What does patrolling do?

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    • What does patrolling do?

      Just as the title says, I'm curious what patrolling really does other than giving one the ability to scout other armies. For example, I was flying a paratrooper unit through the path of a patrolling interceptor, and I noticed the paratrooper unit took some damage, but not much.

      Does patrolling follow the same 30 minute timer as other attacks do? If two enemy planes were patrolling in the same area, would they attack each other at the same time or would they have different timers? Is there an attack and defense timer? I'm just curious on exactly how it works, sorry if this sounds silly.
      It's been a while

    • Patrolling gets you one "tick" every fifteen minutes. On that tick, your planes fire at whatever is in their circle at that moment - planes, ground troops, whatever. This attack is at 25% of the strength of a normal direct attack (hence your "a little damage" observation). The attacked unit also fires back, like in melee combat, but for some reason this gives much less damage - key is to "tick" yourself, not be passive when the enemy "ticks".

      This may not sound very good, but the big advantage is that your planes don't have to fly up and down to the target, and don't need to refuel either - they just do their damage every 15m. They can als easily be repositioned to a slightly different target, though the countdown to the "tick" start again in that case. On an average distance, this boils down to about the same net damage output as a direct attack - but without the vulnerability of the refuel, and the danger that the enemy target is protected by interceptors which can be deadly. So actually patrolling is the preferred way to fight; for me, I use air force a lot, but I hardly ever use direct attacks.

      On the PC interface, you can see the countdown to the "tick" when selecting the unit and looking in the detailed unit description in the bottom of your screen; I'm not sure if it is visible in the mobile version.
      When the fake daddies are curtailed, we have failed. When their roller coaster tolerance is obliterated, their education funds are taken by Kazakhstani phishers, and their candy bars distributed between the Botswana youth gangs, we have succeeded.
      - BIG DADDY.

    • K.Rokossovski wrote:

      Patrolling gets you one "tick" every fifteen minutes. On that tick, your planes fire at whatever is in their circle at that moment - planes, ground troops, whatever. This attack is at 25% of the strength of a normal direct attack (hence your "a little damage" observation). The attacked unit also fires back, like in melee combat, but for some reason this gives much less damage - key is to "tick" yourself, not be passive when the enemy "ticks".

      This may not sound very good, but the big advantage is that your planes don't have to fly up and down to the target, and don't need to refuel either - they just do their damage every 15m. They can als easily be repositioned to a slightly different target, though the countdown to the "tick" start again in that case. On an average distance, this boils down to about the same net damage output as a direct attack - but without the vulnerability of the refuel, and the danger that the enemy target is protected by interceptors which can be deadly. So actually patrolling is the preferred way to fight; for me, I use air force a lot, but I hardly ever use direct attacks.

      On the PC interface, you can see the countdown to the "tick" when selecting the unit and looking in the detailed unit description in the bottom of your screen; I'm not sure if it is visible in the mobile version.
      for example enemy planes is patrolling and I saw they need 13 min to attack something in area so can I give damage to land units which at below to enemy planes in 13 minutes without any take damage ?

    • vietcong2005 wrote:

      For me I just use direct attack because I want to get the job done quickly and more efficiently
      Play a game against me and I'll toast you for that... patrolling is the way to go.
      When the fake daddies are curtailed, we have failed. When their roller coaster tolerance is obliterated, their education funds are taken by Kazakhstani phishers, and their candy bars distributed between the Botswana youth gangs, we have succeeded.
      - BIG DADDY.

    • Undaunted wrote:

      K.Rokossovski wrote:


      for example enemy planes is patrolling and I saw they need 13 min to attack something in area so can I give damage to land units which at below to enemy planes in 13 minutes without any take damage ?
      Sorry I don't understand the question? When the tick comes, and planes are firing at a ground stack, the ground air defense is firing back at the planes at 25% efficiency as well.
      When the fake daddies are curtailed, we have failed. When their roller coaster tolerance is obliterated, their education funds are taken by Kazakhstani phishers, and their candy bars distributed between the Botswana youth gangs, we have succeeded.
      - BIG DADDY.

    • K.Rokossovski wrote:

      Undaunted wrote:

      K.Rokossovski wrote:


      for example enemy planes is patrolling and I saw they need 13 min to attack something in area so can I give damage to land units which at below to enemy planes in 13 minutes without any take damage ?
      Sorry I don't understand the question? When the tick comes, and planes are firing at a ground stack, the ground air defense is firing back at the planes at 25% efficiency as well.
      planes are patrolling and time seems 13 min at this example and enemy planes entering to patrol area and attacking to land units in area my question can enemy planes quit from area without any take damage ? cos patrolling planes need 13 min to shot something in area

    • Undaunted wrote:

      K.Rokossovski wrote:

      Undaunted wrote:

      K.Rokossovski wrote:


      for example enemy planes is patrolling and I saw they need 13 min to attack something in area so can I give damage to land units which at below to enemy planes in 13 minutes without any take damage ?
      Sorry I don't understand the question? When the tick comes, and planes are firing at a ground stack, the ground air defense is firing back at the planes at 25% efficiency as well.
      planes are patrolling and time seems 13 min at this example and enemy planes entering to patrol area and attacking to land units in area my question can enemy planes quit from area without any take damage ? cos patrolling planes need 13 min to shot something in area
      No, they can't. Whenever a direct enemy attack happens in their circle, the patrolling planes respond as well. I don't know the exact formula or combat mechanics used in this case, but the attackers will take a HUGE amount of damage while the patrollers don't take ANY damage. Do not attack units under fighter cover at all cost!
      When the fake daddies are curtailed, we have failed. When their roller coaster tolerance is obliterated, their education funds are taken by Kazakhstani phishers, and their candy bars distributed between the Botswana youth gangs, we have succeeded.
      - BIG DADDY.

    • K.Rokossovski wrote:

      Undaunted wrote:

      K.Rokossovski wrote:


      for example enemy planes is patrolling and I saw they need 13 min to attack something in area so can I give damage to land units which at below to enemy planes in 13 minutes without any take damage ?
      Sorry I don't understand the question? When the tick comes, and planes are firing at a ground stack, the ground air defense is firing back at the planes at 25% efficiency as well.
      For 1.5 games, patrols deal and receive damage at 50% efficiency every 15 minutes since battle timers have been reduced from an hour to 30 minutes.
      Officer of The Golden Spire (March 2021 - April 2022)
      Secretary of the Secretary of Nova0213

    • Nova0213 wrote:

      K.Rokossovski wrote:

      Undaunted wrote:

      K.Rokossovski wrote:


      for example enemy planes is patrolling and I saw they need 13 min to attack something in area so can I give damage to land units which at below to enemy planes in 13 minutes without any take damage ?
      Sorry I don't understand the question? When the tick comes, and planes are firing at a ground stack, the ground air defense is firing back at the planes at 25% efficiency as well.
      For 1.5 games, patrols deal and receive damage at 50% efficiency every 15 minutes since battle timers have been reduced from an hour to 30 minutes.
      Are you sure about that? Refueling time hasn't been decreased, so the ratio of direct attacks (depending a bit on flight time, somewhere around once an hour) to patrol attacks is still the same at about 1:4, so 25% is still a logical figure, and battle statistics seem to support it as well.
      When the fake daddies are curtailed, we have failed. When their roller coaster tolerance is obliterated, their education funds are taken by Kazakhstani phishers, and their candy bars distributed between the Botswana youth gangs, we have succeeded.
      - BIG DADDY.

    • OP... direct attack gets you a hit every 45m only when your enemy is VERY close.
      When the fake daddies are curtailed, we have failed. When their roller coaster tolerance is obliterated, their education funds are taken by Kazakhstani phishers, and their candy bars distributed between the Botswana youth gangs, we have succeeded.
      - BIG DADDY.