Stellaris Dev Diary #18 - Fleet Combat

[sesn]

Metztli: "Paradoxian fans will probably hate me but why the player should have so little "power" during the combat phase ? Why not Stellaris be the first Paradox game that will offer a Total War style of combat or something simillar or anything more involving than just watch and chose to flee or not ?"

Well, TW might be a bit over the top, but maybe some buttons ready to press along the lines of "Breakthrough Attack", "Defence Formation", "Skirmish Tactics" were you can designate the basic tactic that your fleet should follow during specific parts of the battles could have been nice.

Edit: I deleted the first part: Where have I messed up with the formating?

 

[grandad1982]

I know you said that the weapons in the DD are just examples but I'm hoping for a great variety. One of my favorite old space games was Ascendancy and I loved the different weapons http://www.b-sting.nl/ascendancy/ships-weapon.html.

hmmm I wonder if Ascendancy os on GOG....

 

[TheDungen]

How about ramming and 'ships' that physically attack other ships. Someone said space krakken, that kind of thing.

No torpedoes? I mean... ;_;

What's the diffrence between a missile and a torpedo?

 

[Tim_Ward]

The evasive stance will try to avoid combat and the fleet will leave a system if a hostile arrives.

I do hope it's not quite as naive as that; I wouldn't want my non-combat fleets to all leave a relatively safe system full of war fleets just because a couple of hostile ships showed up in system to do some scouting.

 

[Zwirbaum]

Does combat include excessive dice rolling like in EU4? I really hope it does not.
"Hey look, just lost the whole war, because my general rolled 5 zeroes in a row!"

You rarely lose the war, just because of few bad rolls. You should aim, to be in position where no bad rolls can actually threaten you.

 

[grandad1982]

I do hope it's not quite as naive as that; I wouldn't want my non-combat fleets to all leave a relatively safe system full of war fleets just because a couple of hostile ships showed up in system to do some scouting.

I agree it should be based on relative strength (estimated or actual) or whether the ships are actually behaving threateningly towards you.

 

[DeveronMagi]

btw can i just say that i LOVE the ship designs in the 3 screenshots?

and another question to the Devs: you said we can be attacked by mutliple fleets at ones, we know that fleets them selves have a command limit. but is there something in place (like attrition in EU4) to make sure that we dont get super stacks of multiple fleets?

 

[BTAxis]

From what's written here it does seem a little pedestrian, with battles turning out more or less as spreadsheet calculations. This being a Paradox grand strategy game you'd think there's ample opportunity for a wide range of combat mechanics involving distance, formations, maneuvers, fancy weapon behaviors, misleading the enemy, etc etc. The stuff you see in military sci-fi. Things that will let players make up stories about a battle that go beyond "we fought and our DPS proved greater than theirs".

 

[CassCD]

Well, TW might be a bit over the top, but maybe some buttons ready to press along the lines of "Breakthrough Attack", "Defence Formation", "Skirmish Tactics" were you can designate the basic tactic that your fleet should follow during specific parts of the battles could have been nice.

That could be what the combat computers are for.

 

[TheDungen]

I do hope it's not quite as naive as that; I wouldn't want my non-combat fleets to all leave a relatively safe system full of war fleets just because a couple of hostile ships showed up in system to do some scouting.

I'm guessing it's D minus zero, the zeroeth days of hostilities, under no circumstances engage the 'enemy'. Kind of what the humans should have done at the onset of Babylon5.

 

[Haldan]

How about ramming and 'ships' that physically attack other ships. Someone said space krakken, that kind of thing.



What's the diffrence between a missile and a torpedo?

This might be what you're looking for...

These computers range from making your ship super aggressive, and basically charge the enemy

It does say basically however, and it might not mean charge as in dive in bow first and cleave them in two, but rather just a very offensive offense.

 

[zukodark]

The evasive stance will try to avoid combat and the fleet will leave a system if a hostile arrives. Civilian fleets have this stance on per default. Aggressive stance will actively make your fleet attempt to attack any hostile that enters the same system as them. Passive stance will, like the name suggest, make your fleet only engage in combat when enemies are within weapon range.

Is there any version of evasive stance where they will rather return to you nearest planet, instead of leaving the system? It would be painful to have to manually tell your civilians to go back to your planets.

 

[MirEgal]

The combat might be off-hand, but you can still indirectly affect how each individual ship will behave. When you design your ship you may specify what combat computer to use on the ship. These computers range from making your ship super aggressive, and basically charge the enemy, or be really defensive and keep formation. At the start of the game only the default combat computer is available, but more are unlocked through normal research or reverse engineering.

I really like this idea! I especially like the mention of formation.

Does this mean it is possible for me to design a fleet like this?

• Slow, weakly armored ships with massive firepower (aka artillery) in the back
• Fast hunters in the front which should attack artillery
• Medium ships protecting my artillery from the hunters
• and so on

 

[EntropyAvatar]

Does the player design strike craft or are they built using fixed rules (e.g. "fighter always use best beam weapon")? Are strike craft automatically replaced after battle, require repairs to be replaced or require new strike craft to be manufactured? Do strike craft on existing ships upgrade when new weapons are acquired?

 

[Wuddel]

Interesting screenshots. There seem to be differences between ships with traditional turrets, and ones where the gun is fired longitudinal to the ship.

 

[EntropyAvatar]

How does armor damage reduction work? Is it a percentage reduction in damage or subtracting damage from each hit?

 

[crowdemon]

Looking forward to play the game.

 

[EntropyAvatar]

While it is common in space games to have armour protect again kinetic weapons, in terms of physics, it's a bit backwards. It would be very hard to make an armor-piercing laser since you basically have to vapourize the armor layer-by-layer and plasma from the previously-vapourized layers tends to get in the way. On the other hand, once kinetic speeds reach high enough, it would be very hard to armor a ship again kinetic strikes. The kinetic damage arrives all in one instant and molecular bonds aren't strong enough to deflect high-speed impacts. However, if a species has some influence over gravity, some sort of shield to deflect projectiles seems plausible.

 

[PhroX]

Missiles weapons are space-to-space missiles armed with nuclear warheads. Missiles have excellent range, but they are vulnerable to interception by point-defense systems.

Just nuclear warheads? What about bomb-pumped lasers? How am I supposed to launch a proper Manticore Missile Massacre without them?

 

[prismaticmarcus]

release the game

release the hounds...