I have been putting some more thoughts into space combat and would like to present and discuss some ideas. This is supposed to be an open creative process to explore how space combat can be improved. Sorry, massive post, code boxes can be skipped.
To sum up the key arguments against "RTS-style"-space combat:
1) duration of combat too long, players not involved in fights get impatient/bored, multiplayer games draw out
2) FO's scale leads to large number of battles, deteriorating the situation described in 1)
3) coding a competitive AI is non-trivial
4) combat should be system-spanning, "modern"
Main problems with current combat system (as I see them) are:
1) Very limited strategic combat choices for the player
2) Design choices have little influence on combat
So combat design should provide:
1) fast combat resolution with an option for automatic resolution
2) somewhat limited complexity so an AI can compete with human with a reasonable coding effort
3) but also provide different strategic battle options and more strategic depth to ship design
Please take a look at the design concepts images below. The first one shows a combat resolution screen where players can assign orders to their fleets, like attacking enemy fleets, planets or performing actions like invasions and bombardements. Clicking "Auto-Assign" will let an AI make the decisions, "Process Combat" will save the orders and bring up the next battle. The combat results will then be calculated and can be reviewed at the next turn as shown in the second design image.
You will have noticed several new icons on the fleets the first concept image. These represent ship/fleet attributes like initiative, action point, accuracy, evasion and flak, which are some ideas how to add more strategic depth to combat. The ideas behind the first concept image are explained in more detail in this box:
Code: Select all
Initiative:
"The ability to fire first in combat"
- ship attribute, determines when a ship/fleet fires in a battle
- fleet initiative: average of the initiative of all ships in the fleet
- depends on hull type
- increases with crew experience
- reduced by heavy weapon ship parts and some shield types (higher shield value, lower initiative)
- example strategies: high initiative / high damage fleets, low initiative / high shield fleets, low initiative but stealthed fleets
Combat order:
"Determines which fleet can carry out their orders first"
- stealthy fleets fire first without a counter attack. they lose stealth until they pause firing for one global turn
- fleets with high initiative attack first, but can be intercepted by defending fleets with lower initiative
- ships are destroyed after being fired at and do not shoot back
- cloaked ships cannot be intercepted?
Action Points (AP):
"The amount of actions that can be performed by a ship in the combat phase"
Actions can be:
- fire a weapon (beam weapons, missiles, fighters or torpedos)
- invade or bombard a planet (also with bio weapons)
- use a super weapon or
- retreat.
Actions can require a different amount of AP, e. g. firing super weapon needs 5 AP.
Accuracy / Evasion:
"Determine if an attack hits"
- chance to hit = Accuracy * (1-Evasion)
- applies to beam weapons, fighters (bonus to acc), torpedos (malus to acc)
- does not apply to missiles
Flak:
"Determines if a missile can be shot down"
- chance of missile to hit = 100% - Flak
- fleet shares flak: Flak of a fleet = sum flak ships / number of ships (??); high flak ships will protect other ships in the fleet
Stealth in Combat:
"Determines if the enemy can see the player's ships"
- cloaked ships fire first in combat without a counter-attack
- if all ships in a fleet are cloaked, their numbers do not show
- if an individual ship is cloaked, its stats do not show
Weapon Types:
- beam weapons: hit depends on accuracy, medium damage, damage reduced by shields
- missiles/rockets: always hit if not shot down by flak (no accuracy), high damage, damage not reduced by shields, limited supply
- fighters: use beam weapons, receive bonus to accuracy, damage reduced by shields, can be shot down by flak, limited in supply. high AP cost
- torpedoes: receive malus to accuracy, not shot down by flak, high damage, damage reduced by shields. high AP cost
Fleet Orders:
- attack one or multiple fleets/planets. each ship can fire X times ("action points"), after doing so they stop attacking
- defend one or multiple fleets/plantes, consuming action points as desribed above
- destroy a planet if a spinal matter cannon is installed. uses up all action points. must survive combat to fire
- destroy system if a nova bomb is available. uses up all action points. must survive combat to fire
- invade, bombard or bio-attack a planet
Rank / Experience:
"XP increases several ship stats and is gained by destroying ships and surviving combat"
- several levels/ranks possible, max rank 5 (?)
- increased with rank: AP, Initiative, Accuracy and Flak (10, 20, 30% etc.)
- amount of XP earned depends on species, combat actions
Planet Defense:
- planet defense / and/or missile base of planets will fire at attackers once (?)
Also, here's an example for how a space combat would play out with these "rules":
Code: Select all
>> Cloaked ships attacking Orion 2 are intercepted by Battle Fleet Epsilon 3
+ Cloaked Ships attack Battle Fleet Epsilon 3 (- 1 AP), hitting at 32%, causing 9 damage, destroying 0 ships.
No counter attack for Battle Fleet Epsilon 3 because of stealth.
- Cloaked Ships attack Battle Fleet Epsilon 3 (- 1 AP), hitting at 32%, causing 9 damage, destroying 0 ships.
Battle Fleet Epsilon 3 attacks Cloaked Ships (- 1 AP), hitting at 36%, causing 9 damage, destroying 1 ships.
- "Respect" was hit by Unknown Ship for 6 damage, reducing armor to 30/36.
- "Pride" was hit by Unknown Ship for 3 damage, reducing armor to 33/36.
- "Respect" (initiative 63) fires laser at Unknown Ship, causing 6 damage, destroying it.
- "Pride" (initiative 58) fires laser at Unknown ship, causing 3 damage.
- "Resolution" (initiative 58) fires laser at Unknown ship, missing.
+ Cloaked Ships fire at Battle Fleet Epsilon 3 (- 1 AP), hitting at 20%, causing 6 damage, destroying 0 ships.
Battle Fleet Epsilon 3 fires at Cloaked Ships (- 1 AP), hitting at 24%, causing 6 damage, destroying 0 ships.
Battle Fleet Epsilon 3 has 1 AP left.
>> Battle Fleet Gamma 4 (initiative 58) engages Silver Armada
- Battle Fleet Gamma 4 attacks Silver Armada (- 1MP), hitting at ...
Silver Armada attacks Battle Fleet Gamma 4 ...
- "Vigilance" (inititative 58) fires at "Ruby", ....
- "Diligance" (initiative 56) fires at "Ruby", ....
- "Ruby" (initiative 54) fires at "Vigilance", ...
- ....
+ Battle Fleet Gamma 4 attacks Silver Armada (- 1MP), hitting at ...
Silver Armada attacks Battle Fleet Gamma 4 ...
+ Battle Fleet Gamma 4 attacks Silver Armada (- 1MP), hitting at ...
Silver Armada attacks Battle Fleet Gamma 4 ...
>> Battle Fleet Epsilon 2 (initiative 58) bombards Orion 3
+ Battle Fleet Epsilon 2 bombards Orion 3, killing 1.2 troop units and 0.4 population.
+ Battle Fleet Epsilon 2 bombards Orion 3, killing 1.2 troop units and 0.3 population.
+ Battle Fleet Epsilon 2 bombards Orion 3, killing 1.1 troop units and 0.3 population.
>> Silver Armada (initiative 54) has no AP left.
>> Steel Armada (initiative 54) engaging Orion 2 is intercepted by Battle Fleet Epsilon 3
+ Battle Fleet Epsilon 3 attacks Steel Armada, ...
Steel Armada attacks Battle Fleet Epsilon 3, destroying 2 ships.
+ Steel Armada attacks Battle Fleet Epsilon 3, destroying 1 ship.
Battle Fleet Epsilon 3 has been destroyed.
+ Steel Armada attacks Orion 2, hitting at 90%, causing 20 damage to the planetary shield an 3 damage to the planetary defense.
Orion 2 planetary defense attacks Steel Armada, hitting at 100%, causing 2 damage, destroying 0 ships.
Orion 2 launches 1 missile at Steel Armada, flak 40%, 0 intercepted, 1 hit, causing 20 damage, destroying 1 ship.
>> Battle Fleet Tau 1 (initiative 52) retreats from combat (- 3 AP).
>> Space Monsters (initiative 40) use a biological attack on Orion 3, killing 2 population units.
>> Ugh'terr Squadron (Ecclesy Vorn Hegemony) (initiative 30) attack Space Monsters, hitting ...
>> All Fleets have executed their orders. Combat summary at Orion System:
+ Human Federation: 3 ships lost, X damaged, X damage dealt, X damage received, 1 enemy planet bombarded, 0 planets captured.
+ Kadesh Empire Forces: ....
+ Ecclesy Vorn Hegemony: ....
+ Space Monsters: .....
If I provided any images, code, scripts or other content here, it's released under GPL 2.0 and CC-BY-SA 3.0.