21-07-2005 08:49									#31
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quote: Originally posted by Commy The only way to control the seas is with sea bases and with copters... *** I never build sea units, as I find it more useful to invest in a super large airforce...in fact, if I never have to go to war, it is not all uncommon for me to build copters before building any offensive land units, although I doubt I could get away with this on MP....

Values of Air Force:
Can strike both land and sea targets;
Can move over land and sea;
Faster moving than sea units;
Cheaper than sea units;
Ususally immune while in flight to most land and sea units;

Value of sea units:
Can occupy sea bases;
Don't have to land each turn (or every other turn).


My own opinion, IMHO, air units are better at maintaining sea supremacy than sea units. I'll usually only use the sea units to occupy the enemy bases my air units empty.


Mead

PS
Unless really cheap, I'll generally not armor my ships. I might best-*-6, or 1-best-6 them, but I'll very seldom best-best-* them.

For me, movement is far more important than their armour or weapon.,

	21-07-2005 22:31									#32
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

Couple of things I noticed but haven't seen written in rules:
-if you build secret project that allows you treat fungus as roads you can bring unit to full health in fungus. It still gets only +10% health each turn it doesn't move but you can built it up to 100%, not just 80%
-even if you build HSA project AI will keep sending probe teams at you. The record I had is 15 teams from same faction destroyed during single AI turn.
-when you get fungus bloom with worms and you kill worms in one square rest (if they developed in more than one square) grow for 1 life cycle
-mindworm vs unit results are off the charts. Sometimes I win with 1:10 odds, sometimes I loose with 10:1 odds

	21-07-2005 22:44									#33
	Full PM-box? Change here!

quote: Originally posted by Mead My own opinion, IMHO, air units are better at maintaining sea supremacy than sea units. I'll usually only use the sea units to occupy the enemy bases my air units empty.

I don't think that that view is only YOUR opinion. Its pretty much accepted doctrine that the era of ships is pretty much at an end as soon as the first needljet rolls into production

I pretty much stop producing ships (except probes and some as mobile anti-worm artillery) as soon as my airforce gets going.

	21-07-2005 22:49									#34
	Increase Your PM Length

quote: Originally posted by aktarian -mindworm vs unit results are off the charts. Sometimes I win with 1:10 odds, sometimes I loose with 10:1 odds

Two things

1. chaos theory has done some testing that indicates that the in game odds are always inaccurate and serve as just a very general approximation of the real odds

2. It is known bug that mindworm attack and defense will ignorethe reactor value of its enemy while the odds calculator still treats a singularity unit as being 4 times stronger than a fission unit. That may account for some of the discrepencies you see. Also, IIRC in the early game there are some uncounted modifiers in your favor against worms which may contribute to a damaged unit surviving against seemingly overwhelming odds

	21-07-2005 23:07									#35
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My tests show that the stronger unit's true strength equals its strength plus the difference in strengths between the units. I haven't come to any firm conclusions about the variability of combat results, but they should match binomial distributions. I don't think psi combat ignoring reactors is a bug. There was a bug where singularity reactors only gave 30 hp, but were treated for all other purposes as giving 40 hp, making singularity units weaker than quantum units, but that's fixed now.

That said, I haven't actually done any tests on psi combat. Everything I tried was conventional combat. Perhaps the odds formula is different for psi combat.

	22-07-2005 00:01									#36
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quote: Originally posted by Chaos Theory I don't think psi combat ignoring reactors is a bug.

The bug isn't in how the combat resolves ( mindworms ignoring reactors is a FEATURE), its in how the odds are calculated. A singularity scout will be shown as being a prohibitive favorite to win when attacked by a mindworm (the odds calculator gives full wight to those 40 hp) when it seems to have no greater chance of victory than a fission scout. Roughly, I divide my units chance of winning in psi combat by its reactor strength and that seems to give a decent approximation.

I knew about the hp snafu as well and recently when playing UNPATCHED SMAC, it was one of many things I had to recall and adjust to