Hit ratio
 

Greetings,

There is something I must not gotten. I noticed that my ships are missing a lot when I use, for example, DUC at their maximum range. The closest, the more it hits.

In fact, I miss so much that I noticed I no longer use my weapons to more than 2-3 squares of the enemy ship.

I equip my ships with all the technology I can to give an hedge (ECM, Computers, etc) and those still miss quite a lot when they are at more than 23- squares.

What do I miss?

Thank you

Re: Hit ratio
 

All weapons degrade hit probability at 10% per square until a minimum of 1% is reached up to their max range.

From settings.txt:
Combat Base To Hit := 100
Combat To Hit Modifier Per Square := 10



So you start at 100% at range 0, which is really 90% at range 1 because ships can't occupy the same square. For every square beyond that, you lose 10% chance to hit. 2-3 squares means 20-30% which is probably what you are seeing.

Re: Hit ratio
 

There is a penalty linked to range: for every square between two ships, odds to hit the target are reduced by -10%. So, the base chance to hit a vessel right next to you is 90% (range 1), and it falls to 20% at range 8.

The only way to improve accuracy is to use offence bonuses: among those are Combat Sensors (available under Sensors after Physics 1), Ship/Fleet Training (under Advanced Military Science, once Military Science has been fully researched), and increasing aggresiveness when creating an Empire (and/or picking a culture like Berserkers).

Alternatively, you could use the Religious trait when setting up an Empire: it would give you the dreaded Talisman, a device making all weapons on a vessel hit their target all the time (accuracy of 100%). There are also some attacks that never miss: boarding, ramming or firing a missile at a vessel always work, though you will still have to overcome the defences of the vessel (security stations or self-destruct devices for boarding, point defence weaponry for missiles).

Re: Hit ratio
 

If you are using Tactical Combat, there is a toggle under Options that displays each weapon's chance to hit when you point at a target.

Re: Hit ratio
 

In addition, some weapons have a built-in bonus to hit. For example, incinerator beams have +10%, high-energy magnifiers (a crystal tech weapon) has +30%, wave motions guns also have +30%, and so on. Seekers, I believe, never miss a target.