Game Time: 5/26/2006 9:23:29 PM
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Combat - Overview
Combat happens during the End of Turn cycle. To Initiate Combat go to the Combat Control page. Here you will find a list of potential targets in your sector. You may choose from these targets to determine which you want to attack. Depending on your ships speed vs the speed of the selected tartet, there may or may not be combat. If the selected target is faster then it will flee and thus no combat will occur because the slower ship can't catch the faster one. Combat will always occur when two players simutaniously attack each other in the same turn. If there is combat then the faster ship gets to determine how close it wants to get (Note: in the initail version of the combat system, range will not be a major factor, execpt for Capital Ship Weapon's Pre-Fire phase at Long Range.) Activating Weapons for Use Before you can use any weapons you must "Activate" the weapon. You "Activate Weapons" from your status screen by selecting the "Activate Weapons" link. Activating a weapon removes it from your inventory and places it in use on your ship or base. This prevents you from accidently selling the weapons with which you want to fight. The one exception to this is Homing Missiles, they are removed from inventoy as they are used. Missiles are considered a consumable like fuel. Once you have Activated your weapons you will want to attach them to a Turret (or Double Turret). To do this, goto the Weapons Control page and click on the Icon under the Modify Heading. You can then select what weapon you want to place on that particular turret. Setting Activation Status (Offensie or Defense) To modify each weapon's Activation Status, select the Modify Icon of the weapon you wish to change from the Weapons Control page. This will take you to the Weapon Status page where you can select Offense, Defense, Repair or Inactive. A weapon's activation status will determine if it is to be used Offensively, Defensively, kept under Reapir or sits Inactive during combat. You will want to set all weapons execpt Lasers to Offensive, otherwise they will not fire or return fire if you are attacked. Setting a weapon to offense does not in any way initate an attack. Homing Missiles Missles are very powerful weapons. Missile Launchers are relatively cheap but you must provide a supply of Homing Missiles to be effective. It is not necessary to Activate your Homing Missiles, your ship/base will remove them from inventory as needed. Homing Missiles may be shot down with defensive Laser fire. They are also expensive but make great bombs against bases. (ok, maybe not great but the do fall from the sky pretty well). Homing Missiles are the only weapons that may be used in offensive operations against Bases. Bases may also fire their Homing Missiles against starships and other bases. Lasers Lasers can be designated offensive or defensive. In the offensive mode they will attack your opponent like any other weapon. In the defensive mode they will be used for Anti-Missile defenese. Incoming Homing Missiles must first get past your screen of defensive laser fire. When used in an Anti-Missile defense battery each Laser gets one shot each turn. If the first laser misses, the second laser shoots at the incomming missile. This continues until either all incomming missiles are destroyed or all defensive lasers have fired. Ion Cannons Ion cannons are less accurate than lasers but do more damage than lasers and can't be used to shoot down like missiles. Ion cannons use 10 fuel when you fire them, they are a powerful weapon when used in ship-to-ship combat. Turrets Turrets play a key role in combat. There are two types of turrets, single, just known as a turret and a double turret onto which you can mount two turreted weapons. Note: Ion cannons can not be mounted on a double turret, single only due to their larger size. Anyway, on a double turret, you can mount two missle launchers, two lasers or one of each. In the future-> (Each turret may have a different target but a double turret must target the same enemy with both weapons.) Capital Ship Weapons Captial Ship Weapons, such as the all powerful Mass Plasam Driver or a Dark Matter Cannon are long range weapons. You must have a Battleship or Cruiser to have one of these guns. A Battleship can carry up to two capital class weapons, a cruiser one. Since a captial ship weapon is installed into the spine of the ship they are unable to be removed or replaced. Battleships can carry two Captial Ship Weapons, they must both attack the same target. Capital Ship Weapons aren't very good at attacking bases because they don't function well in the atmosphere. They are effective weapons when used in a "stand off" role, similar to artillery which can engage targets before they are seen. |