Ok this is going to be my attempt to explain the basics of a ship statistics and a brief overview of how i will be running space combat.
Each ship is different in this game, as you research more vessels they will become more powerful and you will see their statistics increase. Your turn sheet will have a number of ship profiles within them, an example could look like this:
Name: Nebula Mk1
Race: U
Shield: 390
HP: 131
Spd: 1
Range: Short
Phasers: 6
P.Pwr: 35
Torp: 11
T.Pwr: 60
I.Cost: 5400
Maint: 156
Type: Strike Cruiser
Crew: Green
Race: This indicates the faction it belongs too: U = united federation of Planets, K=Klingon etc etc.
Shield: This indicates the vessels maximum shield power, if these shields are reduced to zero then the hull of your ship will start taking damage.
HP: This indicates the ships hull hit points, should this be reduced to zero, then BOOM, your ship is no more.
Spd: this indicates how fast a ship can move each turn, this is usually represented as a number between 1 to 4. This allows provides a defensive bonus for each point above its foes when in space combat.
Range: This indicates the ships Galactic range, in this case 1 means it can only move 1 space away from an outpost, space station or system with a shipyard.
Phasers: Simply put how many phasers the vessel possesses.
P.Pwr: The damage each phaser fired by the vessel will inflict if it hits this is applied to shields first before HP.
Torp: Simply put the amount of torpedo tubes the vessel possesses.
T.Pwr: The damage each torpedo will do against a ships hull if it hits, these have no effect while ship shields are still raised.
I.Cost: This indicates how much it would cost in production to build one of these vessels.
Maint: This is how much a vessel costs you every turn in Production to maintain.
Type: This indicates the type of vessel and its position in any given combat and any special abilities it may possess.
Crew: This indicates the crews level of skill: Green, Regular, Veteran, Elite and Legendary. All ships begin with the rating Green, this will increase slowly through either training at shipyards or through surviving space battles. i have made this a slow process as ships that increase in crew skill level are ships to be feared.
SPACE COMBAT:
I'm going to be a little bit vague on the way combat is calculated as i don't wont it being picked apart, i believe i have a good system and ill work to improve it as the game continues, if needed.
Now when 2 fleets are in the same sector a conflict will occur, your respective fleet will form into defensive lines:
1st Line: Cruisers, Destroyers and Scout Vessels.
2nd Line: Strike Cruisers and Command vessels.
3rd Line: Troop Transports, Colony Ships, outposts and Starbases.
Each round of conflict is done simultaneously with each line battling it out with their counterparts.
Also if a battle line beats another it will advance to aid the next line in order.
Its a little complicated but its all worked out behind the scenes between turns so don't worry.
Cloaking: is very powerful in this game, for ease of play i have decided that cloaking gives a free round of shooting at the beginning of combat against its counterpart battle lines. The ships being assaulted this turn will not be able to fire and will have to weather the storm until normal fighting resumes, the ships being attacked will not be able to use any advanced Tactic.
ADVANCED TACTICS:Each Line of ships can issue up to 5 orders, these are done in turn order.
Assault: Orders command, strike ships Outpost and Starbases to fire using long range weapons. This allows them to fire without return fire as long as a 1st Line exists to defend them. Note that for Outposts and Starbases this is there only option.
Charge: Orders all ships to charge firing all weapons at close range. This action focuses more on attack and less on defense, giving vessels a +25% attack bonus, however it lowers defense by -10% for that round.
Harry/Circle: Orders ships to circle the enemy firing long range weapons
This gives a +10% Bonus to Defense.
Strafe/Flyby: Orders ships to charge at an angle and attempt an outflanking move. This gives a +10% attack bonus.
Evade: Orders ships to evade enemy weaponry while firing, dogfight style. This option give +20% defense bonus. However this erratic dog fighting gives a penalty of -10% to attacking any foe that round
Ram: Orders ships to ram the enemy firing weapons. This is a desperate tactic. The ship rams into the enemy focusing all its power on this attempt. The vessel focuses all power to shields and give it a +25% defense bonus. The result if it survives that round is it slamming into an equal sized vessel. Ignoring the shields of both vessels, the vessels do damage to each other based on the hit points remaining on the colliding vessels.
Retreat: Orders ships to retreat (they stay in the sector if you win and retreat from the sector if you lose to a random square around the system). When initiating this tactic the vessel has a +25% defense bonus but does not fire weapons as they put all power into shields and engines to escape the situation. This action is usually used for colony and Transport ships, but cunning commanders could find some use for this.
If you do not issue these orders for each battle line you possess then you are considered to simply to have no attack/defense bonus or penalty. However you will be affected by the tactics of other fleets should they choice to utilise these advanced tactics.
If a battle lasts more than 5 rounds the battle has become so chaotic that vessels begin slugging it toe to toe and any chance to do a retreat action has gone...