Ship Combat

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* Combat#Ship Combat
Space Combat in Endless Space 2 is controlled through decisions made before each battle and then resolved without player intervention. This ensures that battles yield the same results whether a player chooses to watch the battle or not, and allows the battle animation to focus on action more than information, though more informative views are available.

## Battle Tactics

Battle Tactics determine the behavior of your ships in combat. Each Battle Tactic offers up to three flotillas you can assign your ships to, each with their own prefered range, as well as a modifier to your fleet or the battle. You can only keep a limited number of all your known Battle Tactics ready at the same time, which can be changed from the Battle Tactics menu accessed through the Military Screen. Additional slots for Battle Tactics as well as new Tactics can be unlocked through research, though Battle Tactics can also be gained from Curiosities or Hero Skills.

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To select a Battle Tactic, use the right and left arrows next to the Battle Tactic displayed at the center of the combat window. On this card you can see a representation of the prefered ranges of each flotilla, as well as the bonus granted by the Battle Tactic. As your fleets get bigger, you unlock access to additional flotillas, with 5 Command Points and at least 2 ships unlocking the top lane and 10 Command Points and at least 3 ships unlocking the bottom lane. The game automatically distributes your ships across as many flotillas are are available to you, based on their range profile.

You can also inspect enemy ships by hovering your mouse cursor above them. The "Watch" toggle at the bottom of the screen determines whether you will be shown the combat cinematic. Start the battle by clicking Launch, or enter the advanced combat menu to access more detailed information and manually assign your ships.

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(TBD: Advanced Battle Screen)

### Flotillas, Phases, and Ranges

Each flotilla will primarily engage the enemy flotilla directly opposing it, but may fire at adjacent enemy flotillas. Within each flotilla pair, the preferred ranges of the opposing flotillas determine the ranges at which they will engage in the different phases, shown in the table below, as well as the paths they take. Fire at targets of opportunity in other flotillas is always resolved at long range, however.

 Medium
 Short

Each weapon in Endless Space 2 has a range profile divided into Short, Medium, and Long range, with the Efficiency shown being equivalent to their base chance to hit at that range.

If one side in a battle has more flotillas than the other at any point of the battle, they receive a Morale bonus of +5% Accuracy and +10% Damage per unopposed flotilla.

### Attack Resolution

(TBD: Combat Mechanics)

Hit roll, Evasion, Critical Hits, Defenses, Shields, Flotilla Shields

## Weapon Modules

There are 7 weapon types available in Endless Space 2, loosely grouped into Projectile Weapons and Energy Weapons, corresponding to the two defense types. In addition to the basic weapons, strike craft and high-yield explosive weapons can be fielded. Most modules are unlocked through research, though they can also be rewarded for exploring curiosities or finishing quests.

### Slugs

Rapid-fire, high-velocity kinetic projectiles that are most effective at close range and easily penetrate shields, but struggle against plating. They also come with Flak to defend against incoming missiles and strike craft. Slug weapons ignore 50% of an enemy's Shield Absorption, but only 20% of their Hull Plating Absorption.

\* United Empire Only

### Railguns

Sacrificing firing rate for heavier projectiles, Railguns are capable of smashing through any defenses. All railguns ignore enemy Hull Plating Absorption and Shield Absorption completely. Note: Railguns are part of an add-on earned by linking your Games2Gether account with your Steam account.

\* Chitinous Alloys for Cravers

### Missiles

Guided, rocket-propelled projectiles with explosive payloads which penetrate shields but do not deal much damage against plating and are susceptible to flak. They ignore 60% of an enemy's Shield Absorption, but only 10% of their Hull Plating Absorption.

### Swarm Missiles

Firing many small missiles in quick succession, swarm missiles are designed to overwhelm enemy flak. Note: Swarm Missiles are part of an add-on earned by linking your Games2Gether account with your Steam account.

### Boarding Pods (Vaulters DLC)

Disposable armored craft that slam into the enemy hull to deliver their deadly cargo: a trained boarding party. After hitting the enemy, they will deal damage to their manpower for 10 seconds, and if the enemy ship's Manpower reaches 0, it will be disabled immediately and you gain control of it after the battle.

\* Vaulters Only

### Lasers

Bolts of plasma best used at medium range to melt hull plating, though they are less effective against shields. They ignore 80% of an enemy's Hull Plating Absorption, but only 10% of their Shield Absorption.

\* Vodyani Only

### Beams

Powerful beams of light that operate at peak efficiency at any range and cut easily through armor, but are dispersed by shields. Beams ignore a whopping 90% of an enemy's Hull Plating Absorption, but only 10% of their Shield Absorption.

\* Riftborn Only

## Squadron Modules

Bombers can engage targets at great distance and are especially effective against the largest ships, while fighters are equipped to intercept and destroy incoming bombers.

(TBD: Detailed Explanation)

(TBD: Squadron Tables)

## Defense Modules

Your ships have six relevant defensive stats: Health, Shields, Flak, Evasion, Hull Plating Absorption, and Shield Absorption. The latter two are derived stats; modules will instead grant Projectile Defense or Energy Defense, which are inputs to the Absorption stats.

### Health

When your ship's Health  runs out, it is destroyed. The colored bar on the right side of the ships's image in the fleet listing shows its current health percentage. Health generally only recovers if the ship is orbiting in friendly systems (slowly each turn for free, or immediately for a  cost), though there are modules and battle tactics that can provide some healing during or after battles. Most of your ship's Health is granted by the hull itself; Plating  modules grant relatively large amounts of additional health, while Shields  and some other modules will grant smaller amounts. Health damage is resisted by Hull Plating Absorption; energy weapons are more effective at piercing this defense than projectile weapons.

### Shields

Shields are damaged first in battle, before Health, and they fully recover after battle. Some modules and abilities allow you to recover Shields during battle, as well. Shield damage is resisted by Shield Absorption; projectile weapons are more effective at piercing this defense than energy weapons.

### Flak

Flak is a secondary defensive benefit granted by kinetic weapons (slugs). Your flak cannons deal damage to missiles, fighters and bombers, and boarding pods, hopefully destroying them before they can touch your ship. It pays to have at least one slug weapon on larger ships just to grant some Flak defense.

### Evasion

Evasion mitigates damage by making your ships harder to hit. Any shot taken by the enemy subtracts your ships Evasion value from their accuracy, to a minimum of 5% accuracy. Evasion can be gained from Battle Tactics, Engines, and Antimatter Shields. Unfortunately, your ship's total Evasion is not displayed anywhere in-game.

Note: In some tooltips this is referred to as Dodge Chance.

### Defense and Absorption

Projectile Defense and Energy Defense are granted by Plating and Shield modules, respectively. Each ship also has a Hull Weakness stat, based on its size. (Small ships are 100, Medium are 250, Large are TBD, Behemoths are 600.) By combining each Defense with the Hull Weakness, a Projectile and Energy Absorption stat is calculated. Each Absorption stat uses the formula:

Absorption = Defense / (Defense + Hull Weakness)

So a ship with 400 Projectile Defense and 100 Hull Weakness would have a Projectile Absorption of 400/500, or 80%, and would thus negate 80% of all incoming Projectile Damage. A well-defended ship can thus be *extremely* difficult to damage by the wrong type of weapon, and even well-matched weapons (Projectile vs Shields, for example) can have their damage significantly reduced.

A ship's Absorption stats are reduced by the Penetration stats of the weapons firing at them. It's a percentage reduction, not a direct subtraction; for example, if a ship has 80% Shield Absorption, and is being fired on by a slug weapon (which has 50% Shield Penetration), the ship's effective Absorption would be 40% (half of 80%) not 30%. This means even small amounts of Absorption are still valuable; if the ship had only 20% Shield Absorption and was again being fired on by a slug weapon, its effective Absorption would still be 10%.

Since Defense stats of modules are so large compared to Hull Weakness, even a single Plating or Shield module can give *significant* damage reduction, so ships should almost always be built with at least one of each.

(TBD: Defense module tables.)

## Ship Hulls

The type of ship hull has several effects on combat, beyond the obvious differences in the distribution of module slots.

### Module Multipliers

Larger hull sizes have a "module multiplier" effect, where each visible slot in the ship design actually represents several modules of the same type, so larger ship hulls can represent significantly greater threats without cluttering their design with excessive numbers of module slots. See Module Multiplier for details.

### Roles

While roles give some idea of what different hull types are good at, they also restrict access to specialized modules, provide small bonuses and determine the targeting priority of ships during combat.