Fleet Command Wishlist/Brainstorming

[Edymnion]

We all know that the fleet commands in game at the moment are... ahem... limited. And we know they're working on making it better, that this is the bare bones "will it even work?" prototype phase for the entire thing.

So, why not help Schine out and get some nice public brainstorming on what we (as individual players and as a group) want/expect out of the fleet system in the future? From practical to pie in the sky, what do you want to be able to do as a Fleet Commander?

Mine:
1) Wings (aka, fleets within fleets)
Biggest one I'd like (that I know they're working on) are what I'll refer to as wings, aka sub-fleets or just general groupings within a fleet. Wings would be groups of ships that can be given independent orders from the rest of the fleet. So you could have attack wings that you can order to go out and actively attack a specific enemy target, while you could order another wing to remain in defensive formation around your lead ship. Or you could have a mining wing that you could order to mine a sector, and a defensive wing that just patrols the sector to cover the miners.

2) More direct/viable commands
We just have the basics right now. Attack this sector, defend this sector, mine this sector, come home, etc. I'd like to see a much more diverse group of commands. Such as "Escort target" to assign the fleet to protect a specific ship, "Target Largest" to have ships prioritize the largest ship in the enemy fleet, "Target Nearest" to prioritize the ships closest to the command ship, etc.

3) Patrol Routes
I'd like to see the ability to enter a batch of coordinates and have the fleet patrol a path between them. Such as give it Point A, B, C, and D, and select Patrol, and the fleet would fly to A, then to B, then C, then D, then back to A to repeat the circuit until you tell them to stop.

 

[Bogdan]

3) Patrol Routes
I'd like to see the ability to enter a batch of coordinates and have the fleet patrol a path between them. Such as give it Point A, B, C, and D, and select Patrol, and the fleet would fly to A, then to B, then C, then D, then back to A to repeat the circuit until you tell them to stop.

This is very correct. Factions such as ours have lots of assets and having fleets that could patrol properly, instead of standing still and attacking only those within 2 sector range is ridiculous.

Even better, if it could be ordered to Patrol and continue doing so when you are offline.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

One thing I'd add to your Patrol Routes idea is the option to do sensor scans, so you can have fleets that constantly scan systems to keep away the Fog of War.

 

[Edymnion]

Oh, and a master fleet control via the faction home/capital ship.

As in, a single location where someone can give commands to every fleet they own, even if they aren't in the specified command ship.

Would be similar to wings, only someone can be sitting in the home base directing general activities of all fleets, which would follow those commands unless a player on one of the command ships was present to take more direct control.

So for example, I could command Fleet A to mine a system (along with a defensive escort fleet), send Fleet B off to guard a sector, etc to control general flow of everything, but have a commander on the Fleet B command ship that could take over and start assigning specific orders based on what they encounter there.

Kind of like ships getting orders from Starfleet Command to go here and do that, but individual captains being free to figure out how to carry out the details of the overall orders.

 

[therimmer96]

Move in formation.

Currently every ship moves at it's own pace, which can result in ships arriving at a target without their escorts and getting destroyed instantly by the enemy fleet, followed by escorts getting destroyed because the rest of the fleet is already gone.

 

[jayman38]

At one point, when crew was discussed, there was talk of a place-able "invisible block" for setting way points for crew members to follow. I submit that the galaxy map needs a similar set of blocks that can be moved into specific sectors and moved around and linked to each other. Maybe the galaxy map could use a special map hotbar for this special block placement.
1. Waypoint block (simply go here and perform default functions in order.
2. Dock block (simply go here and dock at the nearest friendly docking area.)
3. Sell here. (go here, dock at a station or capital ship with a shop if possible, otherwise simply approach, and sell everything in the main cargo hold.) (maybe combined with the next block idea?)
4. Buy here. (go here, dock to a shop, and buy... Needs some sort of mechanic to specify what to buy, limits on quantities, and limits on per-item prices.)
5. (Thanks to aRottenKomquat for this block idea) Scan Block. (go here, run a scan)
6. Fleet formation block. (go here, spread the fleet formation to a specific layout at a certain average distance and maintain formation.)
7. Intercept here. (go here, and similar to the scan block, activate warp interdictors.)
8. Rotate Patrol block. (go here, spread out the fleet, and make one turn around the sector to simulate a patrol before continuing.)
9. Avoid block. (do not stray into this sector, no matter the cost; plot random parabolic path around to the next block in the chain)
10. Follow block. (go here, find the nearest moving element, and follow it for a specified time, such as planets around a sun, a ship to be escorted, etc.) (Cancelled by nearing an "avoid block" or passing through a sector that coincides with another block in the chain.)
11. Cloak block (go here, activate cloaking devices)
12. Mine block (go here, mine all entities in the current sector)
13. Delay block (similar to the waypoint and rotate patrol blocks, go here and wait a while, then continue on)
14. Shuffle block (continually change formations at slow speeds for a specified time, to give the fleet a "lively" look.)
15. Reverse block (switch waypoint block links to reverse order; can be used as the end points on a patrol path to get the fleet to simply go the other way on the waypoint path.)
16. Deploy block (go here and unload all docked ships.)
17. New User block (go here and wipe faction blocks)
18. Gift block (go here and set faction blocks to a specific faction.)
19. Skip block (skip over the next block in the chain)
20. Random block (a random chance to skip over the next block in the chain.)

 

[NeonSturm]

If you have many blocks, you should introduce groups and link-folders.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I have a few ideas if anyone wants to have a look.

Recognized by Council - Additional fleet commands

 

[kurosawa]

System wide unattended mining

 

[StormWing0]

System wide unattended mining

This should be limited to sectors that have been explored since they games already knows what is in those sectors. This way the game cna keep track of what is mined and how much without having to load the sector.


On a side note:
Scout System (x,y,z): if the coords are left blank it defaults to whatever system the flagship is in but the general idea here is the ships with scanners in the fleet would activate them for scanning the system. Basically they explore the sectors of the system in place of players so it means they'd have to load for a moment and than unload but outside that it should be a nice way to mass scout systems.

 

[kurosawa]

This should be limited to sectors that have been explored since they games already knows what is in those sectors. This way the game cna keep track of what is mined and how much without having to load the sector.

The game always knows what in the sectors , but maybe it would be better to limit it to fully scouted systems

 

[kingreol]

i want to suggest a logic block to control fleet commands on carriers.. Carrier recall being more automated would be very nice for mining rigs. and can auto shoot out to mine the current sector again..