Possible ground combat bug??

[Mephisto]

Q, I have tested it and you are right, shields do not seem to work.

I have created the same designs you used. You slightly miscalculated, the Armor trooper has a health of 13 plus 3 points of emissive ability, so 16 in total (emissive armor always subtracts 3 points of damage, even if damage is greater then 3, as I found out)

In a battle 100 defenders plus 20 militia against 100 attackers the attacker always lost about 180 to 190 health points. This resulted in ~11 lost armor troopers and 18 lost shield troopers.
Conclusion: Shields are not working at the moment for troopers.

[Q]

Thank you very much Mephisto.
What do you think is this something that should be corrected or do we just keep this in mind when we design our troops?
The reason why I ask is that if shields will work in ground combat troops will be extremely powerful against the militia!
An other observation: if you use weapons with a reload of 2 for troops, damage is still done to the militia every turn.
About the emissive armor effect: I thought that the emissive armor was not working the way as you describe it (and as it should!) but once the damage goes beyond the limit the emissive effect gets completely lost. But this was only for the large ship components not for the small troop/fighter component. I never tested this myself but there is an long topic about it in this forum.

[Mephisto]

I think it is a bug and so it should be corrected. Else shields are nearly worthless.
I too thought that emissive wasn't working, but look at this:

Armor troopers have a health of 13:
I lost 11 of them in battle -> 143 hit points.

Shield troops have a health of 10:
I lost 18 of them in battle -> 180 health points.

Difference: 37. Ok, I know that this is not equal to 3x11 but it is quite close and I have no other explanation.

[mottlee]

not use shields on troop, I do use armor and such, I find the more guns the better Small troop GCIII = lotts O troops to be put down

[Q]

Well, I sent our observations to MM.
It's up to them to decide how it is supposed to work, but they should inform us.
Until now almost all troop designs had useless shield (unless you want to use the troops as cannon fodder for attacks from space).
For me it is clear not to use shields for troops anymore but armor instead of it.

Mephisto, I think there is always a chance for hit or miss. Therfore combat simulations hardly ever get exactely the same results. But perhaps you are right and the emissive ability works after all in small armors.

[Mephisto]

quote:

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Originally posted by Q:
Mephisto, I think there is always a chance for hit or miss. Therefore combat simulations hardly ever get exactly the same results. But perhaps you are right and the emissive ability works after all in small armors.

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Of course, that's the reason why I did run all this 10 times and averaged it.

[geoschmo]

Ok, here's a potential problem. A small shield generator produces 40 shield points. A militia unit does 10 points of damage. IIRC unit components do not store partial damage. If that is correct then a single troop with one small shield will be able to conquer any size planet.

Geoschmo