v2.2.0 Changes List

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

New Point Defence Mechanics

This is a long and complex post, so I have created the detailed mechanics section in Word and pasted a screenshot, rather than trying to use the more limited formatting available on the forum.

The new point defence system is based on the concept that all point defence fire in the same increment takes place simultaneously, with the exception of CIWS. Therefore all assignment of weapons to targets happens before any combat occurs. This assignment is done at the level of individual shots (not weapons) against individual missiles (not salvos). This is less efficient than the current method, which (very unrealistically) knows the results of every point defence shot before the next one takes place. Under the new mechanics, there is likely to be overkill on some missiles, while others leak through the defences.

To give the player more control over this process, you can set parameters for fire controls that dictate the order in which they assign their weapons to missile targets (point defence priority) and the number of shots they will assign to an individual missile (fire concentration). See the first screenshot for details on how these are assigned. You can also give priority to protecting different ship classes, although this is secondary to proximity when determining which friendly target to protect.

Point defence will include weapon failure chance in v2.2, which was not the case in previous versions. This means it is not a good idea to have significant overkill on point defence fire or you may be wasting maintenance supplies. For example, high cost, single-shot weapons are likely to be assigned to fire controls with low point defence priority and low fire concentration, so they only fire if the point defence network is in danger of being overwhelmed.



The second screenshot details the new point defence sequence mechanics as they function within the sequence of play.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

ECCM Change

The ECCM, Compact ECCM and Small Craft ECCM components have been removed from the game. The ECCM Tech System remains as it is now.

Beam and Missile Fire Controls have ECCM as a new Tech System design parameter. Any weapons assigned to that fire control will benefit from its ECCM rating. The size of the fire control is unaffected. The cost is 10% of the total fire control cost (without ECCM) for every level of ECCM. For example, a fire control with ECCM-3 will cost 30% more than the same fire control with ECCM-0.

ECCM on CIWS will function as before in terms of mechanics, but will no longer add 0.5 HS to the size of the component. Cost is now 5% of the CIWS fire control component per level of ECCM.

ECCM on STO weapons will function as before in terms of mechanics, but will be built into the weapon's fire control component. Cost is now 10% of the fire control component per level of ECCM.

I will probably change the way ECM works as well and the relationship between ECM and ECCM, but I will cover that in a future post.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Electronic Warfare Changes (updated)

ECM is being split into three different Electronic Warfare systems: Sensor Jammers, Fire Control Jammers and Missile Jammers.

Sensor Jammers disrupt the attempts of active sensors, including missile fire controls, attempting to detect or lock on to the target ship. Fire Control Jammers degrade the short-ranged tracking systems used by Beam Fire Controls. Missile Jammers attempt to disrupt the fire control links and onboard guidance systems of attacking missiles.

Each of the new systems is an independent tech line with ten steps, with each step having half the RP cost of the current ECM tech line. The cost per step is from 10 BP for the first to 200 BP for the last.

EW systems and ECCM are each rated from 1 to 10 (with the first tech in each tech line rated 1 and the last rated 10).

Only Ships can have EW systems in the above form. Missiles will gain a new system to be detailed in a future post. Active Sensors, Missile Fire Controls, Beam Fire Controls, CIWS, STO Weapons and Missiles can have ECCM.

When an attack is conducted by a Beam Fire Control, CIWS or STO Weapon, the ECCM strength of the Beam Fire Control is deducted from the Fire Control Jammer Strength of the target. The result is known as the ECM Penalty and cannot be less than zero.

When an attack is conducted by a Missile, the ECCM strength of the Missile is deducted from the Missile Jammer Strength of the target. The result is known as the ECM Penalty and cannot be less than zero.

For both the above cases, the Chance to Hit during the attack is multipled by (1 - (ECM Penalty * 0.2). This means the chance to hit is reduced by 20% for every point of difference between ECM and ECCM. Therefore, any attack with an ECM penalty of 5 will have a zero chance to hit. Note this is a multiplier, not the absolute deduction in v2.1.

When an Active Sensor is trying to detect a target or a Missile Fire Control is attempting to lock on to a target equipped with a Sensor Jammer, the ECCM strength of the Active Sensor or Fire Control is deducted from the Sensor Jammer Strength of the target. The result is known as the ECM Penalty and cannot be less than zero. The range of the Active Sensor or Missile Fire Control will be reduced by 20% * ECM Penalty against that target.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Missile Decoys

Missiles can no longer mount an ECM component, although they can still mount an ECCM component.

Instead, missiles can be equipped with decoys to attract AMMs and point defence fire. Each decoy requires 0.5 MSP. Missile ECM, a new tech line, represents the electronic warfare capability value of the decoys and ranges from 1 at 2500 RP to 10 at 1.2m RP.

Decoys are assumed to deploy and travel with the missile when it approaches its target, or comes under attack, although they are not displayed on the map. When a missile is attacked by an energy weapon or an AMM, a roll is made to determine the target of the attack. For the purposes of this roll, the missile has a 'weight' of 5 and each decoy has a base weight of 5. For example, a laser attacking a missile with three decoys has a 5/20 chance of attacking the missile and a 15/20 chance of hitting a random decoy.

If the ECCM of the attacking AMM or energy weapon is greater than the ECM Strength of the Missile, each decoy is given a weight of 5 - (ECCM - Missile ECM). For example, assume the ECCM advantage is 2 and there are three decoys. The missile is given a weight of 5 and the decoys are each assigned a weight of 3 each. The missile has a 5/14 chance to be hit and there is a 9/14 chance of hitting a random decoy. If the ECCM advantage is 5, any decoys are completely ignored.

When all fire for an increment is completed, any decoys that have suffered one or more hits, even from fractional warheads, will be removed. Note it would be possible for several shots targeted on a missile in the same increment to hit the same decoy, leaving other decoys unharmed.

If this sounds like a huge boost for missiles, it is. However, I also plan on adding some form of ship-deployed decoy to distract missiles, which will be much larger and more costly, but will affect all missiles heading for the parent ship. I may also add a form of fragmentation warhead to missiles, that would be ineffective against ships but able to eliminate decoys and small missiles.

I am hoping to create a situation where larger, smarter and higher tech missiles may have a better chance of inflicting damage than a swarm of small missiles. This will be a huge change so I will be doing a lot of playtesting and tweaking once all the changes are completed, possibly via a campaign with multiple player races.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Plasma Carronade Update

Plasma Carronades will now function with the same mechanics as lasers, with the following exceptions:

• There are no reduced-size versions
• They cannot be placed in turrets
• The smallest Carronade focal tech is 15 cm
• The research cost of each Carronade focal tech is half the cost of the equivalent laser focal tech
• The maximum Carronade focal tech is 100 cm, compared to 80 cm for lasers.
• There are no Carronade wavelength techs, so every Carronade has the same range modifier as Infrared Lasers.
• Carronades have a damage gradient of 1, the same as missiles.
• The cost of Plasma Carronades is double that of the equivalent Infrared Laser
• The size of Plasma Carronades is half that of the laser with the equivalent focal tech

Spinal Plasma Carronades are now possible.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Ship History

Notable ship events are now recorded and can be viewed in the History tab of the Ship view on the Naval Organization window. Ship Events include:

• Construction, Refit and Repair events
• Destruction of hostile ships
• Internal damage
• Discoveries, including ruins (geo only), constructs (geo only), jump points (grav only), new systems and habitable worlds.
• Jump points and Lagrange points stabilised (stabilisation ships only).
• Wrecks salvaged (salvage ships only).
• Assignment of officers to the ship
• Death or retirement of officers assigned to the ship
• Assigned officer awarded a medal

Events that are not recorded (to avoid cluttering the history) include mineral discoveries, destruction of missiles and destruction of ground forces, although the totals are recorded.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Multiple Warhead Missiles

Missiles can choose to divide their Warhead Strength into multiple attacks, with each attack having a damage value equal to Warhead Strength / Number of Warheads. Fractional values are allowed. For example, a warhead with a strength of 1.2 and 3 warheads would have three attacks at 0.4 damage.

The chance to hit for the missile is calculated normally and then applied to a separate attack from each warhead.

The multiple attacks will all be applied against the same target, which could be a ship, population or individual missile.

Only standard warheads can use the multiple-warheads option. Missiles with the laser-warhead option use a single warhead

The additional space required is equal to 0.1 MSP * (number of warheads - 1). The cost is equal to the additional space and requires Tritanium.

The capability is likely to be most useful for AMMs, especially against missiles equipped with decoys.

Note that this mechanic is different to using multiple second-stage missiles and alternately could be considered as a form of fragmentation warhead.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Minimum AMM Range

Missile Fire Controls can be assigned a minimum engagement range for automated AMM launches. The fire control will not launch AMMs against hostile salvos within this range.

This is set by selecting the fire control, clicking the new Min AMM Range button and entering the desired range in kilometres. This will display as part of the descriptive text for the point defence option assigned to the fire control.

This cannot be assigned to beam fire controls.

This can be used either to allow AMMs to focus on more distant targets, allowing energy point defence and CIWS to handle any leakers, or perhaps to have different types of AMM engaging inbound missiles at different ranges.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

NPR Ship Design Changes

I've removed the NPR design theme concept from v2.2 and replaced it with an expanded design philosophy. Instead of randomly selecting a design theme from a list with a fixed set of parameters, every aspect of the NPRs design philosophy is selected independently.

In practical terms, this means that NPRs will use a more broader range of design options. Ship sizes will be more varied - up to 3x the current sizes in rare cases. NPRs will use shields more often, especially higher tech NPRs. There are more potential weapon combinations and beam-heavy races may use boosted engines on warships. Each NPR will adopt a missile design strategy, such as choosing to include decoys or use laser warheads. If necessary, they will use larger missiles to support that strategy. Precursors and Invaders will have more variety in design and may use shields in some games. Finally, there are no longer a fixed set of tech progressions (from DIM_TechProgressionCategory). Each NPR will select its own tech categories based on its design philosophy, which makes adding new tech progressions much easier. I've also added more variety to operational group composition for NPRs.

Overall, the changes should make NPRs more varied opponents.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Decoy Missiles

Decoy Missiles are designed and produced in the same way as missiles. To design a decoy missile, click the Decoy Missile checkbox on the Missile Design window and enter "Decoy Strength", which is an MSP value and a replacement for warhead strength. This is the only field that matters for Decoy Missiles and the size of the Decoy Missile will be equal to the "Decoy Strength". The decoy missile also has an ECM value equal to the current Missile ECM technology.

The minimum size of a Decoy Missile is 5 MSP.

The Decoy Missile has a 'Signature' equal to its MSP * 200 tons. So a size 10 Decoy Missile would have a signature of 2000 tons. The cost of a Decoy Missile is equal to MSP * 4 BP, so a size 25 Decoy Missile would have a signature of 5000 tons and cost 100 BP. The entire cost is in Corbomite.

Decoy Missiles are launched from Decoy Launchers. These are similar to box launchers, although 1/3rd smaller for the same missile size. They are not reloadable outside a hangar. For example, a size 25 Decoy Missile would require a launcher of 2.5 HS (125 tons).

Decoy Missiles can be assigned to Decoy Launchers on the Ship Combat tab, using the normal drag and drop functionality. All Decoy Launchers are listed in their own section on the Combat View and are not linked to fire controls.

During missile movement, after point defence fire but before CIWS fire, each ship will make its own determination as to whether to launch one or more Decoy Missiles. This is based on the Decoy Threshold, which is set on the Combat View by clicking a button and entering the value. The default is 100. I will also add some functionality around a Class Decoy Threshold, that will apply as a starting Decoy Threshold for new members of that class, or be used to update all members.

If the total MSP of inbound missiles targeted on the ship is equal to or greater than the Decoy Threshold, at least one Decoy Missile will be launched. The total number of Decoy Missiles launched is equal to: Round Down (Total Inbound MSP / Decoy Threshold). If there are different types of Decoy Missiles assigned to available Decoy Launchers they will be launched in order of descending size, then order of descending ECM rating.

Any missiles that survive CIWS and successfully roll their Chance to Hit will be checked to see if they hit the Ship or one of the Decoy Missiles. The chance to hit the ship is equal to: Size Ship in Tons / (Ship Size in Tons + Total Signature of All Decoys). Multiple warhead missiles will check each warhead independently.

If an attacking salvo has ECCM greater than the ECM of the Decoy Missiles, the signature of each Decoy Missile will be equal to: Decoy Signature * (1 - ((ECCM - ECM) * 0.2)).

At the end of the missile movement phase, all Decoy Missiles will be removed.

NPRs will design ships with Decoy Missiles.

N.B.I played around with many different mechanics and UI options before deciding on the above. One option I almost implemented was a decoy missile with endurance that followed a ship until destroyed. However, that added a lot of micromanagement in terms of deploying the missiles and would also encourage a swarm of smaller missiles rather than a single, more manageable large decoy. It would also be a lot harder for the AI to make sensible decisions with those mechanics. Further to that, any persistent decoy mechanics, even with instant launch, led to similar issues around decoy swarms. I also considered manually triggering decoy missiles prior to missile movement, but that would also require micromanagement and would require information on which inbound missiles were targeting each ship. Eventually, I decided an automated chaff-style system would be the easiest to manage for both the player and the AI, while giving the player some flexibility to adapt to different situations by changing thresholds.

I may play around with some of the values, such as signature and cost, depending on playtest.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Genetic Modification

Genetic Modification is fully functional for v2.2.

You can design new species on the Create Project window in the same way as a new component, then research them as new technology. A base species is required, from which various environmental modifications are made. The base species cannot be a genetically modified species.

Available parameters include base gravity, base oxygen level, base temperature and temperature range. These can be researched and there are seven tech lines in total, with everything except temperature range having plus and minus tech lines.



A new section has been added to the bottom of the industry tab of the economics window. This shows the genetic modification capacity of the colony and allows the player to choose a researched target species that has the colony species as its base species. The process can be turned on and off in the same way as fuel or MSP production.

The process will convert the colony population into a population of the new species on the same system body. If a suitable target population does not exist, one will be created.

A new tech line, Genetic Modification Rate, affects how many colonists will be converted annually by each Genetic Modification Centre. This has a starting rate of 500k.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Ground Formation Bonuses

Ground Formation Commanders will now apply 25% of their bonuses to any formations that are:

• Within the hierarchy that exists beneath the commander's formation (unlimited levels).
• At the same population.
• Have their own commander.

This functions in a similar way to Naval Admin Commands. For example, if a formation had its own commander with a 20% bonus, a parent formation with a 25% bonus and a further level upwards with a 30% bonus, the total bonus would be 1.2 * 1.0625 * 1.075 = 37%.

The bonus for any ground commander will be reduced if the entire hierarchy under their command exceeds the HQ Rating of their formation (by HQ Capacity / Formation Size).

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Change to Tractor Rules

This is a simple change but worth noting separately.

For v2.2, a ship (or base/station) that is tractored cannot use its engines and does not use any fuel. This makes the tractor mechanics easier to understand and easier to implement and should remove a couple of bugs and edge cases.

This also means that if a towed ship is damaged, it has no effect on movement and it will not leave the parent fleet.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Ship Class Templates

v2.2 adds the concept of Ship Class templates. These templates allow you to take a class, or an individual component in that class, from one race and recreate the same class/component for any race in any game with the same database.

Templates include general information such as the class name, armour thickness, deployment time, min fuel/supplies, all priority settings, any flags such as collier, tanker, conscript, etc. plus every component used in that class, along with the tech and other information required to recreate it.

The template can be created by clicking a new button on the Class Design tab (end button on the top row).



You can view the class template on the new Class Templates tab. The top section displays basic class information. The min fuel/supplies and the priority settings are only displayed if they differ from the default.

The left-hand section lists all the components in the class, along with the number of research points required for the background research necessary to create that component and to design the component itself. The right-hand section lists the required tech systems to design the entire class, along with the research points required for each tech system, including any pre-requisite research. Known tech systems are displayed in green. In this case, no research is required because this race already built the class.



Below, a new race has been created which now has access to this template. As this race only has starting TN tech systems and has yet to do any research, the research costs for each component and tech system are listed. Also listed at the bottom are the current starting tech points for that race and two buttons that allow instant research of a tech system or component.



Clicking on a component will display in the bottom right section a list of all background research tech systems, including prerequisite tech systems, required for that component. The total will be the same as the Path RP associated with that component. Clicking on a tech system in the upper right will list all tech systems required to research it, including prerequisite tech systems.



The screenshot shows the situation after the new race selected the AK-20 weapon battery and clicked Instant Comp. 44,000 research points have been expended and the component is now available to that race. For now, the research cost of the component itself is not deducted (mainly because I don't to tend do that during setup), but I will probably add an option to include it.

As the AK-10 weapon battery uses the same tech systems, or the pre-requisite tech systems, there is no longer any Path RP associated with that component.



Instead of creating each component, you can just click Create Class and all required tech systems will be researched (and starting tech points expended) and all components will be created. As you can see below, the new class is an exact match for the Sword class of the Terran Imperium.

There is also an option to create the class using available tech, rather than researching the required tech. The game will still do the same component creation process, but will use a lower level tech system of the same type where the desired system is not available. This can lead to situations where the class is not ideal, such as a lower-tech reactor perhaps no longer having enough output for the weapons, so it will require some player adjustments. However, this is still a much faster process than designing from scratch.



If we go back to the templates tab and click the Dread Argent template, the only research required is for those tech systems and components not already researched and created for the Sword



This change should make setting up new games much faster and should also reduce the chance of missing vital tech systems during pre-game research setup. I will continue to work on this and it may be updated a little as a result of play test.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Grouping Wrecks

I've added an option for v2.2 to group wrecks in the same way as contacts, as shown below. This screenshot is the result of two alien races having a disagreement over their shared home world.