ST - Determining a draw in combat

[slayernz]

Okay, so I was blockading parked up by Xeen Prime, antagonizing the locals minding my own business, when a large Bounty Hunter decided to ask me to surrender. Now I am level 62 and he was something like 125, so it was a fair enough fight in my books. So instead of choosing "Retreat", I went to battle stations and started giving hell.

Unfortunately after a couple of early hits (me to him of course), we fell into the predictable merry chase whereby I fire at him. He fires at me. We both miss. We both try and adjust range. Rinse, Repeat 900 odd times until the inevitable draw.

See the problem with this approach is that you're good enough to dodge his weapons fire, and he is good enough to dodge yours. You can't just go separate ways because he is like a friggin monkey with a banana. So all you can do is mash the "gun" button until the draw occurs.

So ... getting back to the topic that is the subject of my thread ... what I am proposing is a change to the way a Draw is determined.

Here are the options I have in my head:
1) Status Quo - after 1000 turns, you both pack up your bags, and decide to stop trying to hurt each other.

2) The option is changed to say 200 turns where neither of you are able to hit each other.

3) The option is changed to x number of turns where neither are able to hit each other, and have that x value adjustable in the Options menu
* 50 turns
* 100 turns
* 200 turns

This way you can end stalemates a lot faster, and if you suddenly find yourself making headway at turn 990, you can actually win on turn 1022

[Fenikso]

It has been already discussed here and I already wished for it and you replied:

Aug 9, 2011 19:33:06 GMT -5 slayernz said:

27) Draw comes faster if there is no damage for more turns and no one can run away, 1000 is too much button bashing
In the OLD days (like a month or so ago), there was no limit. you could really be locked into battle for thousands of turns before just giving up and flying away (if possible).

I've found that 1,000 turns is a good balance. Sometimes it's a bit long, but I've had it where I am very very slowly whittling down the enemy, and by 970 turns, he is down to 1 engine. Hitting the guns button at turn 1,000 is a disappointment because I just can't get that last engine out. It would be great to allow you to continue in that instance.

The only solution here would be to change functionality so that if there is no damage to either party after x number of rounds (eg 100 or 200) then it becomes a stale-mate or draw.

So you can have some combats that can go on for thousands of turns but you are making progress (one bit of damage at a time), and some combats wind up after only a few hundred turns because neither ship can hit the other.

It is quite annoying especially when it happened to me three times in a row as mentioned here.

So +1 for any way how to solve this. My idea would be to put defense penalty on both ships based on number of combat turns.

[Cory Trese]

Fenikso - I suspect that this happens more often to unbalanced characters.

I will think about a balanced was to make a change here.

Some things I will consider is the location of the combat (orbit or deep space) and how heavily patrolled the sector is.

Also, I will look at some of the simulation runs again, but I don't think the correct answer is any type of "defensive penalty" as it lacks broad application to the game's extended number of play styles (a little too no-stealth pirate-centric, IMO.)

[Cory Trese]

Oct 4, 2011 21:30:11 GMT -5 slayernz said:

This way you can end stalemates a lot faster, and if you suddenly find yourself making headway at turn 990, you can actually win on turn 1022

I think these are some interesting ideas. I will think about ways to improve this for an upcoming release of Star Traders.

[slayernz]

Haha Fenikso ... I babble so much that sometimes I forget what I already mentioned. Thanks for reminding me. I tend to forget the little details until I've gone through the pain point a few times. There's nothing like multiple stalemates to jog your memory

[Fenikso]

Oct 5, 2011 13:45:16 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Fenikso - I suspect that this happens more often to unbalanced characters.

I suspect that it happens to high level (50+) characters on high difficulty (Impossible), as lvl50 character can encounter lvl100 enemy, who of course can have tons of piloting and stealth. My unbalanced characters are usually unbalanced the way which should probably help to avoid this situation - drop Stealth in favor of Piloting (should help breaking from the short range) and Tactics (should help hit enemy). But maybe I am mistaken and missing Stealth only worsens it?

Oct 5, 2011 13:45:16 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

I don't think the correct answer is any type of "defensive penalty" as it lacks broad application to the game's extended number of play styles (a little too no-stealth pirate-centric, IMO.)

I was thinking more of "if the combat is too long, it is going to be easier to hit each other to resolve the combat". Something like that hundreds of turns combat is so long and tiring that pilots are more prone for fatal and possibly deadly mistake. But obviously I have no idea what can be broken by this approach. Just an idea.