-- Combat

[Lehmund]

Combat

Take the defensive, take from others, or burn it all. Either way, it’s war.


Attacking a ship

To attack a ship, you and the target vessel must be in the same sector. All pilots within the same sector as you are listed as colored capsules in the middle bottom of GUI. From this list, click the individual you want to attack and a menu will prompt you to choose Trade (if its a PC) or Combat (both PC and NPC). Some nominal info on the ship selected is provided, notably its Power (the amount of Fighters it has currently). Selecting Combat will change the UI to combat mode for both of you, showing you and your allies on the left and your opponents on the right. The screen shows all Captains, planets and Aliens currently involved in the battle (other ships can enter the battle with you or against you while this one is active.) In order to change targets during the battle, you only need to click on the ship or planet images in space.

When the Combat starts, all involved players are LOCKED in.

There are three ways to resolve a combat: 1. Destroy your opponent(s), 2. You Evade them and leave. 3. Your opponent(s) Evade and leave the sector.

You may shoot Fighters (each ship shoots different amouns and have different offensive ratios denoting their ability to fight.) by pressing either the Use All or Use button located beside the Fighter Bay weapon that pops up in a window. Make sure you select a target first though. Fighter Bays take two (2) seconds to reload then they shoot again on their own until you turn the Bay off by clicking once more. If you destroy your target, the leftover Fighters come back to your ship. If not, then you may continue Using your weapons until you have no Fighters left or the enemy is destroyed or you abandon the combat.

Be aware that the defender, if online, WILL defend himself or try to flee the combat. Be also aware that all computer controlled vessels (NPCs) will counterattack with their own wave whenever you make an attack as well.

To EVADE combat, you need to click on a directional arrow (or wormhole) you want to evade to and you, your ship and crew will do their best to execute, but it isn't guaranteed. Faster ships facing slower ships have a better chance at Evasion (the higher their Evade rating, the easier it is for them to evade and to prevent other's evasion). When selecting Evade and fail, two things happen: 1. Your weapons go into cooldown mode (2 secs) so you can't use them if you fail. 2. Your Evade goes into cooldown too for a number of seconds = to your ships Turns per warp. If you succeed in Evading, you will move to whatever sector you chose to go to. However, due to the combat, you and your opponent are "targeted" to each other (see Players List) so if your opponent chases you correctly, it may trigger combat once more.

Towed ships normally cannot be attacked or claimed, but they are not safe anywhere, so don't leave them unattended, even in Fedspace or you may lose it.

In order to defeat a player or NPC, the attacker must overcome the defending player’s fighters and shields. When attacking, it is crucial to take into account the offensive and defensive ratios of your ship and the defender’s ship, respectively. Once a player’s fighters and shields are depleted in battle, their ship is destroyed. The overwhelmed player will immediately eject into an escape pod and warp to StarDock, where he'll get a beat up a naked Scout Marauder to keep playing (at least for the first 20 odd times, after which the feds will leave you in your Pod instead.) The Defender, if destroyed will lose 20% of his carried Credits and the attacking player gains that amount.

Example of a Battle:
Attacker: Blackbeard Ship: Havoc GunStar Fighters: 400 Offensive ratio: 1.2
Defender: BigBib Ship: Scout Marauder Fighters: 200 Shields: 100 Offensive Ratio: 2.0

1. Blackbeard attacks BigBib while he's offline. The Havoc has Waves of 1000 Fighters, so it will send what it can, the full 400.
2. The strength of the attack is 1.2 * 400 Fighters = 480
3. BigBib is offline, but his ship defends with 2.0 * 200 Fighters power = 400
4. Blackbeard's 480 power beats BigBib's 400 power by 80 points. BigBib lost all his Fighter screen
5. 80 power from Blackbeard's Havoc hit the Scout's Shields at 2.0 * 100 Shields = 200 power
6. BigBib's Scout shields absorbed the Havoc's firepower and has 200-80 = 120 left.
7. The Scout Marauder now has 120/2.0 = 60 Shields left. Phew it survived the attack.
8. Blackbeard has no Fighters left to attack, but gained some Experience and got some negative alignment (BigBib had a healthy positive alignment). Blackbeard could get some more Fighters to finish the job before BigBib comes online...

In the event of victory, an attacker is rewarded with 20% of the credit’s their opponent is carrying at the time of combat. Two individuals that enter combat are immediately logged as Enemies in the Players list of the other captain and vice versa.

Experience and Alignment: Destroying a player's ship yields 5% bonus experience points based on the target's experience total (he loses 10% of his exp) and gain/lose the opposite amount of 5% alignment (i.e. if target is Good, alignment is a negative 5% loss, if target is Evil, then you gain 5% of his alignment). In either case, the target either gains/loses 7% alignment


Attacking a planet

Combat with an enemy planet typically begins when a player clicks on the planet in question and clicks on Attack (or perhaps the defender has defences that also initiate combat with you before that). There may be Fighters in high orbit, shields of the planet, a sector-based quasar cannon and other buildings providing additional resistance as well as Defences providing a last line of defence. Assuming these obstacles can be overcome and the defenses on the planet surpassed, the world will be yours to claim if you manage to reduce the amount of Defenses to 0 on the planet. A Claim button will be available for you, and you shall gain whatever buildings were constructed and inherit a loyal population that will serve you out of cheer or fear. However, depending upon the structures built on a planet’s surface, the chore of conquering can range between a variety of difficulties.

In essence, depending on the buildings on planet, defense ratio can range from 1.2 (naked Earth-like Colony) to 1.9 (Shielded Gas planet). The penetration power of your Fighter waves depend entirely on this ratio. Counterattacks can come from the planet's Combat Control Computer on Defensive (at a 1.5 ratio), and the Quasar Cannon (at a 1.0 ratio) right after your wave goes through (in that order). Additionally, since this is an action that provokes a response from other planets/Outpost (and the target too) for those buildings set on Attack mode (Sector attack), you may get additional damage. Scout ahead to make sure you don't get blown up on entry alone into the sector, not to mention the veritable barrage you can sustain trying to tackle a well-defended sector. A Photon Missile can help... and allies or corpies. Thankfully, planets are slow so its entirely likely you can Evade a planetary cluster without getting hit to start.

Once you have Claimed a planet, you can, as an option, use the Atomic Detonator Item to obliterate the planet, and its occupants from existence. Review the Atomic Detonator's description for more details.

Experience: Currently no experience is given for claiming someone's base.

Alignment: No alignment change occurs when you blow up planets, no matter how populated it is. Makes you think about how much the Federation cares for colonists in deep space huh?


Defending sectors

To defend a sector against intruders or attack, its recommended that an array of Mines and Outposts be scattered throughout your empire. The mines will discourage scouts and merchant ships from approaching your stronghold. For larger empires, positioning Outposts in bottleneck locations or near wormholes is an excellent way to seal off multiple sectors. Outposts, because they are in space directly, are very quick to react so are great to keep ships in a heavily defended sector and at least getting a shot in before the ship can Evade away from harm.

Keep in mind that sector defenses are temporary; what may scare away the casual by-passer is merely an annoyance against stronger adversaries. Any dedicated player can disrupt your minefields and demolish the Fighters in your outposts, or just bypass them, so relying purely upon these simple defenses is not enough. The best defense available in TradeWars Rising is a good planet. The more the merrier, in fact. Each developed world provides a continuous stream of Fighters and Resources, and accompanying structures like the Combat Control Computer and the Quasar Cannon only give further incentive to develop a throng of these strongholds. Planets are the absolute best weapons in the game; do not ignore these powerful creations. Buildings such Citadels and Planetary Shields add to a planet's defence ratio.


Attacking NPCs

NPCs follow the same rules as everything else. They have Fighters, Shields etc... Some may attack, some may not. Most move around randomly or in patterns. You must learn how to deal with each type of behavior on your own to succeed in the game.

Selecting Combat with an NPC, similar to a player vs player combat will lock you into it with the option to destroy the NPC or Evade. If you fail to Evade however, the NPC WILL shoot you as you are an agressor.

Also any NPC found in the Tradewars(R) Rising universe is carrying Credits that can be salvaged from a wreck, has Experience and Alignment, just like any players. However, their ships normally aren't equipped with Escape Pods. This means, destroying these ships means defeat for the Captains. If you are able to do this, you will receive an appropriate amount of Credits, Experience and Alignement change for your trouble (Ex: a Jinbadi Assault Trader's destruction will give you a limited amount of Credits, some Experience and an Alignment increase, while a Federation Starship will give you.... many more Credits, Experience and lots of negative Alignment (do it to find out the exact numbers. )).