by glevee » Wed Nov 03, 2010 4:30 pm
The Strategy is that "simple" . . . The devil is in the implementation details (which is last time I checked is tactics). ("simple" is such a fun word. does the ability to state something simply (in a few words) make the thing itself simple??)
There exists some ratio between TravelTime, GrowthRate, and NumDefenders upon which all planets can be ranked (closer,higher,less are best.) There also exists some relationship between YourNumShips and these ranked planets (in terms of both current_ship_usage and future_ship_growth) that determines the optimal attack plan. (all this is balled up in my "quoted" list of attributes, strategy.)
What about tactics?
Lets use Innominate's example (the planets). We have 100 ships and three other planets, what do we attack?? In terms of # of turns it doesn't matter if you take the two 39s or the 65 (you will achieve the necessary number of ships to take the remaining planet(s) on the same turn). BUT, since we care about #ships, it does matter. Taking the two 39's gives us more left over ships when it comes time to take the 65, then we have were we to have taken the 65 first (when it comes time to take the 39's.) and inn's suggestion of binary knapsack would "tell" you to take the 39's first. ("single turn binary knapsack" is optimal in this simple example, and I would agree that it would not always be so. I know there are a couple of people who were/are working with some sort of "multiturn binary knapsack"...)