Call for Reinforcements......I\'m under attack
 

I have a new idea that could be inplemented in combat, although it would require quite a bit of hardcoding to get it to work.

Have any of you ever had a warp point defended by a starbase, and had about 2 dozen enemy ships jump through and attack? Have you ever wished you could call those 10 DN you have sitting at a planets 2 moves away and have them join the battle?

Well, this could be solved using a "Call Reinforcements" button in the orders menu in tactical combat. In this button would then bring up a list of any ships that can be at that sector within X amount of moves (say 5 moves away). YOu would then select the ships you want to join the combat. These ships would then show up in combat at the edge of the map at specific times. That is if the ship is 1 move away, it would show up in 5 combat turns; 2 moves away, 10 combat turns and so on.

I don't know if this idea is plausable at all, but I welcome your input.

Regards,
Admiral Grover

Re: Call for Reinforcements......I\'m under attack
 

Hmm, sounds like an interesting idea to say the least. I think it would be cool. But I'm sure there's downsides as well. It'd be pretty tough to code in as well I would think.

Re: Call for Reinforcements......I\'m under attack
 

It would be a neet thing to have.
One thought.
The "Official" game scale is one month per turn.
In game terms, how long does Combat Last?
Could ships reach it in time?

Re: Call for Reinforcements......I\'m under attack
 

I believe one combat is one day. Each combat uses one movement point of a ship, and a ship can have a max of 30 movement points.

So that means a comat round is ~1 hr... Hmm, you would think some weapons would be able to fire more that once an hour.

Re: Call for Reinforcements......I\'m under attack
 

Granted with the current time scale used this isn't very realistic, but I just thought it would be a neat way to enhance combat. This way you wouldn't try to attack a system that has alot of ships in it with a small fleet, as all the ships in the system could potentially engage you in the same combat. The same goes for colony ships under attack. If there are any allied ships in the same system, they can help and try to protect your colony ship.

Regards,
Admiral Grover

Re: Call for Reinforcements......I\'m under attack
 

See, I don't know about this. If you have the ships, why aren't they fleeted with the base or the colonizer?

If suppose you have the dreads at some point close to 2 or 3 warp points and a colonizer, ... are they ready to come to the aid of all of them at any time? That might seem reasonable, but ...

I just think it takes away some of the planning you need to do, and that's pretty much what the game is about.

One of the things that defines the AI as "stupid" is it's inability to build intelligent fleets.

Re: Call for Reinforcements......I\'m under attack
 

I suppose...I guess where this could be really useful is in warppoint/planetary defence.

Regards,
Admiral Grover

Re: Call for Reinforcements......I\'m under attack
 

The idea is good overall, but this will only be useful for single/hotseat games. I dont see it any good because SE is popular mostly because of its multiplayer.

Still, it could be good to have a "be on alert" order for ships, meaning that whevener something friendly in their range/2 (this to make the extra-speed jump to location) is attacked they would join the battle after, say, 5 or 10 turns.

That would be cool indeed. Much like aircraft scrambling in Civilizations

Re: Call for Reinforcements......I\'m under attack
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, this is exactly what i expected to happen when i gave my ship the sentry order. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif
But i had to realize i don't understand what sentry does.

Re: Call for Reinforcements......I\'m under attack
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Now wait a minute here, part of what you want is some way to have a parked fleet attack an incoming fleet that goes for another random target.

See, when I play turn-based in SE4 (or SE3 for that matter) the Patrol function didn't seem to have much use, the ship just burned up it's six movement points and then stopped. And the opponent takes their turn, flying around it, if it needs to.

But in silmultaneous, if a fleet is on it's way to a far planet or tracking a colony ship, maybe a ship patroling the sector might have a chance of crossing it's path at just the right time.

Maybe that what the Patrol function is good for -- defending space against something you haven't seen yet.

Now if only we had a component that could penetrate a cloak at close range, as in the same sector. Hey, Star Trek does it all the time, even in the OS. We'd have all the more reason to patrol space.

[ September 27, 2002, 01:15: Message edited by: Arkcon ]