Supply connections between opposing empires

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quarague
Space Floater
Posts: 31
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2023 8:00 pm

Supply connections between opposing empires

#1 Post by quarague »

I understand the maximum supply range of every colony and if there is no opposing empire I can check and predict exactly which systems will be within my supply range. But if the supply range of two opposing empires overlap the game somehow determines for each system which empire supply zone it belongs to. I don't understand the mechanics, what influences this (combat ships sometimes help, sometimes not?) and sometimes there are some very strange effects. See screenshot.

How did the game decide that my colony Hesperus is cut of from supply? I have a combat ship at Herculis one jump away, the green AI player colony is two jumps away and has no military ships. There hasn't been any combat during the last few turns. I first thought it has something to do with my negativ influence total but a few turns later my influence was positive and I had the same effect.

The next turn when my combat ship will reach the empty system to the right of Herculis, my own colonies will jump back to my supply zone and the unsettled systems to the south and east will turn neutral, including the empty system one jump away from my colony and occupied by a combat ship.

Maybe there is a good reason for this behaviour but to me it seemed so much against my expectation that it feels like a bug.
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Ophiuchus
Programmer
Posts: 3433
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2014 10:01 am
Location: Wall IV

Re: Supply connections between opposing empires

#2 Post by Ophiuchus »

Supply lines with the higher supply levels "win".
The planets give a supply level and that gets decreased each hop by one. Hesperus I in your screenshot has currently 0 supply. Probably that will grow in the following turns (each turn 1 to the max/target supply level) - you will see that on a mouse-over.

You can cut enemy supply by putting a fleet with a military ship (one which can hurt another ship) in a system and set it to fleet stance blockade/obstruction or aggressive.

There are pedia articles about this.
Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

Look, ma... four combat bouts!

quarague
Space Floater
Posts: 31
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2023 8:00 pm

Re: Supply connections between opposing empires

#3 Post by quarague »

I looked at the supply and it turns out both of my planets have supply range 0 (Scylior suck at supply) and the AI has a tiny planet with supply range 4. So for the unsettled systems it works out exactly as expected. If there are no military ships around most are in the green supply range, if my ships block the green supply they turn neutral.

Blocking systems with military ships is a great feature and the fact that in some constellations you can cut of colonies by occupying unsettled systems en route makes interesting tactics possible. But as I understand the system now you can disconnect a large/ huge planet of an opposing empire by settling a tiny planet one or two jumps away even if there are no military ships anywhere around. That seems very strange and counter intuitive to me. Blocking of supply for a colony should require some military ships, just having a peaceful colony blockading on its own seems off.

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Oberlus
Cosmic Dragon
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Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:25 pm

Re: Supply connections between opposing empires

#4 Post by Oberlus »

quarague wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 3:17 pm you can disconnect a large/ huge planet of an opposing empire by settling a tiny planet one or two jumps away even if there are no military ships anywhere around. That seems very strange and counter intuitive to me. Blocking of supply for a colony should require some military ships, just having a peaceful colony blockading on its own seems off.
Think of in-game supply lines as bulky, unarmed freighter ships going back and forth between owned planets. The supply strength is equal to the number of freighters and how fast they can resupply themselves. So, in absence of warships, the freighters with stronger supply push away the freighters of the weaker supply. Think of it as a brawl between truck-drivers, as in "you dare to step here again and I will ram my load into your cabine".
Only when the empires are allied this changes, by sharing the supply lines. In that case, the fact that a line is only of one color means that the guys taking care of the loads in that starlane are of that empire.

wobbly
Cosmic Dragon
Posts: 1880
Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2013 6:48 pm

Re: Supply connections between opposing empires

#5 Post by wobbly »

You could also consider supply to contain smaller combat vessels. Patrol ships, merchant guards etc.

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