While on graphical report, click on detailed report and you will get the details of the combat. Here is how to understand them:

Important Notes:
-There is no first hitter, both attacker and defender fire at the same time.
-Each ship shoots separately.
-RF is decided by stack and not by ship. (The difference with forthcoming Massacre Engine)
-For ACS Attacks, the same principles are maintained.
-If opponent is anihilated, then ships stop RF. This is why you may notice low RF rates at some rounds, especially the last one.
-Armor reduction will never be displayed although always taken in mind. Still, you can verify damage vs armor by adding up total damage (Probably not possible in big scale combats as there will be most probably excess damage).
-As of May 18, 2013, Armor reduction is now depicted. To achieve this, we show the total value of WSA for each stack (Stack is the number of ships of a same type - ie 31 Large Cargo is considered a stack or 1 Elite Cargo is considered a stack)

See also:
How Rapid fire works
Disarming a giant - Why everyone must fleet save
How to use Combat Simulator

Any questions, feel free to ask here.

i have one question. as we know RF is an iterative process. if a ship has RF 10 over another ship the chance of getting a hit on it is 9 out of 10 that is 90%. and the next hit has the same chance of creating another RF.

my question is what is the max stack looping of this process. how many times a ship will get RF advantage. if u ask me there is a fairly large chance for that loop never to be broken unless it is assured. i am sure the programmers have installed a constraint to break loop for RF calculation.

so i whats the limit for RF looping?

The correct formula is:
R - 1 / R where R is the RF rating.

Usage is:

For 15 RF rating:
1 shot: 15 - 1 / 15 = 93.3%
2 shots: 14-1/14 = 92.8%
x shots = (Initial RF - number of shots so far) -1 / (Initial RF - number of shots so far)

Where is the total-indepth explanation of battle engine nuts and bolts please?

(From other chat threads I would like to know is there 1 type of ship with better stats vs certain other types? eg. Fixed defences (Bomber benefits vs defences are not clear) or BCs (I've been wiped out for no enemy lossed despite reasoble defences and would like to knwo why-how), the way damage is shared around ships and ship types eg. Is it better to have all 1 type (are shields better that way?)

you get the drift...

i have a ?. if i have enough shield strength for 1,000,000 points then why would an attack say i only absorbed 635,000 points and then give me a few ship loss and then have shields left over in the next round. (mostly when sending 2 or more types of ships. )
ex.

Attacker
Weapons: 140 % Shields: 130 % Armor: 150 %
Type B.ship B.Cruiser E.Cargo
Number 500 1.500 2
Weapon 2.472 1.966 12
Shield 368 883 117
Armor 15.000 17.500 750.000

Defender
Weapons: 160 % Shields: 150 % Armor: 160 %
Type L.Cargo L.Fighter R.Launcher Light Lsr Heavy Lsr Gauss C. Ion C. Plasma C. Small S.D. Large S.D.
Number 50 100 962 17 10 3 1 72 1 1
Weapon 14 124 189 171 624 3.175 324 9.282 0 0
Shield 54 25 53 52 228 585 1.263 795 4.500 28.000
Armor 3.900 780 650 260 1.690 7.800 1.950 26.000 5.200 26.000

The attacking fleet fires 2 times for a total of 7.132.824 points of damage on the defender. The defender shields absorb 126.489 points of damage.
The defensive fleet fires back 1 times for a total of 882.439 points of damage against the attacker. The attacker shields absorb 845.402 points of damage.

Attacker
Weapons: 140 % Shields: 130 % Armor: 150 %
Type B.ship B.Cruiser E.Cargo
Number 498 1.500 2
Weapon 2.712 1.495 11
Shield 0 442 0
Armor 15.000 17.500 750.000

Defender
Weapons: 160 % Shields: 150 % Armor: 160 %
Type Gauss C. Plasma C. Small S.D. Large S.D.
Number 2 65 1 1
Weapon 2.545 8.034 0 0
Shield 0 0 1.404 18.641
Armor 7.800 26.000 5.200 26.000

The attacking fleet fires 1 times for a total of 3.593.398 points of damage on the defender. The defender shields absorb 20.045 points of damage.
The defensive fleet fires back 1 times for a total of 527.300 points of damage against the attacker. The attacker shields absorb 395.475 points of damage.

Attacker
Weapons: 140 % Shields: 130 % Armor: 150 %
Type B.ship B.Cruiser E.Cargo
Number 489 1.500 2
Weapon 2.208 1.512 13
Shield 0 222 0
Armor 15.000 17.500 750.000

Defender
Weapons: 160 % Shields: 150 % Armor: 160 %
Destroyed!

as you can see some bs's were lost even though plenty of shield left in bc's. doesn't sink up with the above example by zorg.

You start with:
Attacker
Weapons: 140 % Shields: 130 % Armor: 150 %
Type B.ship B.Cruiser E.Cargo
Number 500 1.500 2
Weapon 2.472 1.966 12
Shield 368 883 117
Armor 15.000 17.500 750.000

Which results to:
B.Cruiser total shields 1,324,500
B.Ship total shields 184,000
E.Cargo total shields 1,404

The defensive fleet fired for 882.439 points of damage. This damage has been received from all 3 ship types. We can tell how this has been received by each type by looking the assembly below:

Attacker
Weapons: 140 % Shields: 130 % Armor: 150 %
Type B.ship B.Cruiser E.Cargo
Number 498 1.500 2
Weapon 2.712 1.495 11
Shield 0 442 0
Armor 15.000 17.500 750.000

So it seems that the B.Cruisers have now 663,000 points of shield. So they absorbed about 661500 points of damage. This is why they also appear with about half the shields on the start of round 2.

The rest 220.939 points of damage, have hit B.Ship and EC. (Do note that since shields get a new calculation and shield damage is moved in %, there is a small variation in exact numbers.)


So, E.Cargo and B.Ship lost all their shield (185,404 damage) and a total of about 35 000 damage (220 000 - 185 000) hit them. They got armor of 15000 and 750000. You have lost 2 battleships which have a total armor value of 30000.

Which is perfectly normal. Hopefully this insight will help you understand how engine works.

from the combat info

RF is decided by stack and not by ship.

can you actually explain what this means?

what is the stack ... a ship type or the fleet...?
ship is that a single ship or all ships of that type...?

A stack is the number of ships of a single ship type (ie 123 Light Fighters is a stack).
Ship is a single ship.

in other words it doesnt matter if u send 1 ship against another type that the attacking ship has rf over or 1.000.000.000 of them. if the RF kicks in then that 1 ship or 1.000.000.000 will either have rf over defense or not. number of ships in stack does not matter.

thanks for the clarification