FYI, there's a bit of a mish-mash of various replies here, since my
old ISP decided to bail on me and I couldn't send any messages!
Regarding resources, there are no things like food, metals, or whatever.
Every planet gets RPs based on the following formula:
RPs = (population * 2) + (industry * social level / 16)
Global RPs accumulate interest at the rate of 6% in the standard game.
They do not accrue interest under advanced rules.
Advanced rules also provide a bonus for RPs as calculated. At industry
tech level 2, you get 25% more, at tech level 3 it is 50% more, and at
industry tech level 4 it is 100% more (ie. double).
BTW, advanced rules also implement a fog-of-war style limitation on how
far from each star system you can travel. For nav tech 1, it is 3 hexes,
then 4 for tech 2, 5 and then 7 when you get to tech 4. AI players get a
bonus of one hex for tech levels 1-3 but if you are going to implement
serious AI, then I'd abolish this - if you are going to implement AI
similar to the original game, then I'd keep it.
Planets have the following attributes:
* population (maximum 100, though your populations can exceed this in
which case you can get overpopulation which leads to riots)
* industry (maximum is a random value, range depends on the type of planet)
* planet environment (which acts as a rough maximum for social level)
* PDBs (and armies in the advanced rules)
* owner
* previous owner (none if it wasn't invaded).
Here are some tables from the manual (yes, I still have the manuals and
I still play the original through DosBox!):
Planet type distribution:
Star Class Star Colour Primary Secondary Tertiary Hostile
B Blue 2 13 37 48
F Green 19 25 13 43
G Yellow 55 13 13 19
K Orange 13 31 19 37
M Red 7 19 37 37
Planetary characteristics:
Characteristic Primary Secondary Tertiary Hostile
Max Population 70-100 40-80 15-50* 10-30*
Industry 25-60 25-70 25-80 25-100
Planet Env 55-100 30-80 10-55 5-20
* These are listed as being from 20 in the manual, but I know this is
not the case. The numbers I've given are what I've seen in the game.
Social level trends towards planet environment, except if social level
is below 40 in which case it trends slightly downwards every turn.
Combat in a system is split into a number of rounds:
1. Ship-ship only (all factions against all comers)
2. Ship-surface (against PDBs). Note that this occurs for each planet
*separately*
3. Bombardment from space
4. Invasion (landing of troops. Under advanced rules, these fight
against the armies).
Obviously, 2-4 only occur if the single remaining faction's ships are
different to any occupied planets in that system. It is quite possible
for multiple players to occupy planets in the same system.
Bombardment is a mechanism whereby enemy ships left over from
ship-surface combat get to unleash their firepower against ground-based
targets of opportunity for one round of combat only. This typically
reduces population a little bit, industry a little bit and planet
environment by a little bit.
Note also that in the case of an invaded planet, where the original
owner re-invades and wins, the player who invaded is *not* listed as
previous owner.
Note also that for an invaded planet, if a third faction comes along and
invades, the original owner is *still* listed as the previous owner, not
the occupying power.
BTW, original RFTS has *no* diplomacy. Just shoot-to-kill. Heh heh heh.
I believe if you are going to implement something that is supposed to be
another game, you should at least have an option to make it as close as
possible to the original.
>
> There are several sections to this query:
> A) Map / Information:
> ~ What is the level of knowledge of players with regards to neutral and
> enemy assets? I.e., all the star-systems are visible, what about planets? If
> yes, what about the resources on these planets? What about free-roaming
> enemy fleet? What about orders to planets or fleet? And a related question:
> how close do I have to be to gain access to info: what do i see if i send a
> ship to a star-system? What more do i see when i send it to a planet? Are
> there inaccuracies in viewing enemy assets?
- Everyone can always see all star systems. Fleets only travel to
star systems, not planets. Each turn you gain updated information on
all plants(and resources), and fleets, at each star system that you
have a fleet orbiting.
And where you own a planet, even if you don't have a fleet there.
This also has a corollary, in that if someone takes over all your planets in
that system, you no longer get updated info.
Also, only star systems can be set as task force movement destinations - you
can't have them set up shop just outside a star system (which kind-of sucks,
but that's how it was written). Thus, there are *no* roaming fleets, just those
in transit between systems.
Note you do not lose information about the
system after you leave it, it's just not up-to-date. Currently there's
no information available about free roaming fleets. IIRC, you can only
see orders for objects you own.
> ~ What is the "fog-of-war" effect? That is, does information, once
> discovered, become invisible once it's not in direct view? Does it become
> "old", and remain static? If it does become old, does it "freeze"
> indefinitely or until I get close enough again, or else does it disappear
> after a while?
Hmm, answered above?
It becomes stale, still visible, unless something dramatic happens to the star
system itself (ie. nova), at which point it does update even if you don't fill
the other categories (fleet present or occupied planet).
> D) Ships/Weapons:
> ~ What is the exact firepower and shield of each ship? I.e., for Colonist,
> Scout, Mk1-4, PDB?
Uhhh, uhhh..... uuuhhmmm. Yes. The bigger ones are stronger. (this may
be 'answered' at a later date).
Colonists and scouts are 0. If they get hit, they die, and they can't shoot
back.
PDB is the same as for equivalent tech ship.
BUT, PDB's only go up to tech level 3, not 4.
I recall working out that it is something like an exponential curve as to
firepower. A Mark2 vs a Mark1 doesn't always guarantee the Mark2 will win. A
Mark4 has to be *extremely* unlucky to lose to a Mark1 (but it has happened to
me, but it took a number of rounds of combat, not just one!).
It may be something like Mark1 has 1 hit point and 1 gun, Mark2 has 2 points
and 2 guns, Mark 3 has 3 points and 3 guns, and Mark4 has 5 points and 5 guns.
Of course, this doesn't account for the random number generation of the various
computers on which I've played this game ;-).
> (PS - as to PDB's, i didn't get if their maintanence gets
> higher or lower with each successive tech upgrade?)
Higher!
This is true for the basic ruleset, but in the advanced set, it remains the
same regardless of the tech level. Likewise the build cost. If this wasn't so,
in the dialogs to change the cost, you'd see more than one entry (they have
separate entries for other things based on different tech levels).
> ~ Do ships carry over the damage they have gained from battles, or do they
> come out "like new"? If they carry over damage, then what is the "auto-heal"
> ratio/constant-factor?
Hmm. It should carry over, no healing. (maybe they should?).
Once a battle is resolved, they heal automagically. Remember that in
RFTS you have *all* ships of the different factions which are present in
one system fight it out at once, against all comers. Once that's over,
you have at least one full turn before they get into combat again,
barring space->ground attacks.
I think this is still the case even when the space battle is complete
and it switches to space->ground attacks (ie against enemy PDBs). It
still seems to me that the ships start with a clean slate.
HTH,
Jason
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