Without seeing exactly how your ships are armed individually, we can't say for certain. My guess is that your bigger ship is defense-heavy, and your lighter ships are mostly attack. This would result in the Ranger targetting the small ships first, and blasting two of them in the first round. Then the survivors don't have enough firepower to get much damage past the Ranger's armor, so they don't do much damage in following rounds while the Ranger chews them up.
On second thought, this is pretty clearly what happened, as the one time you won, your bigger ship was the only survivor - meaning it was targetted last. The AI (including your fleet, as you have no control over it) will attack ships in order of their rating, using the formula "attack/(defense + current HP)". Putting one massive "tank" ship in a fleet doesn't absorb damage for the others, because the tank is targetted last.
See, that's the thing I'm not getting AT all (and why I'm VERY frustrated at this point). I thought that when your ships are in a fleet, you get the BonUs of having all those defenses/attack points ALL together for these "exchanges/fights"... and you're asking me what my individual ship make ups are... why would/should that matter??
I've got all those ships together... why aren't they treated as a 'whole'??? Like the book/manual suggests... "fleets have added bonues/etc. when it comes to fighting"... I'm not seeing it in the slightest and it's really frustrating.
And you're totally right about my M. ship being ALL defense... I think he's 4 Missle and 12ish Armor.
"My guess is that your bigger ship is defense-heavy, and your lighter ships are mostly attack. This would result in the Ranger targetting the small ships first, and blasting two of them in the first round."
But WHY does this matter???!???? My fleet has an Armor rating that's more than twice his M. Driver attack rating.... if my fleet isn't going to be treated as a whole.... what in the world are these "advantages" the manual speaks of??????? Because I'm not seeing the point (at this point).
If you're telling me that (when a fleet goes against a single ship), that the ships "take turns" firing on each other.... then I'm completely lost here, because it is my understanding that the fleet fires as a whole/defends from fire as a whole...?.....
He also has half the HP of my fleet and NO armor to protect against my Missle attack.... I just don't understand this.
fyi - I'm not sure if the Krynn are getting a 'luck' bonus er not.. your guess is as good as mine : )
Hey guys... will reply to everyone elses replies later on this morning... to the person who made a mention of a previous version of DA exhibiting a "bug" of some sort that might be causing this....
When I'm in the game, it says 1.5 in the lower left corner of the screen...
I have been reassured that if I'm playing DA, then I'm on 1.6 (EVEN) though it says 1.5 in the lower left corner... this is what I was told by Customer Support at Stardock... the guy told me that it was most likely a 'graphical' glitch of some kind... that... and he couldn't really explain it.. BUT, he assured me that I was playing 1.6 if I was playing DA.
When my friend bought this game... his says the same thing - 1.5.
Does the guy at Stardock not have a clue and am I truly playing with version 1.5 I wonder...?.....
Sorry to hit you guys with so much, but I'm super appreciative as always! : )
Chr*s