Space combat

So I understand there was some space combat, including capships, the other day.

How do people like the new system? I have only tested it with dinky little trainer fighters with no maneuvering at all.

It works very well so long as everyone pays attention and stays on top of things. There is no +turn.

I found that the fight breaks off into a bunch of little "mini fights" which basically amount to 1 on 1 battles, and you pose as soon as your enemy poses. Lots of room to get messed up, especially if there is a 2 on 1, and there is also the issue of two fast posers resolving their fight 4x as fast as everyone else and then piling on the others who are still on pose 1 or 2 of their fight.

I think some form of +turn needs to be added. Other than that the space fighting is awesome and virtually flawless!

As for maneuvering, dont get your hopes up . It still amounts to closing to range and trading +shoots until 1 person blows up.

Gulp said something today about Enhanced Space Combat? What was added?

Pretty sure the enhanced space combat that Gulp was putting in a couple days ago just fixed some stuff regarding how the map will display your ship if you are in the same square as other ships. But cant swear to it!

No, it's more enhanced than that.

It changes the behavior of combat so that starfighter combat feels more like a high-stakes dogfight, and capship combat feels more like a grinding slugging-match between two titans.

The commands for fighter combat didn't change, but some commands were added for capship combat which will be added to +Help soon. Most significantly:

+maneuver - When an enemy ship attacks you, you can either maneuver to improve your defensive posture, or maneuver to set yourself up for a more effective attack on your next turn. Crew member: PILOT

+counterfire - When a starfighter attacks you, you can try to disrupt its attack with a well-placed series of weapon shots. Crew member: GUNNERY

+deflect - When a ship attacks you, you can try to "catch" its attack on your shield, averting damage to your hull. Thus, even when your shields are nearly down, you can still squeeze some damage resistance out of them, sparing your delicate hull. Particularly handy vs. mass driver projectiles. Particularly dangerous vs. plasma arcs and ion cannons. Decent vs. lasers. Crew member: ENGINEER

Also, the basic behavior of the space CS changed. Most significantly: fighters have a high probability of dodging fire, while capships cannot ever dodge -- it would be dumb and look silly. However, they can maneuver in such a way as to lessen the impact of enemy fire, or increase their own fire impact.

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We will also be solving the turn dilemma in the following way:
- When a player goes, all players in DIRECT COMBAT RANGE of his ship are prompted with a list of players by ship by idle time -- in other words, the player at the top, who went least recently, should go next, unless he's idle or otherwise indisposed (say he's just watching from the bridge of the RNS Feepness). But there will be no hard-coded turn. You use your judgement with the prompter to advise you.

- It will be VERY STUPID to "clump" all your ships in a few coordinates. Yes, it lets you gang up on people. But it also leaves you dangerously exposed to indirect fire. Torpedoes and missiles do splash damage, and capships may also be able to target their weapon systems on a coordinate-spread instead of a specific location. As a result, if the Meepling Alliance has 20 fighters in combat range of each other, they will be an IDEAL target for splash damage. OUCH! I strongly advise everyone to get in the habit of leaving some space between their ships.

- A side effect of not "clumping": cinematic fights between a few ships, rather than clusterfests.