How Boarding Works, 2nd edition
GFM GToeroe
This work is based on a piece of code Tim Wisseman send to me at 2003,
Tuesday the 9th September based on host140.
It will give a detailled look into the mechanics of what happened if one
ship beams over personnel and high guards for boarding purposes to one other
ship and shows the work of boarding laser. Race limitations,
What is missing here are the mechanics of multiple boarding actions where
own ships distributes own forces among themselfes and the two hostile fleets
make beam order from and to multiple targets on the other side at different
ticks, some ships ariving from a chunnel and so on.
Nomenklatura:
P=personnel=troop, crew, colonist;
T:=troop;
Cr:=crew;
C:=colonist;
H:=high guard
E:=ship experience
"k." as prefix means "killed";
"r." as a prefix means kills ratio, i.e. relative not absolute"
".C" as suffix means combat strength
An "A" after P,T,Cr or H means attacker. This stands for the forces beamed
over
An "D" after P,T,Cr or H means defender. This stands for the forces on board
the ship that is to be boarded at the time when the boarding party arrives.
PCapA:= HA+TA+CrA+CA (The total count of the initial boarding party)
PcapAmod(i) Î {5,20,120} (boarding party modifier for normal and advanced
priv boarding laser)
r.Cr(i)Î {0.1;0.15;0.4} (relative crew losses for BL)
r.C(i)Î {0.4;0.5;0.9} (relative colonists losses for BL)
r.T(i)Î {0.15;0.2;0.5}(relative troop losses for BL)
R(i) Î {4.5;5;6} (random damage modifier for BL)
iÎ {1,2,3}
Examples:
r.C(3)=0.9
k.P=killed personnel;
k.H= killed high guards;
k.CrA= killed attacker crew
H.C=high guard combat
P.C= personnel combat strength;
TD.C= defenders troop combat strength;
P=personnel count (only one type);
T=troop count
EA=attackers ship experience
What here is regarded is a situation where one ship (the attacker)
succesfully beams over a boarding party to another ship (the defender). Also
the influence of boarding laser is
regarded and special race effects
The boarding code that is responsible for killing forces has the following
phases
0) BL (boarding laser)
1) HA killing HD, HD killing HA, ("Super duel" & "Blood bath", experience
has no influence on losses and order)
2) HA killing PD, HD killing PA, (experience has no influence on losses and
order)
3) PA killing HD, PD killing HA, (experience has no influence on losses and
order)
4) PA killing PD, PD killing PA, (Within T-T,Cr-Cr and C-C the more
experienced side begins)
where both sides attacking each other. Each phase has their own algorithm
and formula.
Before we start let's have a look on important rules that come along with
transporter activities:
1.. If defender's ship fuel is greater then 10 and ship's system damage is
29 or better(i.e. smaller) and a transport inhibitator on the defender's
ship is active then in 70% of the cases a transport to the ship with the
transport inhibitator is not succesful
2.. If the attacker neither use a boarding laser nor is he Fed nor Stormer
then he only can send a boarding party to the defender's ship if either
defender's system damage or shield damage or hull damage is greater zero or
defender's ship doesn't have shields at all or only 5 crew or less
3.. If the defender is a Fed and his ship's system, shield and hull damage
are all 49 or smaller and his ship crew is greater than one then attacker's
transport is blocked
4.. If attacker's system dammage is greater than 90 then he can't use the
transporter at all.
0) BL (boarding laser)
The rules that come along with a boarding laser are
1.. Normal inflicted hull damage is R(1)*RND + 3000/(Hull_MassD+1)
2.. BL don't work at all if defender is Xtal or Fed
3.. If attackers system damage is 50 or worse BL fail to work
4.. If attackers system damage is 49 or better and an Aczanny defender has
a activated security device then only normal hull damage will be inflicted
but no personnel losses (guessed from the code there is a check for hull
ids>=600 and <=620 and a check that look like a check for a special ship
device).
5.. Privateers have advanced boarding laser that gets an additional boost
if the attacking priv ship holds the hullplan of the defender or if defender
's and attacker's hull are the same
6.. If the BL shall kill personnel you have to beam over certain amounts
of personnel or HGs. BL alone only damages the hull.
7.. BL don't kill any HG
8.. BL kill T,Cr and C at the same time on the defender's ship.
Now the formulas:
PCapA:= HA+TA+CrA+CA (The total count of the initial boarding party)
PcapAmod(i) Î {5,20,120} (boarding party modifier for normal and advanced
priv boarding laser modes)
r.Cr(i)Î {0.1;0.15;0.4} (relative crew losses for BL)
r.C(i)Î {0.4;0.5;0.9} (relative colonists losses for BL)
r.T(i)Î {0.1;0.2;0.5}(relative troop losses for BL)
R(i) Î {4.5;5;6} (random damage modifier for BL)
iÎ {1,2,3}
The following is to be regarded as a formal code which is processed from top
to bottom:
CapA = PCapA * PcapAmod(i)
k.CrD = MAX[0;CapA;CrD * r.Cr(i)]
CrD=CrD-k.CrD
CapA=CapA- k.CrD
k.CD = MAX[0;CapA;CD * r.C(i)]
CD=CD-k.CD
CapA=CapA- k.CD
k.TD = MAX[0;CapA;TD * r.T(i)]
TD=TD-k.TD
HullDamageD= HullDamageD+R(i)*RND + 3000/(Hull_MassD+1)
i=1 is used for normal BL mode (no priv)
i=2 is used for advanced privateer BL
i=3 is used for Xactor advanced privateer BL, where the stored hull plans or
identical hull types come into play
1) HG killing HG
In words first:
If on both sides are HGs with a combat value of 200 or better then at a max
of 100 times a coin is thrown. If number comes then the defender kills one
HG of the other side with a chance of HD.C/500. If head comes then the
attacker kills one HG of the other side with a chance of HA.C/500 The coin
is thrown so long until all HGs on at least one side are killed or the coin
is thrown 100 times. This is called "High guard super duel". After this all
the remaining high guards fight together in a big blood bath causing big
losses. In the first step the defender kills five times as many HG as he has
on the attacker side. If the defender is not the Fed then in the second step
the attacker kills twice times as many HG as he has on the defender side.
This happens on the same time, i.e. the killed HAs in the first step can
still kill HDs in the second step.
Once again in a "code" form:
IF HA.C>=200 AND HD.C >=200 AND HA*HD>0 THEN
i=0
DO
r=RND
IF r>=0.5 AND HA.C/500<RND HD=HD-1
IF r< 0.5 AND HD.C/500<RND HA=HA-1
i=i+1
UNTIL HA*HD*(i-100)=0
ENDIF
k.HA=5*HD
IF (Defender is not Fed) THEN k.HD=2*HA ELSE k.HD=0
HA=MAX(0;HA-k.HA)
HD=MAX(0;HD-k.HD)
2) HG killing non HG personnel
That's easy. HGs killing all personnel. Order is not important because here
only HGs of both sides kill troop,crew and colonists of the other side.
There is a check for the greater darkforce in the code to determine which
side begins but the lines where earlier HG fight HG is commented out.
k.PA=HD*(HD.C-PA.C)/10
k.PD=HA*(HA.C-PD.C)/10
PA=MAX(0;PA-k.PA)
PD=MAX(0;PD-k.PD)
This is calculated each for P=T,Cr and C
In words: After H-H HGs kill with a factor of 0,1 times the difference of
their combat strength and the strength of the opponent for each HG.
Example: CoM HG kills Borg troops 1 CoM HG will kill (260-40)/10=22 Borg
troops.
3) Non HG personnel killing HG
That's easy too.
if PD-HA.C>0 Then k.HA=(PD-HA.C)*PD.C/100 otherwise no kill
if PA-HD.C>0 Then k.HD=(PA-HD.C)*PA.C/100 otherwise no kill.
This calculated three times for P=T,Cr and C on each side. The Order of
calculation is again irrelevant.
In words: First you must have more troops or crew or colonists than the
combat strength of the HG of the other side. Then you personnel is for
calculation is decreased by the combat strength of the HG of the other side
and then the combat strength in percent of this number are the HGs which are
killed. Example Borg troop killing CoM HG: First after the phase 2) there
have to be 260 borg troops left. Then T troops that survived phase 2) kill
(T-260)*40/100 CoM HGs or every 10 troops above 260 kill 4 CoM HGs.
4) Non HG personnel killing Non HG personnel
Here comes ship experience into play. Ship experience decides which side
begins to kill in the case of fighting personnel of same type on both sides,
i.e. troops fight troops. All formulas for the killed personnel can be
written in the form
k.P2Y=[1+EX / EModP1] * P1X.C * P1X / P1XP2YMod
Here P1 type personnel kills P2 type personnel
(Y=A and X=D)or (Y=D and X=A) denotes attacker/defender
EX is the experience of the ship of X (defender/attacker)
EModP1 depends only of the P1 type
P1XP2YMod depends on both types and attacker defender side due to crew bonus
and colonist minus
So there is a modifier for the experience: =[1+EX / EModP1] which increases
the killed personnel. For example when crew is killing personnel EMod is 40.
An experience of 80 will lead to 200% more killed on the other side. Again
if experience is zero the factor is 1. If experience is 80 factor is
1+80/40=3 what is an increase of 200% or three times of a ship without
experience.
But now order is important because same types can fight each other:
4a) T killing T.
Here greater experienced side starts.
k.TA=[1+ED/100]*TD.C*TD/50
k.TD=[1+EA/100]*TA.C*TA/50
4b) T killing Cr
k.CrA=[1+ED/100]*TD.C*TD/50
k.CrD=[1+EA/100]*TA.C*TA/500
4c) T killing C
k.CA=[1+ED/100]*TD.C*TD/50
k.CD=[1+EA/100]*TA.C*TA/50
4d) Cr killing T
IF Defender is not Aczanny THEN k.TA=[1+ED/40]*CrD.C*CrD/5 ELSE
k.TA=[1+ED/40]*CrD.C*CrD
k.TD=[1+EA/40]*CrA.C*CrA/50
4e) Cr killing Cr
Here greater experienced side starts, too
IF Defender is not Aczanny THEN k.CrA=[1+ED/40]*CrD.C*CrD/5 ELSE
k.CrA=[1+ED/40]*CrD.C*CrD
k.CrD=[1+EA/40]*CrA.C*CrA/500
4f) Cr killing C
IF Defender is not Aczanny THEN k.CA=[1+ED/40]*CrD.C*CrD/5 ELSE
k.CA=[1+ED/40]*CrD.C*CrD
k.CD=[1+EA/40]*CrA.C*CrA/50
4g) C killing T
k.TA=[1+ED/200]*CD.C*CD/50
k.TD=[1+EA/200]*CA.C*CA/500
4h) C killing Cr
IF Defender is not Aczanny THEN k.CrA=[1+ED/200]*CD.C*CD/50 ELSE
k.CrA=[1+ED/200]*CD.C*CD/25
k.CrD=[1+EA/200]*CA.C*CA/500
4i) C killing C
The more experienced side begins.
k.CrA=[1+ED/200]*CD.C*CD/50
k.CrD=[1+EA/200]*CA.C*CA/500
As above losses are of course maximized to max killable personnel.
The defender is captured if he neither has any T,Cr or C on board. HGs don't
matter and the attacker has at least one lonely little man on board.
I hope this helps someone and maybe Diplomat can bewritten so that he gives
correct results. And sorry for poeple who are not familiar with formulas.
Without them I had no chance to tell you this. And I'm not sure that
everything is right. Use on your own risk.
GFM GToeroe
alias
Gábor Törö, Brunswick, Germany, GTo...@gmxpro.de