Post by syraith on Jan 18, 2018 16:59:32 GMT
Most rooms have different HP (Health Points) as seen below. These green bars are not only the amount of health a room has before being destroyed allowing the enemy to begin damaging your hull (a ship's overall HP, the red bar at the top of the screen), these bars also represent the amount of power required to run a room at its maximum potential.
The idea of any battle is to get through the rooms hp so you start dealing the mentioned hull damage. Rooms, like weapons, engines, shields, etc., have considerable less HP than say, a reactor. It is true that if you take out the reactor the ship will be helpless, but what if the enemy has a clever crew that repairs the damaged reactor dragging out a battle? This is where we can help!
Even if you don't have a command room we can help you understand the basic setup and you can manually do it until your command room (available with a lvl 4 hull) is up and running.
Place a weapon room (laser or missile) on the left hand side of a room that is a target room. A reactor or shield for example as seen below.
Place armor more heavily around rooms with lower HP. AA gun, Mining Laser, Turret for example are weaker and need more protection. Rooms that are "single room categories" like shield and teleport for example need armor as well being that they can be targeted directly. Continue armoring all of your rooms as armor is available and do not forget reactors! Reactors have high HP but are ripe targets for missiles and other attacks. They may not need as much but you should still keep them safe. As your ship hull grows you will be able to construct more and more armor blocks and armoring will get easier. Also, make sure the rooms are connected as you place them otherwise the crew cannot move between them.
Next, place at least two crew in the weapon room that is next to the target room. This will increase the fire rate (the speed the room recharges indicated by the rising bar for the room in battle).
Now, if you have a command room, start with something basic like this below.
NOTE: The first line of AI is specific to the crew being programmed once they gain an ability at level 10 on any Unique crew or above. Ignore if your crew is not level 10 yet.
If you don't have a command room yet, just manually drag your crew member (tapping and holding on the desired crew to move and moving the indicator to the room you want them to go to) into the damaged room to repair it. Keep a close eye on them so they don't get too damaged! Once the room is repaired or the crew is badly injured, move them back to the laser room and then move the other crew into the damaged room as before. The AI above accomplishes this goal without intervention.
Now, the reason why you put the laser room on the left of the target room is this...
Notice where the above positioned crew member is standing, this is the primary position where crew fix a damaged room. This is the same spot in all rooms where the crew members need to be before they begin fixing the damaged room. It is ALWAYS on the side closest to the BACK of your ship.
If the crew member enters a damaged room from the right side, he has to cross the entire length of the room to get to this position. If they come from the left side though, they get to start repairing the room sooner and will receive less damage if the room is under attack.
When you target a room with your rooms (especially at lower levels), target a soft target like a weapon. Lasers especially have low HP and missiles can be very damaging to your ship. Focus all your weapon fire on that one room for the entire battle. The shield can also be a very good pick early on because if it is down, your laser fire is not defended. Missiles travel through an enemy laser but lasers are deflected and need to take the shield points (the blue bar at the top of the screen) to reach a room on the enemy ship. If you destroy the shield room, no worries about your laser fire not reaching the ship! HOWEVER, the shield room can be very well protected by armor and repair AI, so as tempting as a target it can be, you can sometime lose a battle from targeting a room that is too well defended.
For those with a command room, here is an AI command for your lasers.
This AI condition may look strange and you may wonder how it works. If you set a condition to "Enemy Laser Room HP >0 - Target Enemy Laser Room" for example, your weapon will destroy the first laser and move onto the next, and the next, etc. A good tactic to remove an enemies weapons but once a destroyed weapon is repaired, your next target will return to that now repaired laser. The problem with that is that you can spend a lot of time, if not the whole battle, dancing from one room to the next never reaching the players hull and either time out, or lose because the enemy has more firepower or better AI.
This "My Shield is Full" line sets a condition that is true at the beginning of the battle but not again at all or very rarely. Your laser targets its first target, it destroys it. Your laser looks back at the AI, the condition is my ship has full shield to continue targeting the enemy laser rooms, well, my shield isn't full anymore so, I guess I can't change my target and will stay on this room until the condition is true again!
This is not the only way to use targeting AI but it can be a very effective tool in your programming. Experiment and see what you can do!
The idea of any battle is to get through the rooms hp so you start dealing the mentioned hull damage. Rooms, like weapons, engines, shields, etc., have considerable less HP than say, a reactor. It is true that if you take out the reactor the ship will be helpless, but what if the enemy has a clever crew that repairs the damaged reactor dragging out a battle? This is where we can help!
Even if you don't have a command room we can help you understand the basic setup and you can manually do it until your command room (available with a lvl 4 hull) is up and running.
Place a weapon room (laser or missile) on the left hand side of a room that is a target room. A reactor or shield for example as seen below.
Place armor more heavily around rooms with lower HP. AA gun, Mining Laser, Turret for example are weaker and need more protection. Rooms that are "single room categories" like shield and teleport for example need armor as well being that they can be targeted directly. Continue armoring all of your rooms as armor is available and do not forget reactors! Reactors have high HP but are ripe targets for missiles and other attacks. They may not need as much but you should still keep them safe. As your ship hull grows you will be able to construct more and more armor blocks and armoring will get easier. Also, make sure the rooms are connected as you place them otherwise the crew cannot move between them.
Next, place at least two crew in the weapon room that is next to the target room. This will increase the fire rate (the speed the room recharges indicated by the rising bar for the room in battle).
Now, if you have a command room, start with something basic like this below.
NOTE: The first line of AI is specific to the crew being programmed once they gain an ability at level 10 on any Unique crew or above. Ignore if your crew is not level 10 yet.
If you don't have a command room yet, just manually drag your crew member (tapping and holding on the desired crew to move and moving the indicator to the room you want them to go to) into the damaged room to repair it. Keep a close eye on them so they don't get too damaged! Once the room is repaired or the crew is badly injured, move them back to the laser room and then move the other crew into the damaged room as before. The AI above accomplishes this goal without intervention.
Now, the reason why you put the laser room on the left of the target room is this...
Notice where the above positioned crew member is standing, this is the primary position where crew fix a damaged room. This is the same spot in all rooms where the crew members need to be before they begin fixing the damaged room. It is ALWAYS on the side closest to the BACK of your ship.
If the crew member enters a damaged room from the right side, he has to cross the entire length of the room to get to this position. If they come from the left side though, they get to start repairing the room sooner and will receive less damage if the room is under attack.
When you target a room with your rooms (especially at lower levels), target a soft target like a weapon. Lasers especially have low HP and missiles can be very damaging to your ship. Focus all your weapon fire on that one room for the entire battle. The shield can also be a very good pick early on because if it is down, your laser fire is not defended. Missiles travel through an enemy laser but lasers are deflected and need to take the shield points (the blue bar at the top of the screen) to reach a room on the enemy ship. If you destroy the shield room, no worries about your laser fire not reaching the ship! HOWEVER, the shield room can be very well protected by armor and repair AI, so as tempting as a target it can be, you can sometime lose a battle from targeting a room that is too well defended.
For those with a command room, here is an AI command for your lasers.
This AI condition may look strange and you may wonder how it works. If you set a condition to "Enemy Laser Room HP >0 - Target Enemy Laser Room" for example, your weapon will destroy the first laser and move onto the next, and the next, etc. A good tactic to remove an enemies weapons but once a destroyed weapon is repaired, your next target will return to that now repaired laser. The problem with that is that you can spend a lot of time, if not the whole battle, dancing from one room to the next never reaching the players hull and either time out, or lose because the enemy has more firepower or better AI.
This "My Shield is Full" line sets a condition that is true at the beginning of the battle but not again at all or very rarely. Your laser targets its first target, it destroys it. Your laser looks back at the AI, the condition is my ship has full shield to continue targeting the enemy laser rooms, well, my shield isn't full anymore so, I guess I can't change my target and will stay on this room until the condition is true again!
This is not the only way to use targeting AI but it can be a very effective tool in your programming. Experiment and see what you can do!