[Taqwus]

Another misfeature is that the tactical AI does not understand space control.

This is particularly notable when you have a vessel that is either the same speed or just barely faster than an unarmed victim. The victim will run... but to exploit the victim's behavior, you generally should NOT chase *directly* at it early on.

For instance, suppose you are both on the same horizontal row. The victim will rush towards an edge and then start dodging vertically. However, if you move one row vertically (in the direction of more space) and then chase in the same horizontal direction with the rest of your MPs, the victim will run away from you, *diagonally* towards a corner. Because the grid system is bounded, and uses squares, you should then be able to reach a position where you are 2-4 squares away, firing, and the victim will not try to break away. The AI is poor for the victim in this case (it should try to either break away or ram the attacker), and nonexistent at exploiting this (it'll often try to follow too closely and end up never even shooting at what should be a free kill).

Also, suppose your vessel is going in a one-on-one with a single enemy. Your ship has movement rate M1 and effective weapon range R1 (effective meaning likely enough to hit and cause damage); your enemy, M2 and R2.

If weapons are equal or nearly so, then who gets first hit may be crucial (particularly with the nastier toys like armor/shield-piercing Time weapons, engine-destroying foo, massive WMGs...). This means that if you are fairly close and R1 ~ R2, it may be in your interest to stop advancing at exactly (M2+R2+1) squares away. The enemy vessel will generally close to (R2+1) squares, too far away to hurt you -- and then you can advance, fire, and retreat.
If you have far larger bigger guns, then the enemy vessel should not only be worried about where you can shoot, but also where you can move and *then* shoot from.

This is particularly nasty if you have advanced propulsion or another source of speed advantage. However, it is NOT done by the AI, at all.

I had an LC, using only a CSM-V launcher and a couple of Time beams, defeat a fleet of 7 CSM-V LCs without taking a single point of damage (The crew survived to the end of the game, with +50% from experience...) In strategic mode, it probably would have been chewed up, running directly away from enemies and towards the borders only to be blocked by sheer numbers...


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-- The thing that goes bump in the night