Newbie Combat

Strategy, Guides, FAQ
Bullwinkle
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Newbie Combat

Post by Bullwinkle »

So in the really easy battles, I can move way far away, then fire my laser.

Now I'm fighting Grave Robbers, and I have as good or better techs than them, but they're out playing me. Now if I move even a tiny bit, I can't shoot. In fact, sometimes when I move, I not only don't get to shoot, but I get shot at!! And the enemy is always out of my arc. How do I win in combat?

And for ship design, should I put all my lasers all in the same spot, or spread them out over the four locations?

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Zaimat
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Re: Newbie Combat

Post by Zaimat »

Bullwinkle wrote:SNow I'm fighting Grave Robbers, and I have as good or better techs than them, but they're out playing me. Now if I move even a tiny bit, I can't shoot. In fact, sometimes when I move, I not only don't get to shoot, but I get shot at!! And the enemy is always out of my arc. How do I win in combat?
Whenever you move or rotate your ship it uses power and moves, usually you can move once and fire your weapons but if you move/stop/move many times you could run out of power to fire.

Power is used for firing weapons especially beams so keep an eye on your power meter.
Bullwinkle wrote:And for ship design, should I put all my lasers all in the same spot, or spread them out over the four locations?
For Regular/Heavy Beam weapons, putting them in the front is usually the best spot. Light beam weapons, missiles and torpedoes can fire in all directions so you can put them in any slot.
Horizon - Lead Designer | a.k.a. Raf

Bullwinkle
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Re: Newbie Combat

Post by Bullwinkle »

When it is my turn to move, it shows an egg-shaped cloud of positions I can take up. Frequently in this fight against the grave robbers (I don't have a lot of combat experience to compare it to), if I change my position by 2 or 3 spots (if I move like 5% of the way across the egg-shaped cloud), my turn instantly ends for that ship. Or I can move way across the cloud and have my turn instantly end. It seems if I'm only moving 10% of what I'm allowed to move, I shouldn't be out of power. I don't even get the option to click on "done." Action just switches to my next ship.

[edit] I've just had a battle with a crystalline being (large ship equivalent). I tried different strategies. One of them I tried moving my ship a tiny amount every time I had the opportunity to move. I was at full power at all times. I moved each ship 2-5 spots, and the action immediately flipped to my next ship. My movement bar said I could move 46 spots, so I'm thinking if I only move 2-5 spots, I should still be able to fire. I was never allowed to fire in that fight. If I moved my ship, I was never given the option to fire. Is this a feature or a bug?

If I fire my cannons, I don't get to move. If I hit spacebar, then my ships fly over to the enemy AND fire on him. Strange.

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Zaimat
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Re: Newbie Combat

Post by Zaimat »

The first bar on the left is the power bar. You can hover over the bar to see a tooltip with the numerical value.

When you move a ship it uses a chunk of power based on its size (weight). Moving 1 rectangle or 10 or 40 on the grid in one go acts the same in terms of power usage (since once a ship is in motion in space there is no resistance, it's just the cost to gain inertia/motion).

If a ship power usage is very high due to it's special/weapon components it's possible that the power generator is not able to keep up to move and fire all it's weapons at once.

--

During ship designing at the footer you can see the "Power Available" vs. the "Power Usage" for your weapons. When you swap power generator components, check the one that gives you the most power available. Another thing you may want to consider is advancing your power generator tech if it's too low compared to your weapons, etc.

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If I fire my cannons, I don't get to move. If I hit spacebar, then my ships fly over to the enemy AND fire on him. Strange.
I'll check this out, it should behave the same way.
Horizon - Lead Designer | a.k.a. Raf

Bullwinkle
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Re: Newbie Combat

Post by Bullwinkle »

This isn't particularly relevant, but since you brought it up....
In space, mass is what matters, not weight. And moving 1 rectangle in one turn should require less energy than moving 40 rectangles in one turn, assuming you are starting from a dead stop, because you don't need to attain the same speed to go a short distance in one turn as you need to attain if you wish to travel a long distance in the same amount of time. Accelerating a particular mass to a certain speed is what takes energy. Apparently this game makes you come to a complete stop at the end of every movement. Not very realistic, but understandable for gameplay. So if you are saying that you burn the same amount of power for short moves as you do for long moves, the only explanation is that you are accelerating up to high speed for any move, short or long, and then just slowing down much sooner for short trips. So when you are making short moves, you act like a car that shoots up to 80 miles per hour in between stop signs that are placed at every intersection where you slam on the brakes. This highly inefficient behavior is the only way what you say makes any sense, and it doesn't seem very realistic.

Design the game any way you want, but don't try to pass it off as realistic when it is not. It only needs to be fun. Just skip the pseudoscientific justifications all together, please. They're not helpful.

Also, as long as I have the lead developer's ear: if you want space enthusiasts to give you money, I suggest you replace the bad drawing of a galaxy that is the main game screen with a beautiful galaxy. NASA has tons of free pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope that are public domain that you could use which are visually stunning and worthy of a space enthusiast's enthusiasm. And please do away with that drawing of the alien pirate speaking 18th century English pirate slang. It looks like something from a game designed for 5 year old kids. The rest of your game is not designed for 5 year old kids. Pick one target demographic and stick with it.

Aside from that, thanks for the quick reply. I hope my suggestions weren't too abrasive. I tend to be a little socially inept, but my ideas are usually rock solid.

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Zaimat
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Re: Newbie Combat

Post by Zaimat »

You are correct, weight was a poor choice of words instead of "mass" since obviously there is no gravity in space.
So if you are saying that you burn the same amount of power for short moves as you do for long moves, the only explanation is that you are accelerating up to high speed for any move, short or long, and then just slowing down much sooner for short trips.
Yes, that was the idea behind the system. It wasn't out of some rigid desire to stick to realism but for what made most sense in the game in a turn-based system during development.

As a whole (including about the graphics), I do appreciate the feedback and criticisms. It's very helpful to know specifically what is liked or disliked in both design and presentation. We can only strive to do better.
Horizon - Lead Designer | a.k.a. Raf

Bullwinkle
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Posts: 9

Re: Newbie Combat

Post by Bullwinkle »

The more I play the game, the more it is growing on me. I'm getting past some early bad impressions (like the pirate page). I really like the avatar for the Tanktiks. It took me a while to realize the shoulder pet is not a pet. Very cool. I also like how you have non-humanoid races. One thing I'd like to see is an "Are you sure" checkbox when I'm about to attack a ship from a race I'm not at war with (especially if I can toggle it on and off). I keep forgetting that last night before bed I made a peace treaty.