For all you people out there who like to play ogame there are certain programs you can use and they will make your like easyer:
COMBAT SIMULATION:
It`s a program who allows you to simulate the combat before you send your ships. I mostly use dragosim but there are others who do the same thing the choice is yours.
There are three important areas in this simulator: TECHNOLOGIES, FLEET and DEFENCES. Each area is devided in two parts, the ATTACKER part [if you are the one who launches the attack] and the DEFENDER part [the target you attack].
All you need to do is spy the target and type in the data and you will be able to to a simulation witch is 98.7% true. If you have scaned a target and you lost your espionage probes and didn`t get his level of research you don`t have to send any more probes, just leave the TECHNOLOGIES areas blank and the simulation will supose you and your target have the same level of research.
The simulator also tells you the number of ships you will lose, the debries field resulted after the battle, the number of recyclers you need to send and the plunder you gain. For that you need to look in the right of the simulator page as the example shows:
You can also see the full combat report just like in the game. For that you just have to click the area pointed out. You can do the same simulation if you are the one who is getting attacked. All you have to do is type your defences and ships on the DEFENDER area.