DISCLAIMER: I have compiled this information mostly form the WebBoard of the old Space Merchant. I am curious if these formulas are in place in the new game and or what has changed.
Except in a couple of instances I have not given credit to past authors, please forgive me, this took long enough without writing a bibliography to accompany it.
I have tried to be as accurate as possible but I am sure there are some significant corrections that need to be made and I am asking all of you to add to this thread and correct and clarify what I have compiled.
SMR DEV's your input would be greatly appreciated!!!
Now read and learn or read and correct!
Mathematical Explanations.
INT(number)
number is the real number you want to round down to an integer.
Examples
INT(8.9) equals 8
INT(-8.9) equals -9
Trading:
Number of illegal goods at any port.
(Port level + 3) - legal goods
The base chance of getting searched when entering a port is 15%. For each illegal good that the port buys or sells, it is decreased by 4% to a minimum of 3% chance for a search. Smuggling ships reduce this further by another 4%, so you have a -1% chance of getting searched if you are at a port that buys/sells all illegal items and are in a smuggling ship.
Max. experience per trade = ((INT(Cargo Holds/30)) +1) x 2) x Distance.
e.g.
Alskant Trade Master
(INT(400/30)) +1 x 2 = 28 x the distance in sectors to the next port that, buys the item if this port is selling it, or sells the item if this port is buying it. So if this port is selling Lux and the closest port that buys it is 3 sectors away you can get up to 84 exp for that trade. This is not the exact formula, but it works and does indicate the maximum exp possible for a given cargo hold size.
I'm going to apply a curve to the benefits of long routes. This should mean that 3,4,5 sector routes should still remain fairly profitable. As you pass 10x, the profitability will begin to converge on a max.
Speef
Combat:
Attack Rating = INT(((armor dmg + shield dmg)/40) + (drones/50))
e.g. Federal Ultimatum
Holy Hand Grenade
Salvene EM Flux Cannon
Salvene EM Flux Cannon
Salvene EM Flux Cannon
Creonti "Big Daddy"
Creonti "Big Daddy"
Torpedo Launcher
120 Combat Drones
INT(((750+600)/40)+(120/50)) = 36
Weapon Accuracy = INT((Base + Attacker level) - (Deffender level/2))
e.g. Level 30 Attacker fires an HHG at a Level 25 Deffender
INT((40 + 30) - (25/2)) = 52% chance to hit.
Ship to Ship Drone Attacks
The number of drones attacking = Random(3 to 54) + Random(Attacker level/4 to Attacker level)
(What is the number of drones a planet or a port will launch and how many drones will launch against a planet or port?)
From: Speef
Okay, here is a little explanation of how things work. Some of this is old news and some new. This is about "standing" forces (forces left in sector).
There are passive and active forces. Passive forces do not attack players who happen to pass through the sector. Passive forces include combat drones and scout drones.
Active forces are forces that attack anyone not allied to you in sector. Mines are currently the only active force.
Unlike ship combat where each weapon has a chance to hit, in force combat, a percentage is used to find out how many of each force actually hits. Each force then has a given damage value.
Here are the chances for force attacks:
3-54% of combat drones will hit for 2 damage each. (This is the base chance without level modifiers as used in all combat drone attacks, including port drones, planetary drones, and ship-to-ship combat). Combat drones take 3 damage each to destroy. There is a limit to 50 per sector.
(What are these modifiers?)
100% of scout drones, when attacked, will hit for 20 damage each. Scout drones take 20 damage each to destroy. There is a limit of 5 per sector.
100% - ((your level) + (rand(1,7)*rand(1,7))) mines will hit for 20 damage each. Mines require 20 damage each to destroy. There is a limit of 50 per sector.
The random factor above works out between 1 and 49 but with heavy weighting around 20-30.
When entering a sector with active forces, only the topmost "stack" will attack. A "stack" is a group of forces owned by a particular trader.
Upon entering a mined sector, only the mines will attack. Passive forces will not attack. Return fire from your ship, however, will attack the stack as a whole and not just the mines. This "forced" return fire will drain you 3 turns for the attack regardless of whether or not you have weapons on your ship. This is to account for taking extra time and energy to attempt navigating around the mines.
Each force type damage will not rollover from shields to armor. HOWEVER, if you manually attack a stack of 50 combat drones, 5 scouts, and 50 mines, each TYPE of force will return fire counting as *3* attacks. IF the mines clear out your shields and then the scout drones and combat drones do enough damage to take out your armor, you can be killed in one hit. This is IMPORTANT for Ik'Thorne players to realize.
Special Cases:
* When returning fire on forces, combat drones will kamikaze against mines. This is the exception to the rule where mines require 20 damage to destroy. Your weapons do fire on forces before your drone’s launch, so you won't always lose combat drones.
* Mines DO NOT destroy combat drones. This means that if you have no shields up, the mines will hit armor next. The idea is that mines are not detected in time to launch drones to act as a defense. This is the Ik'Thorne Achilles heel.
* Federal Ships take half damage from standing forces. All damage numbers above are halved when dealing with Federal ships.
* Active forces will stop a plotted course.
* To move through a minefield, you can always pass through the bright green highlighted sector to escape harm exiting the sector. Moving in a new direction will have forces attack you on the way out, however, the new direction then becomes the "green" exit.
* Dropping a mine into a clear sector can often stop another trader from leaving unless they use the "green" exit.
* Skip driving still can bypass damage from mines, however, it will still drain turns and replotting can often take enough time to get you killed.
(Any way to get skip drive back in the game????)
* Mines will decloak a cloaked trader entering the sector.
Standing forces expire based on the speed of the game. To refresh a force, you simply need to manipulate the stack (whether adding or removing). Manipulating a stack that you do not own will send an automatic message to the owner from their "scouts" even if they have no scouts in the stack. This is to allow you to Delete All Scout messages to remove those messages.
Of course, from the above statement, you can modify allied forces by examining them.
I think that covers everything. With the above information, you should be able to develop your own tactics.
Speef
From: Speef
Okay, seeing the numbers, I decided to make some modifications to mines. Basically, the splitting mines over exits is back in except not quite so much:
1 sector exit: all mines attack.
2 sector exits: all mines attack.
3 sector exits: half mines attack.
4 sector exits: half mines attack.
If you have fewer mines in sector than exits, there is a numMines in numExits chance of hitting one mine. So, if there is one mine in sector and 4 exits, there is a 1 in 4 chance of actually hitting that mine. If you miss the mine, you do not lose turns nor open a combat screen. You do, however, go to current sector and won't have moved. 3 mines with 4 exits means a 3 in 4 chance of hitting 1 mine.
This should help deter the use of just 1 mine. Also, because only the topmost stack is considered when dealing with mines, the chance of being stopped by mines is based on that top stack, so if you have 1 mine on top and then a few stacks of 50, there is still a chance the person flying through will miss completely.
I will soon be sorting based on max mines so this won't be as much a loophole. Update will come in about an hour.
The new damage formula for mines is still in place, so lots of mines will still do lots of damage. Fed ships will no longer take full damage.
Speef
FED ships take ½ damage
When your ship scans an adjacent sector and returns a forces report, the total value of scouts, combat drones, and mines are added together.
Scout Drones = 1
Combat Drones = 2
Mines = 3
e.g.
50 CD's + 5 SD's + 50 Mines = a force report of 255
Maximum allowable forces per stack = 50 CB's, 5 SD's, 50 Mines
Politics:
War votes set relations to -300
Peace votes set relations to 300
If relations are above 300 a peace vote will actually degrade relations.
If relations are below -300 a war vote will improve relations.
Council member votes effect relations by -10 or 10.
The president is the trader with the highest xp, who has an alignment of 100+.
Alignment:
If you kill someone who is MORE evil than you (less good), you alignment improves. If you kill someone who is LESS evil than you (more good) your alignment drops. It seems that this is NOT true. I have had an alignment of 500+ and killed a yellow player (299 to -299) and had my alignment go both up and down. Perhaps killing someone under 0 causes your alignment to increase while killing someone with an alignment in excess of 0 causes your alignment to decrease.
War kills increase your alignment, and killing your own race reduces your alignment.
From: Speef
I believe port raiding lowers your alignment by 7 per attack for all attackers.
NOT true only the player actually hitting the attack button experiences an alignment change. This alignment change is only 1 per attack. I have however knowledge of a player hitting playgame after several attacks and his alignment changed significantly more than that. Raiding a port of an enemy increases your alignment.
Misc:
Weapon Power Levels
Your ship can only support:
1 Level 5 weapon,
2 Level 4 weapons,
3 Level 3 weapons,
4 Level 2 weapons,
unlimited? level 1 weapons
FED Protection
Alignment is still affecting your Fed protection. I believe it is currently AR 3 at 0 alignment for protection, +/- 1 for each full +/-150 alignment.
-300 to -449 = AR1
-150 to -299 = AR2
+149 to -149 = AR3
+150 to +299 = AR4
+300 to +450 = AR5
Remember, at AR0 with no illegal goods, you are always protected.
Jump Drives:
The jump error for galaxy crossings = 75%
The distance to the target upon failure would be 8 sectors.
In galaxy jumps are calculated as follows;
*15 sectors free.
*For every 10 levels, you get 1 extra sector free.
*For each additional sector, there is a 10% chance of failure.
*Distance from target when failed is %\10.
e.g.
Level 35 Trader attempts a 24 sector intergalactic jump
((INT(35/10) + 15) - 24) x 10 = 60% chance of failure.
If this jump fails the distance to the target = 6 sectors
Does anyone know what this has been changed too? I am sure I have missed by more than 8 sectors. I also believe that level effect intergalactic jumps. I at level 50 I would say I hit the target in excess of 50% of the time.
Chance of planetary structure damage = For every 70 damage there is a 15% chance of destroying a structure. (I find this hard to believe.)
Turrets have a 1 in 6 chance of being destroyed
Hangers have a 2 in 6 chance of being destroyed
Generators 3 in 6 chance of being destroyed
Port Raids:
A successful raid will net 1/4 of the total traded funds, both buy and sell. I have personally participated in a raid that netted 172 mil.
Port defenses = (1000 Shields, 1000 Armor and 200 Combat Drones) + 1000 Shield/Armor and 100 Combat Drones per Level.
e.g.
Level 9 port
(1000a/1000s + 9000a/9000s) + (200 SD's + 900 SD's) = 10,000a/10,000s and 1100 CD's
15 Weapons per port regardless of level.
Port weapon damage = 250/250.
Port Weapon Accuracy = 10 x level of the port (adjusted by - 1/2 trader level?)
e.g.
Level 9 port
100% Accuracy
(OR)
From: Speef
Ports:
1000 armor 1000 shields per level
100 + 100 * level drones
15 weapons (250/250) @ level * 10% accuracy.
Speef
(Which is it?)
Number of days you will be marked as a criminal for raiding a port = 0 to (level/2)+1 days.
e.g.
level 15
Rand (0, INT(15/2)) + 1 = 1-8 days
Port degrades
There is a 5% chance per 500 damage done per round, so if you attack for 3600 damage, you will have a 35% chance to drop the level of the port.
OK now comes the tips part. I'm the first to ever become Speefy, big deal right? Well if you aspire to follow in my footsteps read on, if you think I'm a blow hard stop now.
#1 Under the present system of making exp the best way to get to 1000 relations and thus get max exp without charts is to find two ports side by side and trade for about 200 turns in a 400+ cargo hold ship.
#2 A long route is NOT necessarily the best route. The amount of turns you need to use to get to the route are significant in determining which route is best/safer. A nice 3x route that is next to FED is a lot better/safer than a 5x that you have to travel eight sectors each way to get to. You will make more exp on the latter but will you keep it once people start hunting you? Remember if your goal is 500k slow but steady gets you there. You may not win the race but you have a lot better chance of finishing it!
#3 Your alliance has a tremendous impact on how you trade. If you have the backing to build "The Great Wall of Alskant" and maintain it, then the amount of caution you need to exercise is greatly reduced. Attempting to attain a high level of exp on your own or in a very small alliance means you MUST have INFINANT patience! If you find a hunters drone on your route LEAVE IT, don't fall into the trap of looking at and depending on the CPL (Current Player List). Although you need to use the CPL to your advantage the warrior that's hunting you is aware of how to use it too. He's laying low waiting for you to get into your trade cycle and WHAM!!! you've got a free ride to your HQ.
#4 Mines and Scout drones are your best friend IF used correctly. Place one SD and as many mines as there are exits in each sector you are trading through. This means that any hunter hitting your route will hit those mines and send a scout message resulting in a double message to you. When you see two messages at the same time, GET OUT OF DODGE! Don't finish that last trade, don't try to read the messages just get off the route! LET ME SAY THAT AGAIN LEAVE!!!!!! Move 3-4 sectors, you need to know the sectors surrounding your route well enough to have a plan of escape for each sector on the route. Once you've removed yourself from the area you can read the messages or boogie for FED. NEVER leave those drones and mines on your route! They are a road sign to a hunter saying "Hi I trade here come kill me."
#5 If you can play during off hours do so. Trying to trade during prime time or laggy server conditions is a sure way to end up at your home HQ enjoying that magnum of champagne all classy killers furnish in each and every pod the provide. A fast connection DOES make a difference! I have played with both and if you can afford it and it is available get the fastest you can. Having said that I firmly believe I could reach Speefy on a 28.8 modem connection adhering to what I have outlined.
In closing use common sense. You are the rabbit among the hounds, gauge all your actions from that perspective.
Good Luck & Good Trading!
Deke Fentle
Black Tower
Old Strategy and formulas that might still work?
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DekeFentle
- Posts: 10
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Old Strategy and formulas that might still work?
Last edited by DekeFentle on Sun Jul 28, 2002 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Deke Fentle
Revelation 6:8
Revelation 6:8
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Trib
- Beta Test Team Leader
- Posts: 115
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2002 3:28 pm
- Location: Ipswich, UK
- Contact:
Thank you Deke Fentle for your words of wisdom, your advice at the end it particularly useful to newbies.
As for your question of how much of this information still holds true, the answer is quite a lot/most of it. I know that Mr Spock has used that page a fair bit in the past, and I have certainly used it a lot when advising on any changes that I think have been needed during beta testing.
Skip Drive is kinda tricky to implement into the game, the reason for this is apparently the way the scripts execute, it is possible that due to the processing order you could skip past mines, then the game realises you hit the mines and works out the damage, and it gets a bit messy. (correct me if I am wrong here Mr Spock) Also, it would cause a "back button error" with the current implementation, due to the way it is coded to help prevent cheating.
There is something that I have been wanting to ask, and that is about your section on Jump Driving, which I see you also have a question about in regard to SMR. There appears to me to be a contradiction in your equations, it states, "The jump error for galaxy crossings = 75%
The distance to the target upon failure would be 8 sectors" yet then it goes on to give an example equation which includes a cross galaxy jump where the result is 60% and there is no reference to the seeming absolute 75% above. Could you explain this to me in greater detail please.
Currently, I believe with jumping in SMR, there is a 75% of misjumping cross galaxy, which will give a 8 sector miss distance, I have never exceeded this amount. Intragalaxy jumps are much less common since there have not been many large galaxies yet.
As for your question of how much of this information still holds true, the answer is quite a lot/most of it. I know that Mr Spock has used that page a fair bit in the past, and I have certainly used it a lot when advising on any changes that I think have been needed during beta testing.
Skip Drive is kinda tricky to implement into the game, the reason for this is apparently the way the scripts execute, it is possible that due to the processing order you could skip past mines, then the game realises you hit the mines and works out the damage, and it gets a bit messy. (correct me if I am wrong here Mr Spock) Also, it would cause a "back button error" with the current implementation, due to the way it is coded to help prevent cheating.
There is something that I have been wanting to ask, and that is about your section on Jump Driving, which I see you also have a question about in regard to SMR. There appears to me to be a contradiction in your equations, it states, "The jump error for galaxy crossings = 75%
The distance to the target upon failure would be 8 sectors" yet then it goes on to give an example equation which includes a cross galaxy jump where the result is 60% and there is no reference to the seeming absolute 75% above. Could you explain this to me in greater detail please.
Currently, I believe with jumping in SMR, there is a 75% of misjumping cross galaxy, which will give a 8 sector miss distance, I have never exceeded this amount. Intragalaxy jumps are much less common since there have not been many large galaxies yet.
That should say INTRAgalactic, within the same galaxy. And in old SM if you missed your sector you jumped to, you were 1 to max miss number away from your target. So in the example if you made the jump and missed (due to 60% chance of missing) you would miss by either, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 sectors. It was not always 6 exactly. In SMR so far, I have either hit my jump dead on, or I miss by 8. There has been no in between. I would like to see the random amount of sectors missed rather than the flat 8. Also in SM you could not jump across more than 1 galaxy at a time, is this going to be implimented/corrected in SMR in the future or can we look forward to jumping all over foreverLevel 35 Trader attempts a 24 sector intergalactic jump
((INT(35/10) + 15) – 24) x 10 = 60% chance of failure.
If this jump fails the distance to the target = 6 sectors
Imhotep
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Trib
- Beta Test Team Leader
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Thanks for clearing that Immy, was having a few difficulties getting it truly sorted, though had assumed that was the case. Didn't realise it was a random distance away up to the percentage/10, though remembered having some less than 8 sector misses on inter gal jumps in SM.
Will enquire about the search formula Trigek, personally I have very rarely been searched at all, and that is without being in a smuggler ship, though mostly at ports with 3 illegals.
Will enquire about the search formula Trigek, personally I have very rarely been searched at all, and that is without being in a smuggler ship, though mostly at ports with 3 illegals.
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DarkMatter
- Posts: 12
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Then there must be a bug, maybe has to do with the negative number? I wasn't just searched once or twice but many times, I went from -159 alignment to under -150 in about a week, lost my cool red name!!! And odd that I was only searched once when I had illegals on board and that was at the very beginning before I even went thief.
