Fighter Strategies

[Tnargversion2]

I'm playing around with the strategies trying to get certain vessels to do certain things in Tactical Combat. One of the things I am trying to do is getting fighter or interceptors to only go after other fighters while Attack Fighters go after vessels pummeling them from a distance with stand off weapons.

My question in the Target Priorities Section in Strategies there is one called "Target". What does this one cover. I am assuming that it prioritizes whatever Targets are first in the Target Priority below.

For my fighter strategy I checked all to Target and then listed fighter as priority number one; however, the fighters would still go after another target namely a larger vessel leaving the enemy fighters to take out my Attack Fighters.

Also why is there no Target Priority for Point Defense ships. Everything else is there even a Monster Target Priority but no PD. It would be nice to have fighters or vessels go after PD ships first to knock out defenses before they go after other targets having their seeker weapons continually being wiped out by PD. Could this ever be patched or modded in?

[President_Elect_Shang]

Did you remove all other unwanted entries or did you just move "Fighter" to the top?

Edited: I was eating a banana and accidentally submitted the reply before I was finished. Ops...

Monster is a vehicle type, like carriers or freighters or colony ships. P-D are an ability granted a component and you can not add abilities to the target list. Your best bet is to create a specialized weapon that will target P-D. Then your fighters will swarm a P-D ship because it is the only legal target. Well that and anything else on the field that has P-D. Nothings perfect!

[Kana]

Is there a priority for closest target?

Maybe your fighters are getting distracted by a closer, lower priority target?

[Raapys]

Remember that many factors plays in to create the #1 priority. Try switching all the "Targeting Priority Order" options to "Target Type", not just one of them, and see if that makes a difference.

[President_Elect_Shang]

All good advice but if he removes all unwanted target entries that will work. With both of the other suggestions listed here your fighters will still try to target vehicles you don't want them to if those other vehicles become legal targets. In other words it would really suck to have your dog fighters suddenly break off and engage a ship just because the ship got to close.

Oh let me clarify myself on one thing I have been vague about. I have said twice now to remove the unwanted targets from your fighter strategy. When I say REMOVE I don't mean delete. I mean go to the strategy you want to change and select SET ENGAGE DISTANCE for the targets you DO NOT want the fighters to attack to "DO NOT ENGAGE".

[Tnargversion2]

Thanks all, will give it a try. Now if I could just figure out a way for the AI to do similiar strategies and wish upon a star for them to design different types of fighters according to these new strategies.

[Raapys]

I mean go to the strategy you want to change and select SET ENGAGE DISTANCE for the targets you DO NOT want the fighters to attack to "DO NOT ENGAGE".

The problem with this is that you might want your fighters to engage those targets if they're the only ones present. If set to Do Not Engange, however, your fighters will just retreat at once if their priority target type isn't on the battlefield.

[Tnargversion2]

Interesting and fun battle to watch. I just had a battle in which my fighters set to an Air Superiority Strategy and my attack fighters set to an Attack Fighter Strategy. The air superiority fighters behaved I guess like you would expect an air superioty fighter would behave taking out all of the fighters weaving in and out heading one direction finishing off some fighters that broke through, then turning around to seek out some new fighters. Very fun they were all over the place and some good looking dogfights. All the while my attack fighters kept steadfast and true with their goal of taking out the larger vessels with standoff weapons.

For my air superority fighters I set their strategy to:
Targeting Priority Order:
Target Type
Has Undamaged Weapons
Least Damaged
Fastest
Nearest (absolute)

Target Type Order:
Fighter Engage Point Blank 100%
All others off

The only bummer was that I did this in the simulator so the enemy fighters had the same strategies whereas in real tactical combat in the game the fighters would assume their default strategies.

[thebigsilly]

I'm kind of confused about fighters - what's the real use of them? I tried to use some fighters in my own game, and they all die so fast that it seems like it would've been more worthwhile to just have a few extra regular-sized ships.

[Tnargversion2]

A handful of fighters usually don't last long, but if you have a carrier's complement worth, 40 or more they do wonders.