Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

Hi,

i observed something strange in my game(early - turn 20 or so). I saw that a new
ship(new race too, so no treaty) had entered one of the systems i had ships in.
nothing special about that, but: in the same turn i sent a ship through the same warppoint in the opposite direction - and nothing happened, no fight?!
it seemed like both ships had entered the warppoint at the same time from the opposite directions and got through unnoticed.
My ship undamaged in his system and his ship in my system undamaged.

I used the replay function to be sure it was the same turn they moved through the warppoint: they did.

Is this a bug or a feature?

(unmodded 1.91 game pbw)

Greetings, Dubrok

P.S.: i am happy my ship wasn't engaged, was a colonizer :-) and he got an armed ship.

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

It's just a function of how the game mechanic works. The same thing happens if two ships are sitting in side by side sectors within a system. Doesn't have to be at a warp point. If each gets orders to move to the other guys sector and the ships have the same speed, they will pass like ships in the night. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

If one ship is faster then the other though, combat will occur.

[ April 23, 2004, 14:35: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

Don't quote me but doesn't combat occur on every 5th day (or 6th day) of the month? And if ships aren't in the same sector on that "combat" day, they just don't fight?

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

you mean it can occur that two big fleets sitting on each side of a warppoint could miss each other if they are moving through it the same time?
that would be surprising hehe.

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

If each fleet has the same speed, yes.

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

That's kind of wierd, isn't it?

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Happened to me once in a game...both of us piled ships on each side of the warp hole and then, with each of us having about 40 ships, we both decided on the same turn to invade...and we both popped onto the other side of the warphole with no enemy fleet to be found http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif .

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

With the warp points, that makes perfect sense. You are not travelling 'through' the intervening space remember. It's some sort of gravity lens that sends you over vast distances through a 'wormhole'.

The adjacent sectors thing is definitely odd, and not right. Hopefully this will be fixed in SE 5. The 'real time' combat makes me think that we might have proper checking that will prevent this sort of do-si-do from happening.

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Although this is in the manual, it is not correct (or maybe it was once correct in the past but isn't now). Combat can occur any day that there is movement.

Slick.

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

The resolution of ships trying to intercept in normal space is really very bad, IMO. There are many cases where an attacker can avoid being intercepted just because of goofball quirks in the AI and movement system. It can be very hard to intercept without a speed advantage, even if you have a great position advantage.

PvK

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

Actually Slick, I saw one occurence where ships in the same sector did NOT fight. One of my ships was stalked by one of Loser's, and while they were in the same sector during several days, no combat occured. (I think they stayed for more than a day at each sector, as his ship was a bit faster than mine, but I cannot be sure about this) It was with the 1.84 patch, and it did surprise us since we had expected a battle. Or am I missing something obvious here?

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">More precise, AFTER any movement portion of a day. So if one fleet moves to intercept and enter another fleet's sector, combat will not occur if that fleet moves away during the same day.
There are some very odd effects of this mechanism, for instance if one fleet A wants to intercept another, equally fast, fleet B which is trying to move past the point where A is starting, A will never capture B if the number of intervening sectors is even. Experienced players counter-trick this by moving a single sector sideways before issuing the attack order, or by including a slower ship in the intercepting fleet so movement will not take place on the same days for both fleets.

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I am certian that your ship was a little faster. I was only able to intercept it becuase I was heading-it-off as it ran for a warppoint back to your space.

I no longer have record of this game, so I could not provide saves, but maybe Alneyan can.

Re: Warppoint = travel neutral zone?
 

I don't have the save either, so I cannot tell how fast our ships were. But according to Roanon, there *should* have been a combat, since your ship was on the same sector as mine and I did *not* depart the sector at once. (For example, I reached this sector on day 3, and you reached on day 4, before the turn 6 in which I could move.)

Hmm, I guess I don't quite understand how movement and battle are handles in a simultaneous game.