[starbase ogg]

Space Control

by Grey Elf

These pages are maintained by Frank Niessink.
Last updated on 20 mar 1996.
FWIW, here's my basic space control algorithm (this applies to a mostly even game):

Zones I divide the front and enemy space into 3 zones: wall, middle, and open zones. When I start out from homeworld, I pick one zone to go to. The choice is largely arbitrary; if there is a zone that doesn't have a friendly CA, I'll probably go there, otherwise I'll head towards where I expect there to be a battle (the base, or a planet under contention).

Once in a zone, I try to move forward until I get to about tractor range of an enemy ship. At that point I stop advancing and focus on looking at the galactic. I'm blocking the enemy ship from moving through me into our space, but other than that my focus is finding something useful to do.

Basics There's three basic things I look for:
  • If my zone has lots of friendly ships, and another one is short, then I'll switch zones to the undermanned one.
  • I watch the bases, looking for a base with few friendly ships around. If it's my base, I move towards the base so I can cut off a potential ogg wave. If it's their base, then I try to disengage from the enemy ship and get a clear lane to the base; if some of my teammates do the same, then we'll call a base ogg and have a good shot at him... if the opening closes up, then I go back to what I was doing. Of course, this is modified by what else is going on - a base ogg can't happen if several team members are busy doing something else.
  • Watch for friendly carriers, enemy carriers, and armies in my zone (both on the front and forward in my side of enemy core). If they're my armies I block enemy ships from getting to them, if they are enemy armies I move to attack them - if odds are even or in my favor I push forward, if odds are against me I try to delay until more friendly ships can arrive.

Carriers If a carrier is headed towards me, I look for the path he is likely to take to the target planet. For a friendly carrier, I get between enemy ships and that path; for enemy carriers, I try to place myself directly in the path so he has to go through me.

If the carrier is headed to a different zone, I can either move over to help, or simply stay in my zone and advance - it depends on the probability of action happening soon in my zone. If I expect action, I'll just move forward to take the best possible position; if nothing is likely to happen where I am, then I can either move sideways and backwards (to defend a planet) or sideways and forward to clear a planet or cut off the retreat of an enemy carrier. It's very important not to overrun the battle, because if I'm alone in my zone it's my responsibility to keep enemy ships in front of me, trapped against the teeth of our space control.

Fighting My fighting algorithm depends on whether there are armies or a planet at stake - these are the useful battles, to be contrasted with simply fighting an enemy ship for control of empty space.

If I'm outnumbered: I retreat slowly and fire backwards, keeping the enemy in front of me and trying to slow down the battle so that help can arrive, or my team can get something useful done elsewhere. If this is a useful battle, I'll retreat as far as I can and then hope I rewl: if there's no planet to be attacked, I'll just keep retreating.

If the numbers are even: if it's not a useful battle, I'll just sit there, butt-torping the enemy if he wants to push forward. If it's a useful battle, it depends on who is likely to get reinforcements first: if we will, I hold even and wait for help; if they expect reinforcements first, then I'll try to push and hope I rewl and win before they get reinforcements.

If we outnumber them: if it's a useful battle, then I attack aggresively to get the clear before they can get help. If it's not a useful battle, then I probably bail out and move to a different zone since we have a numerical advantage in a non-useful place.

This is my basic space control algorithm: of course, you have to add to this a different system of deciding when to stop space controlling and do something else, like carry or bomb. If we have no kills, then I try to team up with another CA to get a kill in a 2-1. If I get a kill, I check who is carrying: if we have less carriers than we want (depends on your carrying srategy) then I tell my team and go to pick up armies. Deciding when to bomb is harder: a first guess is if armies pop in my side of their backfield and our bomber can't get them, then I'll try to move forward to bomb.