newby's guide to ship and fleet strategy

tesco samoa · #1 February 2nd, 2002, 04:51 PM

Capture AI ships and use them or take them back to be analyzed for tech.

I recommed you break formation on everything .

And all non fighting ships to ram.

Hey there only going to die anyway.

Gryphin · #2 February 2nd, 2002, 05:18 PM

tesco, Thanks, I forgot to program in the non fighting ships RAM, but I do it in Tactical. However: in early games I have rammed Escorts and Frigates with Colony Ships and survived to actualy colonize a planet.
"It ain't over till it's Over and the crew is sucking space"
(paraphrased by Gryphin with apologies to the original author)

PsychoTechFreak · #3 February 2nd, 2002, 07:16 PM

Lovely, but I still have no idea how to create the strategy "break formation". Since it does not appear with the standard strats, I would have to add it manually: "B-R-E-A-K F-O-R-M-A-T-I-O-N", but I don't think the ships would do what I want them to do.

EDIT: Got it, finally !

[ 02 February 2002: Message edited by: PsychoTechFreak ]

Fyron · #4 February 3rd, 2002, 08:19 AM

Hmm, this doesn't seem to have been answered. Better late than never!

quote:
Originally posted by Growltigga:
primary strategy and secondary strategy (what's the difference by the way)

The primary strategy is the movement strategy that the ships normally use. When the AI determines that the primary strategy is no longer a good idea to use, it will change to the secondary movement strategy. I have no clue as to when or why the AI decides to change to the secondary movement strategy.

PsychoTechFreak · #5 February 4th, 2002, 12:06 AM

I have fiddled around with the strategy windows now: What if I want to have a different strategy for special targets, like planets. I want the attack ships to toast everything except the planet, this should be taken over with a troop transport (which btw should not arrive too early at the planet). For the planet they should: Damage targets until all weapons are gone (see damage window), and Damage Per cent per planet: as low as possible.

This seems to be not possible yet, except maybe if I create special ships which just target planets, and I put every other attack ship to "don't fire on planets".

EDIT: Quikngruvn 's solution with the ships do not break formation would be the only solution I see, but with the disadvantages of the formation.

[ 03 February 2002: Message edited by: PsychoTechFreak ]

PsychoTechFreak · #6 February 4th, 2002, 01:36 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
.... When the AI determines that the primary strategy is no longer a good idea to use, it will change to the secondary movement strategy. I have no clue as to when or why the AI decides to change to the secondary movement strategy.

That is what I want to know also, since I have seen many AIs which use
1. Don't get Hurt
2. Ram

Nice idea, but does it work the same way as a human would decide when he has no chance not to get hurt any more ?

Saxon · #7 February 4th, 2002, 01:40 PM

To add a few points about fleet composition and comment on ramming.

I like to have a fleet that can take care of itself. It seems that battles tend to be focus on single ships, so ships are usually either undamaged or destroyed. However, you will get ships left behind that have some damage and which you would prefer to recover. If they have engine damage, they will slow the entire fleet down, unless you leave them behind. I also hate it when you spend five turns getting a fleet into place, then have to fly it back after the first battle due to a lack of supplies.

As such, I always have a repair ship available. I find that this makes my fleets longer Lasting and less likely to get knocked out by scavengers coming to clean up a battered fleet. Some of the smaller hulls, from Light Cruiser up, can carry a reasonable number of repair components and will not be targeted in a fleet of larger ships.

I also tend to build specialist supply ships. I don’t like wasting precious space on solar panels, so I have big supply ships with a lot of room for supplies. These also add range and operating capacity to a fleet. As a side note, I don’t make these the biggest ship hull available, I go for second biggest. That way they fall lower in the targeting priority than the main combat ships.

On both of these, I throw in some point defence and a single weapon which matches the rest of the fleet. This is only to ensure that they are in the heart of the battle and knocking out missiles. I don’t actually expect them to kill anything, but a few extra PDC can make the difference against a missile oriented opponent.

Since these are valuable ships, I don’t ram with them. Another poster was suggesting all non-combat ships should be given ram orders, but I disagree. I can see putting a colony ship on ramming, as it might get jumped in open space and is finished no matter what, but the ships I am describing don’t go anywhere without a fleet.

Now, I have a question. Some folks like huge numbers of Light Cruisers, as they have a defensive bonus due to size. They say that you shouldn’t worry about building bigger ships. Others say that size is everything (no, the size of the ship) and that you should go as big as possible, especially for heavy mounts. I tend to follow the second argument, but would be interested in what other think should go into their fleets.