General combat information wanted

[bushybonbon]

Hey,

I love the game,and I was just wondering what the general principles behind combat is - I assume it's turn based (my ship attacks and then your ship attacks ) along with some randomness involved. Does anyone know the details? Or is it as simple as if you got more ships, you always win (which doesn't seem to be the case all the time - most of the time yes, but not all the time).

Thanks!

 

[Chris]

Hi there! As it happens, I know a fair bit about the details of Mayhem Intergalactic's combat routines. This probably has something to do with the fact that I designed and programmed them...

So here's the scoop:

A battle is split into rounds. In each round, every participant simultaneously loses a number of ships. That number is randomly generated, with the minimum and maximum values proportional to the number of enemy ships (4% and 20% respectively, rounded down; but the maximum loss is always at least 1). This continues until only one participant is left standing.

Therefore, if you have more ships you are much more likely to win, since you can afford to lose more ships and will tend to destroy more enemy ships per round. Still, as you've observed, one can get unlucky and suffer an upset. Especially when the total number of ships involved is small.

Hope that helps.

[Kumlekar]

Hm that explains my my fleet of 600 killed only 50-100 ships against a fleet of 800 before dying.  So against an equal sized force, combat is a maximum of 5 rounds?

I like the system, but it gets really fursterating that you can't deal any significant damage by sending groups of smaller fleets.

[Chris]

Hm that explains my my fleet of 600 killed only 50-100 ships against a fleet of 800 before dying.  So against an equal sized force, combat is a maximum of 5 rounds?

Not necessarily. 20% is the maximum kill percentage per round (so in most cases fewer ships will be killed per round, leading to a longer combat sequence), and it's 20% of the current forces in each round, not 20% of the starting forces.

I like the system, but it gets really fursterating that you can't deal any significant damage by sending groups of smaller fleets.

True.