Stupid troop transports that don't drop troops...

[Alneyan]

The strategy you describe is the one for "Capture Planets" by default, which doesn't seem to work according to Trooper (and I couldn't get it to work either ; but you know you shouldn't ask me to get a working strategy).

I have been tinkering with other strategies (Optimal Range/Drop Troops and Drop Troops/Drop Troops), and failed to have a ship able to fulfill both tasks without changing the strategy.

[Roanon]

Does it work with drop troops / point blank maybe? I guess the optimum range strategy is chosen for this ship if it is not directly adjacent to the planet, and makes sure the ship stays out of range, forcing it to choose optimum again next move - ad infinitum. If dropping troops doesn't even work with drop/drop strategy, then there is something stupid hardcoded (I never tried to mix troop transports with weapons other than PDs, and this worked), and only Aaron could answer it - and, hopefully, do it better in SEV.

If there are weapon platforms on a planet, troop transports will not drop as long as there are warships present, letting these attack the WPs first (and maybe glass the planet). This utterly stupid behaviour is hard-coded, it is just not possible to land troops screened by warships and capture the planet unglassed despite a few functioning WPs. Only if the transport is not stacked with warships, it will try to drop the troops running the gauntlet against the WPs.

[JLS]

It seems like you have every thing set up fine with Fleet and Ship Strategies, unless you altered the se4 defaults Strats (or accedenly enabled do not target planet- other wise {GLASS OR CAPTURE it would} - but you did not indicate this).

Trooper , do you have an agreement with this Race, or is there still Weapons Platforms Unit or a Planet Shield Generator Facility, Massive Planetary Shield Generator or a Facsimile of such if you are playing a MOD. on that target Planet?

Actually, you have attack weapons on the Assault Ship.
SJ-May be correct about the role of a warship
However, it should in that role clear the Planet of at least all units - did it?

Also important to know - are all Ships in that Fleet with the Same design - Weapons and Cargo w/Troops?
If not, do the other ships in that Combat have weapons or are they weaponless?

[ July 09, 2004, 02:32: Message edited by: JLS ]

[Wardad]

Originally posted by Slynky:
I never mix mine BUT, if a person wanted to, why wouldn't a strategy with a primary movement of "Drop Troops" and a secondary movement of "Optimal Range" work on a troop ship with weapons? Seems like the game would move to try to drop troops (and if it couldn't due to not being close enough or platforms on the surface, it would revert to its secondary movement orders...Optimal range).

I never mix mine either.
Also switching strategies generally does not work well. Maybe it can't switch back from secondary.

Are these ships refits of warships? Refits keep prior ships strategy. I have refit ships with boarding parties and had them refuse to board because of it.

[ July 08, 2004, 21:47: Message edited by: Wardad ]

[Aiken]

What about "stop firing when all weapons gone" option? Can this be an obstacle in your way to capturing planet? Theoretically, at least?

[Parasite]

Are you sure all the weapon platforms are gone. Check your capture planet fleet strategy to make sure your other warships will/did attack the planet.

Troop Transport type ships will always run for the corner if they have troops on board and other ships and WPs are there. After the WPs (or ships) are killed it will then come in and land troops. Be careful with the weapons. It will come in firing and could kill a defenseless planet off before you get there with troops.

I have had CLs with Cargo and weapons capture planets so a transport is not needed. I have stopped putting weapons on them because of accidental planet deaths. Only in SEIV can someone talk calmly about an accedental planet death.

OT: Why is the shield destroyer on the far right in the design. I have not tested it, but thought this caused it to fire Last (after all the other weapons to the left fire)

[Fyron]

OT: Why is the shield destroyer on the far right in the design. I have not tested it, but thought this caused it to fire Last (after all the other weapons to the left fire) [Confused]

Yep, weapons fire in order from left to right. You can even disable the Condensed View and have alternating weapons of the same type. Sometimes useful to alternate APB with Shield Depleter against Crystalline races, for example. Or stick that Ionic Disperser after two of the APBs to increase the chance that the shields are down _before_ the ID fires...

[Slynky]

Originally posted by Roanon:
Does it work with drop troops / point blank maybe? I guess the optimum range strategy is chosen for this ship if it is not directly adjacent to the planet, and makes sure the ship stays out of range, forcing it to choose optimum again next move - ad infinitum. If dropping troops doesn't even work with drop/drop strategy, then there is something stupid hardcoded (I never tried to mix troop transports with weapons other than PDs, and this worked), and only Aaron could answer it - and, hopefully, do it better in SEV.

If there are weapon platforms on a planet, troop transports will not drop as long as there are warships present, letting these attack the WPs first (and maybe glass the planet). This utterly stupid behaviour is hard-coded, it is just not possible to land troops screened by warships and capture the planet unglassed despite a few functioning WPs. Only if the transport is not stacked with warships, it will try to drop the troops running the gauntlet against the WPs.

As to really "forcing" a particular type of activity by modifying a strategy, I should tell you of my dismal results in a vain effort to get my ships to attack the nearest ships without regard to anything else (I coded nearest, nearest, nearest, well, you get the point). I just KNEW they would attack anything near them but they wandered around aimlessly! Go figure.

As to warships being in the area...I'm pretty sure Geo captured a planet of mine in a game when I had weapon sats still active. If I am remembering correctly, makes me wonder why there would be a difference between having sats around and ships around.

[Alneyan]

With some more testing... You *can* make your ship fire its weapons against the planet and still capture the said planet, but it will behave like a Troop Transport (meaning it will not do any capture before all weapon platforms are gone, unless there are no "proper" warships in the battle). So your ship will rush to the planet, fire its weapons as they become available, but its main purpose is to capture the planet. If the capture fails, it will either try to glass the planet (if acting as a warship) or flee (if a troop transport)

It might be useful for you Trooper, if you intend to use such ships as "stand-alone" troop transports. If so, Drop Troops/Optimal Range works fine, but the ship will attempt to glass the planet if the capture fails. Besides, the ship will remain at range 1, meaning it will take a lot of punishment from the remaining platforms. The secondary strategy doesn't matter one bit to the ship by the looks of it, as "Optimal" doesn't mean "next to the target" Last time I checked.

Otherwise, Drop Troops/Drop Troops should force your ship to behave as a Troop ship (allowing it to flee if it cannot capture the planet, while stile firing its weapons as targets become available).

Aiken, the option "Stop firing when all weapons are gone" is said to be broken under SEIV. I have never toyed around it much, so don't quote me on that. At least, it seems like your warships *will* destroy crippled ships with no weapons left once there are no other targets, and they will only left powerless ships alone if there are other targets available.

[Atrocities]

Troops are over rated... Just glass the planet and recolonize it. Or better yet, bombard it with neutron weapons then drop troops.