in need of sage advice, pronto!

[Merry Jolkar]

I am in a desparate fight and need the sage advice of my community of counselors!

1) I would like a fleet in one system to intercept an enemy fleet now situated in another system. If I give the order "attack ship", will my fleet intercept the enemy fleet next turn, or just plot a course to intercept?

2) The enemy has a wormhole closer that they can use to block one of two wormhole routes my fleet could take to reach them. If they do this, will "attack ship" be intelligent enough to make use of the other route (i.e., does it plan its route before the wormhole closes, or after?) (Similar question for straight navigation -- if a wormhole closes, will my fleet find another way to reach a destination I set manually?

3) I see that I can issue the order to open a wormhole between systems that are *already* connected via a wormhole. So, suppose I give my fleet orders to pass through a wormhole on the same turn that the enemy closes that wormhole, but I also issue orders to *open* a wormhole. Can I still pass through?!

4) Even though they have the component to allow multi-target tracking, my starbases often fire every one of their engine or weapons damaging weapons at ONE enemy ship, even when I'm sure they have destroyed the engines and weapons with the first few shots. They then use their normal weapons to finish the now harmless ship off. How can I avoid this waste?

Many thanks, guys! --Merry

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Merry Jolkar:
I am in a desparate fight and need the sage advice of my community of counselors!

1) I would like a fleet in one system to intercept an enemy fleet now situated in another system. If I give the order "attack ship", will my fleet intercept the enemy fleet next turn, or just plot a course to intercept?

2) The enemy has a wormhole closer that they can use to block one of two wormhole routes my fleet could take to reach them. If they do this, will "attack ship" be intelligent enough to make use of the other route (i.e., does it plan its route before the wormhole closes, or after?) (Similar question for straight navigation -- if a wormhole closes, will my fleet find another way to reach a destination I set manually?

3) I see that I can issue the order to open a wormhole between systems that are *already* connected via a wormhole. So, suppose I give my fleet orders to pass through a wormhole on the same turn that the enemy closes that wormhole, but I also issue orders to *open* a wormhole. Can I still pass through?!

4) Even though they have the component to allow multi-target tracking, my starbases often fire every one of their engine or weapons damaging weapons at ONE enemy ship, even when I'm sure they have destroyed the engines and weapons with the first few shots. They then use their normal weapons to finish the now harmless ship off. How can I avoid this waste?

Many thanks, guys! --Merry

1:It will plot a course to intercept and if you have enough movement points it will also intercept.

2:Stellar manipulation takes place before movement, so if you have two routes and one is closed the fleet should replot the course automaticly, in both altrenatives you are asking for.
Sometimes it happens that the AI locks up(?) and stops, not knowing how to go, usually seen in systems with plenty of damaging storms/minefields.

3:Hmm, if the wormhole isn't closed you can't open a new one. Only one WP between two systems is allowed.
What happens if he closes the same turn as you try to open, I don't know???

4:In the strategies screen, you can choose how much damage to inflict before moving on to the next target.

[ September 30, 2003, 17:58: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Merry Jolkar]

Ruatha, Thank you for your thoughtful reply. So, it sounds like I can also make use of your insights on offense: I don't need to wait for a wormhole to form -- I can form it and fly through it on the same turn, by either ordering an intercept of a fleet in the system I'm opening the WH to, or simply ordering my fleet to move there. The fleet will just take the more direct route through the hole, right?

Related question: will ships en route also adapt their paths to make use of new wormholes or route around old ones?

[rdouglass]

Originally posted by Ruatha:

....
4:In the strategies screen, you can choose how much damage to inflict before moving on to the next target.

IIRC that doesn't work well when you're dealing with weapons like engine killers, etc. If just the engines are damaged, you probably have not hit the damage threshold for the weapons to switch targeting. The damage percentage is "total damage" not "component-specific damage" IIRC.

That's why I spread my component-specific weapons (especially engine killers) out across several ships and not just specialized designs....

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Merry Jolkar:
Related question: will ships en route also adapt their paths to make use of new wormholes or route around old ones?

Yes, they will, depending. If you give them the attack order they will seek an alternate route to intercept the ship if the warp point closes. And if a new warp point opens that is a mor direfct route they will use that. However if the order you gave was to warp and that warp point is closed they will stop, unless you chain additional orders.

Warp opening and closing happens at the begining of the turn. A warp point between two systems can be opened on teh same turn as one is closed between those same two systems as long as the one is closed first. This will happen if the empire closing the warp point is higher on teh player list then the empire opening the new one. For one empire trying to do both it's a little trickier cause you have to make sure your closing ship closes the warp point before the opening ship opens it. There may be ways to do that. I can't guarantee they will work though.

[Merry Jolkar]

Geo, just one final clarification, if you would: if I don't explicitly give the order to go through a particular wormhole, but instead just say "go to location x,y in system A", what happens if one of the warp points that was along the path is shut? Does the computer reroute since I didn't specify a wormhole, or does my movement order select certain wormholes and when one is closed, the ship stops? Oh, and does it stop at the closed hole, or just stop from the beginning because there is not hope of reaching the destination?

[Merry Jolkar]

Originally posted by rdouglass:

....
That's why I spread my component-specific weapons (especially engine killers) out across several ships and not just specialized designs....

Excellent advice. I will do it that way from now on...

[ September 30, 2003, 20:10: Message edited by: Merry Jolkar ]

[Mephisto]

Warp point manipulation is not done at the beginning of a turn but at the beginning of each day (there are 30 per turn). So, let’s take a ship with speed 10. His ship will move every 3rd day. If this ship is ordered to move 2 sectors and then ordered to open a warp point, it will open the warp point with its 3rd movement point, i.e. on day 9. Fortunately every ship will recalculate its path each time it is scheduled to move. This way you can order your warp point ship to move two sectors and then open a warp point. If you plan your attack fleets movement carefully you can keep the fleet near the sector the warp point will open and then move through it. A friend of mine did this to his enemy once, opening a warp point over 400 light years, moved his defence fleet across and intercepted the attacking fleet right before it hit one of his planets. Oh, his warp point closing ship closed the warp point right in the same turn so even if the defence fleet would have lost the enemy could not use the warp point.

[Merry Jolkar]

C-o-o-l! Somehow I was under the impression that one could only open or close wormholes first, *then* move!

So, if I have a repair ship traveling with my wormhole opener, could it open several warp points in one turn? When does repair take place?

And, can I close several holes per turn this way?
Thanks!
Merry

[Suicide Junkie]

Originally posted by Merry Jolkar:
Geo, just one final clarification, if you would: if I don't explicitly give the order to go through a particular wormhole, but instead just say "go to location x,y in system A", what happens if one of the warp points that was along the path is shut? Does the computer reroute since I didn't specify a wormhole, or does my movement order select certain wormholes and when one is closed, the ship stops? Oh, and does it stop at the closed hole, or just stop from the beginning because there is not hope of reaching the destination?

After each movement point is used, the shortest path distance is recalculated.
If your order is to move to X,Y in System S, that is where you will head for, no matter what the terrain. (Unless all known warppoint to the system are closed, or something similarily major occurs)

-----

Repair takes place after your turn ends, and before the next players turn in sequential mode.
You'll only get your manipulators repaired once per turn.
With multiple SM ships, it is entirely possible to open and close a warppoint repeatedly during a turn. You just have to time your ships' arrivals to happen sequentially and in the right order.

[ September 30, 2003, 22:37: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]