Invasions

It's not all that random.

Here's the formula:

Attacker generally will get a 3 to 1 advantage (this simulates air and space superiority).

Add to that various improvement modifiers and then a technology modifier (the more tech you have, the better you do).

Attacker rolls between a 1 and a 16
Defender rolls between a 1 and a 4

We then take the square root of that result to use as our base:
exmaple:

I.e. Attacker rolls an 8 and defender rolls a 2.

Square root of 8 = 2.8
Square root of 2 = 1.4

Multiply by the various improvements (plantary defense adds 25% bonuse to your planet for instance):

Now it's 2.8 v 1.75

Now multiply by the technology:

Let's say defender has researched 10,000 worth of technology (10,000 resources of tech)

And attacker has done 5,000 worth of tech.

Defender gets 2 and attacker gets 1.

So now it's:

3.8 v 3.75

and off it goes.

Now obviously there is a luck factor.

Worst case attacker rolls a 16, defender rolls a 1.

So the base would have been 4 to 1.
End result would have been changed to:
5 vs. 3.

Not quite as massive of a difference as one might think.

But LUCK does matter. The US won the battle of Midway due to luck. BTW, the current invasion system doesn't follow the formula I've outlined here, it's being modified as we speak.

Sounds pretty good!

Looks better than I envisioned it. Obviously it is not quite so dependant on the roll as I had originally thought. Which is good

I know luck plays a part in things, I just didn't want a huge factor of it

Yeah, I think the goal is to make luck a factor, but not THE factor.

I remember reading once about the targeting code in Wolfenstein3d, where they basically just kept reducing the odds the farther away the shot was. Needless to say from Doom on they've been using physics equations.

Sander

Also added to the mix is the recent additions of "Abilities" that each civilization will have, and improve upon, as the game progresses. One such ability will be "Soldiering", which will improve the skills of your troops and up the Att. and Def. values used in the above equation. These abilities will be influenced by both technologies researched, and anomalies explored.

If I remember right, Wolfenstein3d also had the player eating dogfood to regenerate health lost by gunshot wounds. I never got that one... :notsure: