Point Defence and Maximum Weapons Range orders

[God Emperor]

SJ,
Just two things:

1) Does the 0 damage setting prevent triggering of PD? (havent tried it myself yet),
2) My proposal to phase in damage was intended to try and average out the effects of ships at different distances and fighters/seekers of differing speeds. I take your point about the possibility of ships not protecting themselves from hits but as an arm chair admiral, I'm not so much concerned about individual ships but more with the performance of the fleet as a whole. If a ship sacrifices itself for another, so be it. My only concern is with regard to the "to hit" chances at the longer distances.

Anyway, I'm about to start a new game with the PD mod in effect and will provide feedback on what effect it has on the "strength" of point defence (the battles I have witnessed so far have unfolded ok but I want to witness one with more units of multiple types in it).

Regards,

GE

[ November 19, 2002, 13:22: Message edited by: God Emperor ]

[Suicide Junkie]

If a ship sacrifices itself for another, so be it.

No,no. This ship would be wasting its PD shots by attacking for 1 damage, at a missile on the other side of the fleet (IE: 15 squares away), instead of shooting the missile right beside it for 35 damage.

Having a zero-damage at range X prevents the weapon from firing.
You can mod weapons that have a minimum range this way

[God Emperor]

SJ,
But on other occaisions the ship would be firing and scoring (reduced) damage when it would not currently be able to do so.

Anyway, the 0 damage option is the best way ahead and I'll road test it instead.
Thanks for the info. Will get back with the results.

Regards,

GE

[God Emperor]

SJ,
Your idea regarding the use of 0 damage in the intervening ranges does work.
I have watched several large battles and the AI ships will standoff whilst firing, whilst the PD does only fire when it can do damage.

Can you let Aaron, Richard etc know to include the alteration in the next patch - it vastly improves the AI's performance in combat (check it out for yourself).
I think I'll even run my next game using strategic rather than tactical combat mode for the first time in over 18 months!

Regards,

GE

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by God Emperor:
@PvK
Which file has the toggle that you mentioned?

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
"Dont Fire On Seekers(On Us) := True
Dont Fire On Seekers(On Others) := True"

That's the toggle PvK was refering to.

Phoenix-D

Actually I am pretty sure what Pvk was refering to was the toggles within the strategies setup screen in the game itself. For each strategy there is a "DO not fire on these types" box, and the seekers (on others) and seekers (on us) are listed there. Making changes to the default strategies files, or to the component files for the PDC as SJ suggests will likely help, but if you are playing on PBW or something and don't have these changes in a mod they wont help. If Pvk's idea works (Don't know cause I haven't tested it yet) you could fix it in any game you are playing, without changes to the stock files. So it would work in PBW games without a mod.

Geoschmo

EDIT: On second thought, changes to the strategies file might work, because that might get carried over into your .emp file when you load it. Not sure abou tthat one. Would need to test it. But the PDC damage change would definetly require a mod.

[ November 20, 2002, 14:14: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Rexxx]

Originally posted by PvK:
It's just that the "Target seekers targeted on..." toggle orders in ship strategies are often misunderstood. To get what you want, set these to NO. Doing this does NOT stop the ship from firing PD at seekers (regardless of whether they are targetted on the ship in question, or not).

If you set these to YES, then the ship will actually maneuver itself to hunt and destroy enemy seekers.

So, most often you want to set these to NO with strategies that are designed to avoid contact, or to stand off at long range.

PvK

In my previous post I negated/doubted the effects of PvKs statement. Well, I was wrong.

After lots of tests there is only one conclusion: Take every word for granted. Setting the toggles "Don't fire on Seekers" (On Us) and "Don't fire on Seekers" (On Others) = True makes the difference.
I ran the tests with missile ships (CSM reload time set to 3, 5 and 10) and a strategy you see below.
The ships fired their missiles at maximum range and EVERYTIME headed for the next corner during reload time and came back when the missiles were ready to fire again. None of them was hunting enemy seekers.

Name := Hit and Run
Primary Movement Strategy := Maximum Weapons Range
Secondary Movement Strategy := Don't Get Hurt
Targeting Priority 1 := Nearest
Targeting Priority 2 := Has Weapons
Targeting Priority 3 := Strongest
Targeting Priority 4 := Largest
Use Type Priority First := False
Type Priority Planets := 8
Type Priority Fighters := 11
Type Priority Seekers(On Us) := 12
Type Priority Seekers(On Others) := 13
Type Priority Mines := 14
Type Priority Carriers := 3
Type Priority Colony Ships := 4
Type Priority Transports := 5
Type Priority Bases(No Weapons) := 6
Type Priority Ships(No Weapons) := 7
Type Priority Bases := 2
Type Priority Ships := 1
Type Priority Satellites := 9
Type Priority Drones := 10
Dont Fire On Planets := False
Dont Fire On Fighters := False
Dont Fire On Seekers(On Us) := True
Dont Fire On Seekers(On Others) := True
Dont Fire On Mines := False
Dont Fire On Carriers := False
Dont Fire On Colony Ships := False
Dont Fire On Transports := False
Dont Fire On Bases(No Weapons) := False
Dont Fire On Ships(No Weapons) := False
Dont Fire On Bases := False
Dont Fire On Ships := False
Dont Fire On Satellites := False
Dont Fire On Drones := False
Fighters Launch Group Amount := 20
Break Formation Planets := True
Break Formation Fighters := True
Break Formation Mines := True
Break Formation Carriers := True
Break Formation Colony Ships := True
Break Formation Transports := True
Break Formation Bases(No Weapons) := True
Break Formation Ships(No Weapons) := True
Break Formation Bases := True
Break Formation Ships := True
Break Formation Satellites := True
Break Formation Drones := True

I did the same test with the toggles set to "False". After firing their missiles the ships moved away from the enemy but only some of them headed straight for the next corner. The rest (which are closest to the enemy) began moving - I would say - erratically, never using the full amount of movement points, zigzag courses. One combat turn later they actually began hunting enemy seekers.

Thanks PvK, as I said before I never would have thought of that one.

[Phoenix-D]

"Actually I am pretty sure what Pvk was refering to was the toggles within the strategies setup screen in the game itself."

Probably. But the toggles I posted do the same thing, which was why I noted God Emperor already had them in his file.

Phoenix-D