Combat (Disharmony)

Phases

Like vanilla, there are five phases of combat in Disharmony. Combat only occurs during the Long, Medium and Melee Range Phase. Like Classic, Melee Range is often referred to as Short Range or (just) Melee.

• Phase 1 - Arrival

• Phase 2 - Long Range

• Phase 3 - Medium Range

• Phase 4 - Melee Range

• Phase 5 - Report

Combat Phase

Each Combat Phase has four rounds. It takes one round for a weapon to fire and the weapon begins reloading the next round. In 1.1.17 the number of salvos per phase was set by weapon (instead of by range). Also note that while the Combat Phases are labelled Long, Medium, and Short, this is merely a label. There is an accuracy penalty for weapons firing outside of their range, but some weapons function very, very well outside of their optimal "range".

Weapon	Salvos per phase	Impact Round(s)
Kinetic	4	1, 2, 3, 4
Laser	2	2, 4
Missile	1	4

Weapons

In 1.1.17 there are 4 types of weapons. Kinetics, Lasers, Missiles, and Bombers/Fighters. Each of the traditional weapons (Kinetics, Lasers, and Missiles) has a version for each Range Phase, but are optimized for a particular Range Phase. Kinetics are optimized for Short Range, Lasers for Medium Range, and Missiles for Long Range.

Bombers/Fighters

Bombers and fighters are new to Disharmony. The damage they do is correctly described in the tooltips, Number of Ships * Shots * Damage per Shot. Fighters will first target enemy fighters, then either enemy bombers or enemy ships. Bombers will only target enemy ships. Bombers and Fighters will spend the Long Range Phase moving to engage the enemy. During the Medium and Short Range phases they will fire at their targets twice. There are other interactions when enemy fighters/bombers are present, but they are undocumented. Generally, know that your fighters and bombers will shoot the enemy 4 times. They also target independently of their carrier ship and may change targets within a range phase. Fighters/Bombers also have their own type of defense to work against.

Battle Cards

One Battle Card can be played during each of the three Combat Range Phases. A default set of Battle Cards is given at the start of the game, with more cards being available through research and from fleet admirals. In manual combat cards can be assigned at anytime prior to the start of the matching Combat Range Phase.

Targeting

Targeting orders change how ships in the fleet target the enemy. Targeting orders do not seem to affect Bombers and Fighters.  After a target is destroyed, ships are assigned a new target, prioritizing what is selected based on the targeting instructions you've given your fleet.

Spread Fire (The Missile Method)

Each ship targets an enemy ship that has the fewest other ships already targeting it. Each enemy ship will be targeted by a single one of your ships, until all enemy ships are targeted by a single ship. Any remaining ships will then be assigned targets that have already been targeted once. This repeats until all ships have been assigned a target. Effectively, the enemy ships will be equally targeted by your fleet. This is the default Targeting Mode.

Given that the targeting priority list is remade every round (of which there are 4 per phase), this method of targeting generally favors missile-heavy fleets (especially if you diversify your fleet designs and cover all 3 ranges). Since missile weapons only fire once per phase and must wait all 4 rounds before they reach their target, this method of targeting helps negate the problem of sending missiles to a target that will already be destroyed by other forms of outgoing damage (i.e. beams or ballistics) by the time your missiles finally get there. Sending a mass salvo of missiles to all ships in the enemy fleet can cause destruction of all ships in the enemy fleet simultanously at the end of the round if their flak defense isn't up to snuff.

This method can also be optimal for use during Phases of the battle where MOST or ALL of your weapons have been designated for that Phases' specific Range. The even spread of damage will maximize your outgoing damage, and ensure that your weapons all distribute their damage at the maximum efficiency. 

Nose Breaker (The Ballistic Method)

All ships in your fleet target the first enemy ship. 

Given that the targeting priority list is remade every round (of which there are 4 per phase), this method of targeting generally favors ballistic-heavy fleets (especially if you diversify your fleet designs and cover all 3 ranges). Since ballistic weapons fire 4 times per phase and reach their target immediately, any destroyed ships throughout the phase will not recieve overlapping and wasted damage and your ballistic weapons will continually reassign to new targets as old ones are destroyed. This can quickly disassemble enemy fleets 1-by-1 if their deflectors aren't up to snuff, and rapidly reduce incoming DPS.

This method can also be optimal for use during Phases of the battle where FEW or NONE of your weapons have been designated for that Phase's specific Range. The overlapping damage all focused on to one target will help make up for the extreme reduction in accuracy, and you can hope to score at least 1 kill during this phase while you wait for your optimal range's turn to come up.

Guillotine (The Beam Method)

A combination of Spread Fire and Nose Breaker. Only the first three enemy ships are targeted using the rules for Spread Fire.

Given that the targeting priority list is remade every round (of which there are 4 per phase), this method of targeting generally favors beam-heavy fleets (especially if you diversify your fleet designs and cover all 3 ranges). Since beam weapons fire 2 times per phase and must wait 2 rounds before reaching their target, targeting 3 enemy ships is the perfect balance between firing at the entire fleet and firing at a single ship. There might be some wasted damage placed into already destroyed ships by the time your beams reach their target, but since your beams will pick new targets twice per phase, this "overkill" as it is known, is generally at a minimum. This is generally the most balanced and steady form of destroying the enemy fleet, striking a balance between ensuring ships are destroyed ASAP (thus preventing incoming damage), and not wasting damage output on overkill (thus maximizing outgoing damage).

Fleet formations

From the battle notification, the player can select one formation for its fleet from a list. This list evolves through the game thanks to specific technologies unlocking new formation. Also, some formations require a ship over a specific level.

As previously mentioned, a formation defines how your ships are sorted. Each formation uses properties and sorts your ships either in a top down order or in an ascending order.

Here is the list of available formations:

• Protect the damaged ship: ships with the highest Hull Points are on top of the list;
• Use weak ships as a shield: ships with the least weapons are on top of the list;
• Defend the fleet: ships with the highest defence are on top of the list;
• Protect the supports: ships with the most MP are on top of the list.

A formation is selected only during the pre-battle and cannot be changed during a fight.

Chance to Hit, Accuracy, and Evasion

Chance to Hit

The chance to hit is equal to:

$\text{chance to hit} = \text{Accuracy} - \text{Evade} + (\text{successful evades} \cdot \text{EvasionDisorientation})$

Attacks are resolved per salvo, either an entire salvo hits or it misses (the target Evades). Attacks that hit do full damage (after defense reduction) and attacks that are evaded do zero damage.

EvasionDisorientation

EvasionDisorientation acts to reduce the chance of dodging successive shots in a round. After a successful Evade, a ships' Chance to be hit is increased by its EvasionDisorientation Value.

The number of successful evades is tracked per ship and is reset after each round (in each Range Phase). In 1.1.17 Disharmony all ships have an EvasionDisorientation of 0.05 (Hull.xml contains the value). This means that after a miss, any subsequent attacks in that round are 5% more likely to be hit (regardless of the attack coming from another weapon or another ship).

The chance to hit is capped at 10% and 90%.

Accuracy

Accuracy is computed as follows:

$\left(\text{base weapon accuracy} \circ \text{Accuracy modifiers}\right) \cdot \left(1 \circ \text{Accuracy Bonus modifiers}\right)$

Note that "Accuracy" and "Accuracy Bonus" modifiers are distinct; at current only defense modules affect Accuracy Bonus. Base weapon accuracy ranges from 30% to 120% depending on the weapon class and range.

Range Phase Accuracy Modifiers In 1.1.17, Range Phases affects accuracy of weapons in conjunction with the weapons optimal range.

Base Weapon Accuracy you can see in the Ship Building Screen when you select one Weapon:

	Kinetik	Laser	Missile
Long	100%	110%	90%
Medium	75%	85%	65%
Melee	100%	110%	90%

This can be modified by the faction Trait "Snipers" and "Spray 'n Pray", the Scout Module, the Hero Ability "Tactician", and the Battle Card "Short Circuit".

Base Accuracy for Ranges:

Phase	Weapon Type
	Long	Medium	Melee
at Long	100%	33%	10%
at Medium	25%	100%	10%
at Melee	25%	33%	100%

Evade

Evade is computed as follows:

$\left(\text{base Evade} \circ \text{Evade modifiers} \right) \cdot \left(1 \circ \text{Evade Bonus modifiers} \right)$

Base Evade depends on the hull:

Hull	Base evade
Transport	10%
Corvette	50%
Destroyer	50%
Cruiser	30%
Battleship	30%
Dreadnought	15%

Evade Bonus is only affected by defense modules; modifiers from all other sources modify the base Evade.

Damage and Defense

Net damage is calculated as:

$\text{Damage} \cdot \frac{\text{Hull Weakness}}{\text{Hull Weakness} + \text{Defense}}$

A ship with zero Defense takes full damage and each amount of Defense equal to the ships' Hull Weakness decreases the damage taken by 50%.

Effective Health

Effective Health is another way of understanding the defense mechanics. A ship has a Basic Health (450 health for your typical destroyer, for example) that is modified by the defense the ships possesses. Effective Health is calculated independently for each type of attack (Kinetic, Laser, Missile, Fighter/Bomber). Each Hull Weakness amount of defense increases a ships' Effective Health by 100% of the Base Health.

Example:

A destroyer (Again, base Health 450) has a Hull Weakness of 300. It has 300 defense value of deflector  (anti kinetic) modules, 600 defense value of shield (anti laser) modules, and 0 defense value of flak (anti-missile) modules. Its Effective Health versus kinetics is 900 (450 *(1+ 300/300)), its Effective Health versus lasers is 1350 (450 * (1+600/300)), and its effective Health versus missiles is 450 (450*(1+0/300)).

Defense

Defense is provided by defense modules. Each defense module only defends against one type of damage: Kinetic, Beam, or Missile. In 1.1.17 defense modules also provide weapon specific modifiers, added primarily to return graphical defense effects during combat. Deflector defenses provide a deflection bonus that prevents damage from the first X kinetic weapon shots per round. Shield defenses provide an absorption bonus that blocks the first Y damage from laser weapons per round. Some research has suggested that the shield blocking occurs AFTER damage reduction due to defenses. This would scale the value of the blocked damage greatly. Flak defenses provide a value to intercept missiles.

Flak Mechanics

Flak modules operate very differently than other defense modules. First off, all flak modules in a fleet will act against all missiles targeting ANY ship in the fleet. This means that missiles must penetrate all of the fleets flak defenses! Effective missile fleets then must contain a large portion of missile weapons.

Flak module defense works similarly to how Spread Fire targeting works. A list is made of all of the missiles targeting your fleet. Each Flak module is then assigned to one missile on that list that is not already targeted. If all missiles are targeted and there are still unassigned flak modules, then all missiles are put back onto the list and assignments continue until all modules are assigned targets.

Flak Interception >= Missile Evasion * (1+ Turn before Reach) * Random]0;1

The chance for a flak module to hit (and destroy) a missile is dependent upon the Evasion Rating of the Missile, the Accuracy of the flak module and the number of rounds remaining until the missile hits. Each flak module fires once each round (4 times per phase), so missiles must break through the entire flak defense of the fleet firing 4 times before hitting. It is believed that To Hit calculations are made after all flak checks are made.

Hull Weakness

In 1.1.17 small ships have a Hull Weakness of 300, medium ships have a Hull Weakness of 200, and large ships have a Hull Weakness of 100.

$\left(100 \circ \text{Hull Weakness modifiers}\right) \cdot \left(1 \circ \text{Hull Weakness Bonus modifiers}\right)$

Engines increase Hull Weakness, while defense modules and heroes may modify Hull Weakness Bonus. Increased Hull Weakness is very bad for ship durability. A ship with 300 Hull Weakness has 33% of the Effective Health as a ship with 100 Hull Weakness.