Re: Galaxy

From: markhof@ls12r.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Ingolf Markhof)

Date: Thu, 04 Mar 1993 08:38:14 +0000

In article <1993Mar3.103533.25088@infodev.cam.ac.uk>, js138@cus.cam.ac.uk (John Sloan) writes:
|> Ingolf Markhof writes :
|> > Sorry, but I can't aggree to this. Why do you think that it's to hard to
|> > defend?!?
|>
|> Why is it hard to defend?  Because if I have a fleet (which I do have in one game
|> I'm playing in) capable of moving 20 or so in one move, I can send 4/5 scouts out
|> to the planets I can reach in one hop, and see which has the least defenses.  I
|> can then hit that particular planet, or the second least defended planet with my
|> fleet before the opponent has a chance to build any new defense ships.  He is
|> left with either moving a defense fleet to one of the planets he thinks I will
|> attack (and that fleet costs the same to build as my attack fleet) with a 20% or
|> so chance of being right.
|>
|> Static defenses are cheaper to build than the equivalent attack fleet, but suffer
|> from being static - you can go round them.  And to defend 5 planets you need to
|> build 5 times as many of them, which outweighs the saving in having no engines on
|> them.

Ok, ok. From this point of view, you're right. But what are the basics of the scenario
you're looking at? I'd like to make some remarks:

1) If you're assuming that the attacker spent a long time to build a large attacking
   force, you should assume that the defender did the same to create defenses. Defending
   is not to difficult. But you must build your defense forces before beeing attacked,
   of course!

2) It's right that in any case, if you're using statice or moveable defenses, you'll
   have to defend several planets, while the attacker will probably attack them one by
   one.
   (The defender may use the intercept order to hit the attacking fleet, but this may
   cause some unexpected results. In fact I dislike this order, as you are not able
   to restrict the set of planets your intercepting force may be sent to. E.g., an
   attacker may attack on of your planets, but then retreat to an own planet with strong
   defenses. Your intercepting fleet will follow and be easyly killed!)
   But in this scenario, you forget one thing: Even if the attacker will attack your
   planets one by one, he must send a fleet which is two or three times stronger than
   yours, as this is the only way to conquer a planet without loosing to much ships.
   This in fact meanse that the attacker would be forced to remove almost all of its
   ships from its own planets. Thus, such an attack would be dangerous for the attacker,
   too: While attacking, the attacker may be either attacked by a third race, or the
   defender may start an counter attack!
   It's just as in may games: If you expect to be attacked, you'll find it hard to
   create a defense that will be at least almost 100% perfect. And you'll surly want
   this, because it's hard to loose a fully developed big colony. But if you take the
   attackers point of view, you'll find it hard to make an almost 100% perfect attack,
   while still protecting your own colonies.
   Think about it and you will find that I'm right! I'm in a game where I have more than
   twice of the IP-Output of another player, but I'm not able to kill him!

I guess that the chances to attack and to defend are well balanced right now.
If you'd make defense even cheaper, how should the game proceed if there is no
chance to attack sucessfully?

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  UniDo  /  Ingolf Markhof  University of Dortmund, LS Informatik XII
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References

Galaxy
js138@cus.cam.ac.uk (John Sloan)
Mon, 01 Mar 1993 11:52:02 +0000
Re: Galaxy
jcho@nmsu.EDU (CHO)
Mon, 01 Mar 1993 23:18:03 +0000
Re: Galaxy
js138@cus.cam.ac.uk (John Sloan)
Wed, 03 Mar 1993 10:35:33 +0000