IMPORTANT fixes, take 2

[jimbob55]

To make things even more complex :-)
Why not add a ship readiness state like Starfire. Ships at general quarters cost a lot more to maintain than ships at lower readiness states but their reaction to enemy ships will be faster. You can have that vast fleet you wanted, but if they go into combat your economy collapses....... :-)

On warp point assaults: The ships coming through will know they're going to go into combat, the ships + stations defending don't know they're about to enter combat, so unless there's a technobabble explaination why a warping ship shouldn't fire first, the attacker should always have the initiative.
In a planetary assault or fleet engagement, both sides can see each other from a fair distance so initiative could be randomised.

Sats are automated systems, so maybe they should always get initiative. Either allowing them movement or evenly distributing them in 4 Groups at the squares adjacent to the planet/WP pictures corners would allow for them to be useful?

[geoschmo]

quote:

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so unless there's a technobabble explaination why a warping ship shouldn't fire first, the attacker should always have the initiative.

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Actually I am of the opposite opinion, and I don't think it's technobabble.

I think initiative should go to the forces waiting at the end of the wormhole because they know precisly which direction the other ships are coming from. The "attackers" coming through the wormhole have to locate the enemy and bring weapons to bear upon re-entering real space.

Even if you don't know exactly when the enemies is going to pop out, if you have your gun out and pointed in the direction he is coming from, it takes less time for you to pull the trigger than it does for him to find you and then shoot back. IMHO

Geoschmo

[AJC]

I also still feel something needs to be done about combat. The 1 side moves and fires all ships rule is very unbalancing. Movement and defensive PDC fire can be left alone , and I think it could be left alone that the attacker has the initiative

Since introducing a initiative system would be a massive change Just implement alternate firing between attacker and defender.

In tactical mode each player can choose which unit / ship, base or planet will fire on his turn for firing.

In strategic, All firing could alternate between attacker/defender:
1.Fighter stacks fire - until all fighters on both sides have fired.
2. ships fire with firing sequence based on the current position a ship holds in the fleet set up i.e. Lead ship fires - then position 1,2,3 etc... , until all ships on both sides have fired
3. satellites fire, until all satellites on both sides have fired
4. bases fire , until all bases on both sides have fired
5. planets fire until all planets on both sides have fired.

[Baron Munchausen]

That would be a real mess for a hotseat game, AJC. Can you imagine having to swap seats 5 or 6 times for each round of combat? With the impulse system, you would sit down and plot the movement of your units just like you plot movement in simultaneous turns. So, you'd only have to swap seats once per turn as it is currently done.