| Repair after gating loophole |
Mon, 23 June 2008 07:47  |
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| Micha | 
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Messages: 2342
Registered: November 2002
Location: Belgium GMT +1 | |
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The help file states that a fleet does not get any repair in the year it travels by gate. However there is a loophole.
In the Stars! Order of Events you'll see that the WP1 merge order is carried out *before* repair. This leads to the following: when you gate a fleet# A and give it a WP1 merge order at the destination with a stationary fleet# B the damaged ships in fleet# A (damage either from previous battles, either from overgating) *will* get repaired. Stars! looks for fleet#s that have moved and obviously fleet# A no longer exists.
The repair % depends on the normal rules: does the planet has a dock, does the fleet you merge into holds a SFX etc and of course if you have a battle at the planet where the fleet is gating to there will be *no* repair.
Reason to bring this item into the open is that in recent games the question has been raised if this is a bug or feature, if this should be banned or not. I will leave that to the host of each game, the intention of this post is to inform and to level the playing field since it appears not everyone knows about this possibility.
I'm adding this loophole to the Bug section and will leave it upto the hosts to allow or disallow it in their game announcements. Feel free to post arguments pro and contra. (And if anyone has a fancy name for it, let's here it. <g>)
mch
{edit: spelling}
[Updated on: Mon, 28 July 2008 16:17] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Repair after gating loophole |
Mon, 23 June 2008 11:05  |
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I often use the "merge and repair" feature. I go so far as to try to have a SFX merged with my minelayer at potential destination merge points, so I have some mass to merge with, and the extra repair of the SFX.
I think it would be impractical to ban this feature as a cheat.
1. The extra micromanagement of merging by hand the next turn, versus using the feature would not be too bad.
but..
2. The additional fleets would *often* in my case, cause me to go over the 512 fleet limit. This causes a whole new *huge* set of micromanagement problems of having a ship stationed at *every* planet, so new production can be merged with that ship rather than lost. And then the effort of splitting all those ships from the planet covers, and sending them where they are needed.
As everyone can use this "feature" what is the rational of trying to brand it a cheat?
Using it as a feature slightly increases the utility of IT, from the point of view of no ships lost overgating, but increases the utility of all other races (except HE), when repairing higher overgating damage. I'm not sure if there is any net gain here.
Thus:
1. All races can use it equally (except HE)
2. It is not unbalancing in game play
3. It avoids over 512 fleet micromanagement
So I think this feature should not be labeled as a cheat.
naz
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| Re: Repair after gating loophole |
Mon, 23 June 2008 11:23 |
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| Micha |
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Messages: 2342
Registered: November 2002
Location: Belgium GMT +1 | |
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| bigcanuknaz wrote on Mon, 23 June 2008 17:05 |
I often use the "merge and repair" feature. I go so far as to try to have a SFX merged with my minelayer at potential destination merge points, so I have some mass to merge with, and the extra repair of the SFX.
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Same here. Since years I have fleets stationed at most of my planets called "* M+R Columbus" or whatever planet name, meaning "Merge+Repair" (the M also stands for Minelaying), those fleets contain one or more MLs and SFX. (The * is there so the fleets show up on top of the fleet report.)
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I think it would be impractical to ban this feature as a cheat.
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Personally I feel the same way.
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1. The extra micromanagement of merging by hand the next turn, versus using the feature would not be too bad.
but..
2. The additional fleets would *often* in my case, cause me to go over the 512 fleet limit. This causes a whole new *huge* set of micromanagement problems of having a ship stationed at *every* planet, so new production can be merged with that ship rather than lost. And then the effort of splitting all those ships from the planet covers, and sending them where they are needed.
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Merging on arrival does not help against going over the 512 limit. Merging happens after production. So during the production phase your fleets aren't merged yet. Or maybe I misunderstand and you mean something else ... ?
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As everyone can use this "feature" what is the rational of trying to brand it a cheat?
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This is the main reason of my first post. To make sure as more people know about it, like I said: to level the playing field.
IMHO it's more hassle to forbid it, to control it and adds more MM than just to allow it. Especially for the old-timers with rusty playstyles. 
mch
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| Re: Repair after gating loophole |
Thu, 26 June 2008 18:21 |
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| Micha wrote on Mon, 23 June 2008 11:23 |
Merging on arrival does not help against going over the 512 limit. Merging happens after production. So during the production phase your fleets aren't merged yet. Or maybe I misunderstand and you mean something else ... ?
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Oops... I got that backward. (Been a while since I was battling with too many fleets.)
I guess it only helps by leaving you with less than 512 fleets when you open your turn, so it is easier to split fleets as you go, rather than having to go through all the planets merging first.
But I know it does make life easier when production is merging with planet covers.
naz
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