Guide to SOFA'ing (Sub-Orbital Fighter Attacks)

Well you've been playing BlackNova Traders for awhile. You know most of the basics about trading, building up your empire, and are starting to learn how to stop people from stealing your cash. Well now you are probably saying to yourself, "How do I steal other people's cash?" Some answers to this question lie here. The standard way to capture another planet is to run several (possibly over 100) SOFA's, or Sub-Orbital Fighter Attacks. One SOFA costs four turns:

  1. Move to a special port.
  2. Buy fighters
  3. Move to planet sector
  4. SOFA
The most important thing to know when SOFA'ing is to know what "SOFA code" is in place. The answer to this question and almost any others you may have about game settings can be found here:
Pro Game Settings
Noobie Game Settings
Also, for reference, check out this page to find out how many fighters, beams, and torps can be held with each ship level. This comes in handy when doing number-crunching to determine how successful your SOFA'ing will be.

Old SOFA code (AKA 0 comp code)

In the old SOFA code, which is currently used in the Noobie Game, your success depends on both your Computer level, and the planet owner's Computer level. Below is a step by step walkthrough of how SOFA works with the original code. For this example, we will assume you have a 23 Computer (1,122,274 fighters), and the planet owner has a 20 Beam level (332,526 beams), 19 Torpedo level (221,684 torps), and a 22 Computer level (748,183 fighters.) There is also a base on the planet.

  1. Your fighter's first obstacle are the planet's beams. In our example your 1,122,274 fighters would go against 498,789 beams (20 Beams + 1 for the base,) leaving 623,485 fighters (1,122,274 - 498,789.)
  2. Next, fighters go against the planet's torpedoes. The planet will fire 10% of one load, which is 33,253 in this example (10% of 20 torpedo level, and don't forget about the base.) However, one torpedo will destroy 10 fighters, totalling 332,530 fighters in this example. This leaves you with 290,955 fighters.
  3. Finally, your fighters go against the planet fighters. In an effort to protect the smaller players, the old SOFA code makes it harder to SOFA if you have a large Computer level. Since your Computer level is higher than the planet owner's, your SOFA will not be as successful. The formula to determine how many fighters are removed is as follows:
    Fighters removed = (Fighters remaining after beams and torps) * (Owner's Computer Capacity / Your Computer Capacity)
    In this example, the formula would look like this: (290,955) * (748,183/1,122,274.) Note that base is not figured into this formula. You would remove 193,970 fighters in this instance. If your computer had ended up being lower than the planet owner's, the formula would be ignored and your fighters would do full damage to the planet fighters.

New SOFA code (AKA World Cup code)

In the new SOFA code, which is currently used in the Pro Game, your success depends on both your score, and the planet owner's score. Below is a step by step walkthrough of how SOFA works with the original code. For this example, we will assume you have a 23 Computer (1,122,274 fighters), and the planet owner has a 20 Beam level (332,526 beams), 19 Torpedo level (221,684 torps), and a 22 Computer level (748,183 fighters.) There is also a base on the planet. Your score is 800,000, and the owner's is 600,000. The SOFA Factor is 3 (this will be explained later.)

  1. Your fighter's first obstacle are the planet's beams. In our example your 1,122,274 fighters would go against 498,789 beams (20 Beams + 1 for the base,) leaving 623,485 fighters (1,122,274 - 498,789.)
  2. Next, fighters go against the planet's torpedoes. The planet will fire 10% of one load, which is 33,253 in this example (10% of 20 torpedo level, and don't forget about the base.) However, one torpedo will destroy 10 fighters, totalling 332,530 fighters in this example. This leaves you with 290,955 fighters.
  3. Finally, your fighters go against the planet fighters. In an effort to protect the smaller players, the WC SOFA code makes it harder to SOFA if you have a higher score. Since your score is higher than the planet owner's, your SOFA will not be as successful. The formula to determine how many fighters are removed is as follows:
    Fighters removed = Fighters remaining after beams and torps * (owner's score / your score) ^ SOFA Factor.
    In this example, the formula would look like this: (290,955) * (600,000/800,000) ^ 3. You would remove 122,746 fighters in this instance. If your score had ended up being lower than the planet owner's, the formula would be ignored and your fighters would do full damage to the planet fighters.


Questions? Comments? Did I make a mistake? Come to the forums and lets us know.