The Battle Manual:Targeting
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Oh boy I said shoot at this!
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Targeting as the act of choosing whom to kill is not an easy task. It can be influenced by the client switches described above. But even without doing anything, each commander has to choose a good target. So what is a good target?
- Hardness: You would confirm that an easy target is something that breaks into parts with the first knock.
- Threat: You will probably also agree on the statement that any object that poses a dangerous threat to you, needs to be removed from the sky before it can harm you.
Normally there are many objects around from which you have to choose your target. Each different and each more or less dangerous and more or less fragile. For choosing an target an object which is a great danger but is also very fragile should be preferred before an object that is a great danger but is hard to kill by yourself. Why? If the dangerous object is gone, it cannot fire any more and you can concentrate on what is left. Thus the quotient "Threat Level"/"Hardness-to-Kill" is used as a measure of whom to kill first (from now on called "Weight"). A dangerous object which is easy to kill gets a high weight according to the formula and a harmless object which is hard to kill a low weight. Regardless of any combat orders that you give, the targeting list will always be based on the weight.
The weights of all objects are calculated every few ticks and the object with the biggest weight will be stored in a target list. This list consists of ten targets with a max of 7 targets of each type (ship, wing, base, pod) and at least one spot for each type (this prevents that you captains could be blinded for example by too many pods).
There are two of such top ten target lists: one for the weapon fire (TTFL) and one for the movement (TTML).
Let's take an example to explain why there are two lists: There are several enemy ships with big weights outside your weapon range at the other end of the map and several minor weight ships inside your weapon range. The ship can now fly towards the ships with big weights while firing at the best target in weapon range. If there would be just one target list, it could happen that either the distant targets are in the list (leading to moving and not firing) or just the targets in range (leading firing only at the near targets and ignoring the targets with high weights).
[edit] Setting Targets in Flee Mode
First you have to know that there's something that makes every targeting rather simple and direct. If the crew is so freighted that they just run run run (Flee Mode), then the possible targets will simply be ordered by the distance to the current object. Closest object first.
[edit] Targeting Ships
But now after the cowards are eaten alive, let's talk about real targeting (of ships). That means how to determine, how dangerous the ship we are currently examining really is.
[edit] Check Target Weapon Layout
First there is a check whether the weapon layout of the ship is known. Each large and small weapon is checked independently. Of cause it is also checked whether the super weapon is also known. If it is not known, there is a chance based on distance to the object and the experience of the targeting object that the weapon type is identified.
The distance chances to identify the weapon are
Odds = 1 - (220 - dist / 200)
The experience dependency is
RND * 1500 < Experience
Both checks are independent from each other and are only performed when looking for a fire target. Of cause the information on a newly identified weapon is sent immediately to all objects of the player that are participating in the current space combat.
[edit] Weapon Weight
If the weapon is known, a weapon weight of
((1.25 * SWeapon(i).ShieldDrain + SWeapon(i).ArmorDrain + SWeapon(i).ShieldArc / 20 + SWeapon(i).ArmorArc / 30) / 4 * SWeapon(i).MaxRange / 600 * (1.5 - SWeapon(i).pdodds / 100) * SWeapon(i).ChargeRate / SWeapon(i).FullCharge * 15)
is temporary stored.
If the weapon is unknown, a default weight calculated from the average of the weapon type
(LWeapon(cLWeapon(i, TargetID)).HitOdds / 100 * EvasiveAttackOverhangModifer)
is stored that has a max of 1.
[edit] Attack and Evasive Modifiers
If Attack Bonus of targeted object - Evasive Bonus of targeting object is greater than 100, another modifier
(1 + (Attack Bonus-Evasive Bonus - 100) / 100)
is applied. Both is made for large, small and super weapons. Currently there is no influence of any race related information on this calculation.
[edit] Cumulative Weight
The sum of all weapon weights including all modifers is stored. All future modifications are applied to this sum (also called cumulative weight). If the targeted object has any weapons then the cummulative weight is modified by
1000 / ((0.5 * m2_cob(TargetID).ShieldLimit + m2_cob(TargetID).ArmorLimit + m2_cob(TargetID).hullmass * (1 - m2_cob(TargetID).SoftSpot / 100)) + 1)
[edit] Targeting Fighters
[edit] Targeting Bases
[edit] Targeting Pods
[edit] Targeting Assault Pods
[edit] Targeting Harmless Pods
Cannot be target with host (host 213h). It seems that there is a bug with switch "Target Harmless Pods", it doesn't work.
