Planetarion Wiki - User contributions [en]

Ship Attributes

2006-02-15T18:59:26Z

MaverickPH: Spelling mistake : immobilised

Every ship has a set of attributes available, commonly referred to as stats.

== Attributes available ==

=== Name ===
The name of the ship.

=== Class ===
The class of the ship, check [[Ship Class]] for reference.

=== Target ===
The target class of the ship, check [[Ship Class]] for reference.

=== Type ===
The type of damage the ship deals. The type can be either Normal, Emp, Steal, Pod or Structure - though in past rounds [[Subversion]] has also been a Type. Check [[Ship Type]] for a detailed explanation of each type of damage.

=== Init ===
The initiative of the ship decides when the ship gets to fire. Ships with the lowest initiative fire first, then sequentially higher initiatives fire. Ships with equal initiative fire at the same time. Both Attacking and Defending ships (of the same Initiative level) fire at the same time, with losses deducted from both sides after that initiative level.

=== Armour ===
The armour of the ship decides how much damage it can handle before it is killed, immobilized or subverted.

=== Damage ===
This is the power of the ship. See armour for further explanation.

=== Metal ===
How much [[metal]] it costs to produce one ship of this type.

=== Crystal ===
How much [[crystal]] it costs to produce one ship of this type.

=== Eonium ===
How much [[eonium]] it costs to produce one ship of this type.

=== Race ===
Which [[race]] the ship belongs to.

[[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Ships]]

New Player Manual:Combat

2006-02-15T18:50:57Z

MaverickPH: Spelling mistake : losing

Combat is a major part of Planetarion. It's possibly where tactics and skill are found most. The important thing is not the AMOUNT of ships that you attack with, but the types of ship. In effect you're trying to "drive" your fleet through enemy defence, so you want it as streamlined as possible. Sending every different ship you have might look impressive, but a lot of people will only even bother stopping the important ones - the ones that capture asteroids and kill structures. The current game statistics are located here.

== Damage types ==

There's 5 different types of ship damage. These are those that: 
Kill ("normal" damage), 
EMP ("ElectroMagnetic Pulse" - basically stun), 
Steal, 
Asteroid stealing, and 
Structure killing. 
The normal/kill, asteroid stealing and structure killing damages are fairly self explanatory.
Stealing ships steal a certain class of enemy ships for no cost (enemy ships are taken and now work for the attacker) and EMP ships stun ships for the duration of the round of combat. 

== Classes of ship ==

There are 6 classes of ship. These are (smallest to largest): 
Fighter Class, 
Corvette Class, 
Frigate Class, 
Destroyer Class, 
Cruiser Class,and 
Battleship Class. 
Each ship is a certain class, and (unless it captures asteroids or fires at constructions) fires at another class, which may or may not be the same class. Each time the ship takes part in combat it fires once. 

== Inititative (or init) ==

This is one of the least understood parts of the game for new players. It's basically the order that ships fire in. Generally, Cathaar EMP ships fire first, then Xandarthii ships, then Terran and Zikonian kill ships and Cathaar kill ships, and then the astropods, and then steal ships, and then structure killers.
So, with an init of 1, the Spider, Black Widow, Scarab and Beetle ships fire first.
Guardians and Roaches have an init of 2, so they fire next.
This means that, for example, Scarabs fire their EMP damage at Roaches before Roaches can fire.

== What are these Arm/Cost and Dam/Cost columns on the stats page? ==

These are, in some ways, more important than the armour, damage and cost columns themselves. They summarize these columns by saying, per cost, how much armour the ship has or damage the ship does. This means you can quickly compare ships no matter their different costs. Looking at Terran, you can see their "Arm/Cost" column is much bigger than the other races. Cathaar and Xandathrii have bigger "Dam/Cost" columns, but keep in mind that 6 of the Cathaar ships only stun their opponents.

== How combat works ==

Combat occurs when one planet sends some of their ships to attack another planet. Attacking (and defending) ships can take anywhere between 7 and 14 hours to reach their target, depending on the size of the ship and the amount of research that's been done by the attacking planet. The target planet does not have to have ships home (or even ships sent from other people) for combat to occur. 
When the attacking ships land, combat takes place. The attacking and defending ships fire at the same time in order of initiative. They fire at the class they target, and are obviously fired on by ships that target them. The damage the ships do is from their "damage" column, and the armour they have against damage is their "armour" column. These damages and armours are the same no matter what damage is being done or what armour is taking the damage.

== What race should I choose? ==

There are four different races. These are: 
Terran, 
Cathaar, 
Xandarthii, and 
Zikonian. 

Terran have bigger, more heavily armoured ships than the other races (their Destroyer class ships are as big as Cathaar and Zikonian Battleships). They're slower and generally fire later, but their armour means they can take losses and fire on their enemy afterwards. This means they can power through and take acceptable losses on bigger planets than others, but due to their poorer than average damage they're sometimes seen to be targets. 
Cathaar are seen to be more peaceful - 6 of their 9 ships that target other ships only EMP them (although they do so more efficiently than other ships). To compensate, their armour is slightly lower on their EMP ships, and their kill ships are slightly more heavily armoured, but much weaker damage wise. They're again quite effective attacking, but weaker defending - a lot of people don't mind being EMPed as they don't loose ships. 
Xandathrii are the heavy artillery. They rely on firing first with large guns, and so have the weakest armour. Because of this, people are often not so willing to attack them, but if you can stop their ships firing and/or survive their heavy guns, they die quite easily. This means sometimes people choose targets of a similar value or smaller, to reduce the risk of losing ships. 
Zikonian are the hardest race to play - while their race is able to steal all classes of ship from all other races, their ships are slightly worse, generally slightly slower, and very much harder to play early on. For this reason they're recommended for experienced players only, who've planned how to play them.

== How do I attack? ==

In Planetarion, there is a procedure that is more or less followed by everyone when attacking, however it can be combined with other [[Fleet Strategy]] in order to increase the likelihood of success. This procedure does use some complex [[Terminology]], however dont be overwhelmed by the apparent complexity - you'll ''very'' quickly get the hang of it :).

The procedure is adapted from [http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=185199 this thread] from the [[Strategy]] Forum.

* Fleet Composition: Build a fleet that is suited to your [[Race]].
* Target Selection: Choose a target that your fleet is good at attacking - eg (for Rund 15) FI Xans should look for Cathaars with small amounts of Beetles (CO), or Terrans with few Harpies (FI) or Pegasus (DE), or Zikonians with few Cutters (CO) and Cutlasses (FR). CO Cathaars should look for Terrans with few Gryphon (FR), Xandathrii with few Arrowheads (CO), and Zikonians with few Thieves (FR). Terrans should look for Cathaars, Zikonians with few Clippers/Buccaneers/Pirates etc.
* Use a [[Battle calculator]] to estimate the likely losses you will take and inflict on your enemy, in particular how many roids you are expected to capture - input your target's fleet into the Defenders side, and your fleet into the Attacker's side (most will accept a paste of your scans, such as unit scans). Try to optimise your fleet such that you take minimum losses of ships but maximise your asteroid capture - there '''is no point''' in killing the enemy's ships other than to reduce your own losses (often you can get a cheap full cap without killing the enemy at all).
* Fleet Transfer: Ensure that you transfer the '''RIGHT''' ships into the '''RIGHT''' fleet to launch on the '''RIGHT''' target (and make sure you hit ATTACK not DEFEND :P).
* Launch: Launch your fleet (preferably along with other people's (on different targets in the same galaxy/alliance) at the same time: ie a Raid).
* Prelaunch is an option if you are not awake to participate in a Raid, however make sure you are on BEFORE your fleet lands otherwise you might loose it.
* Jump Gate Probe (JGP) Scan: when your fleet is almost at the end of its first tick (ie, 5 mins before ETA 7 for FI becomes ETA 6; or a ETA 8 FR/DE fleet becomes ETA 7), do a JGP scan - this is to see whether your target received alliance defence in it's first tick. Often, if your target is receiving defence from the outset its going to get covered (at the very least it will make you take more losses than you had calculated for). I usually recall at this stage, and then re-send the fleet when it gets home (ie, a Recall and Resend [[Fleet Strategy]]) - though this requires being online though. If there is no defence, proceed.
* JGP AGAIN: When your fleet is '''ETA 4''' - this scan will tell you all the fleets that can be launched to aid your target - as it will show up universal and in-galaxy fleets as well. This is where you need to make a decision of whether to fight or flight (recall). Obviously, the more marginal your original calc (Step 3) was, the more likely you are to recall with less defence. If you think your target is only partially covered;
* Unit Scan the Defenders: This will give you a much better indication of what your target's defenders would have sent to counter your fleet - usually its fairly obvious to guess (if you sent a FI fleet which showed up at ETA 7, then any defenders from in universe (outside galaxy) wont be able to send any Frigates or larger ships to defend against you. Further, it is likely that they would only have sent anti FI ships (unless they are sending along Flak (other ships in the same class so you dont kill as many and thus take less losses) too).
* '''MAKE A DECISION''': If the defence looks like its overwhelming, and you've unit scanned the defenders and it looks like they have too much defence; RECALL! ''DO NOT LAND ANYWAY'' as you'll just die. This final point applies alot more to Cathaars and Xans than to Terrans and especially Zikonians (as Cathaar and Xan ships are very brittle) - but the idea is there: If your target is Covered, the Attack is foiled.

There are some finer points to attacking that havent been mentioned, such as whether the defenders have sent Fake Defence, however this is looked at in more detail in the [[Fleet Strategy]] page, and tend to be more advanced [[Combat]] than beginners need to worry about.

For more information on Ship Stats, see [http://game.planetarion.com/stats.pl here].

== See Also ==
*[[Fleet_Strategy]]
*[[Military_strategies]]
*[[New_Player_Manual]]
*[[Battle_calculator]]

[[Category:Terminology]]
[[Category:Strategy]]

Fleet Strategy

2006-02-15T17:28:46Z

MaverickPH: Spelling mistake : multi

This page has been adapted from the [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]], Specifically [http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=187541 This Thread]. Special thanks to Monroe for starting it off and organising the thread, and to all those who contributed to the discussion.

The purpose of this thread is to outline the various types of fashions that players use their fleet to achieve certain objectives, ie 'Fleet Strategy'. It also tries to identify these various strategies with common names, so everyone speaks the same language when describing what they are trying to do. Additionally, it provides an example of the strategy to make it clear and apparant what was meant, and finally it anticipates possible or frequent counter move(s) that the defender may reply with.

Investigate the "See Also" Section at the bottom of this page for similar discussions on fleet strategy, guides and whatnot.

== Basic Fleet Strategy ==

=== Send, recall, resend ===

''Description:'' This strategy is designed to strain your target's alliance defence such that a gap opens, which you can then exploit. Launch an attack, jumpgate scan the attack near the end of the first tick to see if there is defence (ie at xx:55), if there is defence recall right at the end of the tick (ie, xx:59) and resend the following tick. The advantage of this frequently used tactic is that it soaks up universal defence, and gives you a second opportunity to attack.

''Counter:'' The best counter to this strategy is active defense, rather then passive defense. Having defenders on at the end of the first tick to recall can be very useful. Another good counter strategy is to organize an attack on your would be attacker that will require him to keep his attack fleet home to defend. Then use the same tactic back at him, ie jpg at the end of the first tick and recall if he got defence.

=== Single class attack ===

''Description:'' Send only one class of ships on any given attack, thereby limiting which of your targets ships can target your fleet. This is especially useful since the advent of PAX (the current system), where ships only have one target class, and thus by sending only a single type of ship you are able to explot the weaknesses in your enemy's targeting spectrum (often weaknesses are due to race, such as Terrans are poor against anti CO (Cathaar CO), and other times they are from player's choice (a dislike of Tarantulas, for example).

''Counter:'' No specific counter, just rely on the right type of defence.

=== Fake Defence ===

''Description:'' When a friend has incomming and you have the correct type of ships, but those ships are not home send a different type of ship instead in the exact quantity you have of the ship that would be effective. If the attacker does a jump gate he will not know that the defense is fake and will have to assume it is real and will therefore recall.

''Counter:'' No known counter, other then landing anyway and seeing what shows up. If the defense is from outside the target gal you CAN do a news scan at eta 1 and see what the initial eta of the defense was, if the defense eta is different then what it should have been (ie 7 because the fake def is FI rather then 8 because the real def would have been FR) then you know the def is fake. In my personal experiance however this rarely is useful.

== Intermediate Fleet Strategy ==

=== Disguised Fleet Attack (aka Fake Attack)===

''Description:'' Similar to Fake Defence, send a fleet of one class disguised as a fleet of another class. For example, sending a bunch of FR that have the same number of ships as your DE's, then later send your DE's faked as BS (for terrans). Defender will think the first wave is DEs and send anti DE, defender will think second wave is BS and send anti BS, therefore your DE will get through unharmed.

''Counter:'' Fleet scans can tell the difference, as long as you don't get blocked. Otherwise calc your home fleet against the attackers potential attack fleets. Using the above example, if you have pretty good BS defense, but terrible DE defense, simply assume both incomming fleets are DE and defend accordingly. Otherwise massive overkill on def ussually works, but is rarely a good option.

=== Multi Race Attack ===

''Description:'' This tactic involves finding a friend of another race to attack with. Because races have different advantages and weaknesses, combining two races together can sometimes be a very powerful attack fleet which is nearly impossible to defend against. One classic example would be cath and zik CR/BS combo attack. Essentially the caths freeze the attackers, and the zik's clean up. Another great example is the 1-2 punch of zik and terran BS attacks, they target most classes and are hard to stop. Essentially any two races can combine at some level, but which combos are best depends on the current ship stats.

''Counter:'' If the attack is done right there is no good counter, other then overwhelming defense. If you are lucky you can find a ship that the attackers don't target, and that does target the attackers, but if the attackers are smart, this isn't really an option.

=== Defence Specialisation (aka Fleet Swapping)===

''Description:'' This is where you and your mates exploit the low ETA advantage of your Galaxy in order to make the best use of your ships, and use the strengths of one person's fleet to cover the weaknesses of another person's fleet. For example, if you have alot of anti CR and your mate(s) have alot of anti BA, and you have BA incs and they have CR incs, you send your fleet to defend a mate, they send their fleet(s) to defend you. It is especially effective if also combined with fake defence, ie you fake another anti CR fleet to another of your gal mates, thus potentially covering two incs with only half the ships.

''Counter:'' The obvious counter if you think your target is likely to swap in-gal def or has a previous tendency to do so, is to send both a CR fleet ''and'' a BA fleet at him - that way if he defends his gal mate he leaves himself wide open.

== Advanced Fleet Strategy ==
=== Fleet Exchange ===

''Description:'' Have two attack fleets of different ship classes, with different eta's, and the same size. Launching the higher eta fleet with fleet name "alpha." Right at the end of the first tick recall the high eta fleet and send the lower eta fleet. Rename the lower eta fleet to Alpha. If you are lucky (and I've seen it work) they will assume it's the same fleet and not rescan the attacker. Then all defense that is sent will be worthless

''Counter:'' Make sure you do an FA scan after the first tick to verify the fleet composition. Also make sure you have at least some defense against the attackers other possible fleet.

=== Fleet Catch ===
''Description:'' This tactic has to be carefully planned and executed to be successful, ussually with multiple attackers, sometimes with as many as 20 or 30 attackers. The idea is to find a target who is about to land his fleet on a target, and time your attack so that your attack will land the same tick that his fleet will return home. The concept here is to make it so he is unable to run away from your overwhelming attack, not to steal roids, but roids are a bonus. There are two strategies with Fleet catches, either to steal as much of the targets fleet as possible, or kill as much of the targets fleet as possible. In order to kill as much as possible the tactic is simple, just send a lot of ships! A good fleet catch however will endevor to steal, rather then kill. To accomplish this ussually a gigantic attack fleet is sent, and once the attack is certain to succeed (ie no defenders left) most of the attack fleet recalls and allows the ziks and maybe some caths to land to maximize the ships that can be stolen.

''Counter:'' Suprisingly there are two counters to this tactic. One is rather obvious, simply find a ton of defence! The other counter is a little less obvious. If you suspect someone is trying to fleet catch you, shortly before you land on your target have a jumpgate taken of ''your'' planet. If you see a bunch of hostile fleets on prelaunch timed to catch your returning fleet, simply recall your attacking fleet before you land and mess up their timing. You won't get any roids, but you will keep your ships. Most fleet catches will recall as soon as they see they have missed your fleet, and usually you'll even get to keep your own roids. Also note that it often take ''alot'' of ships in order to pull off a successful fleet catch attempt, and in doing so the attackers make themselves vulnerable at home - if you cant stop the Fleet Catch, at least get as many of your allaincemates to steal roids off the attackers to minimise the damage done to your alliance overall.

''Counter-Counter Fleet Catching:'' Sometimes a really organised Fleet Catch will exist where attackers launch the tick before someone lands, such that they are already inbound when you would have you mate JGP you in the 'Counter' section above, in addition to the original Fleet Catch - such that whether you recall now or land anyway you still die. This is known as unfortunate.

== See Also ==
*[[Military_strategies]]
*[[New_Player_Manual]]
*[[New_Player_Manual:Combat]]
*[[Battle_calculator]]

[[Category:Strategy]]
[[Category:Terminology]]

Fleet Strategy

2006-02-15T17:28:08Z

MaverickPH: Spelling mistake : therefore

This page has been adapted from the [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]], Specifically [http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=187541 This Thread]. Special thanks to Monroe for starting it off and organising the thread, and to all those who contributed to the discussion.

The purpose of this thread is to outline the various types of fashions that players use their fleet to achieve certain objectives, ie 'Fleet Strategy'. It also tries to identify these various strategies with common names, so everyone speaks the same language when describing what they are trying to do. Additionally, it provides an example of the strategy to make it clear and apparant what was meant, and finally it anticipates possible or frequent counter move(s) that the defender may reply with.

Investigate the "See Also" Section at the bottom of this page for similar discussions on fleet strategy, guides and whatnot.

== Basic Fleet Strategy ==

=== Send, recall, resend ===

''Description:'' This strategy is designed to strain your target's alliance defence such that a gap opens, which you can then exploit. Launch an attack, jumpgate scan the attack near the end of the first tick to see if there is defence (ie at xx:55), if there is defence recall right at the end of the tick (ie, xx:59) and resend the following tick. The advantage of this frequently used tactic is that it soaks up universal defence, and gives you a second opportunity to attack.

''Counter:'' The best counter to this strategy is active defense, rather then passive defense. Having defenders on at the end of the first tick to recall can be very useful. Another good counter strategy is to organize an attack on your would be attacker that will require him to keep his attack fleet home to defend. Then use the same tactic back at him, ie jpg at the end of the first tick and recall if he got defence.

=== Single class attack ===

''Description:'' Send only one class of ships on any given attack, thereby limiting which of your targets ships can target your fleet. This is especially useful since the advent of PAX (the current system), where ships only have one target class, and thus by sending only a single type of ship you are able to explot the weaknesses in your enemy's targeting spectrum (often weaknesses are due to race, such as Terrans are poor against anti CO (Cathaar CO), and other times they are from player's choice (a dislike of Tarantulas, for example).

''Counter:'' No specific counter, just rely on the right type of defence.

=== Fake Defence ===

''Description:'' When a friend has incomming and you have the correct type of ships, but those ships are not home send a different type of ship instead in the exact quantity you have of the ship that would be effective. If the attacker does a jump gate he will not know that the defense is fake and will have to assume it is real and will therefore recall.

''Counter:'' No known counter, other then landing anyway and seeing what shows up. If the defense is from outside the target gal you CAN do a news scan at eta 1 and see what the initial eta of the defense was, if the defense eta is different then what it should have been (ie 7 because the fake def is FI rather then 8 because the real def would have been FR) then you know the def is fake. In my personal experiance however this rarely is useful.

== Intermediate Fleet Strategy ==

=== Disguised Fleet Attack (aka Fake Attack)===

''Description:'' Similar to Fake Defence, send a fleet of one class disguised as a fleet of another class. For example, sending a bunch of FR that have the same number of ships as your DE's, then later send your DE's faked as BS (for terrans). Defender will think the first wave is DEs and send anti DE, defender will think second wave is BS and send anti BS, therefore your DE will get through unharmed.

''Counter:'' Fleet scans can tell the difference, as long as you don't get blocked. Otherwise calc your home fleet against the attackers potential attack fleets. Using the above example, if you have pretty good BS defense, but terrible DE defense, simply assume both incomming fleets are DE and defend accordingly. Otherwise massive overkill on def ussually works, but is rarely a good option.

=== Mutli Race Attack ===

''Description:'' This tactic involves finding a friend of another race to attack with. Because races have different advantages and weaknesses, combining two races together can sometimes be a very powerful attack fleet which is nearly impossible to defend against. One classic example would be cath and zik CR/BS combo attack. Essentially the caths freeze the attackers, and the zik's clean up. Another great example is the 1-2 punch of zik and terran BS attacks, they target most classes and are hard to stop. Essentially any two races can combine at some level, but which combos are best depends on the current ship stats.

''Counter:'' If the attack is done right there is no good counter, other then overwhelming defense. If you are lucky you can find a ship that the attackers don't target, and that does target the attackers, but if the attackers are smart, this isn't really an option.

=== Defence Specialisation (aka Fleet Swapping)===

''Description:'' This is where you and your mates exploit the low ETA advantage of your Galaxy in order to make the best use of your ships, and use the strengths of one person's fleet to cover the weaknesses of another person's fleet. For example, if you have alot of anti CR and your mate(s) have alot of anti BA, and you have BA incs and they have CR incs, you send your fleet to defend a mate, they send their fleet(s) to defend you. It is especially effective if also combined with fake defence, ie you fake another anti CR fleet to another of your gal mates, thus potentially covering two incs with only half the ships.

''Counter:'' The obvious counter if you think your target is likely to swap in-gal def or has a previous tendency to do so, is to send both a CR fleet ''and'' a BA fleet at him - that way if he defends his gal mate he leaves himself wide open.

== Advanced Fleet Strategy ==
=== Fleet Exchange ===

''Description:'' Have two attack fleets of different ship classes, with different eta's, and the same size. Launching the higher eta fleet with fleet name "alpha." Right at the end of the first tick recall the high eta fleet and send the lower eta fleet. Rename the lower eta fleet to Alpha. If you are lucky (and I've seen it work) they will assume it's the same fleet and not rescan the attacker. Then all defense that is sent will be worthless

''Counter:'' Make sure you do an FA scan after the first tick to verify the fleet composition. Also make sure you have at least some defense against the attackers other possible fleet.

=== Fleet Catch ===
''Description:'' This tactic has to be carefully planned and executed to be successful, ussually with multiple attackers, sometimes with as many as 20 or 30 attackers. The idea is to find a target who is about to land his fleet on a target, and time your attack so that your attack will land the same tick that his fleet will return home. The concept here is to make it so he is unable to run away from your overwhelming attack, not to steal roids, but roids are a bonus. There are two strategies with Fleet catches, either to steal as much of the targets fleet as possible, or kill as much of the targets fleet as possible. In order to kill as much as possible the tactic is simple, just send a lot of ships! A good fleet catch however will endevor to steal, rather then kill. To accomplish this ussually a gigantic attack fleet is sent, and once the attack is certain to succeed (ie no defenders left) most of the attack fleet recalls and allows the ziks and maybe some caths to land to maximize the ships that can be stolen.

''Counter:'' Suprisingly there are two counters to this tactic. One is rather obvious, simply find a ton of defence! The other counter is a little less obvious. If you suspect someone is trying to fleet catch you, shortly before you land on your target have a jumpgate taken of ''your'' planet. If you see a bunch of hostile fleets on prelaunch timed to catch your returning fleet, simply recall your attacking fleet before you land and mess up their timing. You won't get any roids, but you will keep your ships. Most fleet catches will recall as soon as they see they have missed your fleet, and usually you'll even get to keep your own roids. Also note that it often take ''alot'' of ships in order to pull off a successful fleet catch attempt, and in doing so the attackers make themselves vulnerable at home - if you cant stop the Fleet Catch, at least get as many of your allaincemates to steal roids off the attackers to minimise the damage done to your alliance overall.

''Counter-Counter Fleet Catching:'' Sometimes a really organised Fleet Catch will exist where attackers launch the tick before someone lands, such that they are already inbound when you would have you mate JGP you in the 'Counter' section above, in addition to the original Fleet Catch - such that whether you recall now or land anyway you still die. This is known as unfortunate.

== See Also ==
*[[Military_strategies]]
*[[New_Player_Manual]]
*[[New_Player_Manual:Combat]]
*[[Battle_calculator]]

[[Category:Strategy]]
[[Category:Terminology]]

Waves

2006-02-15T17:23:08Z

MaverickPH: Spelling mistake : galaxy

== Description ==

'''Waves''' are used to gather information on other planets through the use of scans. You must have built at least one [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifier]] on the [[Construction]] page to be able to use scans. The more [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] you have, the better the chances of your scans getting through. Similarly, the more [[structures#Wave_Distorter|Wave Distorters]] you build, the lower the chance of scans getting through on your [[planet]].

For those who have played Planetarion before: [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] are no longer used up with successful scans, and there are no [[Asteroid]] Scans this round either. You can initiate [[roids]] directly from the [[Mining]] page.

Another new feature is the use of stored scans. Any successful scan your results will be stored (max. 50 shown on waves page) on the PA server, and can be accessed for the next 24 hours through the Waves Page. You can share the scans with other people by giving them the URL of the saved scan.

Initially, you will only be able to use Planet Scans. You can have your [[planet]]'s scientists develop new scans on the [[Research]] page.

== Scans available ==

=== Planet Scan ===
Returns general information about a [[planet]].
This scan costs 1000 of each [[resource]].
This is useful for the following things:

#To see how the target's asteroids are divvied up by resource type
#To see how many spare resources the target has (useful for finding targets for 'Hacking:Resource Transfers' covert ops)
#To see if you opponent built a lot of ships between launch and landing. (Planetscan around the launch time. Then planetscan a few ticks later. If resource counts drastically decreased, the player probably ordered a lot of ships in preparation for your attack.
#If you are unsure whether you'll be able to scan a target, planetscan them first. That way, if the scan doesn't work, you've used up a smaller amount of resources.

=== Surface Analysis Scan ===
Reveals the amount of [[constructions]] that a target [[planet]] has, broken down by type.
This scan costs 2000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:
#Finding out how many amps a target has (to see whether he'd be able to scan you)
#Finding out if the target has a large percentage of Security Centres (useful when scouting for covert ops targets)

=== Technology Analysis Scan ===
Identifies the [[Research]] Technology present on a target [[planet]].
This scan costs 3000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:

#Working out ETAs (the scan will tell you how many Space Travel techs the target has)
#Finding out what covert ops techs the target has
#Find out what classes of Ship Hulls that the target can build

Note: The Tech Scan is often more useful early in a round.

=== Unit Scan ===
This scan gives you an overview of all [[ships]] that a certain [[planet]] has.
This scan costs 4000 of each [[resource]].

#Unit scans are the most important scan type in the game, it seems- you would unitscan a potential target to see whether the ships he has fits well with what you plan on attacking with. Unit scan results are often plugged into [[battle calculation|battlecalcs]]. it is good advice to get a unit scan whenever you are attacking.
#Conversely, unit scans are also useful if you're being attacked- they can tell you what ships your attackers might have.

Unit scans are somewhat inaccurate, giving numbers between 20% more or less than the target actually has for each ship type. In game terns this is explained as 'random inference'. If such a variation might make a big difference in your plans, try doing 2 or 3 unitscans and then averaging out the results.

=== News Scan ===
The News Scan will try to intercept [[news]] transmissions at the target [[planet]]. Due
to the rate of news becoming available at another [[planet]], it will not show any news
entries from the last 4 [[tick]]s.
This scan costs 5000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:

#Checking whether your target has his fleets out (if you see recent 'launch' messages)
#Checking to see how active your target is, or when he is active.

=== Jumpgate Probe ===
This scan can only be used if you have a [[fleet]] travelling towards the [[planet]] you
are trying to scan. It will reveal any other [[fleet]]s travelling to the same planet,
both hostile and friendly.
This scan costs 6000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:

#Checking to see whether your target got defense. A jumpgate at ETA 4 or later will confirm whether the target got in-galaxy defence, and a jumpgate at ETA 6 or later will confirm whether the target got alliance defense. (On this note, you might want to jumpgate a few minutes before the landtick, to see if the defense fleets pulled)

=== Fleet Analysis ===
This advanced version of the Unit Scan can only be used on another [[planet]] when
it has sent a [[fleet]] towards you. This will show the exact compsition of the [[fleet]] heading towards your [[planet]].
This scan costs 7000 of each [[resource]].

* A fleet analysis scan on a [[Race#Xandathrii|Xandathrii]] player will fail, since Xan ships are 'cloaked' and thus immune to fleetscans. However- *unit* scans will still work on Xan ships.
* Note: if a Zikonian player has stolen some Xan ships, and included them with his attackfleet, the cloaking rule still applies. Subtract the total of ships that are shown in the fleetscan from the known size of the fleet to get the amount of Xan ships that are included, and the unitscan the player to see what those Xan ships might be.

== Scan Success ==

For a scan to work, you must have more Wave Amplifiers than your target has Wave Distorters. In mathematical terms,

The following statement must be correct:
your_amps - their_distorters >= 0

As a new r15 feature, you can scan any galmate or any member of your alliance, regardless of the number of Distorters.

===Alliance scanners===

Oftentimes, one or more members of an alliance are 'scanners'. They build a lot of Wave Amplifiers (meaning their scans would be more likely to succeeed) and focus their [[research]] towards the waves branch of the tech tree. 'Scanners' generally distribute scans to all alliance members. You can often request a specific scan from such a person via the alliance's IRC channel. As a new [[PAN]] feature, 'scanner' will be an official alliance position, and such a person's scans will be paid for out of the alliance fund as opposed to from that player's personal resource stash.

[[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Strategy]]