Tactical Combat Window - Main

Description

| This window is displayed to allow you to control the details of a combat. A normal combat takes place over 30 combat turns or until one player is completely destroyed. Players take turns moving their ships and firing their ship's weapons. As a ship takes damage, its components will be destroyed. Once all of its components are destroyed, the entire ship is destroyed. See Combat for complete details. |

Controls

| Status Bar | This bar at the top of the window provides status information for this combat. It tells you the system and location where the combat is taking place, what current combat turn you are on, and the players involved in the combat. At the end of the window there are selection buttons which will allow you to go to the next / previous ship that still has movement this turn, and the next / previous ship that still has weapons to fire this turn. The last button on the window is a "Minimize" button which will shrink this entire window on your desktop.
| Tactical Map | At the bottom left of the Tactical Combat window is a large map of the combat area. Each ship is displayed separately as are any planets, moons, asteroids, or warp points. Left-Click: If you left-click on one of your own ships, you will select it (it will be displayed in the Current Piece Display). If you left-click on an empty space on the map, then your Currently Selected Piece will move to that location. If you left-click on an enemy ship, then your Currently Selected Piece will attempt to fire its weapons on the enemy ship.

Right-Click: If you right-click on a ship or planet, you will display the Combat Piece Report Window about that item.

Pointer Move: This will change your pointer icon to be different types indicating what you can do. If you have a standard pointer arrow, then you can select a ship. If your pointer looks like a large directional arrow, then you currently have a ship selected and the pointer is showing you that you will move the ship in that direction. If your pointer is over an enemy ship, then it will look like crosshairs so that you can click on this enemy and fire your currently selected ship's weapons.

| Current Piece Display | If you left-click on one of your own ships in the Tactical Map, then it will become selected. Its details will be displayed on the right-hand side of the Tactical Combat Window. You will see a picture of your ship, its name, size, your empire flag, an indicator of what combat group it belongs to, two bars displaying shields and damage, and the current weapons on your ship.

Underneath your empire flag is a section where an indicator of what combat group your ship belongs to is displayed. If nothing is displayed, then your ship does not belong to a combat group. If a number on a blue background is displayed, then your ship is the leader of that group number. If a red background is displayed, then your ship is a follower in that combat group. When a fleet enters combat, all of its members are made into a combat group. You can change the combat groups by using the Orders button, or by using the Hotkeys.

Two bars are displayed showing your current remaining shields, and your current remaining damage that can be taken. If your ship takes normal damage, then the shield bar (the blue dotted bar) will decrease first. Once it is gone, your ship will take internal damage. The red bar shows how much damage you can take before your ship is destroyed. Once its gone, your ship blows up. The amount of damage your ship can take is measured by the total of all of the Damage Resistance that the components on your ship can withstand. You may take damage and none of your components are destroyed. Once the damage is higher than a component's damage resistance, then it will actually be marked as destroyed.

At the bottom of the current piece display, is a grid showing all of the undamaged weapons on your ship. Each weapon is displayed with its picture and an indicator of how long until it can fire. If there are red bars in the upper right hand corner of the picture, then this is the number of turns until your weapon can fire again. If there are no bars, then it can fire this turn. When you left-click on an enemy piece, all of the weapons selected here will be fired at the enemy ship. If you don't want certain weapons to fire, just left-click on them to turn off the teal color background. Only weapons which are selected will fire. You can also right-click on any of the weapons to get a report about it.

| Target Piece Display | If you screen resolution is 1024x768 or better, then another section under the Current Piece Display is shown. This section displays information about the enemy ship that your pointer is currently over, or that your ship is firing on. This display is very similar to the Current Piece Display in that it shows a picture of the ship, the ship's name and size, the flag of the empire that controls it, and bars showing how many shields and hit points it has left.

When your ship is actually firing on the enemy ship, then below the bars are an indicator of how much damage the ship takes when hit by an enemy weapons. When your weapon fires and hits an enemy ship, you will see two number displayed, one in blue, the other in red. This is how much damage to shields and how much internal damage the ship takes when it is hit.

| Overview Map | The overview map shows the entire combat area at one time. Ships in the combat area are displayed as small squares in the color of the empire that owns them. Larger gray squares indicate a planet of spacial body that is not owned. A dotted white box appears on the overview map to show you where the Tactical Map is currently displaying. You can left-click on the Overview Map to change the area that the Tactical Map displays.

Buttons

| Options | This button displays the Combat Options Window.
| Orders | This button displays the Combat Orders Window.
| Auto | This option determines whether the computer will control all of the ships in combat. This can be turned on or off at any time during combat. When this is turned on, the computer will move the ships for all players. Once all movement is complete, then the game will wait for you to press the End Turn button.
| End Turn | This allows each player to end their turn after they have moved and fired the weapons of all of their ships. Each human player will take their turn moving their ships and firing their weapons. Once all of the movement is expended and all of the weapons have fired (if you choose to do so), then press the End Turn button to allow the next player to take their turn. Computer controlled players will automatically move and fire their ships, and press End Turn. When all ships or one side are dead, or the maximum number of combat turns have passed, then combat will end automatically.

Special Notes

| None |

Related Areas

| Main Window , Combat Options Window, Combat Orders Window, Combat Piece Report Window |