Re: Galaxy: Yet another idea to change a perfectly good game

From: dagibbs@quantum.qnx.com (David Gibbs)

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 04:35:39 +0000

In article <1ogees$1r4@tang.ccr-p.ida.org> desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins) writes:
>It certainly seems to be
>complicated enough that most players produce grossly suboptimal fleets,
>so I don't think one can claim that it is too simple.  (I do think that
>there is a more-or-less unique best strategy in most circumstances, and
>if everyone were to settle on it then the game might become less
>interesting.  But since almost no one else follows it now, that time
>doesn't seem to have come yet.)

David seems to be suggesting that there is an optimal fleet design.
I may be reading him incorrectly on this though.  I don't think
there is any optimal fleet design.  I do think, that you can design
an optimal fleet to fight a known fleet, but to fight an unknown
there is no optimal fleet.

Just to demonstrate this, one need only consider the Chaff vs
Scatter Gun interaction.  [Chaff is casualty absorbing ships,
anything from (1 0 0 0 0), to (1 0 0 3 0), to (1 1 1 1 0);
Scatter Guns are ships of the type: (15 40 1 30 0 ) -- designed
to quickly eliminate Chaff).

Now if you know your opponent uses unshielded chaff, then
all your Scatter Guns should only use size 1 guns, but if
your opponent uses (1 0 0 3 0) for his chaff, all your wonderful
Scatter Guns are totally useless.  Of course, he will only
have 1/4 as much Chaff, but it won't die.  And of course,
there are the steps in between.

So, clearly a fleet that is optimal versus one fleet, would
be badly sub-optimal vs another.

Building an optimal fleet is not cut and dried.

One can argue though that certain designs, and certain fleets
are far less useful than others -- they might be good for
a specific application, but are generally weak.  For instance,
putting a large cargo hold on a full-fledged warship
[ie: (40 1 30 20 10)] is generally a waste of production.  If
the ship is in combat, it doesn't want to be carrying cargo
(due to the weakening of shields) and if it isn't fighting,
it is a very expensive (and relatively slow) cargo ship.
It is hard to argue for this being a good ship design.

-David Gibbs
(dagibbs@quantum.qnx.com)
[too many races in too many games to list here]

References

Galaxy: Yet another idea to change a perfectly good game
bruneau@griffin.emba.uvm.edu (Mark L Bruneau)
Sat, 20 Mar 1993 06:50:05 +0000
Re: Galaxy: Yet another idea to change a perfectly good game
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Sun, 21 Mar 1993 00:55:56 +0000

Referenced By

Galaxy: Yet another idea to change a perfectly good game
bruneau@griffin.emba.uvm.edu (Mark L Bruneau)
Sat, 20 Mar 1993 06:50:05 +0000
Re: Galaxy: Yet another idea to change a perfectly good game
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Sun, 21 Mar 1993 00:55:56 +0000