GalCiv IV: Supernova - The Combat System Discussion
GalCiv IV: Supernova - The new combat system discussion thread
Greetings. I’m making use of two particular threads as background for this one:
https://forums.galciv4.com/518716
Feedback on the new weapon system and class system » Forum Post by Halicide (galciv4.com)
The currently designed system for Supernova
I say designed because it’s not actually working correctly. But here is how it is supposed to work:
Weapons
Weapons have 4 primary characteristics:
Potential Damage
Range
Cooldown
Accuracy
Weapon type | Range | Cooldown | Base Accuracy | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Missiles [explosives] | 4500KM | 9s | 50% | Fire first but infrequently |
Beams [energy] | 1500KM | 3s | 90% | Fire second, more frequently and always hit. |
Kinetic [mass] | 500KM | 1s | 75% | Fire last but very frequently and usually hit. |
Ion [Future] | ||||
Pulse [Future] | ||||
Exotic [Future] |
To hit: Weapon rolls a 100sided die from 1 to 100. If it’s lower than the modified accuracy (base accuracy - target evasion roll) it hits.
Defenses
Each type of defense has its pros and cons as well.
Defense type | Effect |
|---|---|
Point-Defense | First line of defense. Rolls between 0 and its rating. If it is higher than the incoming attack then nothing gets in. Otherwise, it all gets in. |
Shields | Second line of defense. Damage coming in is absorbed by shileds until it reaches 0 and then passes it on to Armor. |
Armor | Armor mitigates damage. It rolls its value against the incoming damage. What isn’t mitigated goes to the hull (HP damage). |
Problems/Criticisms
These are soft mechanics. They’re more realistic but you can’t really make a strategic ounter like you could in previous GalCiv games where if a race focused on beam weapons you could counter it by focusing on shields which blocked beam.
Now, keep in mind, different weapon systems require researching up the tech tree for them. A civilization is almost never going to be equally good at all of them. Rather than a rock-paper-scissors system, I’d rather see counters involve ship designs that make use of something that targets a particular class of weapon.
Ship Classes
Ship classes are intended to setup the rules for the ship – order of attack as well as set up buffs. These are just the combat ones not including the Terror Star.
We haven’t exposed a lot of this to the UI because it’s still a work in progress.
Ship Class | Hull Type | Logistics | Rules (order of target) | Buffs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fighter | Tiny | 1 | Fighter,Bomber,Dread, BS,Cruiser,Destroyer,Frigate | Evasion +50% |
Bomber [not in yet] | Tiny | 1 | Dreadnought,Battleship,Cruiser,Destroyer,Frigate,Bomber,Fighter | Evasion +50% |
Frigate | Small | 2 | Frigate,Destroyer,Cruiser,Battlecruiser,Battleship,Dreadnought | Evasion +25% |
Destroyer [not in yet] | Small | 2 | Bomber,Fighter,Frigate,Cruiser,Battlesip,Dreadnought | Evasion +25% |
Cruiser | Medium | 4 | Cruiser,Battlesip,Dreadnought,Destroyer,Frigate,Bomber,Fighter | |
Battleship | Large | 6 | Battleship,Dreadnought,Cruiser,Destroyer,Frigate,Bomber,Fighter | Evasion - 25% |
Dreadnought | Huge | 12 | Dreadnought,Battlesip,Cruiser,Destroyer,Frigate,Bomber,Fighter | Evasion -50% |
Evasion, like Accuracy, is a dice roll.
But as you can see here, a mass of Dreadnoughts won’t do so well against a giant fleet of bombers.
Communicating this to the player
If we can’t communicate this nuance to the player, it doesn’t matter. That’s why we’re putting in so much time to iterate on this new system. It’s going to take quite a few tries before we can communicate this system to the player.
And THIS is why people used to like to join early access projects like this. Before early access got turned into a demo or a bug testing thing. Here we (you and us) can try out different things until we like what we get.