Does anyone know about the exact mechanics of encryption? First off, does encryption decay before or after damage is dealt? Or, does it matter? If a unit has 1 stability + 0.15 encryption, and is dealt 1 damage in a frame, is it destroyed? Or does it survive with 0.15 stability?
Second, is it correct that encryption decays at a rate of 0.15 /per encryption/? Or just 0.15 flat? That is, if a unit has been encrypted by 2 encryptors, does it’s encryption decay at 0.15/frame, or 0.30/frame?
I’m pretty sure a the shield of a ping with 10 encryptors lasts the same amount of time as a single encryptor, so 10x decay.
However, I have a follow up question:
An EMP gets 20 shield (2 encryptors) at the same time, and is attacked for 10 damage.
Is the decay rate afterwards for a single or for a double rate? I would expect it to be single
Furthermore, what order to the shields get hit (if hit separately as suggested above)? If a shield is applied in one location, and a second in the next location, does the original, more decayed shield absorb the damage first? Also does the damage onto one shield spill over onto the next if there’s leftover damage (i.e. 4 damage dealt to a shield of 3, does the next shield/hp take 1 damage)?
Here is how I assume it is:
So in the case mentionned by @kkroep, as a shield has been entierly destroyed, the total encryption lost the next turn due to decay is 0.15 : there is only one shield left.
Then if there are two units within equal range, with the same shields, but different decay rates, are these used in the target prioritization?
If the units have the same total health (stability + encryption), I would say that the usual targeting rules have to be followed.
In this case the points 4 and 5:
4-Choose the target(s) which are the furthest into/towards your side of the arena
5-Choose the target closest to an edge
I will be updating the rules and docs based on feedback in this thread
Currently undefined. I’ll check the engine code and update the rules and docs
This depends on the above answer, based on my understanding of the engine. If the decay triggers before the damage step in the frame yes, otherwise no. Ill check the code.
It is 0.15 per encryptor
The shields are independant and ‘on top’ of one another. A weaker (Earlier applied) shield will be targeted first.
The weaker(earlier applied) shield will drop first. If multiple were applied simultaneously or are otherwise at the same strength, they have no identity and a random one is chosen.
I believe that a single attack that destroys a shield will ‘overflow’ to damage the next shield and/or the units life, but a single shot will not spill over to another unit. I will double check this in the engine.
The pathing and targeting rules read “This will nearly always uniquely identify at most one enemy unit to target”.
The three cases where it will not are when two information units are at the same location/health but…
Or some combination of these. Ultimately, we determined these behaviors were so rare it wasn’t worth wasting words in the rules and docs or logic to define them, and targets are chosen essentially randomly in these cases. Its more of a polish change if we ever decide to fix it, its not something that would ever actually change player experience, at least imo. Open to any thoughts on this.
Ya shield damage will overflow. But, unit damage won’t.
quick one… If the Ping goes around a corner and comes back to the Encryptor is the shield boosted back up to the maximum? perhapsi can log everything in the unit class and find out…
Been losing to bots that pack a bunch of encryptors very close to the front line… think need to specifically open gaps in my wall to target destroying those
Nope, each encryptor can apply a shield to a given information once. That’s actually a reason they’re placed so closed to the front lines; if you place them too far back, most of the encryption will decay before the units get to the other side of the map, so a trade-off is made between maximizing encryption and maximizing how defended the encryptors are.
thx, my zigzag multi encryptor maze then is actually burning out the encryption before it can be used argh, will play around with it.
Defeating the one trick pony low ranked gun attacks then the next challenge! either break the wall or eliminate enough scramblers… repairing the front wall has helped a lot so far.
Yep, “maze algos” struggle with placing encryptors carefully so that the encryption doesn’t burn out. I think you were on the right idea about opening up gaps for an attack; it leaves you more exposed that turn, but in turn you can sneak pings through with higher encryption, which could be more valuable.
I have read through the main docs (that is, here) but I’m still struggling to find information on encryption mechanics. Are those mentioned somewhere else that I’m missing?
Hey,
The rules and docs were pruned significantly last month, it looks like this information may now be missing. I will add it back.
Just confirming this is done and will be released soon