Combat

[JetJaguar2000]

Another player's probe is in orbit around the star in one of my systems. I moved some ships to it (although they seem to take up a different position) and attempt to attack the probe. The feedback indicates an attack order has been given, but nothing happens.

What is the expected result here? Are you not able to attack ships that aren't orbiting a planet? If so, the feedback should be changed. If I am allowed to attack this probe, how come nothing is happening?

Thanks.

[ChickenHawk07]

It's possible the probe was just passing through. The probe's image will remain stationary in the sector, but in essence it is moving through. I could be wrong though. And as far as the interface goes, can't say, as I've never attacked anything yet.

[Strongbad]

I find the system slugghish and wont listen always, I rebooted client to get my ships to listen, which they did.

[JetJaguar2000]

After doing some more testing, I'm fairly convinced that it isn't possible to attack ships directly. I tried a number of times with the same result, a message indicating an attack is ordered but no battle.

I also had this bizarre interaction: I encountered a colony ship in orbit of a planet, I moved my fleet to intercept and attack the ship before it "deployed" on the planet (which already had an outpost on it). The result was the same as above, nothing happened. So instead, I attacked the outpost on the planet we were orbiting. When I did this, a battle started on the planet that I won without any directed combat taking place, and the player's colony ship simulaneously vanished from orbit.

This seems like a bug. At first I thought maybe the colony ship had landed before I attacked, and I was just seeing a "ghost" in orbit, but if that were the case, the planet presumably would have had some population and an actual battle would have taken place. This is, of course, assuming I'm understanding the combat tutorial correctly.

Can a dev clarify this? Thanks.

[Tsagoth]

No, you don't directly attack ship. The client command merely specifies that you wish to attack Player X. The combat AI locates all ships that belong to X and attacks X with whatever ships you have there. That's how it's supposed to work, and sometimes it does. Currently there is an issue where the planet is not engaging and I am actively patching this as we speak to try and fix this.

[JetJaguar2000]

Thanks for the clarification. Does that mean that the notion of specific battles is meaningless too then? If I have two fleets in two different locations that both happen to be in orbit with two different fleets that my opponent controls, I can't choose to only engage one of those locations? Or in other words, clicking the attack button will cause all of my ships anywhere in the galaxy to attack any of the opponents ships they see, regardless of the location that I clicked "attack" on?

What about the duration of battles? Do they always resolve immediately, or can they take some amount of time? The tutorial suggests you can "retreat" from a battle, but if they resolve instantaneously I don't see how that would be possible. Conversely, if they do take time but there is no battle feedback (is there supposed to be battle feedback?), how do you know when you should flee?

Thanks.

[zarkwizard]

When you click the attack button it affects only the sector you are in. So if you have guys beside that playing in another sector they will not engage.

The exception is, if you change status to at war with someone if you are sitting beside each other when you make the change they want attack but if new ships from either side fly in, they will engage.

Battle lengths vary. Depends on how many ships are in the battle when it happens. If it's something like 2 probes battle will be pretty much instant. If it's a probe against a Planet Killer, once again it's instant.

[JetJaguar2000]

Thanks again for the clarification.

Last two questions:

In the event that a battle takes a significant amount of time, do you get any feedback about the progress of the battle? And how would you retreat? Just tell your remaining ships to move away?

Can you confirm that you have to be in orbit of a planet to do battle? I have repeatedly failed to engage probes that are orbiting the stars in my systems. I move my ships to them, click attack, and nothing happens. The only time I've actually started a battle is by attacking a planet.

[ChickenHawk07]

Wow, great questions and great answers. Everything is much clearer now. I do believe I read somewhere that battles are only fought in orbit.

[zarkwizard]

In the event that a battle takes a significant amount of time, do you get any feedback about the progress of the battle? And how would you retreat? Just tell your remaining ships to move away?

Yes and no... The client gets updates, and is aware of whips in the battle. At the moment though the combat engine is about 80% implemented. We just have to add the display portion. It will be in an update in the near future.


Can you confirm that you have to be in orbit of a planet to do battle? I have repeatedly failed to engage probes that are orbiting the stars in my systems. I move my ships to them, click attack, and nothing happens. The only time I've actually started a battle is by attacking a planet.

No you can combat ships at the star. When a ship is moving across a map it briefly appears at the center of each sector, it isn't really there. It is a warp transit anomaly. In the future perhaps what we need to add is something that tells you the ship is just flying through, rather than actively watching you.

If the ship sits there for more than a few min (depending on ship type) and you still can't attack them, then I would say it's a glitch.

[JetJaguar2000]

Ok, I have submitted a specific bug report about this, but I have a situation where a player has a fleet orbiting the star in my system that I cannot attack. I move my fleet to the same orbit, both fleets are listed in the side menu when it arrives, but when I order an attack, nothing happens. I also cannot attack this player's probe orbiting my colony.

I hope this can be sorted out quickly, because if combat isn't working correctly it undermines a large portion of the game.

Thanks.

[JetJaguar2000]

Also, let me add another anecdote. I just had one of my probes destroyed in someone elses system after a protracted battle that I had no idea was happening. I actually checked the system and saw the combat animation around the planet my probe was orbiting, but it did not even occur to me that my probe was under attack (it just so happened that my probe was there observing a battle between two other players, I assumed the combat I saw was some "ghost" of their battle). I received absolutely no feedback whatsoever that one of my ships was involved in a battle. This seems like a gross oversight, or a bug.

If one of my ships is involved in battle, I think I should at least be receiving an ingame notification about it so I can react. If not a realtime notification, some post-battle report such as "Your probe in sector 1,1 was destroyed by So-and-so!"

Amusingly, with all the disappearing ships and whatnot, I actually had to message the guy to ask him if he blew up my probe before I understood what had happened.

You guys have a great foundation and really compelling concept for a game here, but there seem to be quite a few major gameplay bugs / oversights that make me feel it's not quite ready for prime-time (by which I mean paying customers). Absolutely loving the aspects that are working, but I'm worried that all the strategic effort I'm putting in is going to go to waste when some fundamental gameplay element isn't working appropriately.

[Tsagoth]

I have disabled the combat battle reports because due to bugs in the combat AI people were receiving dozens if not hundreds of emails. Once I think the spamming issue has been resolved I'll enable the reports again.

[ChickenHawk07]

Have you looked into the battle bugs for Aruru today? I posted a few bug reports with pictures. Really strange stuff going on in Aruru. Lack of notifications is a big minus thus far.

[Tsagoth]

It's a high priority, but higher still is fixing the invisible harvester problem. I fear I missed an edge case that can cause a harv to invis.

[Millertime]

Is there any update or progress on this? I have an enemy probe orbiting my home system star for about 5 hours now. I have set him to war status and clicked on the probe and selected the attack button, and confirmed it. I have moved fighters singly and as a fleet into orbit on the same star (although the appear in different "spaces" on the map) and they sit there for 20 minutes with nothing happening. I moved destroyers into the same orbit and left them there for an hour, nothing happened.

Does combat even work at all in this game currently?

Where is it explained what the significance is for the different spaces around a planet and a star? Are all the spaces "in orbit"? Why do ships and fleets sometimes take different positions around a star/planet for no apparent reason?

[Tsagoth]

Tell me the server and system where this is and I will check it out.

There is a reason to the placements. "Top" three positions are the "owner" positions, from L-R: Orbitals, Fleets, Individual ships. "Bottom" three are everybody else, Orbitals, Fleets, Ships..

[Millertime]

Mareth server, Sector 17,3

Thanks

[Tsagoth]

What's the grid reference ?

[Millertime]

Possibly it's 17.3? It's fuzzy.

[Tsagoth]

I need the G x,y S x,y or tell me one of the planet names in that sector, I can look it up that way as well.

[Millertime]

G 1,0 S17,3 I guess?

Planet_64

[Tsagoth]

Ok, I see it. Your guys tried to fight, I can see the AI is engaged. Let me pull some logs and see what happened.

[Tsagoth]

I'm uploading a patch to Mareth and then I'll restart the server. I'm hopeful this will fix it, the trace is a bit vague.

[Tsagoth]

You appear to have removed the interloper.

[JetJaguar2000]

Tsagoth, I've had the same problem on Aruru since almost day one. Enemy has a fleet of 4 destroyers orbiting the star at G3.3 S22,1 that have been parked there forever. I have tried almost every day to attack them, but nothing ever happens. Player is clearly idle, so I don't care that much, but it's annoying.

[Tsagoth]

Alright let me patch Aruru as well. The bug appears to be caused by the combatants being located at the star rather than a planet.

[Millertime]

You appear to have removed the interloper.

Thanks.. by the way you freaked me out with that Monitor sitting there :)

Now could you tell me what my destroyer fleet is doing? After the attack succeeded they starting moving across the galaxy, last seen at G 1,0 S 16,15?

[Tsagoth]

Maybe later. Right now I'm looking into why Brechnor's fight with Peteevil seems to have stalled.