Planetary Bombardment Question.
 

Hi all, I'm relatively new to the game (been lurking around here about 2 weeks), and in the course of my discovery I haven't been able to pin down exactly how damage is resolved in certain situations. Let me give an quick example:

(V. Gold pre-patch) After reducing any defending fleet units I'll either stand off with missiles (with a range advantage), or flit in and out of firing range to deliver my payloads. However, I seem to be generating a lot of 'misses'(no explosion animation or damage total increase) with the missiles even from a few spaces within max. These misses seem to decrease with the range somewhat. And I also notice that it seems that a single 'hit' will destroy exactly one weapons platform regardless of volley weight (I'll often fire a few small Groups because they seem to be adequate and avoid potential overkills on smaller worlds).

I'm wondering if there is an inherent ECM for the planet, I'm seeing the effects of troops present, the platforms are being only partially damaged, or what? Thanks in advance for your replies. I'm really looking forward to participating in this community.

Re: Planetary Bombardment Question.
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Chrowl:
Hi all, I'm relatively new to the game (been lurking around here about 2 weeks), and in the course of my discovery I haven't been able to pin down exactly how damage is resolved in certain situations. Let me give an quick example:

(V. Gold pre-patch) After reducing any defending fleet units I'll either stand off with missiles (with a range advantage), or flit in and out of firing range to deliver my payloads. However, I seem to be generating a lot of 'misses'(no explosion animation or damage total increase) with the missiles even from a few spaces within max. These misses seem to decrease with the range somewhat. And I also notice that it seems that a single 'hit' will destroy exactly one weapons platform regardless of volley weight (I'll often fire a few small Groups because they seem to be adequate and avoid potential overkills on smaller worlds).

I'm wondering if there is an inherent ECM for the planet, I'm seeing the effects of troops present, the platforms are being only partially damaged, or what? Thanks in advance for your replies. I'm really looking forward to participating in this community.<hr></blockquote>

There is some sort of a problem with tracking damage to planets in Gold. And even in the current patch. There's something in the history for the latest beta about it. I think I've seen it myself. Firie a huge salvo of missiles and it doesn't register on the planet info screen even though you saw them hit. Keep firing and sometimes it adds damage, sometimes not. Then suddenly ALL the past damage comes out of whatever hyper-space fold it was hidden in and the planet is trashed. Weird...

Re: Planetary Bombardment Question.
 

Planetary damage will only show up when an whole number of objects on the surface have been destroyed.

If a weapon platform has 1500 hitpoints (shields+armor+internals), you will have to fire 20 CSM1's before the damage causes an explosion animation.
If you right-click the planet in tactical, you should be able to see the damage racking up before the bLast.

Additionally, if there are planetary shields, all your shots will dissapear until the shields are breached. There used to be a planetary shield animation long, long ago, but it was the same size as the ship animation, and looked quite silly http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

Oh, and for missiles; they have to reach the far (top-right) corner of the planet before they hit. If they run out of fuel while crossing the planet, you're out of luck. The patch fixed this.

[ 27 April 2002: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]</p>