Infinite combat map

[Phoenix-D]

Plus it ends under certain other circumstances, though the 2nd patch may have changed that.

[raynor]

On Monday, I played a few minutes under the new patch. It was cool to see the AI ships retreat from the combat and actually move on the strategic map in the direction they retreated. After one combat where the AI ships retreated, I moved some ships up to some of the AI ship escape points. It was really rather cool watching the AI ships run along the edge of the map to find a retreat point where I didn't have ships.

I haven't tried it yet. But I'm hoping fighters will be able to block all the retreat points. If that's the case, then I may start including room for five fighters on some of my ships so I can launch the fighters to prevent the AI escape. That should work, shouldn't it?

[Suicide Junkie]

You would need six. Otherwise the enemy ships could circle around and retreat to the hex you came from.

[raynor]

Right! Hex map sorta implies six sectors around each one.

Thanks.

[dmm]

Suicide Junkie said:
If a ship has enough supplies to fly halfway across the galaxy, imagine how large that would make the combat map before it runs out.

You are assuming that engines work the same in combat movement as they do in strategic movement. One does not have to make that assumption. Cars get a certain MPG highway, but much less MPG city. Anyway, by having ships use some supplies in combat movement, it would hinder "blockade by fleeing." The new patch makes this discussion mostly moot, but I can already think of ways to exploit the new retreat system.

[Shadowstar]

It's sci-fi, the rules are about as malleable as wet clay. You can pretty much explain just about any gameplay-centric fix with a sci-fi explanation without too much effort. The focus should always be gameplay first.

In most sci-fi, ships in combat use thrusters or a sublight mode of thier engines rather than thier high-power long-distance engines (you don't constantly warp from place to place in Star Fleet Battles). These engines or modes could have a different fuel supply or a different system for burning supplies. However, using the SFB comparison, there is the potential to mod the game to include special abilities in combat, such as a one-shot "Picard maneuver" or somesuch... This would reflect a different system being used for long-distance travel than for combat, but allowing the system to be flexible enough that the rules can be bent a little in order to add a little something extra to gameplay.

[Yimboli]

Shadowstar said:
In most sci-fi, ships in combat use thrusters or a sublight mode of thier engines rather than thier high-power long-distance engines (you don't constantly warp from place to place in Star Fleet Battles). These engines or modes could have a different fuel supply or a different system for burning supplies.

That's how moo3 did it