[MoO] Strategic games in MOO2 (classic or mods)

[Dukinson]

Hey Rocco I have a request while you're testing things out. Check to see if ground combat plays a factor in strategic space battle outcomes. If you had high ground combat in tactical space battles, it certainly plays a factor. Boarding star bases, capturing immobile vessels, assault shuttles, etc. I'll try to test it myself but I have to do it conventionally. I play moo on a tablet in dos box so it's problematic to utilize any 3rd party software to make it easier.

 

[Dukinson]

A question about ICEmod in strategic, the changes you've made to such things as cybernetic being increased in repair rate. Is this changed in strategic? It sure feels like it but I wasn't sure if it's some different table table that governs results in strategic combat. There are no rounds in strategic but fighting cybernetic ships does seem to make them tougher.

 

[Rocco.40]

I'll try to test it myself but I have to do it conventionally.

You can use the hotseat game mode to create many interesting tests.

 

[Rocco.40]

There are no rounds in strategic but fighting cybernetic ships does seem to make them tougher.

There are many things that have changed in ICE;
Some weapons and specials have different strengths.
More armor points for DD's and Titans.
Star Base, Battlestation, Fortresses are stronger.
Etc..
All these things can influence battle outcomes
Cybernetic has no influence as their is no ship repair in strategic combat.

 

[Dukinson]

Cybernetic has no influence as their is no ship repair in strategic combat.

I'd swear the meklar are deadly in combat on even tech ground, and I could also swear they seem yet a bit stronger after your changes. I haven't played you mod enough to be 100% sure, but don't you think it's possible there might be some static battle figure boost for cybernetic ships based on repair rate translated to strategic combat?

 

[Rocco.40]

Maybe this pic can reassure you...
Guess who were the cybernetics
Fleets are exactly the same, with same techs and armor.

Because the strategic combat resolve is a statistical strength comparison, the outcome of each confrontation with the same fleets varies every time. Sometimes the Meklar win too. And every time some other ships survive the fight.
There is a clear element of randomness involved. No statistical advantage for the cyber race though...
I encourage you to run such combat sims in the hotseat mode for yourself, quite a cool way to get to test MOO2 mechanics.

 

[Dukinson]

You know I played against them in tactical combat with your improved cybernetic and watched their ships regenerate before my eyes like a borg cube, with their reinforced hull and heavy armor. I've been traumatized by them ever since. It must have been psychological when I went back to strategic and had some bad rolls in a few lost battles.

So it would seem engineers and cybernetic are trivialized in strategic. Is there a way to give those traits some kind of a boost in battle?

 

[Rocco.40]

So it would seem engineers and cybernetic are trivialized in strategic. Is there a way to give those traits some kind of a boost in battle?

dunno, it is just one of those things that make strategic a simpler game;
no combat repairs, no boarding, no special shields, etc.

 

[Dukinson]

I noticed something a tiny bit problematic. I had fast missile racks being loaded on my newly built ships. Then I developed plasma torpedos. I had other mods like ecm, but a spot was being wasted on fast missile racks. If there isn't a way to code an "if than" exception to loading fast missile racks once torpedos are developed, it might be a good argument to remove fast missile racks from strategic. The flip side might be to just develop more mods until fast missile racks fall off the autodesign. I'll see how long it takes.

 

[Dukinson]

I think you mentioned it before but just to confirm this. I stole a new drive while away from port and while my drive speed was updated but my combat speed was only increased on ships docked at my colonies. Odd stuff. Not that it matters much, my new ships won't get the combat speed anyways.

 

[Rocco.40]

The fast missile racks.
What the code shows me is as follows:
There are max 4 weapons and max 7 specials in a strategic ship.

Only Battle Ships and higher can have 4 weapons (a type of beam, a missile, a bomb and a special)
All ship classes can have the max 7 specials.
The groups are:
1.
Battle Scanner
Rangemaster Unit
Achilles Targeting Unit

2.
High Energy Focus
Hyper-X Capacitator
Structural Analyzer

3.
Inertial Stabilizer
Inertial Nullifier

4.
ECM Jammer
Multi-Wave ECM Jammer
Lighning Field
Wide Area Jammer

5.
Fast Missile Racks

6.
Displacement Device

7.
Time Warp Facilitator

In groups 1,2,3 and 4 a higher special replaces a lower one.
As you can see FM Racks have their own spot in slot number 5.