Retreating??

[wingte]

Is it possible to retreat from a battle you know you cannot win but you ships should be able to outrun??

wingte

[Lerchey]

No, you can't really retreat. If you are doing tactical combat, you can try to survive by just running around and avoiding being shot, but how well that works depends on both speed differential, formation, weapon ranges, and how tricky you are. Eventually, you tend to get boxed into a corner and take some hits while you continue to try to run.

John

[Mike Tremblay]

In SE3 your units were able to retreat from the Tactical combat screen if they had Strategic movement points left (ie. they hadn't used their whole allotment of movement points on the main starmap). If you had no SMP's left you were stuck on the the tactical screen until you won or lost the battle. I don't know if this still works for SE4 or in the demo.

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Mike Tremblay
"Bitter Mike"

[wingte]

Hmnn,,
I tried to move my ships off the "edge" of the screen and wasn't able to. If I deliberatly move into a sector where enemy ships are then perhaps I shouldn't be able to retreat,, but,, if the enemey attacks me and my ships had the speed to escap, then I should be able to run.
Even in the first instance I should be able to do hit and run tactics using heavily armed lightly armored fast ships with long range weapons.



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Wingte

[Mike Tremblay]

I have to make a correction on my suggestion. It seems that that doesn't hold true anymore. Last night I was experimenting to see if it was still the same and alas it wasn't. What happens now is that you have to run around evading your enemy for 30 turns and then the Tactical combat ends. Then you might have a chance to run away on the Strategic screen - as long as your enemy doesn't send in his cavalry or you are so badly damaged that you can't get away.

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Mike Tremblay
"Bitter Mike"

[Narlotep]

It does seem strangely odd to have the old "table edge of doom" showing up in a computer game? I really laughed at all the little dots chasing a hostile dot into the corner, from whence it had no place to go.

I would suggest that if one side has superior tactical speed, there should be an option to break off the engagement after any single round of combat. Indeed, it should be a pre-combat option as well. "Tactical" "Strategic" or "Avoid Combat". If the unit avoids combat it is placed in a nearby square.

Also, is there a possibility of doing away with the whole "Strategic" combat view. What good does it do and I'm sure the AI isn't impressed by the little dots either...