Combat

Work in progress. Please see Discussion  page.

Combat is a way for miners to earn items and gold from other miners on the roads. Having better Vehicles and Weapons will increase your chances of defeating other vehicles you meet.

Engagement
For combat to begin, a few criteria must be met.

1. The vehicles/ships must meet each other on the route:


 * Vehicles travelling towards each other will eventually meet
 * A faster vehicle coming up behind a slower vehicle will catch it

2. When vehicles meet, a check is performed to see if they are aggressive towards each other or not - this is determined by the owners' Professions
 * Traders/Merchants
 * These professions are not aggressive towards anyone and will avoid combat if possible. If one meets a non-aggressive vehicle, there will be no engagement


 * Highwaymen/Pirates


 * With these 2 professions, players can select which classes of vehicles to attack (be aggressive towards). If a Highwayman selects to target Green and Blue vehicles and meets a Yellow one on the route, there will be no engagement.


 * Guards/Bounty Hunters


 * Similar to Highwaymen and Pirates, these classes can select which type of vehicles to attack - but will only attack Pirates or Highwaymen of the specified classes. These are not aggressive towards Traders or Merchants.

3. Once aggressiveness is determined, the final calculation is based on the speed attribute of the vehicles. Note - direction does not play a role in this stage.
 * If both vehicles are aggressive towards each other (Pirate vs Pirate, Pirate vs Bounty Hunter etc.) no speed calculation will take place, and combat will begin.
 * If the defensive vehicle has a greater speed than the aggressive vehicle, it will evade the aggressor. The aggressor will see " Eluded " on their combat report, while the defender will see " Escaped ".
 * If the defender is slower than the aggressor, combat will begin.

Vehicle Combat
Can I get a landlubber to fill this in?

Ship Combat
Ship combat varies dramatically from vehicle combat as it involves 2 phases; the cannon phase and the crew phase.

Cannon Phase If the ships engage in combat, they will enter the cannon phase. The cannon phase is spread over 3 rounds. Cannons are fired in the order they are mounted in their slots, and they will randomly select cannonballs from the ship's cargo to fire. Each type of cannonball has an accuracy rating and damage type, while the cannon itself determines how much damage it does and how many rounds it fires in. If chain shot is used (speed damaging shots) and the opponent's speed is reduced enough, a defensive ship is able to escape after the cannon round.

Crew Phase During this round, if the attacking ship's crew strength is equal to or greater than 1.5x the defending ship's crew at any time, the attacking ship will automatically win. Initially, each crew member is randomly paired up with a crew member on the opposing ship. Crew members will pick up available weapons in the cargo at random. Pairings of crew members will fall one by one until one ship is 1.5x stronger than the other, or one (or both) ships have a crew strength of zero. Currently weapon strength does not make your crew member any more likely to defeat the other; both will die every time.

Sinking A unique feature of ships is the ability to destroy (sink) them with cannonballs. If the damage done with cannonballs is equal to the defending ship's hull, the defending ship will sink with all cargo on board. This cargo can later be retrieved by fishermen. Sunk ships will remain on the owner's vehicle list for a week before disappearing.