefacts, ancient, advanced, illegal, alien devices.

[Matamaure001]

Done 3 battles with the new system, all seem perfect. I also disabled weapons where appropriate on all my other comming battles to reduce the timer.

Sir Emi, did you included the mod for the combat drive (more combat speed = more critical hits)? Also, for COM missions, does the timer take into account only the attaker size?

Thx for this update.

[SirEmi]

Sir Emi, did you included the mod for the combat drive (more combat speed = more critical hits)? Also, for COM missions, does the timer take into account only the attaker size?

Combat speed affecting critical hits will be added in another project. It takes some time to think the logic behind that and we don't want to do too many changes at once.

Attacker size affecting attack timers is under discussion, mainly from a balancing perspective of reward vs. time.

[Matamaure001]

Reducing the timers for COM missions would in effect change the balance between COM missions and all other "missions" (SOS, mining and pirating). That was my concern when the idea was proposed. It was so advantageous for us big players that I did not say anything at the time. The ability to deactivate modules is also changing that balance. It let us complete missions faster then improving the average solars per day from every ships we have.

[johnnydrinkmeth]

Emi, just to clarify

I've got 7 days to pick up my pledge modules, and if I don't I'll have to pay extra to get them?

And does flyby mean that when one ship has finished firing weapons, the other just fires all of its weapons with no retaliation, before boarding occurs?  The term had me a little bit confused.

Thanks for the update emi, and looking forward to the next ones!

[SirEmi]

Emi, just to clarify

I've got 7 days to pick up my pledge modules, and if I don't I'll have to pay extra to get them?

No, you can pick up your module whenever you wish, it will stay there until you either deliver or cancel it. The price will never change on your pledge that you already made.

After the project is completed for at least 7 days, the price will change in the project itself, and all new pledges for that module will have to be at the new price. Older pledges will not be affected or modified in any way.

And does flyby mean that when one ship has finished firing weapons, the other just fires all of its weapons with no retaliation, before boarding occurs?  The term had me a little bit confused.

Weapons flyby means that any unused weapons will be fired by the attacker and the defender at each other, until the defender ships jump or the attacker & defender has no more unspent weapons. Both sides will fire any unused weapons. Weapons that already fired on Wave 1 will not fire again in Wave 2/3.

[SirEmi]

Reducing the timers for COM missions would in effect change the balance between COM missions and all other "missions" (SOS, mining and pirating). That was my concern when the idea was proposed. It was so advantageous for us big players that I did not say anything at the time. The ability to deactivate modules is also changing that balance. It let us complete missions faster then improving the average solars per day from every ships we have.

Yes I find that reducing the attack timers by making it 2x attacker at this time is a bit early, as it will un-balance combat missions versus other mission types. Maybe after other mission types like exploration, mining etc. become more profitable and popular we might think more about it.

Ship speed affecting critical / hits is approved though, and will be implemented whenever we work out the details and after gathering some data from reports with the new combat system.

[raphael]

It was so advantageous for us big players that I did not say anything at the time. The ability to deactivate modules is also changing that balance. It let us complete missions faster then improving the average solars per day from every ships we have.

What made you change your mind and say something about it now? Is it because you are not the no. 1 earner anymore? You should've said something at that time if you think it was unbalanced.

@ SirEmi: Thanks for the update.

[Matamaure001]

Ralph, the answer is simple. I was greedy. And you were already the number one in power. Why now, probably because I want to work toward a better game.

[raphael]

Ralph, the answer is simple. I was greedy. And you were already the number one in power. Why now, probably because I want to work toward a better game.

I appreciate your honest answer. +1. LOL

------------

SirEmi, I just finished 8 com missions, and I found something that may be a bug. Here is an example:

http://www.astro-galaxy.com/index.php?action=combat_reports&bid=35199

The report states that the fatigue went lower from 30% to 20% in a single round.

[johnnydrinkmeth]

Thanks Emi.  That makes a lot more sense.

I wasn't sure I wanted to pick up the pledge I made just yet, but I obviously didn't want to lose it and have to pay more

All reports say it looks like a great update, keep up the good work emi

[Presbyter]

Thanks for the update, SirEmi!

[sauron]

I love disabling those modules! already cuts my timers with 50% most of the time!!
thx Sir Emi