ACS (Alliance Combat System) is a method used to combine different fleets from different players or even from the same player, to attack a said or given planet/moon.
OR
It is a method to Defend a said or given planet/moon with different fleets from different players.
=How to invite into an ACS-Attack?=
At first you send the fleet on attack mission to the coordinates you want.
Then, go to fleet movement and use the Fleet Union Button to Invite others or yourself to the attack.
You could either chose a player from the box on your left (these players are from your Buddy List), press "Invite", then press "OK" ; or you could put the name of the player that you want to invite to the ACS-Attack in the " Search User" box, press " Search", and then press OK. If you want to only ACS with yourself then just click OK without choosing any player.
Invited players get an in Game Message and have in the fleet-menu the option to join a group-attack. They can choose between all the groups they are invited to.
=How to join an ACS-Attack?=
After you get an invitation to the attack, go to fleet, choose the fleet you want to add to the ACS-Attack, press continue and then choose the Attack you want to join in the "Combat Forces" drop-down box. Press on "next" and select the ACS-Attack mission and then "Send Fleet".
ACS-Attacks don't require being in the same alliance as the other attackers or having them on BuddyList.
NOTE: In case the player goes into vmode or returns to Newbie protection after an ACS is initiated, no more fleets can be added.
=How to make an ACS-Defend?=
You have to choose the fleet you want to defend with, press on next, put the coords you want to defend (always remember to specify whether you want to defend the moon or the planet as the fleet doesn't defend both, it defends only the selected one), and then select the ACS-Defend Mission and the holding time you want.
NOTE:
First requirement in doing an ACS-Defend is to have the player to be defended in your alliance or on your BuddyList (unlike ACS-Attack)
You can Hold your fleet in defense up to 32 straight hours.
The longer the fleet stays in defend mode the more deut is needed. The deut is automatically loaded onto your fleet, so be sure to have enough cargo capacity to hold enough deut with the fleet to make the ACS-Defend.
Holding-Costs:
Small Cargo 5 deut per hour
Large Cargo 5 deut per hour
Light Fighter 2 deut per hour
Heavy Fighter 7 deut per hour
Cruiser 30 deut per hour
Battle Ship 50 deut per hour
Colony Ship 100 deut per hour
Recycler 30 deut per hour
Espionage Probe 1/10 deut per hour
Bomber 100 deut per hour
Destroyer 100 deut per hour
Deathstar 1/10 deut per hour
Battle Cruiser 25 deut per hour
=General information about ACS=
All involved parties in the ACS (defenders and attackers) get a full detailed CR unless the attacking fleet was destroyed during the first round of battle.
The ships during the whole battle belong to its owners and use his techs.
The Combat system works normally as if it is solo attack :
- Maximum of 6 rounds (after 6 rounds, the result will end as a draw) and the targets are chosen randomly.
- The resources plunder are divided according to the total cargo capacity of the fleets and divided up accordingly (i.e. if attacker A sends 75% of the total cargo capacity, they will return with 75% of the plunder)
- You pay only as much deut as you would pay for a normal attack.
- After the battle every surviving fleet flies back to where it came from.
- When you recall the fleet, all deut required for launch and holding is gone.
A maximum of 5 players can ACS together in attack and a maximum of 5 players can defend a certain planet/moon; they can ACS in maximum of 16 different slots.
Group attacks count for every attacker as one normal attack in the sense of the bashing-rule.
The Fleet that is already flying cannot be slowed down more than 30% of the remaining time. If new fleets to be added are slower than this 30% limit, the option for a group-attack is not available.
The Group of fleets flies at the speed of the slowest ship in the ACS; and if a slower ship joins, the whole group is slowed down.
When a fleet leaves the group, the remaining fleets continue to fly without a change to speed, even when the ACS starter leaves. ( Caution: if the fleet that started the ACS was recalled, no more ships can be added )
When in an ACS-Defend mission against an incoming attack, the planet/moon owner is the only one that can see the attack on his overview.
If you are attacking and defending the same planet/moon, you will be fighting against yourself (e.g in a Moonshot attempt).
If you are ACS-Defending moon which is meanwhile destroyed by moon destruction mission, the fleet will ACS defend the planet.
Bashing:
Taking into account that the bashing rules are 6 attacks per planet/moon (normal 1x speed universes)
If you are attacking Planet/Moon "X" in an ACS attack with 4 other persons, that would count as your first wave, which leaves YOU and each one of your friends with 5 more attacks on this planet/moon each.
So you can still attack him 5 times after the main ACS hit, and each one of your friends can attack 5 more times.
=What else can ACS be used for?=
- Slowing down fleets and Safety Probing (you slow down the main attack enough to sneak in probes on esp mission and avoid the bugusing violation and to have enough time to check the new report and avoid any potential ninjas).
-Fleet saving in ACS mode (Note: you might want to consider fleet saving by deployment mission as it is the safest method)
-Hiding the attacking ship times with the ACS function so they cannot be easily "returned" (i.e when an attack fleet arrives to destroy your fleet as it returns from it's mission).
=Advanced ACS=
1) Delaying of arrival time(real safety probing)
A regular safety probe is sent a few seconds before your hit impacts, you do this to check the esp. report of the planet/moon you are attacking to see that nothing has changed, i.e., no big enemy fleet is waiting for your arrival to totally destroy you! However, you need a few seconds to read the spy report and to recall your fleet in case of an emergency like the one mentioned before => typically you sent this safety probe to arrive 30-15 secs before impact.Try to make this delay at least one minute but more preferably 5 minutes or perhaps more! Never become predictable with your timing, slow by different amounts each time.
-Adapting phalanx hits
Assume you have very little time to manage your phalanx timing on your fleet, you sent but it arrives too early. If you recall you won't have time anymore to send the same fleet to arrive in time and loose precious fuel. You don't need to recall, just adapt the arrival time using ACS , exactly the same idea as the delay safety probe in other words! This of course gives no solution when your timing is too late instead of too early.
-Avoiding debris steal
Debris stealers need at least 1hour to get to the debris even if he is in system. With like a half an hour or so to go, you delay the attacking moonchance fleet with 5-15mins or so and his recyclers will certainly arrive too early, giving your friend plenty of opportunity to gather the debris without having to worry about debris thieves.
2) ACS ninja
For people who don't know what a ninja is in ogame terminology, the idea is pretty simple: it is suprising a player that is attacking your planet, by letting arrive a fleet of your own that is able to take out his fleet just before impact. If your timing is good, he won't have time to spot this change and let the hit go, but he will get an unexpected result, i.e., he will get owned instead of getting raiding profit.
Actual this ACS ninja is your regular ninja, but now your friends/allymates can come to play ninja and surprise the attacker.
3) Moon to friends moon fleetsave
Choose a ACS defend mission from your own moon towards your friend's moon and set holding time to zero hours, the fleet will just fly to the moon and back, this has the advantage that you can carry resources and that moon to moon fleetsave is not phalanxable, they can't even make use of debris watching to time your fleetsave. The disadvantage remains that once returning, the fleet can't be recalled and that you have to trust the owner of the other moon. Best fleetsave remains deployment from own moon to own moon.
4) ACS as backup for your return trip
Especially later ingame when you launch big parts of your fleet at a big target, you might risk to have someone try to time your return, and thus instead of you crashing your target and enjoying the profits, you might end up with a crashed target perhaps, but also with yourself being crashed.
There are a few simple guidelines to avoid such events to happen.
- split up your fleet using acs and make sure you launch them with different flight times. The fleets will jointly arrive at the target on the Estimated Time(of)Arrival of your slowest ACS fleet, BUT they will return in parts based upon the flight times of the individual fleet parts. This way it is more difficult to crash whole of your fleet, and it is more difficult to time, certainly when you launch from a moon.
- Make sure you get an ally or friend waiting for your return. That way when you see someone trying to catch you on your return, you can inform your friend to ACS defend you.
=Alliance Depot=
An Alliance Depot is where a friendly fleet can be re-fueled with your deuterium, allowing them to remain at your planet. This building is only available in universes where Alliance Combat System is enabled.
The Alliance Depot allows you to support friendly fleets so they can remain stationed at your planet for a time. The depot can launch a support-rocket that brings deuterium to the fleet in the orbit. The amount of deuterium is 20,000 deuterium for each Alliance Depot Level.
Normally the maximum time a fleet can hold is 32 hours. Every time you launch a support-rocket, the fleet is able to use the deuterium to remain in orbit longe. Because larger depots are able to launch more deuterium in the support rockets, they are able to sustain larger fleets.
This table shows to us how much holding costs (deuterium per hour) from each ship:
Small Cargo Ship --> 1
Large Cargo Ship --> 5
Light Fighter --> 2
Heavy Fighter --> 7
Cruiser --> 30
Battle Ship --> 50
Colony Ship --> 100
Recycler --> 30
Espionage Probe --> 0.1
Bomber --> 100
Destroyer --> 100
Battlecruiser --> 25
Death Star --> 0.1
Building and using Alliance depot is not so much useful, because even without alliance depot you fleet can stay up to 32hours at planet or moon of your friend.
OR
It is a method to Defend a said or given planet/moon with different fleets from different players.
=How to invite into an ACS-Attack?=
At first you send the fleet on attack mission to the coordinates you want.
Then, go to fleet movement and use the Fleet Union Button to Invite others or yourself to the attack.
You could either chose a player from the box on your left (these players are from your Buddy List), press "Invite", then press "OK" ; or you could put the name of the player that you want to invite to the ACS-Attack in the " Search User" box, press " Search", and then press OK. If you want to only ACS with yourself then just click OK without choosing any player.
Invited players get an in Game Message and have in the fleet-menu the option to join a group-attack. They can choose between all the groups they are invited to.
=How to join an ACS-Attack?=
After you get an invitation to the attack, go to fleet, choose the fleet you want to add to the ACS-Attack, press continue and then choose the Attack you want to join in the "Combat Forces" drop-down box. Press on "next" and select the ACS-Attack mission and then "Send Fleet".
ACS-Attacks don't require being in the same alliance as the other attackers or having them on BuddyList.
NOTE: In case the player goes into vmode or returns to Newbie protection after an ACS is initiated, no more fleets can be added.
=How to make an ACS-Defend?=
You have to choose the fleet you want to defend with, press on next, put the coords you want to defend (always remember to specify whether you want to defend the moon or the planet as the fleet doesn't defend both, it defends only the selected one), and then select the ACS-Defend Mission and the holding time you want.
NOTE:
First requirement in doing an ACS-Defend is to have the player to be defended in your alliance or on your BuddyList (unlike ACS-Attack)
You can Hold your fleet in defense up to 32 straight hours.
The longer the fleet stays in defend mode the more deut is needed. The deut is automatically loaded onto your fleet, so be sure to have enough cargo capacity to hold enough deut with the fleet to make the ACS-Defend.
Holding-Costs:
Small Cargo 5 deut per hour
Large Cargo 5 deut per hour
Light Fighter 2 deut per hour
Heavy Fighter 7 deut per hour
Cruiser 30 deut per hour
Battle Ship 50 deut per hour
Colony Ship 100 deut per hour
Recycler 30 deut per hour
Espionage Probe 1/10 deut per hour
Bomber 100 deut per hour
Destroyer 100 deut per hour
Deathstar 1/10 deut per hour
Battle Cruiser 25 deut per hour
=General information about ACS=
All involved parties in the ACS (defenders and attackers) get a full detailed CR unless the attacking fleet was destroyed during the first round of battle.
The ships during the whole battle belong to its owners and use his techs.
The Combat system works normally as if it is solo attack :
- Maximum of 6 rounds (after 6 rounds, the result will end as a draw) and the targets are chosen randomly.
- The resources plunder are divided according to the total cargo capacity of the fleets and divided up accordingly (i.e. if attacker A sends 75% of the total cargo capacity, they will return with 75% of the plunder)
- You pay only as much deut as you would pay for a normal attack.
- After the battle every surviving fleet flies back to where it came from.
- When you recall the fleet, all deut required for launch and holding is gone.
A maximum of 5 players can ACS together in attack and a maximum of 5 players can defend a certain planet/moon; they can ACS in maximum of 16 different slots.
Group attacks count for every attacker as one normal attack in the sense of the bashing-rule.
The Fleet that is already flying cannot be slowed down more than 30% of the remaining time. If new fleets to be added are slower than this 30% limit, the option for a group-attack is not available.
The Group of fleets flies at the speed of the slowest ship in the ACS; and if a slower ship joins, the whole group is slowed down.
When a fleet leaves the group, the remaining fleets continue to fly without a change to speed, even when the ACS starter leaves. ( Caution: if the fleet that started the ACS was recalled, no more ships can be added )
When in an ACS-Defend mission against an incoming attack, the planet/moon owner is the only one that can see the attack on his overview.
If you are attacking and defending the same planet/moon, you will be fighting against yourself (e.g in a Moonshot attempt).
If you are ACS-Defending moon which is meanwhile destroyed by moon destruction mission, the fleet will ACS defend the planet.
Bashing:
Taking into account that the bashing rules are 6 attacks per planet/moon (normal 1x speed universes)
If you are attacking Planet/Moon "X" in an ACS attack with 4 other persons, that would count as your first wave, which leaves YOU and each one of your friends with 5 more attacks on this planet/moon each.
So you can still attack him 5 times after the main ACS hit, and each one of your friends can attack 5 more times.
=What else can ACS be used for?=
- Slowing down fleets and Safety Probing (you slow down the main attack enough to sneak in probes on esp mission and avoid the bugusing violation and to have enough time to check the new report and avoid any potential ninjas).
-Fleet saving in ACS mode (Note: you might want to consider fleet saving by deployment mission as it is the safest method)
-Hiding the attacking ship times with the ACS function so they cannot be easily "returned" (i.e when an attack fleet arrives to destroy your fleet as it returns from it's mission).
=Advanced ACS=
1) Delaying of arrival time(real safety probing)
A regular safety probe is sent a few seconds before your hit impacts, you do this to check the esp. report of the planet/moon you are attacking to see that nothing has changed, i.e., no big enemy fleet is waiting for your arrival to totally destroy you! However, you need a few seconds to read the spy report and to recall your fleet in case of an emergency like the one mentioned before => typically you sent this safety probe to arrive 30-15 secs before impact.Try to make this delay at least one minute but more preferably 5 minutes or perhaps more! Never become predictable with your timing, slow by different amounts each time.
-Adapting phalanx hits
Assume you have very little time to manage your phalanx timing on your fleet, you sent but it arrives too early. If you recall you won't have time anymore to send the same fleet to arrive in time and loose precious fuel. You don't need to recall, just adapt the arrival time using ACS , exactly the same idea as the delay safety probe in other words! This of course gives no solution when your timing is too late instead of too early.
-Avoiding debris steal
Debris stealers need at least 1hour to get to the debris even if he is in system. With like a half an hour or so to go, you delay the attacking moonchance fleet with 5-15mins or so and his recyclers will certainly arrive too early, giving your friend plenty of opportunity to gather the debris without having to worry about debris thieves.
2) ACS ninja
For people who don't know what a ninja is in ogame terminology, the idea is pretty simple: it is suprising a player that is attacking your planet, by letting arrive a fleet of your own that is able to take out his fleet just before impact. If your timing is good, he won't have time to spot this change and let the hit go, but he will get an unexpected result, i.e., he will get owned instead of getting raiding profit.
Actual this ACS ninja is your regular ninja, but now your friends/allymates can come to play ninja and surprise the attacker.
3) Moon to friends moon fleetsave
Choose a ACS defend mission from your own moon towards your friend's moon and set holding time to zero hours, the fleet will just fly to the moon and back, this has the advantage that you can carry resources and that moon to moon fleetsave is not phalanxable, they can't even make use of debris watching to time your fleetsave. The disadvantage remains that once returning, the fleet can't be recalled and that you have to trust the owner of the other moon. Best fleetsave remains deployment from own moon to own moon.
4) ACS as backup for your return trip
Especially later ingame when you launch big parts of your fleet at a big target, you might risk to have someone try to time your return, and thus instead of you crashing your target and enjoying the profits, you might end up with a crashed target perhaps, but also with yourself being crashed.
There are a few simple guidelines to avoid such events to happen.
- split up your fleet using acs and make sure you launch them with different flight times. The fleets will jointly arrive at the target on the Estimated Time(of)Arrival of your slowest ACS fleet, BUT they will return in parts based upon the flight times of the individual fleet parts. This way it is more difficult to crash whole of your fleet, and it is more difficult to time, certainly when you launch from a moon.
- Make sure you get an ally or friend waiting for your return. That way when you see someone trying to catch you on your return, you can inform your friend to ACS defend you.
=Alliance Depot=
An Alliance Depot is where a friendly fleet can be re-fueled with your deuterium, allowing them to remain at your planet. This building is only available in universes where Alliance Combat System is enabled.
The Alliance Depot allows you to support friendly fleets so they can remain stationed at your planet for a time. The depot can launch a support-rocket that brings deuterium to the fleet in the orbit. The amount of deuterium is 20,000 deuterium for each Alliance Depot Level.
Normally the maximum time a fleet can hold is 32 hours. Every time you launch a support-rocket, the fleet is able to use the deuterium to remain in orbit longe. Because larger depots are able to launch more deuterium in the support rockets, they are able to sustain larger fleets.
This table shows to us how much holding costs (deuterium per hour) from each ship:
Small Cargo Ship --> 1
Large Cargo Ship --> 5
Light Fighter --> 2
Heavy Fighter --> 7
Cruiser --> 30
Battle Ship --> 50
Colony Ship --> 100
Recycler --> 30
Espionage Probe --> 0.1
Bomber --> 100
Destroyer --> 100
Battlecruiser --> 25
Death Star --> 0.1
Building and using Alliance depot is not so much useful, because even without alliance depot you fleet can stay up to 32hours at planet or moon of your friend.
