©	Order of Battle The Portable Host Version 3.2.3.5g  Jump to Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Intercept Attack (XA) Phase
• The Aggressor/Opponent Phase
• Battle Ordering
• Notes on Combat

Introduction

After the movement phase is complete, sets of ships that all occupy the same point in space can engage in combat. For a ship to engage in combat, it must not be cloaked (unless AllowCloakedShipsAttack is enabled and it has a primary enemy set) and it must have fuel (unless the AllowPlanetAttacks configuration option is enabled). If a planet occupies the same position in space, it too will participate in combat.

Combat proceeds in two phases. The first phase is known as the Intercept Attack (XA) phase, and the second phase is known as the Aggressor/Opponent phase.

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The Intercept Attack (XA) Phase

In the Intercept Attack (XA) phase, ships on an intercept mission fight the ships that they are intercepting. In order for a ship to be considered for an XA, it must meet the following criteria:

1. The ship's mission must be set to Intercept
2. The ship must have cloaking capability ( NOTE: only cloaking capability is required, the ship need not, in fact, cannot be cloaked for an XA)
3. The ship must have fuel
4. The ship must have a primary enemy setting
5. The intercept target must exist and must be of the same race as the intercepting ship's primary enemy. The intercept target must, of course, also be at the same position as the intercepting ship.

1. The ship must be fueled
2. The ship must not be cloaked
3. The ship owner is not an ally to whom the XA ship owner has granted the combat level of alliance
4. The friendly codes of the two ships do not match (remember that in PHOST, special friendly codes never match)

If there are two or more ships performing an XA mission at the same location, they will fight in the order indicated by their friendly code battle order (see below). In PHOST 3.4a and below, and in HOST, the ship with the highest ID number fights first, and combat then proceeds in decreasing order of ship ID numbers.

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The Aggressor/Opponent Phase

1. Find an aggressor
If no aggressor can be found, combat is over.


2. Find an opponent for this aggressor
A possible opponent cannot fight the aggressor if, for example, the friendly codes match, or the two combatants are allies with combat level enabled. If no opponent can be found, find another aggressor (the aggressor search is continued from where it was stopped in step 1).


3. Perform the battle between aggressor and opponent 
   
   
4. Return to step 2 if aggressor survives
The aggressor continues fighting opponents until all possible opponents for this aggressor have been exhausted or the aggressor is destroyed (or can no longer be an aggressor, if perhaps it is captured or has run out of ammo).


5. Repeat from step 1

Finding an opponent for an aggressor simply involves going through the battle order list from the beginning and choosing the first ship/planet that may fight the aggressor (i.e., it does not match friendly codes, the two ships are not allies, etc.) An aggressor will fight all possible opponents in the ship list until the aggressor is destroyed, is captured, or runs out of ammo.

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Battle Ordering

1. The ship or planet's friendly code numeric interpretation. Ships/planets with lower numeric friendly code values will fight first.
2. The ship or planet's ID number (if two or more ships/planets have the same friendly code numeric interpretation)
3. The ship precedes the planet (if both ship and planet have the same FC numeric interpretation and the same ID number)

The friendly code (FC) ordering is based upon a numeric interpretation of the FC. The rules for numeric interpretation are:

1. FC's containing only digits (0 through 9) are interpreted simply as the number itself.
2. FC's that begin with the character '-' (minus sign) and are followed by 2 digits (0 through 9) are interpreted as the negative of the number represented by the 2 digits.
3. FC's that do not fall into one of the above two categories have a numeric interpretation of 1000.

1. For a planet, if the planet's friendly code is NUK or ATT and the AllowPlanetAttacks config option is enabled, then the planet is assigned a numeric code of 0.
2. Otherwise, if the planet has at least 1 defense post, it gets a numeric code of 1001. If the planet has no defense posts, it is assigned a numeric code of 1003.
3. For ships, if the ship has any weapons and is aggressive by using Mission Kill or a Primary Enemy, it is assigned a numeric code of 1000. Armed ships that are not aggressive are assigned a numeric code of 1002. Unarmed ships (freighters) will get 1004. This is a change in version 3.2.3.5e. Previously, all armed ships got code 1000, independent from their aggressiveness, freighters got 1002.

Notes on Combat

• If a planet is destroyed (captured) in battle then its friendly code is set to a random numeric value, and it is assigned a battle order of 1003 (regardless of its new numeric friendly code). This prevents the planet from becoming an aggressor for the remainder of combat. This randomization of friendly code also happens if the planet has no ammo after a battle (for example, if it has 0 defense posts).

• If a ship finishes a battle with no offensive capability (i.e., no beams, no torps, and no fighters) then its mission (if it is Kill) and primary enemy settings are cleared and the ship can no longer be an aggressor. Its battle order, however, does not change.

• Similarly, if a ship is captured in battle then its kill mission and primary enemy settings are cleared, again preventing the ship from continuing its role as an aggressor. The battle order of the ship does not change.

• Cloaked ships with their primary enemy set to a certain race will only fight ships if they belong to that race.  Two cloaked ships will never fight each other, regardless of the primary enemy settings.

• A cloaked ship will never fight a planet.

• Two ships of the same race will never fight, regardless of the primary enemy setting.

• Special friendly codes never match. Special friendly codes include all registered and unregistered friendly codes (even if registered functions are disabled in the host configuration) as well as the special planetary friendly codes ATT and NUK.  These planetary friendly codes are considered special even if they are used by ships.

This document is maintained by The Portable Host Project (support@phost.de).