1.2: Tie goes to attacker... why?

from GalCiv2 Forums
What's the reasoning behind this design choice? Just curious.

From 1.2 beta 1 changelog:
+ New Combat System: 1 on 1 Ship Battles:

If both sides kill each other in the same round, the ship with the most max hp will escape as the winner with 1 hp. If they have the same max hp, the attacker wins.

+ New Combat System: Fleet Battles:

If both sides kill off the attacking ships in the same round, the last attacking ship on each side is compared for max HP. The one with the most max HP survives with 1 hp. If they both have the same max HP, the attacker wins.

...

+ Battle System: Ties go to attacker (as discussed at the meeting)
9,293 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
First strike idea i believe. As the attacking ship you should retani an element of suprise even if the defending player destroys you as you destroy him. Tie would have been more along my way of thinking though
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Makes sense, the attacker usually has the advantage in the strategic sense.

The defender has the advantage usually tactically, which has toi be made up for by the attacker by technology or numbers etc.

Ties to the attacker reward initiative and would in a gameplay environment tend to keep attacks moving forward, That might avoid a clickfest
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah... but here we're talking about the last ship only. It's not going to effectively produce a "first-strike advantage." A system where the first round was fought with pre-1.2 sequential firing, and all rounds after the first were fought with 1.2 simultaneous firing, that would yield something like a first strike advantage. This system looks to me like it's just going to promote weird cheese... Imagine a 7 hitpoint, 24 attack tiny fighter in a 1 on 1 battle with a 6 hitpoints, 24 attack tiny fighter. About half of the time, each ship will destroy the other ship, but in 100% of those cases the 7 hitpoints ship will survive and the 6 hit point ship will die. They chose an implementation that's going to result in some weird reward structures...
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What would be a better system?


If both fleets are destroyed, both feets are destroyed. The current system keeps one of the ships alive (based on maximum hitpoints, which seems a little arbitrary?) as if a tie is something that has to be avoided.