Q on experience
 

I've read the FAQ and all but there is still one thing I cannot figure out. So please bear with me and help me out!
:}
My problem simply put: my ships don't score hits! (aka: all my gunners must be drunk)
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

I have my ships maxxed with all components which give boni on "to hit" and "defense".
Now in fight the percentage for a weapon shows eg 50% and I have 10 guns. Now most of the time only 1 (!) scores a hit!!! Now that sounds more like 10% to me, not 50% !
And to make things worse my enemy nearly always scores hits! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Now what???

Re: Q on experience
 

Okay.

ECM and Combat Sensors are a MUST. ECM III and Combat Sensors III are among the most critical technologies, along with ship construction, shields/armor, and weapons research.

So is ship training. Both ship and fleet training in this regard. Getting advanced military science early means you can also detect those people who rush for stealth/scattering armor.

So is 25% attack and 25% defense (or 20% defense 20% attack depending on the starting points).

Brian

Re: Q on experience
 

I'm not familiar with a bug where the estimated chance to hit in tactical combat is actually wrong.

In general though, the reason for this is that you don't have all the boni that your opponent has:

* Ship and Fleet training
* Cultural Space Combat modifiers
* Racial Aptititude Offence and Defence modifiers
* Vehicle size modifiers
* Per-weapon to-hit modifiers (not always shown)
* Talisman device
* Scattering Armor
* Stealth Armor
* ECM
* Combat Sensors
* Temporal Event Predictor facilities
* Neural Network devices

PvK

Re: Q on experience
 

Well, as I wrote, I have my ships maxed for "to hit" and "defense" components. It must be something else.
I have to admit that most of my fleets do not exceed 10% experience. Is that crucial?

I don't get your third point. what gives those boni?

Re: Q on experience
 

Racial modifiers. When you create your race, set aggressiveness and defensive to 125% or 120%. If you do not, your opponent has a huge advantage in terms of direct-fire weapons, which means you'll probably lose.

Also, pick bezerkers.

If you haven't done so yet, read Fyron's max/min guide hosted on spaceempires.net, teaches you how to max/min your race.

Brian

Re: Q on experience
 

First: Thanks for all those quick replies!!!!!
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

but strange, no?
I forgot to mention that I use TDM modpack. May that screw things up?

* Ship and Fleet training
not enough, I humby admit

* Cultural Space Combat modifiers
well
* Racial Aptititude Offence and Defence modifiers
at least my attack shows a "+"
* Vehicle size modifiers
sure
* Per-weapon to-hit modifiers (not always shown)
Ah yes, that's a good one!
I've been looking for a list/spreadsheet. But found none. Any clue?
* Talisman device
I hate it (when my enemy has it)
* Scattering Armor
I have it and use it
* Stealth Armor
I have it and use it
* ECM
I have it and use it
* Combat Sensors
I have it and use it
* Temporal Event Predictor facilities
I think my race doesn't have access to that tech
* Neural Network devices
hmmm but they are only useful for unexperienced ships IF there is at least one experienced ship in the same fleet.
yes or no?

Re: Q on experience
 

Also crucial for you to TRAIN your ships. They should not need to "gain" experience for anything. Research advanced military science, and build fleet/ship training facilities. It only takes three extra turns to train your fleet on a 2 moon planet, and then you have +20% to attack and defense.

Brian

Re: Q on experience
 

20% offence/defence refers to the specific characteristics in the Empire setup. There is also the Berserker culture, giving another +10% offence/defence for cheap.

You should train your fleets to 20%, as fleet training is very easy to do, and does not require the fleet to be actually present at the facility. Instead, you can train your fleet with a single vessel somewhere, and add the actual fleet later on. I guess it is more like "learning proper strategy" than anything else.

You could have been unlucky in that particular battle. It might also be that you do not see all the hits, as weapon fire is usually very fast, and damage does not appear clearly in the screen. If you are really annoyed with your vessels, the Talisman is always a nice buy: it allows all your weapons to never miss their target.

Now that was a nice example of cross-posting if I ever saw one. Neural Combat Nets are amazingly useful, as experienced vessels in the fleet (30% or more) would give their bonus to the whole fleet. You will need to be lucky enough to get one such ship however, as few ships tend to live long enough to score enough kills.

Re: Q on experience
 

Fyron's max/min guide hosted on spaceempires.net
I've been on that site but can't find it. Is it part of the forum there?

Re: Q on experience
 

The guide is available here.

Re: Q on experience
 

Well from what you folks write I guess I have to put more emphasis on training facilities.
@brian:
I thought only one trining facility per system is effective??
Talisman is out since my race is not religious. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

oh, and: I switched from fast combat to slow via options and really it weren't my weak old eyes - my ships really shot only into the vacuum while my enemy ... well usually gets a scary 100% hit to fire ratio (yes, without a talisman)

Re: Q on experience
 

Alneyan THANKS!
I *love* working links!
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Q on experience
 

Sounds like it is simply training and possibly also Culture and Racial Aptitude. If you are playing against a non-psychic AI then it is probably Cultural and Racial, since the AI only trains its ships and fleets by accident. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

TDM Mod Pack makes the AI more likely to max Cultural and Racial mods out the way human players of the unmodded game do.

Yes Neural Nets require an experienced (or trained) ship. It's also a unique (from ruins) tech area.

PvK

Re: Q on experience
 

Are experienced ships still more effective than unexperienced within a fleet which has -say- 0% experience?

Re: Q on experience
 

Facilities are one per planet, so putting several facilities on the same planet will not help, but putting them on moons will work. System-wide training (the Psychic facilities) are one per system, but they stack with regular facilities.

Ship and fleet experience are unrelated, so you do not need to have any fleet experience at all to benefit from having a 50% experienced vessel. They are rather training at two different levels: tactical level and strategical level, the latter being far easier to achieve in SEIV.

Re: Q on experience
 

Hey thanks Alneyan!
I'll put that knowledge to good use.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Q on experience
 

I know the extra % for offense/defense is to give you a better chance of hitting or dodging.
For example, if you had 50% to-hit, then flipping a coin would sorta determine whether you hit the enemy or not. So I guess in tja's case, tja might just had that bad no-hit streak.
But what happens if you had 100% to-hit without the Talisman (is this possible, by the way?)? Would this mean that you would always hit/dodge?
Any comments?
PS. Has anyone also noticed that sometimes when you're using direct fire weapons if you aim at a certain spot on enemy ships (different spots for different species) you can get a higher chance of hitting the ship (this is also done by firing a couple weapons at a time and not the whole weapon bank.)

Re: Q on experience
 

Without the talisman, the maximum chance to hit is 99%. There is also a minimum of 1% chance to hit.

Re: Q on experience
 

By "spots," what do you mean exactly? Different angles? Such as from the "south" as opposed to from the "north?"

Re: Q on experience
 

Hey Fyron,
Yeah, 'spots' isn't a very good way to describe something, eh?
What I mean is that on the picture of the ship that you are shooting at, there's a certain place (like the front of the ship, the back of the ship, most times somewhere in the middle of the ship)where if you place your mouse carefully over it, you'll almost be certain to hit the ship.
Of course, it could just be me hallucinating or just lucky to have good weapons officers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Q on experience
 

Oh. That would probably just be coincidence... I highly doubt that there would be a bug where clicking on certain pixels gives a bonus to hit...

Re: Q on experience
 

I believe that Aris_sung refers to tactical combat and how his ship always seem to hit at same point in enemy ship when it really hits it. And when it misses, you can see your beam weapon literally miss enemy ship. I believe this is just how game is coded. That your ship seems to hit at same point every time when you really hit it. It's game's way to show that you really hit. It wouldn't do to show that your ships misses (on the screen) and then game would announce that you hit it.

Re: Q on experience
 

The beam or projectile is traced either to the center of the square for a hit (so the subsequent explosion animation lines up), or randomly to one of the 8 corners & edges of the square in the case of a miss.

If shields are present for a hit, the beam/projectile stops short at the point where the shield animation intersects. Shields are only shown during a hit, not a miss.

Re: Q on experience
 

If you're looking for Cultural spacecombat modifiers... drop me a line. Send me an email with "Cultures and Demeanors Mod" in the subject, and I'll send you the Cultures and Demeanors Mod rightaway. It's comprised of over 30 new cultures and modified stock cultures, about triple the amount of Demeanors, and new emperor titles. It also has a modified version of Settings, with 255 max systems, 50% standard maint cost, and higher max/lower min limits for racial selection.

Be warned, tho; I didn't make my cultures to be balanced!

For example: Pacifists have very happy populations and SY/repair/maint bonuses and research bonuses, but -80 SC AND GC. Genocidal Megalomaniacs have -200 trade, but +80% SC and GC. So be warned; a Genocidal Megalomaniac destroyer could take out a Pacifist battlecruiser! As I said, I was not aiming for balance...

Some of the new Demeanors include: Slow to Anger, Slow to Forget, Transcendent, Hunters, Welcomes other Races and so on.

If you want it, just drop me a line (as stated above).

Re: Q on experience
 

Why not just post the mod so that all can benefit from it? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Have you seen the flavor text files in my mods? Demeanors, empire names, types, etc.? USM is probably the smallest that has them... It is slightly out of date, but more or less what I have in other mods.

Re: Q on experience
 

I've looked at the USM page b4. And the reason I don't post this is because my own PC doesn't have internet, and so I'll have to transfer the file with a disk. (Tho I'll do it rightaway http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif )