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.

[Loser]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Ground combat is not really random... I have replayed the exact same combat 10 times and had the exact same results every time.

Well nothing's really random ina computer, you're just running the same 'rand' on the same seed and getting the same result. If I remember correctly, SE IV doens't refresh its seed from the clock while the game is running.

In fact, I think the seed is saved along with the game, or something like that . . .

Now how would I have thought that, where would I have found that out, why the bleep would I think I know that? I don't recall.

Anyway, does anyone know about the One Weapon To-Hit Bonus on Units, especially Troops in ground combat?

How aboutthe effect of the special ability on the Small Time Distortion Burst?

And the Shield skipping ability of the Small PPB?

And the Armor skipping ability of the Small Shard Cannon?

[ July 15, 2004, 21:47: Message edited by: Loser ]

[Alneyan]

From what I can tell of my tests, nothing too fancy works for units (either fighters or troops).

- A PPB troop failed to bring down a troop with shields before the battle was over, while it would have been victorious in two turns had the PBB skipped its shielding.
- A Time Distortion Burst troop failed to bring down the same troop, while it should have won in six turns (four to bring down the shields, and two to destroys the internals). The same goes for a fighter using either a PPB or a Time Distortion Burst, and going after a heavily shielded unit.
- The Skip Armour damage type has done nothing either.
- Should I mention that Null Space doesn't do anything for fighters? (I didn't test for troops, but I see no reason for it to be different)
- Some fancy abilities work for Fighters, such as Crew ConVersion. So I guess the problem lies in how armour and shields are handled for units (like extra hitpoints and nothing more than this) rather than in the fighters themselves. I will test a Nullspace PDC though, just in case it would somehow be different when a ship fires on a unit.

[Slick]

Whoa!

...
The absolute best weapons for Ground Combat are
the Ground Cannon III,
the Shield Depeleter III (since it does damage to hit points, any hitpoints, and not jsut shields),
...

Are you saying that Shield Depleters will actually damage non-shield hitpoints on other troops and kill them?

Slick.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Slick:
Whoa!

quote:

---

...
The absolute best weapons for Ground Combat are
the Ground Cannon III,
the Shield Depeleter III (since it does damage to hit points, any hitpoints, and not jsut shields),
...

Are you saying that Shield Depleters will actually damage non-shield hitpoints on other troops and kill them?

Slick.

---

I thought that was fixed? ISTR that used to be a problem, but I think it got fixed in the Last patch.