what's ground combat like now?

[Theodidactus (OP)]

I can't find a single localized place that discusses ground combat rules as they work in modern aurora. Am I missing something? Everything appears outdated or fragmentary.

[GreatTuna]

I'll try to list everything I know about ground combat.

1. It is done in 5-day intervals, like construction cycle.
2. Either side has a "lose unit" chance, it is dependent on attackers and defenders strength (or combat ratio). Chance is 10.00% for combat ratio 1.0 (attacker and defender have equal strength).
3. I'm not sure about this part, but I think that "lose unit" roll is performed for every unit, and if (un)successful unit takes damage to the Readiness.
4. Taking Readiness damage also sometimes results in decreasing (very rarely increasing, probably depends on Determination of race) Morale.
5. Unit strength is proportional to Readiness and Morale, and is increased by Ground Combat Bonus of the officer.
6. Morale of unit increases beyond 100 slowly if unit is assigned to the HQ.
7. Combat Engineers have double strength when attacking\defending PDCs. Marines have double strength when attacking ships\PDCs. Construction Brigade acts as construction factory, and is used for recovering ruins. Replacement Battalions are actually replacing their fallen comrades: "healing" other units damages them.
8. AFAIK Units recover themselves, but they do so VERY slowly: at rate of 1 Readiness per month.

[Theodidactus (OP)]

yeah, I've been slowly assembling the rules just by doing forum searches, but I can't find information on, for example
1) how a unit with 75% readiness differs from a unit with 100% (I know at 40% they can't attack anymore)
2) what morale does
3) what happens to boarding parties after they capture a ship
4) many specific details for example the rough way to estimate victory in a particular encounter.

Now partially it's fun not to know because it makes my coming battle seem more like an actual ground war (could really go either way) but at the same time, I'd like to be able to understand a bit about whether my invasion force is going to be overwhelmingly devastating or going on a suicide mission.

[GreatTuna]

1. Unit with 75% readiness is 25% weaker than unit with 100% readiness.
2. Increases\decreases strength.
3. They stay in the ship until you unload them somewhere.
4. Rough way to estimate victory? Look at combat ratio: if it's 2+ (your forces are at least two times as stronger), you will win.
Ship capture is completely unpredictable though: crew is going out slowly, and if marines are damaged, they are damaged a lot.

Now partially it's fun not to know because it makes my coming battle seem more like an actual ground war (could really go either way) but at the same time, I'd like to be able to understand a bit about whether my invasion force is going to be overwhelmingly devastating or going on a suicide mission.

Oh well, you want to know whether you'll win before actually engaging in combat.
IIRC ground forces emit signature, which makes it possible to detect them and evaluate their strength.
For ship capture, 1 full MC per 20000 ton is relatively safe.

[alex_brunius]

For ship capture, 1 full MC per 20000 ton is relatively safe.

Until you try to capture their troop transport ship... 

[Theodidactus (OP)]

1. Unit with 75% readiness is 25% weaker than unit with 100% readiness.
2. Increases\decreases strength.
3. They stay in the ship until you unload them somewhere.
4. Rough way to estimate victory? Look at combat ratio: if it's 2+ (your forces are at least two times as stronger), you will win.
Ship capture is completely unpredictable though: crew is going out slowly, and if marines are damaged, they are damaged a lot.

Oh well, you want to know whether you'll win before actually engaging in combat.
IIRC ground forces emit signature, which makes it possible to detect them and evaluate their strength.
For ship capture, 1 full MC per 20000 ton is relatively safe.

A lot of this is ambigious, which i realize is what's going to happen when the explanations are quick. 25% weaker how? More likely to be destroyed? Less likely to inflict damage?
Same with "strength"...does that mean it's less able to damage units its attacking or defending against?...less likely to be destroyed? both? by how much? So when you say "2 times stronger" do you mean 2 times more TOTAL attack value added together? what if all my units attack one of theirs? what if my units have lower morale?

What I'm saying is that there are pages with explicit formulas on them on both the wiki and this forum (So a player could do the math and figure this out), but all are pretty old, and they don't match up with a lot of changes and additions. Has anyone put together a fact sheet recently?

[GreatTuna]

Has anyone put together a fact sheet recently?

Nope, sorry.

"25% weaker" is "25% percent less strength", which respectively means that unit will have lower chance to inflict damage and higher chance to take damage.
However, ground combat is calculated based on sum of attackers forces versus sum of defenses forces. Which means that you cannot attack single unit, you are only able to attack entire army.

Yes, by "strength" I meant ATK and DEF values. Low morale and readiness lowers these values.

Yes, by "two times stronger" I meant that your total ATK value should be two times bigger that enemy's total DEF value.

If your units have lower morale, they'll just fight worse.

Ground combat is random, it doesn't have explicit formulas aside from simple ones, like

ATK = BASE_ATK * BONUS * (READINESS / 100) * (MORALE / 100) * GCB

where BASE_ATK is base attack strength of the unit, based on unit itself and ground forces strength research
BONUS is 2 when marines attack ship\PDC or when combat engineers attack PDC, 1 for other cases
READINESS is readiness, MORALE is morale, and GCB is ground combat bonus (5% bonus = 1.05 GCB, 25% bonus = 1.25 GCB)

DEF = BASE_DEF * BONUS * (READINESS / 100) * (MORALE / 100) * GCB

where BASE_DEF is base defence strength of the unit, based on unit itself and ground forces strength research
BONUS is 2 when combat engineers defend PDC, 1 for other cases

COMBAT_RATIO = ATK_TOTAL / DEF_TOTAL   
(if attacking)
COMBAT_RATIO = DEF_TOTAL / ATK_TOTAL
(if defending)

where ATK_TOTAL is sum of attackers ATK values
and DEF_TOTAL is sum of defenders DEF values

UNIT_LOSS_CHANCE = 10.00% / COMBAT_RATIO

And they're not even real formulas, I made them based on what I know.

[Garfunkel]

If you have 3-way combat, each segment is resolved individually, even if two of the participants are allied.

For example, USSR and China invade USA. First, Aurora compares USSR total attack against USA total defence, makes the rolls, applies damage. Then it compares USA total attack against USSR total defence, makes the rolls, applies damage. Secondly, Aurora compares China attack against USA defence, and so on. This means that each attacking faction must have strength 2+ higher than the defender or risk committing suicide. Thus there is no point in a weaker ally to try to help their friend invading a stronger enemy.

Better way to do this is to use SM to temporarily transfer the weaker ground forces to the ally to use in the attack.

Hope that makes sense - I found this out in a pseudo-community game where it nearly ruined the army of one of the players.

[Sharp]

Shouldn't this stuff be on the wiki?

[Theodidactus (OP)]

yeah that was sorta my question.
I don't want to see lazy like "someone else type it up!" but I can't cause I don't know how the system works well enough to explain it.
I'm starting to get a feel for it by simply watching a catastrophic ground war that has slaughtered millions.



The incomplete nature of aurora is part of its charm and this is one of the natural consequences.