Strat combat clarifications

[Pocus]

Can somebody enlighten me on the following points:

1 - if you set a fleet, but have ships which break formations, can I assume that the fleet strategy has no meaning?

2 - Why a troop transport on invade planet wont head toward the planet until the place is cleared of all defences? How to perform a strategy of assault transports which try to unload troops even with defences firing (I'm speaking of strat combat here!).

3 - Why the computer decide that a fleet which has the following orders:
a) torp ships with optimal fire range
b) transports on capture
ships break formation, fleet order capture planet.

Ok, so the torp ships fire on the planet till there is no defences, then they stop fire. The transport move into position. What I dont understand is how the computer know that he must make the torp ships cease fire? Do he scan all your ships, see a transport on invade planet, then decide that he is better in stopping fire? Thats strange because without the transport, you will glass the planet.

[Fyron]

1) Mostly. But, you still need to set the fleet to Capture Planet or Capture Ships to get those sorts of ships in the fleet to behave properly. If the strategy is not Capture Planet, troop transports in the fleet will not drop their troops.

2) The only way to get troop transports to plunge into the fire is to send them to attack with _no_ warships. If any warships are present the transports will wait around for the WPs to be destroyed. If all warships die, the transports tend to plunge in.

3) It is not strange, it is how the AI works. If it did not stop firing once all WPs were gone, you would never be able to capture a planet. It does not tell all ships to "fire on planet". It issues orders to one ship at a time. So, once a ship destroys the Last WP, the planet is no longer a threat, and the troop transports can move right in. If there are no transports, then the default strategies tell ships to fire on unarmed planets, so they will proceed to glass it. Try playing around with firing priorities and targeting types in the Strategies.

[Pocus]

ok, have done further tests:

1) A fleet on optimal fire, with ships break formation, and composed of 3 torp DD and a troop trs will perform identically to a fleet with a capture planet. Seems like the fleet strategy is not used at all if ships break formation. My transport took the planet.

2) and 3) ok I restested that too. What bother me here (I'm like to be a logical man), is the following fact : the AI is capable of ordering a cease fire to armed ships when the planet is not a threat (thus allowing the troops to arrive), BUT there is no orders which would make an armed ships fire against a planet UNTIL all weapons are gone. The algorithm is here, but were are unable to use it ?

What I mean is that I'm searching for an order to attack a planet, trash all defences, then stop firing, thus doing a blockade until a troop transport arrive in the solar system. And each turn, if the planet rebuild a defence, the ships would be reactivated and fire again until all weapons are gone again.

Or perhaps I'm missing this order. What I dont like as of now is that I'm still uncertain how to order my ships to NOT GLASS a planet, and only the defenses. A way must exists I'm sure.

new questions
4) When the secondary strategy of a ship is used?

5) Does a possibility exists to be sure that some ships are at the back initially, and some others at the front of the formation?

Thanks again for the explainations. I long for combat, but not before having ingested the fine art of war

[Fyron]

Troops are not weapons. "Fire until all weapons gone" when targeting a planet destroys Weapon Platforms, and nothing else. Those are the only weapons a planet has.

4) When the AI determines that following the primary strategy is a bad idea.

5) No. Formation position is determined in the order the ships were built. All you can do is specify the leader.

[ May 08, 2003, 21:38: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Ruatha]

Now I'm really talking about something I have no clue whatever about, but that has never stopped me before:

In the "Strategy screen";
What happens if you alter the "Damage" Strategy details for say "Optimal Firing Range" to "Damage target until all weapons are gone=Yes" and decrease "Damage Percent per Planet" to something way below 100%?

Could you then destroy all defenses and blockade the plaent without glassing it, seeing that you have no troops with you.

[ May 08, 2003, 21:50: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Grandpa Kim]

Ruatha, here's what would happen.

Your ships would fire on the planet till all weapons were gone, then...

Look for other targets with weapons. Finding none, they would then fire on the planet till it received 10% damage, then...

Look for other targets with less than 10% damage. Finding none, they would then destroy the planet.

Its not a system of absolutes but of priorities.

[Ruatha]

I see, thanx.