Blockade strategy?

[Fyron]

I didn't really test USM... It is possible that some of the strategies are not quite working as they should. Suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

[Puke]

Originally posted by SpaceBadger:
You know, what I'd really like is a strategy to let the troopships go ahead and begin their landing while the gunships are still working on the defenses, rather than waiting for the shooting to end.

Yeah, you and me both. SOL on that one.

The two blockade strategies in USM both have all ships set to break formation - yet, presumably, they have been tested and work properly.

Some of the stratagies in USM were written before the Last patch (or maybe a few patches ago) when ships that broke formation still followed the fleet stratagy. I think that I prefered it that way, because ships are often most effective when they are not locked in a formation, and you probably want to determine stratagies for a FLEET rather than an entire class of ships.

The DefaultStrategies.txt in USM looks very good. I think I will start using it regularly.

and then you'll wish that you had your OWN parade of victory formation...

[oleg]

Originally posted by SpaceBadger:
Puzzlement.

The two blockade strategies in USM both have all ships set to break formation - yet, presumably, they have been tested and work properly.

Is it possible this will work if set up ahead of time with DefaultStrategies.txt (as in USM), but not work if you try to make a new strategy in-game, as I did?

Hmm, must experiment with this some more...

SpaceBadger

Did you set the "blockade" strategy to all ship designs in the fleet ? I have no problems blockading planet if all ships have individual "don't fire on planet" strategy.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by SpaceBadger:
Except... hmmm, my Capture Planet fleet strategy has everyone break formation, too, yet it seems to keep on working anyway, so that the gunships bLast the defenses and then quit firing to let the troopships make their assault - even though gunship individual strategies are set to Optimal, they seem to remember that the fleet was set to Capture Planet...

Capture planet is the exception to the rule that ships that break formation follow their own strategies. Actually it's more complicated then that. Because the ships really do follow their design strategies as far as movement, that's why they mill about the planet aimlessly, or sit motionless rather then go to the corners. They just won't fire on the planet once the weapons platforms are gone if the fleet has capture planet orders and there is a transport with troops in the fleet. You will find that if you attack a planet with the fleet having capture planet orders, but set to break formation, and you do NOT include a transport with troops in the fleet, your ships will quite happily go about glassing the planet. It's a hard coded exception to the normal game logic to make planet capture work right.

Geoschmo

[SpaceBadger]

Originally posted by Puke:
Yeah, you and me both. SOL on that one.

Darn. OK, thanks for letting me know.

Some of the strategies in USM were written before the Last patch (or maybe a few patches ago) when ships that broke formation still followed the fleet strategy. I think that I prefered it that way, because ships are often most effective when they are not locked in a formation, and you probably want to determine stratagies for a FLEET rather than an entire class of ships..

I agree. Just because I want to set a few Battle Cruisers to Blockade does not mean I want every BC that I own to be set on that that strategy.

quote:

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The DefaultStrategies.txt in USM looks very good. I think I will start using it regularly.

and then you'll wish that you had your OWN parade of victory formation...

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Not sure I get you... that is one of your formations from USM, right? I haven't had a chance to try them out yet.

BTW, what situation is the Stand-Off formation intended for?

SpaceBadger

[SpaceBadger]

Originally posted by oleg:
Did you set the "blockade" strategy to all ship designs in the fleet ? I have no problems blockading planet if all ships have individual "don't fire on planet" strategy.

No, I think that is what I was doing wrong. I had the fleet set to Blockade, but with everyone set to break formation, and the ships were still on Optimal.

SpaceBadger

[SpaceBadger]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Capture planet is the exception to the rule that ships that break formation follow their own strategies. [...] It's a hard coded exception to the normal game logic to make planet capture work right.

Thanks, Geo. I'm sure I would have gone nuts trying to figure that out by experimentation, not knowing that it is coded differently from the rest.

SpaceBadger