I got a response to my questions in the FAQ forum yesterday, so for those here with this problem: /#/endless-space/forum/34-faq/thread/14215-question-how-does-combat-work.

Moved the thread to the appropriate section.



I've seen the "pause/speed/skip battle feature" suggestion quite a lot recently. Pretty interesting in my opinion.

The most annoying thing in my opinion is when a fleet attacks you a timer starts. I don't mind to be forced into a battle, but not on a timed basis. Show the message, but please do not timeforce me to push a button to start the battle. That is somewhat unnecessary.

MortMan wrote:
Pausing (baby crying) or speeding up combat (I picked my cards and now I am bored) would be awesome features

+1 pausing and speeding up are both grat ideas

Zamodiar wrote:
There is a pause before battle, it's the arriving phase. There is totally enough time to select all 3 cards before that ends.

ENTIRELY depends on how many cards you have and if you know what they do. Try picking up a Magic: The Gathering deck without having ever seen the cards before and playing a super-fast game (playing a card within 10 seconds).

Zamodiar wrote:
There is a pause before battle, it's the arriving phase. There is totally enough time to select all 3 cards before that ends. Then, if you don't want to sit through the fight, you could use that time to go off and get a drink or something. Which I personally do not do enough while playing this game. Not enough load screens. Grrrrrr.

I don't believe he meant in the battle screen, I think he meant as the battle is called out. For instance, you just arrive at a planet and theres a pirate there. They almost always automatically attack next turn or that turn and there is literally nothing you can do about it. It would be nice if you had to finish the battle before the turn ended, but not that very second.

There should be an option to pause game before fights commence (this is turn-based afterall).



I wandered off to deal with cat being sick on my work shoes (TMI I know) only to come back and find that 11 fights had taken place in my absence. (In this instance I won all but 1 fight because my fleets kill 99% of AI ships before the end of Phase. Which means they normally survive pretty much the rest of the fight unscathed - but that aint the point, I was already to try out a new 5 dreadnought fleet design.

Would definitely like to see a pause feature.

Zplintz wrote:
In this instance I won all but 1 fight because my fleets kill 99% of AI ships before the end of Phase. Which means they normally survive pretty much the rest of the fight unscathed - but that aint the point, I was already to try out a new 5 dreadnought fleet design.

Reminds me of an unrelated incident where I flew 12 ships (out of 13 maximum) into an enemy system that I had not see in a while. They fought off a fleet of 13 units (losing four) and then fought off a fleet of 7 (losing six) as the AI attacked my fleet. Surprisingly the remaining two ships were not engaged by the AI's remaining four fleets until the following turn where I got another full fleet in to stomp on them.



I was like "damn, those guys (my ships) are GOOD." It's not often that a fleet of 12 holds off 20 ships without a break.

Although I'm not really doing more than putting a plus one on this right now, I'd agree that there needs to be, at the very least, an automatic pause incorporated into the tutorial system. The first time I encountered pirates, I sat and read the tutorial screen and left it to find myself already at the battle conclusion without ever knowing the fight started. For my second fight, I hurriedly clicked manual only to get overwhelmed by the massive text wall explaining how to conduct a fight. However, I noticed along the edges of the screen that the fight was taking place, so instead of reading the tutorial, I panicked and clicked out of it. As a result, I now have to wing all might fights guessing at how things are working. (And I really am not entirely sure why fights are even divided into phases right now as that was part of the tutorial I skipped...

Zenith that's exactly what happen to me !!!!!

Zenith wrote:
And I really am not entirely sure why fights are even divided into phases right now as that was part of the tutorial I skipped...

I had to skip the tutorial as well and have tried to wing it. So far my results are 50/50, still not sure what a good played card is over a bad played one.



What I'm doing right now is:

1st phase is for missiles.

2nd phase is for beams.

3rd phase for kinetics.



If I don't have those, or they have more powerful guns for that phase I try to play defensive or tactical cards. I really do need to look up how combat really works though.

/agreed



You should at least be able to set default cards for combat (in case you miss the window or manual fight).

Kingherod wrote:
I had to skip the tutorial as well and have tried to wing it. So far my results are 50/50, still not sure what a good played card is over a bad played one.



What I'm doing right now is:

1st phase is for missiles.

2nd phase is for beams.

3rd phase for kinetics.



If I don't have those, or they have more powerful guns for that phase I try to play defensive or tactical cards. I really do need to look up how combat really works though.

All weapons fire in all phases, but in a not-favored phase, they have an accuracy penalty.

I (and my friends) all seem to like the fact that you are pressed to make decisions during combat. It adds a sense of tension and urgency to the game and makes it feel like you are making decisions under pressure. Which is not a bad thing. But if people want to be able to pause combat, that's certainly up to them.



The only thing I'd change, I think, is I'd make it so that the combat start timer (in single player) didn't start until you click on the icon. Don't make it pop up automatically and start a timer when the AI attacks me. There may be other things I want to do before battle, both in-game or out-of-game. I do think the timer adds a sense of urgency to scanning the enemy ship statistics, a brief view of their loadouts before you make a decision, but there have definitely been times where the timer popped up inconveniently.

This thread is the origin of discussions about pausing before choosing auto or manual combat at a given point that may differ in the variants of this proposal.

Other threads about this have been archived:

/#/endless-space/forum/29-archives/thread/13953-no-pre-battle-timer-in-singleplayer



Feel free to post here about this topic here and inform yourself about the variations the threads listed above have already discussed, but don't open new suggestion threads for anything alike.

Nosferatiel wrote:
This thread is the origin of discussions about pausing the game entirely before a battle in singleplayer, which amounts to removing the battle timers.

Other threads about this have been archived:

/#/endless-space/forum/29-archives/thread/13953-no-pre-battle-timer-in-singleplayer

I think that one means the "you've been attacked! auto or manual?" timer. This thread is about the first phase (the warp-in) after the battle starts.

Draco18s wrote:
I think that one means the "you've been attacked! auto or manual?" timer. This thread is about the first phase (the warp-in) after the battle starts.

I don't think it is, if I qoute the OP:

SpaceDogTaz wrote:
Then have the choice of Auto or Manual for the battle.



I missed my first battle when the tutorial came up and by the time I got if closed, all I saw was the Battle Report telling me that I lost.

It may not be possible to have the mixture he may originally have meant: having phase 0, then getting the option for automatic or manual combat. Anyways, it should amount to the same, no matter where you have either pause.

Nosferatiel wrote:
I don't think it is, if I qoute the OP:

Hm. This thread:

SpaceDogTaz wrote:
I would like to see the game paused before the battle starts ( Getting Close Phase ) you could look at what you are up against.

The thread you linked:

noctoz wrote:
I find the timer you get for choosing Auto/Manual before battles very frustrating when there are a lot of things happening.

So...

Draco18s wrote:
So...

Reworded the summary post: This thread is the origin of discussions about pausing before choosing auto or manual combat at a given point that may differ in the variants of this proposal.