Auto Warz — Ship & Army Points Design¶

Document Type: Design Document Version: 0.1 Last Updated: 2026-02-27 Vault destination: 01_Design Documents Related Documents: [01_Master GDD](<../01_Master GDD.md>) · [05_World Generation & Planet Types](<./05_World Generation & Planet Types.md>) Folder: 01_Design Documents Phase: Phase 2 — War Update

Overview¶

Every ship has an Army Power Rating (APR) — a single number representing its combat effectiveness. APR is calculated automatically from the components placed on the ship during construction. A player's total Fleet APR is the sum of all their ships' APR values.

APR serves two purposes: 1. Matchmaking signal — the game uses fleet APR to show win/loss probability before a battle is committed 2. Army composition feedback — players can see how component choices affect their fleet's strength in real time during ship building

Ship Classes¶

Players select a ship class before building. Each class has a different APR weight profile — the same component contributes more APR on some classes than others.

Class	Role	APR Weight	Factory Supply Cost
Fighter	Fast attack, swarm tactics	Weapon components weighted ×1.5	Low
Frigate	Balanced escort	Even weights	Medium
Cruiser	Heavy firepower	Weapon + armour weighted ×1.3	High
Carrier	Launches drone fighters	Hangar components weighted ×2.0	Very High
Freighter	Cargo / resource transport	No APR contribution — non-combat	Medium
Mining Vessel	Orbital resource extraction	No APR contribution — non-combat	Medium
Scout	Reveals systems. Defined by not needing supply.	No APR contribution — non-combat	Low

Freighters, Mining Vessels and Scouts contribute 0 APR — they are logistics and reconnaissance ships, not combat ships. Fleet APR is combat ships only.

Seven classes. The Scout resolves the disagreement between 01_Master GDD (six classes) and 02_Scope & MVP Document line 188 (Freighter, Mining Vessel, Scout). It is the class with near-zero upkeep and the longest command range, so it operates far outside the supply umbrella by design — which is why the first ship a player ever launches is a non-combat one.

Classes are differentiated by role in the attrition economy, not by combat archetype. Full treatment in [33_Mothership & Fleet Design](<../Systems/33_Mothership & Fleet Design.md>) → Ship Classes.

Army Power Rating (APR) Calculation¶

Component APR Values¶

Every ship component has a base APR value. When placed on a ship, it contributes:

component_apr_contribution = base_apr × class_weight_multiplier

Component Category	Base APR per Unit	Notes
Laser Cannon	15	Standard weapon
Pulse Cannon	20	Higher APR, more power draw
Missile Launcher	25	Highest single-weapon APR
Point Defence	10	Defensive — reduces incoming missile APR
Shield Generator	18	Defensive — reduces enemy weapon effectiveness
Armour Plating	8	Passive defence — reduces APR loss on damage
Engine Thruster	5	Mobility — minor APR (harder to hit)
Reactor Core	0	Power only — no direct APR
Hangar Bay	30	Carrier only — launches drone fighters
EMP Emitter	12	Disabling weapon

Ship APR Formula¶

ship_apr = sum(component_base_apr × class_weight) × hull_condition_modifier

hull_condition_modifier:
  100% HP = 1.0
  75% HP  = 0.9
  50% HP  = 0.75
  25% HP  = 0.5
  (damaged ships contribute less to fleet APR)

Fleet APR¶

fleet_apr = sum(ship_apr for all combat ships)

APR Is a Rate¶

APR is a rate, not a probability input: ships destroyed per tick, and supply consumed per tick doing it.

The win probability formula is removed¶

win_probability = player_apr / (player_apr + enemy_apr) and its modifier table are deleted.

The reason is not that the maths was wrong. It is that an instant probability roll tells a defeated player exactly one thing — your number was smaller — which gives them nothing to diagnose and nothing to fix except make more. The factory receives no feedback from the war at all.

Under [31_War & Combat System Design](<../Systems/31_War & Combat System Design.md>), an engagement resolves as attrition over time, and combat power is APR modulated by supply satisfaction. A well-built fleet at 40% supply fights like a much smaller one. So defeat reads as:

Your ammunition line delivered 40 a minute. The front consumed 60.

That is a factory diagnosis. It points at a belt.

Attrition resolves per participant, never per side, so each player's ships fight at their own supply level. That is what makes helping an ally visible: move your mothership so their ships fall inside your umbrella and their rate of fire climbs back up, on screen.

Open items closed¶

OI-202 to OI-206 all asked questions about the removed formula — whether APR is visible to other players, whether it factors into supply-chain demand, whether faction fleets show it before scanning, whether research boosts it, whether it scales with pilot skill. They close with the formula.

Fleet Power¶

The pre-commit readout survives in a different form. Fleet Power is the visible rating used for admission control: war terms may cap it, and a fleet above the cap cannot enter. See [31_War & Combat System Design](<../Systems/31_War & Combat System Design.md>) → Joining a War.

A supplier's Fleet Power is low and their value is high, so the rating prices combat contribution honestly without excluding builders from a high-level war.

Faction Fleet APR Scaling¶

Enemy fleet APR scales with distance from the starting system, same as alien difficulty tiers:

Distance	Faction Fleet APR Range
0–10 units	200–500
11–20 units	500–1,200
21–35 units	1,200–2,800
36–50 units	2,800–6,000
50+ units	6,000+

Retained. Under the rate interpretation these are kill-rate scales rather than probability inputs, so the numbers will need rebasing once attrition tick rates exist.

Design Readouts Live in the Editor¶

The former Real-Time APR Display During Ship Building section is removed.

It showed a single APR number while designing, and a single number standing for a whole design is exactly the aggregate [00_Canonical Design Facts](<../../04_Project Management/00_Canonical Design Facts.md>) §23 forbids: anything rankable gets optimised until every player builds the same ship.

The replacement is specified in [34_Ship & Mothership Editor Design](<../Systems/34_Ship & Mothership Editor Design.md>) → What the Editor Shows: efficiency figures each naming their denominator, offensive and defensive power each carrying units, and coverage and capacity as plain facts. Defensive power is stated per face, as survival time under standard pressure.

Fleet Overview Screen¶

Accessible from the Space layer HUD — shows all ships, their individual APR, and fleet total:

FLEET OVERVIEW                    Total APR: 3,420
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Fighter    "Vex-1"    APR: 186   ██   HP: 100%
Fighter    "Vex-2"    APR: 204   ██   HP: 87%
Frigate    "Crux"     APR: 512   █████  HP: 100%
Cruiser    "Dawnbreaker" APR: 890  ████████  HP: 65%  ⚠️
Carrier    "Mothership"  APR: 1,628 ██████████████  HP: 100%
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Freighter  "Haul-1"   APR: —     (logistics)

Open items for this document are tracked in docs/open-items.md, area ships.

Revision History¶

Version	Date	Changes
0.2	2026-09-05	APR redefined as a rate. Win probability formula and its modifier table deleted; OI-202 to OI-206 close with it. Real-time APR build display removed, replaced by the editor readouts in `[34_Ship & Mothership Editor Design](<../Systems/34_Ship & Mothership Editor Design.md>)`. Scout added as a seventh class, resolving the disagreement with `02_Scope & MVP Document`. Fleet Power recorded as the admission-control rating.
0.1	2026-02-27	Initial document — ship classes, APR calculation formula, component APR values, win probability model, real-time editor display, fleet overview screen, faction fleet scaling