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Order of Battle
The Portable Host
Version 4.0f

Index

Introduction

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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Basic Rules

Who will fight?

Here are some basic rules concerning who will fight. More details are below in the phase descriptions:

  1. Fuel-less ships cannot attack.
  2. Fuel-less ships cannot be attacked (except by planets with friendly code NUK).
  3. 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.
  4. Cloaked ships cannot be attacked.
  5. Cloaked ships can attack other ships if so configured (AllowCloakedShipsAttack), but cloaked ships cannot attack planets.
  6. Objects with matching friendly codes do not attack. Remember that special friendly codes never match.

Battle Order

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.

  1. 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.
  2. The friendly code can also start with a minus sign, yielding values between -99 and -00.
  3. A planet with ATT or NUK will have a battle order value of zero.
  4. Planets with other non-numeric friendly codes have a value of 1001 if they have defense posts, 1003 if they have none.
  5. 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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Phases of Combat

Combat consists of two major phases: Intercept Attack ("XA"), and the Aggressor/Opponent Phase, also known as "normal combat".

Intercept Attack

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:

  1. The ship must have a valid Intercept mission.
  2. 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.
  3. The ship must have fuel. Ships without fuel cannot attack.
  4. The ship must have a primary enemy setting which matches the intercept target.
  5. 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:

  1. The target must have fuel. Ships without fuel cannot be attacked.
  2. 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.

Aggressor/Opponent Phase

Most combat happens in the Aggressor/Opponent phase. During this phase, the following happens:

  1. Find an aggressor. This will use battle order values.
  2. Find an opponent for this aggressor. This will again check all ships (and the planet, if any) in battle order.
  3. 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.
  4. If the aggressor survives, try to find another opponent (return to step 2).
  5. 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 20 March 2004.