I don't understand how combat actually works in game after looking at the xml files and messing around with values, some of it seems simple enough, other parts are very confusing. What I've concluded is that a round based system exist inside each battle phase for the purpose of missile combat. Kinetics and Lasers ignore this entire round counter. If this is indeed the case, what controls the rate of fire for weapons? I've listed below the two relevant sections I've been manipulating recently. Green are the lines that make sense, orange are the parts that need clarification but they make some sense, red are parts I don't really have a clue. Hoping maybe a dev could chime in and just clarify a few things.



It would be a happy happy day if someone could point me at the line that controls rate of fire for weapons :P













name, cost, weight & mp

dmg range

CriticMultiplier="3.0" CriticChance="0.1" Crit chance

InterceptionEvasion="66" Chance of avoiding CM (is this a %? or a a comparison with the CM values)

NumberPerSalve="1" Number of attacks each missile represents - does not increase gfx just applies a value - confirmation?

TurnBeforeReach="2" TurnToReload="1"> Very unclear, TurnBeforeReach="2", turn for the missile to reach target from launch based on round number defined per phase? TurnToReload="1" the time to wait before launch next salvo? This doesn't appear to work as expect, need clarification, or are there hardcoded limits?

Missile



Does this section control animations for each salvo? What is reflection speed? missiles have 400, lasers 1000, kinetics 1800, no idea

RateOfFire="20" NumberOfProjectilesPerSalvo="4" Only appears on kinetics, is this the delay as the kinetics are fired 20? why isn't this used for missiles, can we make it work for missiles?

Priority="100" Play Animation

BoardSideMaxDuration="1.5" Play Animation

BoardSideFireDelay="0.1">Missile delay after animation?









PlanetStrategicResourceTitanium Req to build





%ModuleWeaponMissile1Description

path to gfx?

1

















Name and duration of phase - I managed to crank this up to 1000, very different feel to the battle.



Name

%BattlePhaseFleetLongRangeDescription Description





BattlePhaseCombat

BattlePhaseModifierLongRange Modifiers effecting accuracy - refers to another line that applys % adjustment to attacks

4 Very confused, is the number of realms per phase? I thought based on the above weapon break down, that each phase is broken down into rounds, and weapons require X rounds from when fired, to when they hit the target, along with X rounds to reload. This doesn't appear to be the case when adjusting these values. Does this only apply to missiles? Is anything else effected?



No idea

No idea

There is some information in the strategy guide forum:

/#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14009-how-combat-works-a-guide-to-combat-for-arguements-and-gameplay.

/#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14003-combat-order

But it is out of date. If you find new information, please update there, since non-modders would also benefit from this information.

I will be updating my guide within a week, but current investigation indicates it is pretty accurate.



It should explain all of the effects you are wondering about. If it does not, please post a response and I will update my guide. Most of your questions are secretly about animation effects.



Did increasing battle phase duration have a mechanical effect on combat or a visual one? I wouldnt expect it to have a mechanical effect, but it might have snuck one in somewhere.

Where did you find this XML file?

All the xml are belong to us:

/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/15656-all-your-xml-are-belong-to-us

Increasing the time period of each phase resulted in multiple weapons discharges, but I couldn't seem to find any discernible pattern that I could identify.



TurnBeforeReach="3" TurnToReload="3" 1 launch per round - default settings - I actually haven't played at default in a bit could someone confirm the 1 launch per round?

TurnBeforeReach="1" TurnToReload="1" 3 launches (~1% and 23% 48%)

TurnBeforeReach="6" TurnToReload="2"> 1 launch per round <-wtf, doesn't make any sense

TurnBeforeReach="4" TurnToReload="1"> 3 launches (at ~1%, 23%, and 48% then nothing till mid range phase)



Decreasing TurnBeforeReach definitely decreases flight time... @1 missiles are hitting the shit as the next wave launches, @4 I'll have two wave in the air and a 3rd one launching as the 1st wave is impacting. I just don't understand why TurnBeforeReach="6" TurnToReload="2"> 1 launch per round happens. Nor do I understand why my launches stop after 3 waves of birds (~44%). Theoretically they should continue launching. I also don't understand why they launch at 20% and 40% instead of every 10% either.



@ 4:1 The first birds are in the air almost immediately, when they are around 75% way to their target (3 rounds of 9), the 2nd wave launches and is in the air, immediately after the 1st wave impacts with targets (4/9), as the 2nd wave reach the 75% mark (6/9) the third wave launches approximately 48% of the time remaining in the phase and the last impact is around 99% of time in the phase. <- just confirmed this last bit and it actually makes sense now,



...but I'm drawing a blank as to why the 6:2 isn't working. Feels like there is a built in timer before the next launch can occur. @6:2 the first launch would occur, then the next launch should occur at 5/9? if there is a 3 round delay + 2 round loading delay, which means the next launch couldn't hit until the next phase (11/9)? but I'm sure I've seen attacks from phases carry over, anyone confirm/deny this?



My rounds per phase are upped to 9 for each phase and my phase duration is at 60 seconds for the long range and 27.5 for mid and melee range. 27.5 is the default as it 4 for numberofrounds.

This is a very cool study. Good job! Keep it up, iblise!

davea wrote:
All the xml are belong to us:

/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/15656-all-your-xml-are-belong-to-us

Ah, of course.

Well I'm totally confused now, no idea how missiles are handled. I was messing around, and cranked up the rounds in long range to 50, and set missiles turnbeforreach to 10, then to 25 and omg the number of active missiles in the air at one time. @25 I had 13 waves of launches and @10 9 waves.

TurnsBeforeReach would be how slow the missiles move. So yes, making them slower would in fact mean that there are more of them in the air.

Alright I ended up making some excel tables to keep track of everything and I believe I have it figured out. Basically there is an extra dummy round before the next wave of missiles begins to reload. Best idea that I can come up is that the actual launch takes up an entire round and the reloading cannot begin until the launch time is over. I guess it isn't overly complicated but anyhow, I tried doing up some tables to demo this.









[TABLE="class:grid,width:256,align:center"] 1

2

Missile

3

Launch

4 Reaches Target 1



[TD="colspan:2"]END OF PHASE[/TD] 1

2

Missile

3

Launch

4 Reaches Target END OF 2

PHASE 1

2

Missile

3

Launch

4 Reaches Target

[TD="colspan:2"]END OF PHASE

[/TD] 3



[/TABLE]

[TABLE="class:grid,width:832,align:center"] 1

















2 Missile

EXTRA













3 Launch

Reload













4 Reaches Target 1

Time













5

Missile

EXTRA









6

Launch

Reload









7 Reaches Target

2

Time









8



Missile

EXTRA







9



Launch

Reload







10 Reaches Target



3

Time







11





Missile

EXTRA





12





Launch

Reload





13 Reaches Target





4

Time





14







Missile

EXTRA



15







Launch

Reload



16 Reaches Target







5

Time



17









Missile

EXTRA

18









Launch

Reload

19 Reaches Target









6

Time

20











Missile

EXTRA 21











Launch

Reload 22 Reaches Target











7

Time 23













Missile

24













Launch

25 Reaches Target













8



[/TABLE]

Stupid word count limitation /grumble. I test multiple variations on the rounds / toreach / toreload and I was always able to predict it correctly. An easy test was to increase the rounds of the phase to 26 and see if a extra launch resulted, no additional launches resulted until there was 28 rounds. Reducing the rounds to to 24, resulted in only 7 launches. Therefore missile launches will continue until there isn't enough remaining rounds for the missile to reach targets during that phase, it doesn't appear that rounds carry over between phases which results in a lull in combat. very noticable when you have multiple waves of birds in the air, only to have all launch stop around 80% of phase.



Side note, it appears the game calculates if a ship lives or dies after each launch. If launch 3 will destroy a ship on impact, that ship will cease all functions as soon as launch 4 is in the air, no matter how many rounds are left on launch 3's travel time.

Outlaw's inquires into modding defensive modules sparked my interest in determining what these lines actually did.



[code]



Kinetic







[/code]





Kinetic defines which class of weapon is effected by the InterceptionAccuracy/DeflectionPerTurn/Absorption values of the defensive module. Unfortunately, you can only set one weapon type per module, even creating a new


Basically you 'define' which class of weapon you want to be intercepted/deflected/absorbed and then define the defensive values. The WeaponClass category also defines the defensive module placement in the design screen. Unfortunately it appears to be hardcoded that when you apply a InterceptionAccuracy, the game auto applies the word X 'Intercept Accuracy on one missile per round"; for Absorption, X 'Laser Damage per Round"; and for Kinetics, X 'Kinetic Deflected per Round". It appears that Interception value is first applied, then the deflection and finally absorption... wasn't able to test conclusively.



Rather annoying that it doesn't follow the to determine appropriate text string to apply to the defensive value.

This also came up in that thread:

ThorTillas wrote:
Interception :

a projectile is intercepted when the module InterceptionAccuracy is greater than a random number between 0 and the module InterceptionEvasion multiply by the (module TurnToReach + 1)

Which explains how (in)accurate Flak is.