Why simulate before you attack
In OGame you never steer your ships. When a fleet arrives at its target coordinates the battle resolves automatically, over a limited number of rounds, and you read the result in a report afterwards. That makes the outcome a matter of arithmetic plus dice, and a battle simulator lets you run the arithmetic before you commit fuel, time and ships.
The same logic applies on the independent universes listed on our OGame private servers page. Most OGame-style servers copy the combat model, but speeds, debris percentages and extras vary, so a simulation is only useful if its settings match the universe you play on. This guide covers the rules, the inputs a simulator needs, and the settings to check first.
- Maximum rounds per battle
- 6
- Chance a destroyed defence is rebuilt
- 70%
- Hull level where explosions start
- Below 70%
Per Wikipedia and combat guides
Per a fan combat guide
Per the same guide
The combat rules in plain terms
Wikipedia describes OGame battles as resolving automatically with up to six rounds, where destroyed ships are lost for good, some defences are rebuilt and debris fields of metal and crystal can be harvested. A fan combat guide fills in the arithmetic. Each unit has a weapon value, a shield value and a hull value, and every ship and defence fires once per round at a random enemy target.
| Check | What happens |
|---|---|
| Weapon below 1% of the target's current shield | The shot does nothing |
| Weapon lower than the shield | The shield absorbs the hit and the hull is untouched |
| Weapon higher than the remaining shield | The shield drops to 0 and the leftover damage hits the hull |
| End of round | Shields of surviving units regenerate fully; hull damage carries over |
| Hull below 70% of original | Each further shot can destroy the unit outright, with chance equal to 1 minus current hull divided by original hull |
Two consequences follow. Cheap units with strong shields can waste a whole round of weak shots, and a ship that survives a round with a damaged hull is at risk from many small hits rather than one big one.
Rapid fire, debris and rebuilds
Rapid fire gives a unit a chance to shoot again after a hit. The fan guide gives the rule as (r minus 1) divided by r, where r is the rapid-fire value against that target type. A value of 6 therefore gives a five in six chance of another shot at a new random target, which is why a stack of the wrong ship can melt against a counter.
Only destroyed ships create debris, and defences never do. Debris holds metal and crystal, never deuterium, and each destroyed defence structure has a 70% chance of being rebuilt for free after the battle. Wikipedia adds that large debris fields can produce moons, with the chance rising as the field grows.
| Setting | What to look for | Example from a listed server |
|---|---|---|
| Ship debris share | Percent of destroyed ship cost left as debris | Spy Games lists 30% debris; Deuteria lists 80% for ships; Cosmyra lists 30% for fleets and 0% for defences |
| Combat speed | A separate multiplier from fleet speed | Deuteria shows fleet speed x20 and combat x10 |
| Moon chance | Fixed on some servers | Deuteria lists a 30% moon chance |
| Randomness | Some games remove dice | OG Galaxy describes deterministic, no-RNG battles |
| Built-in simulator and log tools | Simulator inside the game | Spy Games describes a built-in simulator and log server |
How to run a simulation
- 1
Scout the target
Send espionage probes and copy the defender's ships, defences and research levels. Without them the simulator is guessing.
- 2
Match the universe settings
Set weapon, shielding and armour research for both sides and enter the universe's debris share. Research bonuses are 10% per level in the OGameX simulator described below.
- 3
Enter both fleets
Add your ships and the defender's ships and defences. Include anything arriving later if you plan joint attacks.
- 4
Run several simulations
Because targets are random, a single run is one sample. The OGameX simulator lets you set 1 to 100 runs and averages the results.
- 5
Read profit, not just victory
Check plunder, debris and your own losses. A win that costs more ships than it earns is a loss.
Simulators exist both inside private-server games and as stand-alone tools. The open-source OGameX project, described on GitHub as an OGame redesign clone, lists a Rust battle engine and links to a community combat simulator built on it. That simulator runs in your browser, reports plunder, debris and profit or loss, and is MIT licensed. Its README also lists planned features as not yet implemented, including joint attacks, so check what it supports before relying on it for large operations.
“fight deterministic, no-RNG battles”
Which simulator to use
| Option | Where it lives | Good for | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in simulator | Inside the game, such as Spy Games and Deuteria | Matching that universe's exact settings | Only available on servers that include one |
| Community combat simulator | Browser extension or Python script based on the OGameX battle engine | Averaging many runs and reading profit or loss | Planned features such as joint attacks are listed as not yet implemented |
| Fan combat guides | Written explanations of the rules | Learning why a result happened | Fan-written, so numbers can be wrong |
Start with the simulator inside your own universe if it has one, because it uses the same settings as the live game. Use a stand-alone tool when you want to compare many scenarios quickly, and treat its output as an estimate. Our status page shows which listed servers are online, and the how to join a private server post covers registration if you are starting on a new universe.
OGame itself has been published by Gameforge since 3 October 2002, as Wikipedia notes, and clone projects have been rebuilding it ever since. For the background on how those communities began, see the history of private servers.
Common mistakes
- Using official-game numbers on a server that changes debris, fleet speed or hull rules.
- Simulating once and treating a lucky result as certain.
- Ignoring research levels, which scale every unit.
- Forgetting that defences can come back at 70% each while your ships do not.
- Attacking without scouting first, so the report you simulate is out of date.
If you are still choosing where to play, the how to choose a private server post walks through what to check, and the safety guide covers account and download basics. Open-source projects such as OGameX state that all rights to OGame are owned by Gameforge, so private servers are unofficial, which our private versus official servers post explains.
Keep exploring
