How is defence calculated?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hi, I'm new here and I'm really excited by this game. I used to play a game called "Pax Imperia" years ago which was absolutely awesome and I'm hoping that GC2 is a move towards something like that (but not real time obviously).

One thing that has got me wondering is the new system for calculating defence with shield point and armour values. To a certain degree I'm kinda worried about this.

Does your defence against missile weapons depend entirely on your armour, or is it just weighted towards armour? Will improving your shields not make any difference at all to this?

IE, is defence vs missiles
100% armour
or 50% armour, 25% shields, 25% point defence (or something)

I'd really rather the latter. It wouldn't be much fun for a player to say "my race is gonna specialize in armour" and then be absolutely destroyed by a race who uses solely one weapon. Don't get me wrong, I think it's cool that they should be at a disadvantage, but the improved armour should make some difference shouldn't it?
7,398 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
i think i read somewhere that they add your defense vs. the specific attack plus the square roots of the other two types of armor
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
There is quite an awesome post by one of the devs explaining in great detail here Link

In your scenario, improved armor will make some difference against, say, missiles. But the optimal defense would come from the chaff/ECM family of defenses. This is where the strategy of developing defenses appropriate to the kind of weapons your neighbors, or enemies have, gets fun. Keep an eye on those enemy ships coming within scanner range! You will know how best to defend your empire against them.

Tip: If you have difficulty reading the chart, try highlighting it with your mouse.
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks v. much
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
i having a bit of a prob with the defence calc at the moment: the AI appears to be using the square root to negate all weapons attacks eg last game i designed a mass driver/point defence ship against the arcaeans, because the arcaens were using missiles/point defence. however they're point defence was so high that it completely negated my mass driver attack, even though they had no armour. is this a strategic subtlety? or should the defence calc be fiddled with?

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
edit: I re-read the last post. Point defence was high enough to negate your damage with guns/drivers ? What level was your tech compared to theirs ?
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
i was on singularity drive (Attack 3) with Point Defence III (Defence 4), their defence was Point Defence III (defence 4), but the arcaen ship from memory was Beam 1, Missile 9, Mass Driver 0, Shield 2, Point Defence 7, Armour 0 (i'm having a hard time seeing how they can fit this on one ship - i'm assuming that this includes any military modifiers - my current game also has individual AI ships (medium) with attacks as high as 17, but not technologically superior to me). the square root rule completely negates my attack.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've just found a super cool new race for me (Krynn ) and was wondering if having a super duper defence affects XP gains. eg: 80% defence for my starbases/ships is XP calculated based on the starbase/ships base defence value or the modified value after bonuses are applied, thanks. Also does defence improve my planetary defence against planetary invasion attempts by other races?
Sorry bout bringing up an old thread, I just thought the title was appropriate for my question, on second thoughts I probably should've created a new thread.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've just found a super cool new race for me (Krynn ) and was wondering if having a super duper defence affects XP gains. eg: 80% defence for my starbases/ships is XP calculated based on the starbase/ships base defence value or the modified value after bonuses are applied, thanks.


AFAIK XP is just a flat amount per kill.

Also does defence improve my planetary defence against planetary invasion attempts by other races?


No, it only affects ships and starbases.