Thought Exercise: Max Possible Offense/Defense Power?

[BFG]

While at work today I was trying to think through the maximum possible offensive and defensive scores of similar conventional (non-missile, probe, etc.) units, taking into account all possible bonuses, base/terrain/special project modifications, etc., under standard SMAX rules.

To simplify things I decided to ignore the effects of Blink Displacer and Dissociative Wave.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a number of bonuses since I'm at work right now, but I'm thinking non-PSI combat is somewhere along the lines of:

Max Offense (base: String Disrupter = 30)
Air Superiority = +100%
Nerve Gas Pods = +50%
Elite Unit = +50%
High Terrain = (n/a as this is an Air unit)
Total attack power = 60


Max Defense (base: Stasis Generator = 12)
AAA tracking = +100%
Perimeter Defense = +100%
Tachyon Field = +100%
Elite Unit = +50%
In Base = +25%
Sensor Array = +25%
High Terrain = (n/a as this is vs. Air unit)
Total defense power = 48


Am I forgetting anything? (If my numbers are right, I'd argue that Firaxis should have added a 15 shield to counteract the String Disrupter they added in SMAX.)

 

[civac]

It doesn't work like that. Combat modifiers are multiplied not added.

Examples:

Max Offense (base: String Disrupter = 30)
Air Superiority: *2
Nerve Gas Pods: *1.5
Elite Unit: *1.5
Fanatic Attack *1.25
High Terrain: (n/a as this is an Air unit)

Total attack power: 168.75


Max Defense (base: Stasis Generator = 12)
AAA tracking: *2
Perimeter Defense: (n/a does not work against Air units)
Base with Aerospace Complex and Tachyon Field = *3
Elite Unit: *1.5
Sensor Array: *1.25

Total defense power = 135

 

[BFG]

Interesting. I'll admit, I've never sat down to calculate how multiple bonuses stack; thanks for the clarification.

Your calculations still indicate that Firaxis, if they wanted to make maximum conventional offense and defense dead even, should have added a 15 shield. But I'm not arguing - how many people have games where String Disruptors are pitted against Stasis Generators anyway?

Anyone else see a way to increase total offense or defense above what civac has above? What would the values look like for a Psi attack?

 

[Petek]

This is a complex topic and I'm not sure that a definitive answer can be given. I was writing a long reply, but managed to confuse myself. Here are some brief observations:

1. If the attacker is an air unit, then I'm not sure that Air Superiority (AS) is the best special ability. AS gives an air unit the ability to attack other air units in flight (with 100% bonus), but actually leads to a 50% penalty attacking ground units.

2. An Infantry unit (25% attack against bases) with Nerve Gas and Soporific Gas Pods might fare better. Then the defender wouldn't benefit from AAA Tracking, nor an Aerospace Complex, but would benefit from a Perimeter Defense.

3. If you're just interested in raw attack and defensive strength, OK. But combat mechanics take into account other factors such as reactor level. In general, higher reactors favor the side with the greater strength.

4. SMACX combat mechanics are based on the Civ II model. See this thread and the links within for an extremely detailed description. The executive summary is that the attacker is favored even more than the relative strengths indicate.

Finally, what about Psi weapons? Psi combat is decided primarily by relative morale. This can be affected by other factors. I think an Elite Psi attacker with a +6 Planet rating would beat a similar defender because a positive Planet rating increases attack strength, but not defensive strength.