What are the specific mechanics of Ground Combat?

[Loser]

I hope somebody has worked this out, and I seem to remember that Mr. Hall promised to share the specifics of those little rules, but I can't seem to find it, exactly.

What I believe to be true is this:

1. Damage done in Ground Combat is reduced by the Ground Combat Damage Modifier in Settings.txt.
2. Range and Rate of Fire do not matter at all, and all Ground Combat uses the Point Blank damage field only.
3. Hits are not guaranteed, so Sensores and ECM do help.
4. Like other units, Shields are added to total hit points and Shield Piercing weapons mean nothing.
5. Damage is done in a hit-trading, rock-em-sock-em-robot-style fashion, with the planetary forces firing first.
6. when combat is over, any partial losses of hit points are restored.
7. Militia is only replenished if invading troops are eliminated.
8. Additional troops may be build on-planet while combat continues.
9. The absolute best weapons for Ground Combat are
   2. the Ground Cannon III,
   3. the Shield Depeleter III (since it does damage to hit points, any hitpoints, and not jsut shields),
   4. and the Small Acid Globual (provides a better ratio and will fire every turn).

Does anyone have the exact mechanics?

Am I missing anything?

Did I get anything wrong?

How does the Small Time Distorition Burst work? Does this do Quad Damage to any Groun Combat unit that has or had Shields?

How about the Small Shard Cannon? Is it rendered mundane, like the Small Phased Polaron Beam?

[ July 15, 2004, 16:45: Message edited by: Loser ]

[Ragnarok-X]

i would like to know the exact thingy as well. But i have to agree, i guess only the point blank value damage is used, and special damage abilites mean nothing.

[Suicide Junkie]

1) Multiplies, but yes.
2) Correct
3) Yes, and they are shared, just like on sat stacks. So one command troop can give everybody the bonus.
4) Not sure
5) I'm fairly certain it goes simultaneously, since I'm pretty sure I've managed to lose troops on the final, winning round.
6) Almost certainly
7) Yep
8) Yep... although happiness will drop rapidly, and rioting planets can't build.
9) Sounds about right, but don't forget to consider price as well, especially at low tech.

[Loser]

A couple more things.

It used to be that first laoded meant first dropped meant first shot at and you could protect your heavy-hitters behind walls of shield troops. It now appears that hits are assigned mroe randomly, and this technique no longer works. Cna I get a confirmation on that?

How are hits assigned?

Does the Better To-Hit modifier work on Troop Weapons the way it works on the WMG and Torps on ships and bases? Does this affect all weapons, or jsut the one? Does this work on any units the way it works on Ships?

[ July 15, 2004, 17:09: Message edited by: Loser ]

[Suicide Junkie]

From what I've seen in GritEcon / SJmod...

It looks like the troops are dealt with in a similarily to ship internals.

Random hitpoint lottery, with the reroll effect skewing the damage absorption towards larger hitpoint troops.

[Fyron]

Ground combat is not really random... I have replayed the exact same combat 10 times and had the exact same results every time.