Evil4Zerggin wrote:
I've only seen Reactive Hulls give percentage-based HP. Granted, it does give Cruisers a leg up in the early game.

There's never any reason to research the higher armors after that one. The only use for level 6 armor is on very small ships where you're only using one or two, or on very very large ships where another 2% is less than the combined percentage bonus on the extra HP (that is, if you have +50% hp and started with 1000 (total 1500), another +25 +2% is 1558, whereas a +200 hp armor would get you 1800).

TheBoz wrote:
I don't know about you, but in my game, I have both flat and percentile HP increase mods, as well as both flat and percentile HP repair mods.

You must then either be playing Humans or be misusing the plural.

Many people have have brought up combat in this game. It is broken and the AI is easy to beat after your first game because of its terrible decisions.



Many people, however, do not know exactly how combat works. This is a guide to that. A guide I will be updating over time to perfect.





The Anatomy of a Combat

Combat Phases

Long Range

Weapons are least accurate in this phase. Missiles will hit the most, Kinetics the least.

Accuracy is surprisingly low with non-missile weapons during this phase. Weapons are just so generally lethal that it hardly matters.



1:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 1.

2:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 2. Missiles Fire at this target aswell.

3:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 3.

4:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 4. Missiles Hit.



Medium Range

Weapons are more accurate in this phase. Beams will do best here, others are average.



1:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 1.

2:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 2. Missiles Fire at this target aswell.

3:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 3.

4:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 4. Missiles Hit.



Short Range

Kinetics are best in this phase. It is third and generally most lethal if it has gotten this far.



1:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 1.

2:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 2. Missiles Fire at this target aswell.

3:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 3.

4:Each ship fires Beams and Kinetics at a single target. They hit at the end of turn 4. Missiles Hit.



Battle Actions

A battle action is chosen during each phase.



I will fill in each battle action down here, but will mention this now. Defensive actions tend to provide a larger % bonus than offensive actions when successful. As of now, I believe a nullified action is entirely nullified. This may or may not continue in the future. The alternative bonus in parenthesis is likely a placeholder and does not have an effect I can determine.





Weapons and Defenses

Kinetics and Deflection

Kinetics are short ranged weapons, notable for having the highest potential damage for a weapon system in the game. They are the least accurate weapon system and are generally considered the worst in the high-lethality combat of the current game.



Damage

Kinetics deal between 7.53-58.8 damage per combat phase per pound if you have 100% accuracy.

Realistically you can expect somewhere closer to half this during early phases.



It Takes:

About 75-10 Pounds of Kinetics to take out 1 CP of base health, after defenses - in a single phase.



Defending against Kinetics

Kinetics is beaten by Deflection.



Currently, it is believed that deflection refers to the total number of projectiles deflected from each of the four volleys.

This means it takes Approximately 66% of the opponent's weight of Kinetics if you have equivalent deflectors.



Kinetics is especially vulnerable to chip damage effects that are not currently well understood. Especially during close range, even normally complete kinetic protection will not entirely save you from large numbers of projectiles. This may be a critical hit effect.



Missiles and Flak

Missiles are long ranged weapon systems notable for having the lowest potential damage in the game, but dealt in a delayed burst. This makes them especially bad against large numbers of defenseless targets, due to the inability to multi-target.



Damage

Missiles deal 5.41-28.1 damage per combat phase per pound if you have 100% accuracy.

This damage is notable in that it is far higher accuracy than other weapons and is delayed until the end of a combat phase.



It Takes:

About 55-11 Pounds of Missiles to take out 1 CP of base health, after defenses - in a single phase.



Defending against Missiles

Missiles are beaten by Flak.



Currently, the mechanisms behind flak are not well understood. Flak consistently seems ahead of missiles ability to evade it, though missiles and flak also seem to scale oddly. Evasion/Accuracy per pound increases very marginally, meaning that many low-grade missiles may be an effective counter to high-grade flak, from an industry cost perspective. This also means that anti-missile/pro-missile battle cards may be much more meaningful than they first appear. An artifact of the all-or-nothing appearances of missiles.



This all means it takes Approximately 80% of the opponent's weight of Missiles, if you have equivalent flak. This rate may only marginally drop per level of flak, making it a tech which may function against missiles of a much higher level.



Missiles may have a natural critical hit chance. Overall, missiles function very differently than other weapons. Their main advantage may well be that they are not countered by deflectors, which come with the ever popular beam defense. Flak is, in fact, the farthest defense from the beam tree.





Beams and Shields

Beams are the all-rounder weapons of the game. Generally speaking they seem to be the best at the moment because of their ability to function at long range, and how they interact with their defense - shields.



Damage

Beams deal between 8.88-42 damage per combat phase per pound if you have 100% accuracy.

Realistically you can expect somewhere closer to 80% of this during early phases.



It Takes:

About 42-9 Pounds of Beams to take out 1 CP of base health, after defenses - in a single phase. Note that the early level is a higher than base tech.



Defending against Beams

Beams are beaten by Shields.



Currently, it is believed that shields subtract their absorption from the total damage they take from each of the four volleys.

Shields are rated for approximately 90% of their average damage of their equivalently researched beam. Usually the minimum damage value.

This means it takes Approximately 88% of the opponent's weight of Beams if you have equivalent shields.



Beams naturally dance on the edge of their defense, often outperforming it in many situations. This, combined with their ability to function at long range means that they are usually the preferred weapon of players. This might be less true, but due to the higher lethal nature of combat the first phase is often the last. Combat rarely goes to the third in actual battles.



Summarizing Offense-Defense Relations

Kinetics

Beaten by deflection. Would have the highest damage potential if combat actually got to close range.

Missiles

Beaten by flak. Has the highest accuracy, but fires in massive volleys giving it huge multi-targeting issues.

Beams

Beaten by shields. The only weapon to realistically beat its defense type in good conditions, with equivalent values. Functions well in medium range and well enough in long range.



In the future:

Ship Classes

Ground Combat

Hero Interactions

There are an extremely small number of mods which are percent based. Not enough, IMHO, to base a large ship strategy upon. Which percent based mods do you find to be especially useful?

I don't know about you, but in my game, I have both flat and percentile HP increase mods, as well as both flat and percentile HP repair mods.

TheBoz wrote:
To increase the HP of a Badassanaught by 10%, you install just one module. To increase the HP of ten Mininauts by 10%, you need one module on each ship.

I am not sure I understand this point. Modules increase the hitpoints by a constant, not a percent. So if you have a 1000 HP large ship and you install a defense module with a value of 10, that is a 1% increase. Installing the same module on a destroyer with 200 HP is a 5% increase. *If* what you said is true, then large ships would be better. But that is not the way the current game works.

Why larger = better:

You waste a lower % of total space to get the same/better benefits of support equipment. To increase the HP of a Badassanaught by 10%, you install just one module. To increase the HP of ten Mininauts by 10%, you need one module on each ship. Ditto for defense. A small ship with 100 in a particular defense is less tanky than a large ship with the same 100 in the same defense because the larger ship has more HP. Furthermore, the larger ship has more space left over for weaponry because all module sizes are absolute. The price increase of hull in respect to size is linear.

Why beams > missiles:

They're deadly at the long range phase, and they have a chance to kill missile ships before they fire. Furthermore, the tactics card of beams can negate tactics cards of missiles, but not the other way around.

Why beams > guns:

Beam research = armor research. Armor counters guns. Beams kill gun ships before gun ships get into optimal range. Gun ships have an easily counterable tactics card, and you KNOW that, in order to win, the enemy must use it.

There's been a lot of investigation and work on fleet composition and combat over here /#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14004-attrition-combat-the-defenseless-destroyer-rush-why-and-how-to-address-it and the evidence gathered and conclusions drawn agree with the original posts.



Testing, experience, and theory all seem to bear out that an all-destroyer strategy using beams has so many advantages that it plows over the obvious alternatives like a runaway freight train. Uses for cruisers and dreadnoughts have been theorized, but practical testing of said theories to my knowledge hasn't been done. Beams mainly are favored for being deadly in the longrange phase, as few combats survive to melee when high-offense ships are in play. It's also important to note that it's very easy to 'lose the battle, win the war' against larger and more advanced enemies, so long as your total production lost is lower than theirs. Losing an average of 3 destroyers (or even 4 or 5 obsolete/cheaply built destroyers) to kill one dreadnought is probably a positive trade for you, even if you then "lose" the battle.



From a strategic view, the destroyer rush requires minimal technology investment compared to its effectiveness, can be kick-started as a corvette rush practically out of the starting gate, and very strongly synergizes with the Hissho race in particular. "Early rush" strategies tend to be dominant in multiplayer 4X games in general and not much is rushier than just getting level 2 or 3 beams, and then unleashing enormous flocks of bird-piloted space corvettes/destroyers on a peaceful and unsuspecting galaxy.

maceman wrote:
now should do a breakdown of what is the optimized weaponry research path

I sincerely hope there won't be any optimized weapon path in the final product.

now should do a breakdown of what is the optimized weaponry research path