The end of Ogame's beginning stages begins when Battlecruisers and Bombers start showing up. These expensive ships bring huge changes to the nature of the game (and introduce a huge number of tactical options).
Consider three defense bashes, to illustrate how powerful the rapidfire is, and equally how important it is to reduce the chances of rapidfire progressing.
Bash 1
25 Battleships vs 20 Rocket Launchers 100 Light Lasers 20 Heavy Lasers 10 Ion Cannons 3 Gauss Cannons and a small shield dome.
Bash 2
15 Battleships and 6 Bombers vs 20 Rocket Launchers 100 Light Lasers 20 Heavy Lasers 10 Ion Cannons 3 Gauss Cannons and a small shield dome (the same defense).
Bash 3
15 Battleships and 6 bombers vs 20 Rocket Launchers 50 Light Lasers 20 Heavy Lasers 10 Ion Cannons 3 Gauss Cannons and a small shield dome, but this time there are 25 Light Fighters instead of 50 of the LL (the defense has the same number of points).
Using drago-sim with no difference in tech levels, the first battle ends in a draw with most of the attacking fleet likely to be destroyed, the second ends in a likely victory for the attackers, and the third ends in similar smashing defeat for the attackers (even though their shots do far less damage than previously).
I wish a battle simulator showed the damage points inflicted by each item (for more complex battles), but since these only have two ships and the battleships can only shoot once every time you can see the change. On average, the bombers do 243,000 damage in 5 rounds while the battleships only can put up 65,000. Not bad considering the bombers cost substantially less than the remaining ships.
However, in the final battle, look at how much a few fighters (just 22% of the targets), but they greatly reduce the bombers' damage (enough that the defense draws rather than loses). The bombers on average take 3-4 shots per round rather than 10-11, and the total damaged is halved. More importantly because the defenses aren't being destroyed as quickly, they do substantially more damage to the attacking fleet. Even with just a few non-rapidfire ships (20% the chance of getting more than 3 shots drops to 50% (0.8x0.8x0.8).
The lessons are, especially when facing battlecruisers and bombers, have something in your fleet that they can't rapidfire, but remember it's numbers that matter. Since rapidfire ends if it strikes something that the ship doesn't have rapidfire against. Also, rapidfire can be exceedingly powerful especially when facing large numbers of ships that a single ship can rapidfire, but it's usefulness declines quickly when facing a fleet with even a little diversity.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Defenses the combat model
The ship descriptions leave much to be desired, and I'm not sure they fully include the impacts of rapidfire. Especially for the bomber and battle cruiser, rapidfire is the only reason to use these ships. Lacking rapid fire, the more expensive destroyer serves a very different role.
Let's look at the defense installations first:
Rocket Launcher--Simple and Cheap
Description:
These are the first installation you can build. With it's 200 hit points and 20 point shield, these can not take much damage and their 80 damage points do not send ship captains knees to quaking. A major early disadvantage is they are vulerable to cruiser rapid fire.
Adam's Take:
Use these early to protect your mine profits from early raids, since they require almost no research and don't slow your mine building down. After that they don't cost much less than light lasers, and are less effective.
Light Laser--Your basic defense fodder
Description:
The next defensive installation. Laser beams designed to knock fighters out of the air and keep small raiders at bay. In large numbers they can cause larger fleets some pain, but need adequate support to fight capital ships.
Adam's Take
They are much more effective and make good fodder. In simulations with mixed light fighter, heavy fighter, cruiser fleets these will destroy nearly 2x the attackers. They remain more effective than the same resources spent on rocket launchers and ion cannons. There are few defensive resources that are as effectively spent as these.
Heavy Laser--Take the little one and let boys be boys.
A larger laser weapon. These get very mixed reviews with some making them the core of their defense and others deciding they are quite ineffective.
Adam's Take
With an improvement in structure and shields, but only a modest improvement in weapon power, these become useful when facing larger numbers of heavy fighters that your light lasers don't destroy in a short battle. Especially if you have a technical advantage (4 more weapon tech levels than the attacker's armor level). It's probably worth mixing a few in, but most of the time the 4 light lasers will do more damage (more light lasers will be destroyed in the smaller battles, however).
Ion Cannons--Mini shield generators
These cost a fortune in precious crystal, but have a very important purpose. They have very high shields and can soak lots of shots from the smaller ships.
Adam's Take
I know that crystal is dear in the research phase, so save these for the end (after you've researched hyperspace engines and battleships). These are the least used defensive installation, but they easily exceed the value of the much more frequently used shield generators (sim out a variety of attacking fleets and see if any defensive installation doesn't improve if the shield generator is replaced by an ion cannon and 4 light lasers. I prefer them later in the game to counter large fleets of escorts. Get these and some light lasers instead of that shield generator, since a shield generator can only absorb a very small portion of attacks (until the battle is down to the last few defensive units, but it's likely lost by then anyway).
Gauss Cannons--The first truely big gun
These are the first defensive installation that strikes terror in the hearts of attacking captians. Importantly nothing has rapidfire against these until death stars arrive, so they have staying power.
Adam's Take
Expensive but these have the offensive power of a battleship and they make up the core of a good defensive installation. Adding ten of these to your defense portfolio and everyone but the largest empires probably won't even consider attacking. Requires a large number of battleships or other capital ships to destroy. Make sure they have lots of additional targets, probably 8-10x as many light lasers and a decent number of ion cannons and/or heavy lasers to draw hits away from them.
Plasma Turrets--"Bring my brown pants"
Able to hold off death stars and bring them down with some support. These are the ultimate defensive installation. No rapidfire gives your defenses a break from a huge bomber or death star's rain of fire.
Adam's Take
Defensive excellence, but their cost and lack of rapid fire against attackers means that they should be suplimented with lots of gauss cannons and things to pick off and absorb hits from the attacking fodder.
Shield Generators
A big shield.
Adam's Take
Waste of all that crystal. Would be wonderful if they somehow added to the shields of your defensive structures or provided a planetary shield, but they don't so with OGame's combat model, they will only absorb a small fraction of the shots. They'll last a long time, will prove little more than an annoyance to attacking fleets that could defeat the other defense. Invest the resources you would have put in shield generators, in more ion cannons and light lasers which will draw many times more shots.
When raiding, I love seeing shield generators in the spy report because it usually means the planet won't be as well protected a similarly ranked planet without them.
So there's the run down of the defensive installations. At first you'll want a rocket launcher or two to keep those solo cargos from raiding you. Soon after you'll want to invest the resources in small lasers. Then push to Gauss Cannons and finally adding Ion Cannons and Plasma Turrets to the mix, and you'll be well on your way to turtle power (or at least unmolested mines). Miners who spend their generation regularly don't make good targets with regular investments in defenses. Your goal should always be to invest enough that the nearby raiders don't scout you after a few days of looking. Once they see you're not a profitable target they'll hunt for greener pastures in the early game. Later you'll be a target if you become a turtle, but by then you should be able to take care of yourself.
Let's look at the defense installations first:
Rocket Launcher--Simple and Cheap
Description:
These are the first installation you can build. With it's 200 hit points and 20 point shield, these can not take much damage and their 80 damage points do not send ship captains knees to quaking. A major early disadvantage is they are vulerable to cruiser rapid fire.
Adam's Take:
Use these early to protect your mine profits from early raids, since they require almost no research and don't slow your mine building down. After that they don't cost much less than light lasers, and are less effective.
Light Laser--Your basic defense fodder
Description:
The next defensive installation. Laser beams designed to knock fighters out of the air and keep small raiders at bay. In large numbers they can cause larger fleets some pain, but need adequate support to fight capital ships.
Adam's Take
They are much more effective and make good fodder. In simulations with mixed light fighter, heavy fighter, cruiser fleets these will destroy nearly 2x the attackers. They remain more effective than the same resources spent on rocket launchers and ion cannons. There are few defensive resources that are as effectively spent as these.
Heavy Laser--Take the little one and let boys be boys.
A larger laser weapon. These get very mixed reviews with some making them the core of their defense and others deciding they are quite ineffective.
Adam's Take
With an improvement in structure and shields, but only a modest improvement in weapon power, these become useful when facing larger numbers of heavy fighters that your light lasers don't destroy in a short battle. Especially if you have a technical advantage (4 more weapon tech levels than the attacker's armor level). It's probably worth mixing a few in, but most of the time the 4 light lasers will do more damage (more light lasers will be destroyed in the smaller battles, however).
Ion Cannons--Mini shield generators
These cost a fortune in precious crystal, but have a very important purpose. They have very high shields and can soak lots of shots from the smaller ships.
Adam's Take
I know that crystal is dear in the research phase, so save these for the end (after you've researched hyperspace engines and battleships). These are the least used defensive installation, but they easily exceed the value of the much more frequently used shield generators (sim out a variety of attacking fleets and see if any defensive installation doesn't improve if the shield generator is replaced by an ion cannon and 4 light lasers. I prefer them later in the game to counter large fleets of escorts. Get these and some light lasers instead of that shield generator, since a shield generator can only absorb a very small portion of attacks (until the battle is down to the last few defensive units, but it's likely lost by then anyway).
Gauss Cannons--The first truely big gun
These are the first defensive installation that strikes terror in the hearts of attacking captians. Importantly nothing has rapidfire against these until death stars arrive, so they have staying power.
Adam's Take
Expensive but these have the offensive power of a battleship and they make up the core of a good defensive installation. Adding ten of these to your defense portfolio and everyone but the largest empires probably won't even consider attacking. Requires a large number of battleships or other capital ships to destroy. Make sure they have lots of additional targets, probably 8-10x as many light lasers and a decent number of ion cannons and/or heavy lasers to draw hits away from them.
Plasma Turrets--"Bring my brown pants"
Able to hold off death stars and bring them down with some support. These are the ultimate defensive installation. No rapidfire gives your defenses a break from a huge bomber or death star's rain of fire.
Adam's Take
Defensive excellence, but their cost and lack of rapid fire against attackers means that they should be suplimented with lots of gauss cannons and things to pick off and absorb hits from the attacking fodder.
Shield Generators
A big shield.
Adam's Take
Waste of all that crystal. Would be wonderful if they somehow added to the shields of your defensive structures or provided a planetary shield, but they don't so with OGame's combat model, they will only absorb a small fraction of the shots. They'll last a long time, will prove little more than an annoyance to attacking fleets that could defeat the other defense. Invest the resources you would have put in shield generators, in more ion cannons and light lasers which will draw many times more shots.
When raiding, I love seeing shield generators in the spy report because it usually means the planet won't be as well protected a similarly ranked planet without them.
So there's the run down of the defensive installations. At first you'll want a rocket launcher or two to keep those solo cargos from raiding you. Soon after you'll want to invest the resources in small lasers. Then push to Gauss Cannons and finally adding Ion Cannons and Plasma Turrets to the mix, and you'll be well on your way to turtle power (or at least unmolested mines). Miners who spend their generation regularly don't make good targets with regular investments in defenses. Your goal should always be to invest enough that the nearby raiders don't scout you after a few days of looking. Once they see you're not a profitable target they'll hunt for greener pastures in the early game. Later you'll be a target if you become a turtle, but by then you should be able to take care of yourself.
Major phases and strategies
OGame is all about resource optimization. The first resources to be optimized are metal, crystal, and energy, later deuterium and ships come into play. The first thing I've noticed is that the game takes a sharp turn from a metal constrained system to a highly crystal constrained system at about the point you begin research for the cruiser. I break the early game into two stages, starting to the first ship, and then, getting the early research done to support battle ship production. Mid game runs from battleship production to death star production, and the stasis is after you have death stars.
In the early game, if you are following the inactive raid strategy you normally have more than enough metal, but are short of energy and crystal (or have a risky energy system based on solar satellites). Building your mines to 15 and synth to 9 and powering it with solar panels requires 235,000 metal and 94,000 crystal. So the general strategy to that point is to lag development of crystal mines by 2-4 levels (and deut synths by 6+).
As a potential improvement to this, I've been playing with reducing the utilization of my metal mines and using the excess power to supply my improving crystal mines and deuterium mines from about level 15. Unless there appear to be lots of juicy targets early, in early galaxies, investing in mines is vastly better than spending to get enough deuterium for that first small cargo. It requires 3000, which means a major diversion of resources from the metal mines and much slower growth. As the galaxies become more active, there are fewer early inactive players and more people trying to raid them so your large investment in a ship, doesn't pay. In Uni 40 it has been much easier to climb the ranks with mines than the ship had been. Too many people are raiding the few weak planets not in new player protection by the time you have the points neccessary to get a ship.
In the early game, if you are following the inactive raid strategy you normally have more than enough metal, but are short of energy and crystal (or have a risky energy system based on solar satellites). Building your mines to 15 and synth to 9 and powering it with solar panels requires 235,000 metal and 94,000 crystal. So the general strategy to that point is to lag development of crystal mines by 2-4 levels (and deut synths by 6+).
As a potential improvement to this, I've been playing with reducing the utilization of my metal mines and using the excess power to supply my improving crystal mines and deuterium mines from about level 15. Unless there appear to be lots of juicy targets early, in early galaxies, investing in mines is vastly better than spending to get enough deuterium for that first small cargo. It requires 3000, which means a major diversion of resources from the metal mines and much slower growth. As the galaxies become more active, there are fewer early inactive players and more people trying to raid them so your large investment in a ship, doesn't pay. In Uni 40 it has been much easier to climb the ranks with mines than the ship had been. Too many people are raiding the few weak planets not in new player protection by the time you have the points neccessary to get a ship.
Welcome to the OGame Tactical Guide
You probably found this because you know about Ogame, if not check it out, it's a fun surprisingly deep browser-based space strategy game. In short it's a little like a simple Master of Orion on your browser. This is devoted to the tactics of OGame.
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