Task forces
 

A few months ago I was reading a sci-fi book series by David Weber and Steve White. I think someone posted that the books and the game were connected. One of the things that was interesting that was in the book was a system that would allow ships to electronically link together and work as a single force. I thought it would be neat to have such a device in SEIV. It could be a small device (10-30kt), and you would have and option button, somewhere, that would let you chose which ships to link into a team. On the combat screen the ships or stations could be stacked like fighters and there weapons would fire together as one. I've been getting tired of haveing to move huge fleets around the combat screen. Either a component as mentioned above or an option somewhere would be nice to have. Any opinions?

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Rules? What Rules?

Re: Task forces
 

that was in the old original Starfire, and it was called Datalink...

Re: Task forces
 

There is a component already in SE4. I can't remember specifically the name, but IIRC it is a tech gained by discovering an ancient ruin... Maybe a mod of that????

Anyone with the name? ...I think it was Neural Net or something like that... It may not be exactly like it - I think it gains all the experience of the best ship in the fleet...


[This message has been edited by rdouglass (edited 14 April 2001).]

Re: Task forces
 

Do you just want to be able to fire a fleet's weapons with one click?

You can use formations to move your fleets around in tactical.

Re: Task forces
 

The neural net shares experience point betweens ships. What I am talking about is something that would make a group of ships basicly one ship, like having five battleships moving and fighting as one. It would be just like the fighters, with the five battleships stacked together in one tile with weapons firing in a single bLast at the same target. You could take a fleet of 30 and have them divided into 6 teams of five each. The formations option spreads out your fleet and makes it harder to move the ships around each other. It could also allow a force of destroyers to kill a battleship.

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Rules? What Rules?

Re: Task forces
 

In SE4 you can not stack ships. I know what you are saying and I agree it is a bother to do it how ever if you get 5 BBs with wave gun III and there will be trouble http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

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mottlee@gte.net
"Kill em all let God sort em out"

Re: Task forces
 

If the BBs are on the AI's side it could make things real interesting. Would create a whole new level of tactical challenge.

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Rules? What Rules?

Re: Task forces
 

I looked into trying to simulate command datalink also, but there doesn't seem to be an equivalent ability available for now. We could think about proposing it to Aaron for implementation later, but it would definately require code changes to the engine.

Re: Task forces
 

How about being able to group fleets into sub-fleets, i.e., task forces or squadrons? Something so you can put your heavy close-combat ships in one group to close with the enemy and have your missile ships and carriers in another to stay back.

You can do something like it by simply putting each type into separate fleets and using the group move command to select and move them on the strategic map in turn-based mode. The only problem is that it takes some extra effort to move them and if you give them move commands that take more than one turn to execute they move one at a time, which can have your carriers running into that huge enemy fleet you were going to hit en masse w/o support from your heavy warships.




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--
"What do -you- want?" "I'd like to live -just- long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this..." *waggle* "...can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

Re: Task forces
 

I think you CAN split your fleet into subGroups in Tactical combat. I don't think you can set the game up to split it for you in strategic combat, though...

Re: Task forces
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR> I think you CAN split your fleet into subGroups in Tactical combat.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Yep, under Orders there are set member, clear member, set leader, and clear leader commands. I think I remember a clear all assignments command, too.

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Cap'n Q

Re: Task forces
 

Just use "CTRL-#", where # is a number from zero through nine.
Zero will clear the currently selected ship's group designation, while the others assign it to that group number.

Its just faster than going through the menu.

(There must be a group leader before any ships can be added to the group)
If you remove the group designation from the leader (or he's destroyed), the group will act as individuals until you assign a new leader.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 18 April 2001).]

Re: Task forces
 

Tactical datalinks are vital systems in today's modern navies. The link allows unit to share sensor data, effectively engage by not overtargeting (i.e. having 20 ships all fire at the same target and ignore its partner by accident), and timing strikes so they oversaturate opponents.

The closest thing I could think of would be to have a component (only one allowed per ship) that would give you offensive and/or defensive bonus based on the number of other units that had the device in combat. Pretend it is a 2% bonus. In that case if you had a Division of 5 battlecruisers fighting each w/ a datalink, then each ship gets a +8% (don't count the datalink for each independent ship sense having a datalink wouldn't make a difference if you were all alone). This bonus represents the richer sensor picture and more efficient response to threats that you would get by having mulitple ships share data. You may also want to effect the ECM %'s with this as well as this should help jam/decoy/fool missiles more effectively.

This may actually encourage new trends in fleet design as well. Well, later yall - Joe

Re: Task forces
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Sinapus:
How about being able to group fleets into sub-fleets, i.e., task forces or squadrons? Something so you can put your heavy close-combat ships in one group to close with the enemy and have your missile ships and carriers in another to stay back.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


As S_J said, you can do this in tactical combat with the ctrl # command. Unfortunately, You can't do this in strategic, and the AI _NEVER_ does it. I don't think it would be too difficult make the AI do it. Of coarse, I've never programmed anything in my life, yet I'm qualified to make that statement. (If you believe that, I've got a nice bridge for sale!)

In the AI_Designcreation file, add a line that goes something like this:

Combat Group : &lt;enter value 1-9&gt;

In strategic combat (hopefully, if this gets implemented) ships in a single fleet could then be broken up into different combat Groups so as to better take advantage of the varying ranges of the weapons used. Beam ships could be assigned to a different combat group than missleboats. (Ie, beam ships have combat group 1, missleboats and carriers are in group 2, etc etc etc. Then, if the entire fleet has Optimum Range as the strategy, each combat group will now close to it's own optimum range (ie beam ships close to about 4-6, while missle boats would stay farther out).

So does this make sense, or am I just off my rocker here?

Re: Task forces
 

The Neural Combat Net, is it any good? I mean, if I have it, should I use it? Does it only get the experience from ships with it? Let's say I have two ships, ship A with the net and 20% experience and ship B without the net and 30% experience. Will ship C with no experince and the net get 20% from ship A or 30% from ship B? And will ship C still gain it's own experience from kills?

Re: Task forces
 

Nural computer net, can be gained at ancient ruins.