Formations - what's your strategy

[rextorres]

I have read in these here forums that all ships in formation should be set to break formation -
also different players have different theories on what type of formation to choose.

For instance: I took over for someone in a PBW game and the player made a point of suggesting that I choose "spider" formation which is a spread out formation and that they break formation. In my experience, however, I have found that it's best for ships to stay in a formation that's as tight as possible. The reason for this is that the ships concentrate fire and provide mutual defense against seekers. I have been able to beat fleets twice as big that were spread out over the map.

So . . . I am curious why some players insist that it's advantageous for ALL ships to break formation (not just defenseless ships) - and what formation do you think works best.

[geoschmo]

The reason usually for breaking formation is that large formations of ships don't move intelligently. As the formation turns they tend to get tied up with each other and run into range of enemy weapons. Small fleets of 3 - 5 ships though usually do better in formation. And there are circumstances when having your large fleet stay in formation is advantageous.

If you outnumebr an enemy, but they enemy has superiour firepower for example. By breaking formation in this case you will simply get your ships zapped one at a time as they approach the enemy. This is especially evident when facing an enemy with the tailsman. What I like to do there is use the wall formation so my ships all come into ragnge at the same time nad I get to do the most damage I can before he can pick my ships off.

Geoschmo

[ October 31, 2002, 21:32: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Fyron]

If you have more than about 25 ships in a fleet, formations don't do too much anyways. Most of the ships will appear randomly around the map. If only MM had actually increased the size of the default formations when he increased the maximum possible spots in a formation...

[oleg]

Another reason to set "break formations" is an insurance that your ships will move and fight if, God forbid, the fleet leader lose engines.

IMHO, the best formation is "compact" - it is included in TDM formations file.

[Skulky]

How many spots can you have now?

And why can't we have the leader spot taken over by 1 and then by 2 or 3 and so forth?

[Fyron]

If the leader is destroyed, then I think the next available ship in the list is made the new leader.

You can have up to 100 ship slots in a formation now.

[rextorres]

Originally posted by oleg:
IMHO, the best formation is "compact" - it is included in TDM formations file.

I agree I've used this one and it's worked the great for me.

Is there a way to add your own formations in PBW?

Also it would be great to assign ships to spots in a formation - hopefully that will be added someday.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by rextorres:
Is there a way to add your own formations in PBW?

You could create a mod that has a modded formations file, and play the game with that. But unfortunately you can not add any formations from within the game.

[capnq]

The Gold CD Extras include Raynor's Formation Editor, to help you mod the Formations.txt file.

Which formation is "best" depends on your preferred fighting style and both sides' ship designs, so it's hard to make recommendations.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by capnq:
[QB]The Gold CD Extras include Raynor's Formation Editor, to help you mod the Formations.txt file.

[QB]

IIRC Rayonor's editor only allow's up to 30 positions. The latest Se4 patch's will allow up to 100 positions in your formations, so Raynor's editor is a little obsolete.

I recommend DavidG's SE4Modder though. It has a formation file editor that you cna add the full 100 positions with.

Geoschmo