When fighting SD you cant chaffsweep that easily!

If the minefield is centered at a planet and detonated, and you chaffsweep and attack the same turn, you still get damage from the detonation regardles of how many chaff you use to crash!

this way you can either prepare the attack when sweeping 1ly from the planet the turn before, or you will lose all the chaff due to detonation! All ships the SD gates in will be damaged, too - but as production is after detonation he can have the chaff he produced the same turn, while the attacker has none.

So - IMO SD is the least vulnerable PRT regarding to chaffsweeping



[Mod edit: changed topic title]

[Updated on: Wed, 20 October 2004 08:16] by Moderator

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So then explain this testbed:

SD has orbit with minilayer (80 a turn), lays a minefield and detonates. an IS has a fleet of 500 chaff 80ly from it.

calculation shows i need around 86 chaff (8 hits) to sweep the field (Warp9), so 500 should do the job just fine

I run the 500 chaff to the planet, next turn they are all dead (no battle happened) and the minefield has 80 mines, exactly what the SD can lay in a single turn.

(I did _not_ forget to split the 500 chaff before)

So.... maybe I am still right?

Robert

Edit:
PS: I have an explanation for this, but it is not more than a guess: The minefield _is_ reduced to 0 mines, but before (check order of events) the minefield is "deleted" detonation happens. Maybe stars checks if distance to center is <= field radius, and both is zero so you are hit even if the field has zero mines...
Just an idea...

[Updated on: Sun, 17 October 2004 04:46]

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Thanks for your trust in my skill

But anyway - I am surprised 1 in 10 times they survived...

Still - now my best SD trick is out in the wild

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Robert wrote on Sun, 17 October 2004 13:31

Thanks for your trust in my skill

It's not that I don't trust your skill, it's just that I've played several games as SD and never came across this ... Maybe because my enemies didn't crash sweep my fields or I never detonated them because I had superior forces waiting for them ... I don't remember any occasions where I could have found out ...
Anyway, it's always best to test yourself before assuming things. Like someone once told me that detonations effect packets ... they don't.

Quote:

But anyway - I am surprised 1 in 10 times they survived...

Point is that even this 1/10 should be impossible, the program should always react in the same way: either the "zero mines" minefield kills the chaff or it doesn't. You can't have both ...
Too bad I overwrote the backup of that turn ...

Quote:

Still - now my best SD trick is out in the wild

That was the best you got??


mch

[Updated on: Sun, 17 October 2004 13:30]

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Hi!

Micha wrote on Sun, 17 October 2004 12:49

However! I ran the testbed 10 times and once the fleets where not killed! Weird.

The probability to hit a minefield of radius 1 at W-9 is about 0.015. Sending 200 chaff will still yield a prob of about 0.05 of minefield not swept. That's almost opposite to your results. Weird indeed.
BR, Iztok

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multilis wrote on Sun, 17 October 2004 23:39

Quote: If the minefield is centered at a planet and detonated, and you chaffsweep and attack the same turn, you still get damage from the detonation regardles of how many chaff you use to crash! I had no problem crash sweeping a suprise minefield by Alien in Trans game. (Being HE I had cheaper crash sweepers) I did it quick and lazy with the last bit of chaff going in orbit to make sure my line wasn't missing the planet by a ly. (Most went past planet at warp 10)

If the field wasn't set to detonate you won't have had a problem indeed.

Quote:

Only an SD like Aliens can suprise help a friend by gating in and throwing up a big minefield (that overwhelms the sweepers) the turn before you want to attack. (Move and lay same turn).

Why "only an SD like Aliens"? Any SD can gate in and throw up a big minefield ...

mch

[Updated on: Sun, 17 October 2004 18:24]

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Micha wrote on Sun, 17 October 2004 03:49

However! I ran the testbed 10 times and once the fleets where not killed! Weird. Tried with jRC4, no difference, chaff dies in the non-existent minefield ...

Very interesting. It's been awhile since I played SD in a PBEM, and I remember being chaff swept while detonating and having the chaff survive. I could be misremembering of course, considering how long it's been. The specifics of the problem are quite interesting as well. I stand corrected.

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[Updated on: Sun, 17 October 2004 21:13]

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Micha wrote on Sun, 17 October 2004 19:29

Robert wrote on Sun, 17 October 2004 13:31 Thanks for your trust in my skill Quote: Still - now my best SD trick is out in the wild That was the best you got?? mch

It is a trick because only very few know about it. If everyone knew it I would relate it more to the field of "tactics".

anyway... I dont think I am a bad SD player

[Updated on: Mon, 18 October 2004 02:27]

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multilis wrote on Sun, 17 October 2004 23:39

On the SD setting opponent to friend to stop sweeping (and get detonating) a counter mentioned before is to have reserve fleet(s) with orders to suprise gate into the SD's world(s) to counter suprise if set to friend.

I had that idea, too.... So if the enemy is set to friend he cant crashsweep but gate in. So on the planets he might be willing to attack just build a 100/250 gate and the ships that arrive will be heavily damaged and hit by minefields and face the starbase - without chaff no real tactic

Never had the chance to try this, but you are right, a nice idea

[Mod edit: fixed quote]

[Updated on: Wed, 20 October 2004 08:17] by Moderator

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Hi!

Robert wrote on Mon, 18 October 2004 08:31

I had that idea, too.... So if the enemy is set to friend he cant crashsweep but gate in. So on the planets he might be willing to attack just build a 100/250 gate and the ships that arrive will be heavily damaged and hit by minefields and face the starbase - without chaff no real tactic

Caveat: ship movement happens before building, so ships will arrive through previous gates. Besides, late game AMP Nub is not heavy: 160-220 kt. Gated through 300 starting gates to 100 gates it gets about 4%(TS-10) - 24%(IS-10) damage, plus 300 per ship (or 3% armor through shields) by detonation. Not a big deal IMO.
BR, Iztok

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Micha wrote on Sun, 17 October 2004 12:29

Robert wrote on Sun, 17 October 2004 13:31 Thanks for your trust in my skill It's not that I don't trust your skill, it's just that I've played several games as SD and never came across this ...

Me either. I think I would have noticed that in the last game...but maybe the minefields weren't centered at the planets. I definately don't chaff sweep to the center of the field, but I usually send ships to it. Either to kill the layer, or attack the planet.

You were probably kidding, but something like this, if true, would be considered a bug, and worth proving. So, I'm sure that was Micha was after.

-Matt

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mlaub wrote on Mon, 18 October 2004 17:10

There could be another reason, I think. When do minefields decay? Now that I look, I don't see it on the OoE list.

It is in the SOoE, at least on the one at www.Starsfaq.com.

1. Fleets move (run out of fuel, hit minefields (fields reduce as they are hit), stargate, wormhole travel)
   
2. SD Minefields detonate (possibly damaging again fleet that hit minefield during movement)
   
3. Fleet battles (with possible tech gain)
   
4. Mine Laying
   
5. Minefield Decay
   

Quote:

Without cracking open the files, what was the appoximate angle in relation to x axis to the target? The closer you approach zero x axis movement "through" the minefield, and in the entire ship move, the less likely you are to hit a mine. I have confirmed this several times in my own test beds. I have even "missed" a large minefield with 200+ chaff, while my war fleet hit it...

Angle was around 30°.

Quote:

So, maybe you only completely swept it once. Maybe decay happens after movement and SD Detonation, but before mine laying. Could that explain it all?

That order is correct but note that there was no minelaying that turn.
It is just weird that it happened 1 out off 10 that the fleet didn't get hit in the centre ... Like Iztok mentioned it should be the other way around. The chance of the chaff in the testbed not sweeping the entire field was very small ...

mch

[Updated on: Mon, 18 October 2004 14:29]

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[Updated on: Thu, 28 October 2004 09:55]

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