Strategic Combat bug
 

I'm playing PBEM using strategic combat. Sent a fleet of missile ships to attack an AI planet and moon. Ship orders and fleet orders were set to fire at maximum range. The ships started firing at the planet as ordered. However after killing the weapons platforms on the planet they inexplicably moved closer and kept firing at the planet. Meanwhile the weapons platforms on the moon, which were now in range, killed my ships.

Elmo

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

Perhaps its time to retire that "loony" TF commander?

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

His ship was the first to go down and we don't believe in escape pods.

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

What was the secondary movement strategy -- _Maximum Range_ (which it is if you use the default MR strategy, IRC), or _Don't Get Hurt_? If the former, you might want to try the DGH variation in the simulator.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

Actually I think the default secondary strategy for Max Weap Range is point blank or optimal weapons range. That probally is the problem.

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

Dravis

Could be, but why would the fleet abandon it's primary strategy in favor of the secondary when there is still a planet with undamaged weapons platforms on the combat display? It appears the combat algorithm isn't smart enough to look for other threats and instead blindly moves in on the original now helpless target. That would be a bug IMO if true.

I have another combat coming up. I'll make sure both primary and secondary strategies are max range and report the results.

Elmo

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

I thought the strategies were based off the ships movement, with the ship initially moving for its primary strategy before firing, and then using the secondary strategy afterwards, but there are some combinations that don't make sense at all, or are exceptions to this.

This is easily seen watching ships armed with missiles only early in the game, where the AI will move within range to fire and then attempt to maintain thier secondary strategy while loading. If you watch a ship that has maximum weapons rang for the secondary strategy, the ship will attempt to maintain the maximum range of the missile; if its secondary strategy is Dont Get Hurt, it will continue to move away until it has reloaded.

Where it doesn't make sense is; giving a ship short or point blank for a primary strategy followed by drop troops, the ship should move into range of the planet, fire weapons, and then move next to the planet and drop troops. But with this as a strategy, the ship (and entire fleet if planet has no defenses) will not approch the planet, staying near its deployment zone. Also, if these strategies are flipped, then any ships carring troops will attempt to drop troops on the undefended planet, but will not fire at it, and and other ships in the fleet will remain near thier starting position regardless of their orders.

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

Guys

I used another missile fleet to attack a planet and two moons and this time I set both movement strategies to max weapons range. This time the fleet stayed out of harms way and took out the planet/moons because my missiles had longer reach. The default secondary movement strategy for max weapons range is set to point blank?! That combination doesn't make sense to me at all if secondary movement is tied to reloading.

Also it does not explain why in the first battle my ships initially stayed at max weapons range and only moved in after the planet defenses were down. If secondary movement were tied to reloading then they would have moved in after the first volley which they didn't. Something isn't right but I'm not sure what yet.

Elmo

[This message has been edited by Elmo (edited 26 June 2001).]

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

Fought another missile fleet vs planet battle and this time even with both movement strategies set to max range my ships blundered in too close (i.e. closer than max range) and got hammered. A bug IMO.

Elmo

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

Elmo,

Remeber the stratagies are based upon your target. If you have max range it will be max range from the planet. If the moon is farther out then you will get closer to it than max range. Not a bug persay, you need to clear moon first then planet or play with the straygy setting as far as what gets attacked first,

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Seawolf on the prowl

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

Elmo did you check the target priorities?
If "largest" or "nearest" is at the top it may explain what you observed. But if "has weapons" is at the top and your ships still ignore the moon with the weapon platforms then you have found a bug IMO.

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

Instead of moving in to the sector by using the attack button and then selecting one of the planets, simply use the move too button and click on the sector. This should allow it to attack both planets without ignoring either.

Geoschmo

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

Seawolf

In the first battle where I noticed the problem, the planet was closer than the moon. My ships initially stayed out of range of the planet, thus also out of range of the moon. As I mentioned, after the planet defenses were reduced my ships moved closer to the planet while continuing to fire on it. That brought them in range of the moon too. However in that battle I had the secondary movement strategy set to point blank (the default) so that may have caused them to move in.

In my Last battle there was only one planet and my ships ignored both sprimary and secondary orders to stay at max range and moved closer. I had a 2 "square" range advantage over the planet defenses so they should never have hit me, but they did when my ships moved too close.

Elmo

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

Q

I used the default target priorities. Don't have the game up right now and I can't recall the default. However as I said in my Last battle there was only one planet and my ships still moved closer than max range.

Elmo

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

geoschmo

Can't recall if I used attack or move as the command to enter the sector, but I've never seen a choice presented for what to attack. Once my ships arrive, strategic combat has always been automatic, at least in PBEM games.

Elmo

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Can't recall if I used attack or move as the command to enter the sector, but I've never seen a choice presented for what to attack.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>This implies that you've been using Move; if you use Attack against a sector with more than one target, you have to specify one. If the specified target moves out of the sector, your ships will chase it with an Attack order, but just stop in the target sector with Move.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

capnq

I'll try attack in my next battle. I'd be willing to bet that in all the PBEM games played that I must have used attack before but I can't recall ever getting a target choice. Also, I'm not sure why using move instead of attack would cause the max range orders to be violated.

Elmo

[This message has been edited by Elmo (edited 27 June 2001).]

Re: Strategic Combat bug
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Also, I'm not sure why using move instead of attack would cause the max range orders to be violated.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I was only referring to the part about choosing a target. I have no idea what might be causing the problem with the orders.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"