The following is an overview of how ship vs ship combat works in Space Civilizations.
If two ships meet in space and one of them has the “Attack” order given to attack the other ship, a battle will occur. First, the offensive and defensive strength for both light and heavy ship-hitpoints is determined. The offensive strength being the effective firepower (increased by the ship-rank), and the defensive strength being the effective hitpoints during a battle (increased by the ship-shields, and decreased by the ship-condition)
During battle calculation the effective firepower of the “attacker” is subtracted from the effective ship-hitpoints of the “defender”. At the same time the “defender” is shooting back at the “attacker”. In that respect there is no “attacker” or “defender”, both sides are equal.
If one of the two sides has got more firepower than the other has got ship-hitpoints, then the ship is destroyed in the battle. If both sides do not have enough firepower to completely destroy the opposing ship, then the ship-condition will be decreased according to the inflicted damage, that is the ship-hitpoints destroyed during the battle. This can go on for an infinite number of turns, or until one of the two sides decides to flee.
Two light-class ships meet in space, both don’t have any shields and both ships are spick and span at a 100% condition:
| Player A | Player B | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Light Units | 300 | 400 | |
| Heavy Units | 0 | 0 | |
| Shields | 0% | 0% | The shields increase the effective hitpoints during battle calculation (by adding) |
| Condition | 100% | 100% | The condition decreases the effective hitpoints during battle calculation (by multiplying) |
| Effective Light Hitpoints | 300 | 400 | These are all light ship-units, as there are no heavy ships involved in the battle |
| Light Firepower | 200 | 400 | |
| Heavy Firepower | 300 | 200 | As there are no heavy ship-units present, half of the heavy-firepower will shoot at the light ship-hitpoints |
| Ships’ Rank | 0 | 0 | The ships’ rank increases the effective firepower by 10% per rank-level |
| Effective Light Firepower | 350 | 500 | This results from the full light-firepower added with half of the heavy-firepower |
| Effective Heavy Firepower | 0 | 0 | There are no heavy ship-units present |
On Player A’s side there are 300 effective ship-hitpoints that need to be destroyed, Player B has got an effective firepower of 500 available. Player B has got 400 ship-hitpoints that need to be destroyed, however Player A’s ship has only got an effective firepower of 350 available, which will not be enough to destroy Player B’s ship. However, Player B has got plenty of firepower. In fact Player B has got enough firepower to destroy Player A’s ship, before Player A’s ship has fired all his weapons! Player A will only be able to inflict around 200 points worth of damage, this results in a overall 50% damage condition on Player B’s ship after the battle.
Two light-class ships meet in space, just like in the previous example. But this time they are both equipped with shields, and they already have some combat behind them, they are both slightly damaged. In addition Player A’s ship-crew is quite experienced already.
| Player A | Player B | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Light Units | 300 | 400 | |
| Heavy Units | 0 | 0 | |
| Shields | 50% | 10% | The shields increase the effective hitpoints during battle calculation (by adding) |
| Condition | 90% | 80% | The condition decreases the effective hitpoints during battle calculation (by multiplying) |
| Effective Light Hitpoints | 405 | 352 | These are all light ship-units, as there are no heavy ships involved in the battle |
| Light Firepower | 200 | 400 | |
| Heavy Firepower | 300 | 200 | As there are no heavy ship-units present, half of the heavy-firepower will shoot at the light ship-units |
| Ships’ Rank | 7 | 0 | The ships’ rank increases the effective firepower by 10% per rank-level |
| Effective Light Firepower | 595 | 500 | This results from the full light-firepower added with half of the heavy-firepower, and adding the ship-rank bonus |
| Effective Heavy Firepower | 0 | 0 | There are no heavy ship-units present |
On Player A’s side there are 405 effective ship-hitpoints that need to be destroyed, Player B has still got an effective firepower of 500 available. Player B has got 352 ship-hitpoints that need to be destroyed, however Player A’s ship has got an effective firepower of 595 available. The extra shield and the experience of the ship-crew will this time turn the odds in favor of Player A! Player A’s ship-firepower will destroy Player B’s ship quicker, than Player B’s ship-firepower is able to destroy the ship-hitpoints of Player A.
This time two players with a number of heavy and light ships are attacking each other. It doesn’t matter if the ships are part of a fleet or “stand-alone”, the combined effective fire-power over all ships is calculated, as well as the combined number of light and heavy ship-hitpoints.
What happens next is that the total firepower is randomly distributed over all of the enemies ships. Light firepower is distributed among light ship hitpoints first. If all light ships are destroyed before all the firepower is distributed the remaining firepower is applied to the enemies heavy ships at the standard 50% deduction. Heavy firepower is treated the same way but in reverse. Non-combat ships (ships without any weapons) are only destroyed after all other ships are destroyed. Unmanned ships count as non-combat ships. The consequence of this random distribution is that some ships may be completely destroyed while others may not receive any damage at all.