Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Iceblaster]

The 'circles of control' on the map are not.  They're just shading based on the size and proximity of ships, so that you can easily locate ships.  There is no ownership of space.

What you -really- need to fight, is firepower and energy.  To fight effectively, you need to add engines and armor/shields.  To fight long-term, you need construction options, and salvage is there as an option to make construction easier.

Ah.

Is there a way to 'spectate' so to say a match?

I wish to see how this is done so I can learn from your mistakes

[Girlinhat]

Not as such, but the .gam files are very small, so you can just load a number of them and flip one to the next.  Unfortunately there's no real 'review' mode, so to go to the net turn you'd have to exit the program and open again.

[Iceblaster]

Would it be too much to ask what the .gam files are?

[Girlinhat]

.gam is the current round.  .plr is your player orders.  You download the .gam, load it to view the game, and then make your orders.  Your orders are saved as .plr, which are then sent back to the server.  The server waits until it gets a .plr from every player, then applies their orders and generates a new .gam.

So a .gam is basically a separate file for each turn of a game, which can be viewed independently.

[Azrayel]

Q:

Ramming-- is it possible, and how do shields factor in (if at all)?

[Draxis]

Long post, so it will be replying to posts from a wide range, and possibly not in order.

What exactly is needed in general?

I hear of ship building, salvaging, and combat.

I've seen a picture on the last page that had these big 'circle of control' type circles, so now it looks like a strategy game over a larger area.

The "zones of control" don't do anything, they just are there to look nice and draw the eye to ships.

The main point of the game is combat, ship building just makes more ships and salvaging allows you to spend less on them by bringing in wreckage.  Every ship needs three things, at least:

• Structure.  Composed of hull struts and segments, all ship components need to be connected to this.  There are three 'levels' of structure - L1,L2,L3. Each level can hold certain components (or any that a lower level can hold), and any part must be connected to any other parts of its level by connections of that level or higher (that is, all L2 parts must be connected by L2 or L3 parts, L3 parts must be contiguous, and L1 parts can go anywhere.  As a general rule,
  
  • L1: small components - anything not mentioned later
  • L2: Heavy weapons, large engines/powerplants, some docking equipment
  • L3: Major docking apperatus, and construction stuff
  Playing around with hull components in the shipdesigner will explain it better than me.
• Power.  Created by reactors, and stored in capacitors.  Not every ship needs reactors, as you can recharge at a 'mothership', but all of them need capacitors.  Without it, nothing works.
• CnC.  Used for movement, repair, activating/disableing components, and weapons fire. Drains power.

Weapons, defenses (armor/shields), drives, and so forth are all optional (though recommended for any functional vessel.

I'd personally like to see a theme game.  2 or 3 players, you may take a single ship as large as $100,000 with NO construction and no fighters.  Just pure dreadnaught slug-fest.  Slow to get into range of each other, probably, but when they do it takes a long time to get back out of range!

That sounds interesting, though more like a contest of design than tactics.

Ramming-- is it possible, and how do shields factor in (if at all)?

Impossible.

[Iceblaster]

.gam is the current round.  .plr is your player orders.  You download the .gam, load it to view the game, and then make your orders.  Your orders are saved as .plr, which are then sent back to the server.  The server waits until it gets a .plr from every player, then applies their orders and generates a new .gam.

So a .gam is basically a separate file for each turn of a game, which can be viewed independently.

Ah.

The file that opens a console window that has a few options like: 'Add player' 'Remove player'

I presume those are for setting up a game, and if I am correct, what do I do then?

[Draxis]

They are, but since the program for running games is not released, you can't start a local game.  However, you can join one of the test games on PBW2 to mess around if you want.

[Girlinhat]

We're playing "Play By Web", which is here: http://pbw.spaceempires.net/games/foxtrot
For this, you download the .gam (turn), move it to your savegames folder on your computer, play and give orders, and save your .plr (orders), then update your .plr (orders) to the site, which will automatically generate a new .gam (turn) when it has everyone's .plr (orders).

EDIT: lol emp's.

[Draxis]

That description is right, except that .emp should be .gam - .emp is ship designs.

[SuicideJunkie]

Girlinhat:
I notice your two shielded fighters still only have the nose shield powered up...
The wing shields are still turned off, and the generators are heavily damaged now.


For the very bare bones of ship design:
 1) Start with Structural components.  Some hull strut 1s if you are designing a fighter, and a hull strut 2 for a gunship make excellent spines.  You can add more hull segments as necessary to attach components exactly where you want them.
 2) You must have energy storage somewhere.  Capacitor 1s can fit anywhere but aren't too efficient.  Capacitor 2s are good if you can find room.  Capacitor 3s are huge and require hull2 or a reactor to attach to; use for warships and bases only.
 3) Add CnC components; preferably two or more.  Computers provide minimal control for missiles and drones, cockpits are good for fighters with a few guns, and warships can afford to place a full bridge to manage broadsides and damage control.

The above 3 things will give you a ship you have ownership of.
Also good to add is engines so you can move, guns so you can shoot, shields/armor so you can take a hit, and miscellaneous other components so you can do various advanced actions.

Note that you don't want to block the firing lines of your engines or guns!  Engines will fail to work, and weapons will carve their way out of your ship in a painful manner.


Happy Boomsday everybody!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ethermeister concedes his base and denies assets to the enemy.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Girlinhat lands a devastating missile strike against her most persistent enemy.
The random number gods smiled upon Dessard however, and his fabricator survived with just a few hitpoints left.
Fortunately there are no fighters around, as a couple small laser hits would be enough to finish it off.

[Girlinhat]

The spacedocks seem to have blocked the blasts, do those count as some sort of indestructible shield?

And yeah, I'm not very good with fighters

[Draxis]

The forcefields act as 1-SP shields; the parts that connect to the structure can be damaged normally.

Edit: Actually the fields stopped a 3-point beam; not sure how that works.

[Draxis]

Apollyon, if you read this, you need to quit the game on PBW or else it will wait indefinitely for your turn.

[SuicideJunkie]

That torp hit was pretty nice.  I was a bit disappointed in the firepower of the bomb, but you do have massive deflection shields over the whole ship, and the missile design I'm using only costs like $407.  It worked well enough to keep you repairing for a while!

Don't forget that that is also the *smallest* possible missile you can make, firepower wise.
And if you drop one into a tight formation, it can damage an unlimited number of ships at once with the AoE blast.
Multiple warheads or missile spam can vaporize entire bases in one go.

The reason why the forcefield blocked three damage is because the warhead delivers it as a wash of 1-pt hits.
There is no piercing action on the blasts, though it does slam a lot of damage into large targets.  (damage is proportional to the surface area of the target after all)


Server update:
 - Ablative armor coating was generating negative damage particles after being hit, which caused crazy.  This is now fixed so the coating will operate as intended.

Mod updates:
 - Spacedocks' air containment field was strong enough to completely negate missile blast waves.  They will now leak 2/3rds of the missile blast.
Note: existing spacedocks will retain their strength due to being grandfathered in.  Newly constructed docks will use the new strength setting.

 - Ablative coating was using the same graphic as emissive coating.  It will now be recolored as cyan to complement the magenta and yellow of the other coatings.  It will also darken as its lives expire.