Questions and edge cases

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kurthuwig
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2021 9:23 am

Questions and edge cases

Post by kurthuwig »

Hi there.

I am new to RSW games and got some questions regarding edge cases and details. I come from StarWeb, so please excuse if I use the wrong terms

1. when I mark my orders as draft, will they be executed when the deadline arrives?

2. Overloaded ships

A trader/merchant can overload their ships with more than 1 metal. According to the rules, overloaded ships cannot shoot. The example is:

"If you have 5 ships carrying 6 metal, only 4 of the ships can fire."

For me this means that 4 ships carry 1 metal and 1 ship carries 2 metal. But this also means that each shot on the merchant's fleet will destroy 1 metal. You could also argue that 2 ships are empty and 3 carry 2 metal each. Which means that the first 4 shots would only destroy 2 ships and no metal. But instead they destroy 4 ships and 4 metal.

Is my assumption correct?

3. Points for destroyed fleets/population

You get 2 points for each ship destroyed if you destroy a complete fleet.

Do you get it if you shoot with 2 fleets onto 1 fleet? The full points or just for the "later" command?
What if 2 positronix/berserkers shoot on 1 fleet? Who will get the points and how many?

Same for shots on population: if 2 or more players destroy the whole population with an "overkill", i.e. more shots than necessary, who will get how many points?


4. Plundering:

After a world has been plundered its population won't increase. What about Apostle conversion? Do the converts convert others?

5. Neutral worlds

Do they

* grow in population?
* mine metal?
* increase the turn owned number?
* build I-ships if they have industry & metal?

6. mining

If there are hostile fleets on a world that decrease the usable industry: if there are not enough population for both the total industry and mines will they "hide in bunkers" as the SW manual states or will they go into the mines as they cannot work in the industry?

If population is killed, will they mine before that happens?


Thanks!

Kurt
drwr
Posts: 636
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2005 10:56 am
Location: Glendale, CA
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Re: Questions and edge cases

Post by drwr »

Hi Kurt! Welcome to RSW!

1. when I mark my orders as draft, will they be executed when the deadline arrives?

Yes, but... if the turn time expires and your orders are still marked as draft, this will counted as a "missed turn", even though the draft orders are accepted and executed. If you "miss" two turns in a row this way, your position will be offered up for someone else to take over. This rule is meant to motivate players to actually finalize their turns at some point, otherwise no one would, and there'd be no point to the "run the turn when all players have finalized their orders" feature.

For me this means that 4 ships carry 1 metal and 1 ship carries 2 metal. But this also means that each shot on the merchant's fleet will destroy 1 metal. You could also argue that 2 ships are empty and 3 carry 2 metal each. Which means that the first 4 shots would only destroy 2 ships and no metal. But instead they destroy 4 ships and 4 metal.

Your interpretation is correct. All metal is distributed as evenly as possible across the ships of the fleet; an overloaded fleet will not have any empty ships. So 4 shots firing at this fleet would destroy 4 ships and 4 metal, as you say.

Do you get it if you shoot with 2 fleets onto 1 fleet? The full points or just for the "later" command?
What if 2 positronix/berserkers shoot on 1 fleet? Who will get the points and how many?


If a fleet is destroyed by any combination of one or more fleets firing upon it, and one or more of those firing fleets were owned by Positronix characters, than all of the Positronixes will receive full bonus points for destroying the whole fleet. So, if one Positronix uses two fleets to destroy 1 fleet, that player gets points for destroying all of the ships on the fleet. If two Positronixes work together and each fires a fleet onto the same target fleet, destroying it, both players get points for destroying all of the ships on the fleet. A similar rule works for population killed; if two Positronixes work together, they both get the same points.

After a world has been plundered its population won't increase. What about Apostle conversion? Do the converts convert others?

Converts remain active on a plundered world and will continue to convert others while the world remains plundered.

* grow in population?
* mine metal?
* increase the turn owned number?
* build I-ships if they have industry & metal?


Neutral worlds do none of these things.

If there are hostile fleets on a world that decrease the usable industry: if there are not enough population for both the total industry and mines will they "hide in bunkers" as the SW manual states or will they go into the mines as they cannot work in the industry?

What a tricky edge condition! I hadn't thought of this case before. I believe, looking at the game code now, that the population that is not able to work in the industry due to hostile fleets will happily work the mines instead.

If population is killed, will they mine before that happens?

No. Mining happens after the combat phase has finished, and therefore population will be killed before they get a chance to mine.

David
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