This document describes the order of battle (OOB) as implemented
in PHost. Our battle order is similar in spirit to the HOST 3.20
OOB, but not identical.
After movement is complete, ships which end up on the same
position in space can engage in combat. Since combat always happens
between two units (two ships, or a ship and a planet), we must
establish an order in which ships fight, if there are more than
two. You can affect that order for your own ships.
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Here are some basic rules concerning who will fight. More
details are below in the phase descriptions:
- Fuel-less ships cannot attack.
- Fuel-less ships cannot be attacked (except by planets with
friendly code NUK).
- You will attack all enemy ships when you have mission
Kill. You can choose to attack only one
race by selecting them as Primary Enemy (and not using
the kill mission). If you have neither the Kill mission, nor a
Primary enemy, you will not attack anyone. You'll still defend
yourself when attacked. You cannot attack players whom you have
offered a combat level alliance.
- Cloaked ships cannot be attacked.
- Cloaked ships can attack other ships if so configured
(AllowCloakedShipsAttack), but cloaked ships cannot
attack planets.
- Objects with matching friendly
codes do not attack. Remember that special friendly codes
never match.
Once PHost has determined what units will fight at a particular
place, it will sort the list according to battle order
values. You can choose battle order values for your units by
using (numeric) friendly codes.
- If your friendly code consists of only digits, that's the
battle order value. This can be used to enter values between 000
and 999.
- The friendly code can also start with a minus sign, yielding
values between -99 and -00.
- A planet with ATT or
NUK will have a battle order value of
zero.
- Planets with other non-numeric friendly codes have a value of
1001 if they have defense posts, 1003 if they have none.
- Ships with non-numeric friendly codes have a value of 1000 if
they have weapons, 1002 if they don't.
When two units have the same battle order value, the one with
the lower Id number fights first. When a ship and a planet with
the same Id number and the same battle order value fight, the ship
fights first.
Examples:
Friendly Code |
Numeric Value |
Rules |
001 |
1 |
(rule 1) |
010 |
10 |
(rule 1) |
01a |
1000 |
(rule 5) |
10b |
1000 |
(rule 5) |
a10 |
1000 |
(rule 5) |
oof |
1000 |
(rule 5) |
5ia |
1000 |
(rule 5) |
5o9 |
1000 |
(rule 5) |
-13 |
-13 |
(rule 2) |
-09 |
-9 |
(rule 2) |
-a5 |
1000 |
(rule 5) |
-3* |
1000 |
(rule 5) |
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Combat consists of two major phases: Intercept Attack
("XA"), and the Aggressor/Opponent Phase, also known as
"normal combat".
The intercept attack phase is only run when enabled in the
configuration (AllowInterceptAttack). During intercept
attack, ships which reach their intercept target attack their
target. A ship must fulfill all of the following conditions to be
considered for intercept attack:
- The ship must have a valid Intercept
mission.
- The ship must have a cloaking
device.
Only cloak-capable ships can do Intercept
Attack. The ship will not - and in fact, can not - cloak during
the intercept.
- The ship must have fuel. Ships without fuel cannot attack.
- The ship must have a primary enemy setting which matches the
intercept target.
- The ship must not have offered a
combat level alliance to the target.
Friendly codes must not match.
The intercept target must satisfy these conditions so you can
attack it:
- The target must have fuel. Ships without fuel cannot be
attacked.
- The target must not be cloaked. Cloaked ships cannot be
attacked.
Interceptors are processed in the correct Order of Battle. When
two ships intercept the same target, the one with the lower
battle order value attacks first.
(v3.4b:) In PHost 3.4a and below, as well as in HOST,
intercept attack does not honor battle order. Instead, ships fight
in order of decreasing interceptor Id.
Remember that Intercept Attack is only available for
cloak-capable ships. Most ships cannot do
Intercept Attack.
Most combat happens in the Aggressor/Opponent phase. During this
phase, the following happens:
- Find an aggressor. This will use
battle order values.
- A ship must have the Kill mission
or a Primary Enemy to become an aggressor. It must have fuel.
- A planet must have the ATT or
NUK friendly code to become an
aggressor.
- Find an opponent for this aggressor. This will again
check all ships (and the planet, if any) in
battle order.
- The aggressor cannot fight units whom he has offered a
combat level alliance. Likewise, two
combatants will not fight when they have
matching friendly codes.
- If the aggressor has no Kill mission, the opponent must
be of the race indicated by the aggressor's Primary Enemy.
- Planets cannot attack Klingons and Rebels
(PlanetsAttackKlingons,
PlanetsAttackRebels), and they cannot attack
Assault ships (i.e., the Super
Star Destroyer; AllowImperialAssault).
- Fuel-less ships can only be attacked by planets using the
NUK friendly code. Fuel-less Bird Men
ships with weapons cannot even be attacked by these planets.
- A cloaked ship cannot attack planets.
- You cannot attack cloaked ships, except when
they have set their primary enemy to your race.
- Perform the battle between aggressor and opponent. Note that
PHost will assign sides on the VCR randomly, so you can't tell
from the battle alone who was the aggressor. This is unlike HOST
where the aggressor will always be on the right side.
- If the aggressor survives, try to find another opponent
(return to step 2).
- If the aggressor got killed or captured, or when all opponents
have been exhausted, find another aggressor (return to step 1).
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This document is maintained by The Portable Host Project
(support@phost.de).
Last updated 29 December 2003.