Recognized by Council Additional fleet commands

[Dr. Whammy]

Hi everyone,

I was thinking of a reasonable way to add more fleet commands without breaking the current system and/or making the fleet menu too crowded. Hopefully the suggestions that follow will be useful in further developing the fleet mechanic. I figure the best way to add new commands is to use what already works; i.e., the current fleet command and weapons menus. I did search for this briefly but I didn't find a thread that addresses this feature in quite the same way. ...so here it goes.

Instead of showing a description inside a large panel for each fleet order, you could have a smaller panel with a button that is functionally similar to the "details" button in the weapons menu that opens up when you click it to reveal what the selected order does. This will allow experienced players to give an order without having to scroll through a long list of over-sized panels but still allow newer players to understand what each order does by opening the details of each.

The following is a list of fleet orders I think would work very well in a game like this. Please let me know what you think and feel free to vote in the poll.

New Fleet orders...

Attack selected target.
- The fleet will attack your currently selected target. Changing targets will cause the fleet to change target as well. Useful for situations where concentrated firepower is needed against multiple opponents.

Attack selected target, then idle.
- The fleet will attack your currently selected target, then idle when it is destroyed. Changing targets during the attack will NOT cause the fleet to change target. Use the existing "idle" order to cancel the attack. Useful for intercepting and destroying a *single* target without attacking other targets you may accidentally select but not wish to destroy (unlike turrets set to "selected", which can get you into trouble).

Defend selected target
- The fleet will follow your currently selected target at a range of 0.2 sectors (or server config). Ships will break off and attack all enemies that enter their weapons range, then abort the attack and return to following the defended unit when its distance exceeds 1.0 sector (or server config) or all nearby enemies are destroyed. The fleet will continue to defend the wreckage if your defended target is disabled or destroyed; making salvage/rescue operations possible.

Support selected target
- The fleet will close in, follow and use support tools on your currently selected target, e.g., power supply/drain, astro-technician, shield supply/drain, etc. The fleet will revert to sentry mode if the supported target is destroyed. Useful for repairing/buffing a friendly or locking down an opponent's shields and power grid. (Eve Online anyone?)

Salvage selected target
- The fleet will attempt to salvage a specifically targeted asteroid, decayed station, overheating ship or planet plate. The fleet will idle in place if the target is not something that can be salvaged, e.g., a planet core, an active ship/station or a ship core with no other blocks.

Evade
- Ships in the fleet will attempt to maintain a distance of 2.0 sectors between themselves and the nearest enemy. Useful for retreats and standoffs for non combatants (miners, support craft)


Regarding the existing "formation" orders: It may be beneficial to set the distance between ships in formation to be slightly more than the longest dimension to avoid the "bump and spin" thing they usually do. 1.25 x the longest dimension seems like a good place to start.

That's all I've got for now.

Keep up the awesomeness,


The Whammy

 

[nightrune]

Yeah these are what I've been wanting, but I'd love to have an RTS style screen for it though.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I feel you. Command and Conquer and StarCraft were two of my all time favorite games in the late 90s into the turn of the millennium.
If Schine can somehow pull something like that off, you and I will both be smiling...

But for now, I figure, I'll just put the idea out in the open; based on a foundation already in-game, hope that people see a need for it then wait...

 

[kiraen]

FSM, #9

 

[Dr. Whammy]

FSM, #9

Everyone seems to be focused on the strategy aspect of fleets on those threads. ...which is fine but none of them seem to expand on the need for more immediate tactical capabilities of fleets. That's what this thread is about.

 

[nightrune]

Everyone seems to be focused on the strategy aspect of fleets on those threads. ...which is fine but none of them seem to expand on the need for more immediate tactical capabilities of fleets. That's what this thread is about.

Yeah definitely need more commands. Sorry I set a bad tone to start!

The other thing i've wanted is astrotech to build stations and buildings. That way it could be a fleet command "Build this blue print here"

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Yeah definitely need more commands. Sorry I set a bad tone to start!

The other thing i've wanted is astrotech to build stations and buildings. That way it could be a fleet command "Build this blue print here"

No hard feelings; we're on the same page in spirit.

I just realized what you meant by that Astro-tech idea. ...then pictures of Terran SCVs started running through my head. Nice.

 

[Madman198237]

I love these commands, because they make specific types of squadron tactics possible...finally.

We just need an "Attack selected target from formation" order and it'd be perfect.

 

[nightrune]

I love these commands, because they make specific types of squadron tactics possible...finally.

We just need an "Attack selected target from formation" order and it'd be perfect.

I'd rather see formation as a separate field/command/setting. Something like the formations from the first homeword.

 

[ToasterBorst]

Good command suggestions, while similar to a mega-thread the content is just different enough to squeak by in my opinion! lol. Going to bump this one in case a couple of these key points have been missed on Schine's list!

SkylordLuke Any chance you can drop this under #9 in megathread? I can't edit it!

 

[Lukwan]

The one command I really really want is: (Wing-commander---you rock Madman)

Follow (current ship) while maintaining formation. Fleet will maintain station-keeping relative to the leader and choose targets based on it's current 'selected target'. Bonus points for letting me choose the precise location of the formations.

It this proves too OP: limit the command to non-combat ships.

 

[Madman198237]

I made a suggestion on fleets and subfleets early on, right after fleets came out. I believe it may have included this functionality. But yeah, the ability to direct fleets, give rapid-fire orders to specific portions of fleets (Even down to individual ships) is something SM will need as it develops.

 

[RODLON]

Adding more basic (and obvious) commands would be great for short-term and the programming behind them could be directly used for the next fleet system. Also the redesign you suggest is a small change and would make it a lot cleaner.

 

[NaStral]

A quick reaction standby behavior would be especially useful for defending stations. Essentially you'd designate a fleet as QRF (Quick Reaction Force) for a specific sector. The fleet could be any distance from the sector designated. If an enemy enters the sector, the designated QRF automatically moves to the coordinates and engages any hostiles. Once all hostiles are destroyed, the QRF will move back to it's original position.

 

[Nickizzy]

selected target

However, this needs to be a separate selected target than your personal one. Like you select it from the nav screen.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

However, this needs to be a separate selected target than your personal one. Like you select it from the nav screen.

That's why I suggested two separate versions of this command. One to quickly switch from one enemy to the next and one to attack a specific target then stop. Sometimes you need to be precise. Sometimes you need to kill everything that moves...

 

[Energywelder]

Wow, talk about coincidence, I love this whole thread, and it's a great idea, I was thinking to myself last night (after I finally figured out fleet mining, which still seems a bit buggy?) I wish I could tell them to focus on THIS asteroid and THAT asteroid.

But I mention coincidence because a moment ago I posted about if small fighters could get a buff?

Could Fighters Get a Buff?

 

[Byamarro]

These targets are useful for fast usage, I'd suggest to use some kind of radial menu to choose orders.
Select target, press some key to show radial menu, select order.

 

[thecrazy13.main]

I was thinking maybe they could update the current AI with a series of tactical strategies that could be customized on a grid like the map, and through this you could have them preform maneuvers and other tactics.

For fleets, you could have a system of A-Z with a number (0-9) or (1-9), with some being attack and some being defense, and could be customized for individual fleets, or generalized using ship classes to apply to all the AI fleets universally. I also think an in-fleet command structure should be present, with the mothership being directly in command of assigned support ships that will be in command of the smaller fighters, and if you destroy one of the support ships than all the ships under that support ships command will scatter. and destroying the mothership will cause the entire fleet to scatter into their individual groups under the command of the support ships (essentially creating new fleets for each support ship)

The factions also need more ranks, maybe 10-20 ranks, and players could be in command of support ships or even individual fighters in the fleet.

The new ships class system is pretty great, but it could use some more diversity, like boarding craft, and juggernaut class. speaking of boarding, I think on-ship battles should become a thing, maybe it could be achieved by having each ship have a crew, and you can use a ship to latch onto another ship and have the crew of the latching ship try to get into the ship they are boarding and fight the crew of that ship for control.

so basically, formations, tactics on a kinda map-like grid (place ships in a grid system to make tactical formations) boarding, better AI's, really I think the whole combat aspect of the game is really lacking, you can't get awesome space battles with just lasers and missiles and the ships sitting back and circling.

It would be nice to see some feedback on my idea, I hope someone can improve on it.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

To be honest, this kinda seems like you're putting the cart before the horse. While your ideas sound promising, they may be a bigger leap than what's currently possible in the game's current state. They maybe something we can ask for in some future iteration of the game once Schine gets the basics working properly.

What did you think of the ideas in the original post?