SPGW Combat

Accuracy, firing arc and range
Main Page: SPG Warlords

Targeting is done manually, using the mouse or other analog controller, but accuracy is additionally affected by various influences. Accuracy can be modified with Skills, Items, Officers and outside influences (area effects and anomalies). Every weapon turret has an individual firing arc, which is its effective radius. Turrets stop rotating when they reach their limit. This is important because the player has to maneuver his ship to fully utilize its potential. Firing arc is a fixed property and cannot be modified in-game. An additional weapon attribute is Range and it differs from weapon to weapon. Some weapons are primarily built for long-range strikes while others may prefer close range encounters. It comes down to the situation and player preferences.

Hull and shield damage - Every weapon has a basic damage value (minimum and maximum). Shield damage is handled separately allowing some weapons to have a more damaging effect on shields, while others damage Hull more intensely.

Rate of fire
Rate of fire is a standard property of every weapon. This shows how fast the weapon fires. The lower the property, the faster the weapon can shoot. Beam accelerators provide the fastest rate of fire. In their case rate of fire is handled in the code as a value of 0.2, or every 0.2 seconds.

Weapon batteries and battery power
Weapons are grouped into weapon batteries (front, rear, left and right). Every battery has individual battery power which is spent by firing weapons on that battery. Energy is self-replenished over time, but energy usage and refill can be modified with Enhancements, Skills, Officers and outside influences (area effects and nebulae). If a battery’s power is completely drained, a bit of time must pass before that battery can start recharging again. This is called cooldown.

Critical hit
Every shot has a chance to deal extra damage. This hit is called Critical hit. Critical hit chance depends on the weapon and can be influenced with Skills, Officers, Enhancements and outside influences (area effects and nebulae). Critical hits can in some cases cause additional status effects like critical system failure or killing off some Troopers.

Critical failure
When ship systems get damaged, there is a chance they might go into critical failure. When that happens, statistics affected by the system get penalties, until the critical failure is repaired. Chance for Critical failure to occur increases with damage received by the ship system. Reducing the chance of getting a critical system failure is possible through Enhancements, Skills, Officers and outside influences (area effects and nebulae).

Damage types and Resistances
Damage can come in different forms or types. Weapons usually deal a single type of damage, but special (rare or unique) weapons can deal additional secondary type of damage. Certain weapon Enhancements can also “add” special weapon damage types to every hit. Resistance to every type of damage is handled separately. Resistances are inherent properties of ship’s energy shields and only have an effect if incoming weapon shots are hitting a shield. Resistance reduces the amount of damage received by a damage type and can be modified by Items, Skills, Officers, Perks and outside influences (area effects and nebulae).

Soak
General resistance to any type and form of damage is called Soak. Any and all damage is reduced by the Soak amount before it’s dealt to the target. As Soak is an inherent property of a ship’s Hull, Soak only comes into effect after the energy shields have been breached and weapon shots start hitting the Hull directly.

Repairing
Repairing ship systems can be done both “on-thy-fly” in space and on stations and planets (paid for in Credits). Hull damage on the other hand can usually only be repaired on stations and planets (also paid for in Credits). Hull can also be repaired in space, but special equipment (Repair nanobots item) or kill must be used for that.

Energy shielding
Every ship and station has four individual shields (front, left, right and rear). Every shield covers one fourth of a sphere surrounding the ship/station (top and bottom included). All four shields are charged by a single Shield generator (ship system) and when that system is knocked out, all four shields go offline. Energy shield strength and shield regeneration depend on the Shield generator. When a shield goes offline it takes some time before it comes back online. This property is called Reboot.

Sub-targeting
To maximize efficiency of attacks, players can target individual systems on the target. That sets the chosen sub-target as main target and will increase damage received by that ship system. Sub-targeting is also used for assigning a specific system as the target of some skills (Hack for example) and as the specific target for player’s Troopers when boarding the target, thus increasing the chance of that particular ship system to be sabotaged.

Boarding & capturing ships
To capture ships, you need Troopers. You can send these Troopers on away missions, to attempt to capture enemy ships (they are sent using the context menu when an object that can be captured is targeted). Capturing ships is difficult and it is highly advised to first reduce target Trooper number as much as possible, before attempting capture. When you capture a ship, it will “float dead” in space. You can then use the context menu again to choose what to do:


 * Demolish - Immediately destroy the ship.
 * Loot - This opens up the Loot panel where you can choose what Equipment, Commodities and Ship systems to take or leave on the captured ship.
 * Grapple - Use this option to grapple the ship with your grappling beam. You can then drag the ship to a nearby station or planet and then choose what to do with it. You can either transfer your command to it or sell it for profit (any cargo, equipment or ship systems are sold with the ship, so looting it first is advised).

Fire at will command
Fire at will is a special command that can be issued by the player to his own crew. When issued, crew takes control of all weapon batteries and fires on all available hostile targets. The important thing is they fire for as long as they have energy in their batteries. This command is very useful when trying to outrun pursuers or when facing multiple opponents. Firing on them while getting away will force them to change their direction to preserve their energy shielding, thus making them lose their grip on you. Or in case of multiple opponents, firing at them can force them to take defensive maneuvers, reducing their aggression. But “Fire at will” command also comes with a penalty on accuracy and should not be used lightly.

Energy redistribution
Hover the mouse cursor over your ship’s schematic to switch this panel to display the Energy transfer panel. This screen enables you to quickly redistribute energy between different ship sections (Shields, Propulsion, Weapons) and boost them significantly.