The Pentastar Alignment
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25

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Last Updated: Year 24 Day 357
Ground Combat

Ground combat currently involves players, NPCs, creatures, and droids. Eventually it will be possible to attack other entities on the ground (facilities, ships, and vehicles) as well.

Ground combat features two parties attacking each other simultaneously according to a simple set of rules. An attacker can engage in one attack every 30 minutes (known as a "fire delay"), while a defender can be attacked and return fire automatically for each round of attacks received. A party in a fire delay can still be attacked by others.

A party or squad consists of a leader and up to 12 slots worth of additional NPCs, creatures, or droids. When any unit within a party is targeted, the whole party engages in battle.

During battle, targets are assigned randomly from each party and it is impossible to specifically focus fire on one unit within a party. Furthermore, in the case of parties led by a non-player entity such as NPCs, the leader of a party can only be attacked after the other party members have been defeated. In a player led party, the player leading the party can sustain damage at the same time as his party.

Parties can be led by a character or by an NPC (usually called a squad in this case). NPC squads can be set to protect an area and will automatically engage hostile units that enter their vision.

Note
Some creatures and droids have different party slot sizes, so not all full parties consist of the same number of units.

Equipment carried by player characters and NPCs affects combat results. Both may equip armor to the head and chest slots or shields to the primary or secondary slots to provide damage mitigation. Additionally, at least one weapon must be equipped to the primary or secondary slot in order to deal damage. If both primary and secondary weapons are within range of the target, the weapon closest to its optimal range will be used.

Some weapons can be dual wielded. You can equip two dual wieldable weapons to each of the primary and secondary weapon slots. When dual wielding, there is an offhand penalty applied to the second weapon. Weapons for dual wielding do not have to be of the same type.

Additional items such as medikits or bacta patches are not used during combat. Medical items, jetpacks, etc., are all used separately.

Important

Melee weapons (non-projectile weapons and lightsabers) CANNOT hit a target unless they are at Range 0 (the same location), regardless of optimum range and drop-off properties!

Combat damage is resolved in a simple process:

  1. Roll to hit
  2. Roll for base damage
  3. Apply armor reduction
  4. Apply damage type modifier
  5. Subtract result from target shields/HP/hull/ionic as appropriate
Stochastic rounding is applied to the result before the final subtraction. All HP-type values are integer valued while damage are computed as a decimal value.

Note
Stochastic rounding converts a decimal to an integer by randomly choosing to round up or down. The probability of each is chosen such that the average of rounding many times is equal to the original decimal.

When required, the attacker's "combined attack skill" is determined by the sum of his dexterity and an appropriate weapon skill divided by two, giving the weapon skill half the hit value of dexterity. The weapon skill is chosen based on the type of weapon being used and is one of Projectile Weapons, Non-Projectile Weapons, or Heavy Weapons.

Example

Luke has a Dexterity of 3, a Projectile Weapon skill of 2 and a Non-Projectile Weapon skill of 4. When he attacks with a DL-44 he borrowed from a friend, the resulting combined attack skill is 3 (Dex) + 2 (PW)/2 = 4. When he attacks with a Sword he found lying around his uncle's house, the resulting combined attack skill is 3 (Dex) + 4 (NPW) / 2 = 5.

There is one exception to this rule. The lightsaber weapon skill for Force-aware individuals takes their Lightsaber Combat skill into consideration, alongside their Non-Projectile Weapon skill. The total combined skill value has a maximum of 5, just like any other skill. For all other wielders, the lightsaber weapon skill is treated as half of the Non-Projectile Weapon skill, giving the weapon skill a quarter the hit value of Dexterity. The Lightsaber Weapon skill for Force-aware individuals is shown in the table below.

NPWLightsaber Combat
0 1 2 3 4 5
0 011122
1 112223
2 222333
3 233334
4 333444
5 344455

To hit, the attacker must defeat a dodge threshold selected based on both his and the defender's skills. The threshold is selected from the following table based on the attacker's combined attack skill and the defender's dodge skill. The hit roll must be less than the threshold specified in the following table:

DodgeAttack Skill
0-0.5 1-1.52-2.5 3-3.54-4.5 5-5.56-6.5 7-7.5
0 5872839297999999
1 4258728392979999
2 2842587283929799
3 1728425872839297
4 817284258728392
5 38172842587283

This threshold is then further modified by any range penalties. At a weapon's optimum range, there is no penalty. Any other range will start to hurt the chance to hit. As a weapon attacks further outside of its range it becomes worse. This applies to both under and over the optimal range. The change in range (deltaRange) and a value called drop off determine the modifier. Each weapon has its own drop off value, but is generally around 4. This modifier can be calculated with the following equations:

Equations
deltaRange = abs(optimumRange - currentRange)
hitChance = max(0, (1 - (0.95 / (1 + e^(-2 * (deltaRange - weapon_drop_off))))) - (0.003 * deltaRange))
Note
See weapons rules page for examples of this equation in use.

The base damage dealt by a weapon is determined by its min and max damage and the attacker's weapon skill (see above for a list of weapon skills). The weapon modifier is 1 + skill/10. A random number between the min and max damage listed for the weapon is rolled and scaled by the modifier, and the result is clamped to the weapon's max listed damage.

Alternatively, one has a small chance of scoring a critical hit (skill - 1 %). which always deals 1.5 times the max weapon damage.

Important
If an attacker is dual wielding and is not a droid, the offhand weapon will suffer a 50% penalty to both damage dealt and hit chance.

Next, the damage is scaled by the weapon's firepower and the target's armor:

Equations
$$D = D_{\mathrm{in}} \frac{f}{f+p}$$
where
  • D: Resulting damage
  • f: Attacking weapon's firepower stat
  • p: Target's total armor stat

For characters and NPCs, the total armor stat is found by summing the armor stat for all equipped items. For droids, creatures, and facilities, the armor stat is an intrinsic value listed for each entity on the appropriate rules page, called "damage reduction," to avoid the connotations of "armor" for facilities (such as additional hull, etc.).

Tip
Firepower and armor stats will be improvable through R&D.

Damage is scaled appropriate to the weapon's damage type and the target type. "Personal (P)" damage types are typically on personal weapons and items. "Heavy (H)" damage types are typically on ships, vehicles, facilities and stations. "Orbital (O)" damage types are typically found on some facilities.

"Soft" targets include player characters, NPCs, and creatures. "Mechanical" targets include droids and doors.

Damage Type Target Type
Soft Mechanical Facility Vehicle/Ship/Station
Physical (P) 1.00x 1.00x 0.10x 0.10x
Energy (P) 1.00x 1.00x 0.10x 0.10x
Explosive (P) 0.10x 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x
Ionic (P) 0.00x 1.00x 0.10x 0.10x
Lightsaber 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x
Poison 1.00x 1.00x 0.10x 0.10x
Nonlethal 1.00x 1.00x 0.10x 0.10x
Energy (F) 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x
Physical (F) 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x
Bonus (F) 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x
Soft (F) 1.00x 0.00x 0.00x 0.00x
Physical (H) 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x
Energy (H) 0.30x 0.30x 0.50x 1.00x
Explosive (H) 0.10x 0.10x 1.00x 0.50x
Ionic (H) 0.00x 0.10x 1.00x 1.00x
Concussive (H) 0.20x 0.10x 0.30x 1.00x
Turbolaser (H) 0.10x 0.10x 1.00x 0.50x
Energy (O) 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x
Ionic (O) 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x 1.00x

The following damage types do damage to shields, then Hull/HP:

  • Physical (P)
  • Energy (P)
  • Explosive (P)
  • Lightsaber
  • Poison
  • Nonlethal
  • Energy (F)
  • Physical (F)
  • Bonus (F)
  • Soft (F)
  • Physical (H)
  • Energy (H)
  • Explosive (H)
  • Concussive (H)
  • Turbolaser (H)
  • Energy (O)

The following damage types do damage to shields, then ionic. If the target does not have an ionic cap, then no damage is dealt (typically "soft" targets):

  • Ionic (P)
  • Ionic (H)
  • Ionic (O)

The following damage types do nonlethal damage. Against a "soft" target, this damage type cannot reduce it below 1 HP:

  • Nonlethal

Each combatant earns a maximum of 40 XP per round. The XP earned is based on the percentage of shots that do damage to a target. You must have a weapon and use it in order to earn any XP. If the resulting XP is not an integer, the floor of that number is used.

Example
Susan fires her A295 at a squad of battle droids. It has six hits per round. She misses twice, so her XP for that round is (2/3)*40 = 26.

Entities with HP (players, NPCs, and creatures) regenerate 10% HP/day. Entities with shields regenerate shields at a rate of 5% every hour, and entities with ionic capacitance regenerate 10% per day as well.

Players cannot be killed during combat. Players cannot fall below 1 HP and may not attack with 1 HP. Players reduced to 1 HP will be stunned (see Life and Death). NPCs, creatures, and droids will be killed/destroyed when they reach 0 HP or hull.

The exception to the normal death rules is non-lethal combat. This is normal combat, using all of the standard rules, but using a weapon that uses the Nonlethal damage type. All characters and NPCs are capable of performing Unarmed Strikes, which deal non-lethal damage, if they have no other weapons equipped.

When an entity with ionic capacitance reaches 0 ionic capacitance, it is disabled for 24 hours. Disabled entities cannot attack in combat, but they can still be attacked and subsequently destroyed.

There are also several special interactions available for disabled entities:

  • You may board any disabled facility without having normal crewlist access to the facility.
  • You may steal a disabled droid with a restraining bolt.

Disabled droids may be captured at most once per 24 hours. You may not steal your own droids or your faction's owned droids. You cannot steal a droid while in a fire delay, and stealing a droid will initiate a new fire delay. You must have a restraining bolt either equipped to a slot or inside a container equipped to one of your item slots. Restraining bolts are consumed when a droid is captured.

Combat tactics determine how entities target their opponents with the hits from their weapons. Targets are always chosen at random, but players have some control over how hits are applied through the use of tactics. Combat tactics for the Player and their Party can be changed from the Party screen, and for Squads can be changed from the Party screen using the "Squad: " options in the drop-down list.

Spread Fire is the default option for all combatants. Under this method, each individual hit from a combatant's weapon will target a separate member of the opposing party, chosen at random. A hit from a weapon will avoid a dead/invalid target until such a time as no other targets are available.

Focus Fire will have all the hits from a combatant's weapon target the same enemy, chosen at random, for an entire combat round. Under this option, even if an opponent dies or becomes an invalid target during the combat round, the combatant's hits will still target that opponent. Focus Fire does not allow you to select which member of an enemy squad you will target.