Understanding battle strategies...newbie question

[Elowan]

If you have a ship carrying both fighter pods and direct fire weapons - how do you set the strats to entice the ship to launch fighters first?

[tbontob]

Hmmmmmmmm...

Guess no one wants to get the anwers from the horse's mouth.

Wonder where that phrase came from...a horse cannot talk?

[tbontob]

capnq replies to the question I put...

quote:

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And how does "Do Not Use Type Priorities" fit into all this? I have put planets on the bottom of the list, and the missile fleet still seems to prefer it over all other targets using
-Has weapons.
-Fastest
-Strongest
-Nearest

---

If you have "Do not use type priorities" set (unlit), the priority list is utterly ignored; it doesn't matter how you arrange the list if you haven't turned on "Use type before targeting" (lit).

Yes, I think I got the button thing now. I was kinda confused as to the way MM puts the question/statement.

For example:
-No system to avoid
-Don't Fire on types
-Do not use type priorities

These are all negative states.

A simpler way would be: (for me anyways )

-Systems avoided
-Fire on types
-Use type priorities

Then the opposite of positive state is negative

Guess 3 university degrees (2 of them post-graduate) with some emphasise on math is no guarantee of not being a doh-doh.

But I would still like to get behind the workings of the menu and discover how the computer makes its decisions.

Like no one was able to answer the other questions I put...

[tbontob]

OK. Here's a scenario...

I got control of a light cruiser through Espionage/Crew Insurrection.

The cruiser is on the home planet sector with one other light cruiser and a planet with missiles. Other types of ships are there as well, but they are weaponless.

The light cruiser has techology I would like to have. So I need to get it to one of my planets to analyse it's contents.

However on the next turn, it gets pLastered in strategic play by the other cruiser and the planets missiles as it goes onto the attack by approaching these targets.

I don't know what the strategy of the captured cruiser is...the Designs menu (F3) will not show the cruiser and since it is not shown, I cannot change it.

But, I figure maybe I can overlay a fleet strategy over the light cruiser strategy of the ship I captured.

So the fleet strategy (call it Run-away) for this one ship fleet which I am thinking of employing is:

Break formation for "Ships" (unlit) - means it will not break formation and revert to its own strategy but still follow the fleet instructions. Correct Y/N?

Now how do I
a) avoid the planet like the plague?
b) engage the other cruiser on the best possible terms which is on course to attack the cruiser I captured? This is a fight I cannot avoid. So, I need a strategy.

To deal with a) I use the "Don't fire on these ships to highlight "planet" under the Firing tab

With (b), both ships have the same design. So as I see it, the ship which fire first and which happens to be the closest to the other is most likely to win.

But I still need to get away from the planet (because of it's missiles)

So, in the Movement tab, I am thinking of using
-Primary - Don't Get Hurt (which basically means run away)
-Secondary - Point Blank

I understand when the primary stategy is impossible, the secondary strategy comes into play.

So when my captured cruiser runs out of room, it engages the light cruiser away from the planet.

Back to the Firing tab, I set the Targeting Priority Order to
-Has weapons
-Nearest
-Fastest
-Strongest

Does this make sense... It does to me... Yet somehow I feel it will not work...because my understanding of what the settings mean are different from the computers.

I haven't tried this yet. So do I try again and again until I get the combination of settings which will cause my captured ship (and any future ships captured on a home planet) to behave in the way I want.

So much easier to have a concrete idea of what the settings mean and what they do.

[ August 21, 2002, 20:11: Message edited by: tbontob ]

[Hank]

A poor User Interface design choice is to use check boxes that change their label based on the state of the check box. Also another poor design choice is (as you pointed out) having the default state being a negative.

Proper design would use a radio button to switch between two different descriptions (labels) or one label describing a positive state and default it to on or off.

These design decisions are due to the fact that this is that it is a 1-man show. Having the programmer make, review, and fix UI design decisions only puts one set of biased eyes on the issue. Having the Users of SEIV checking the UI flaws is not the best situation either...

Edit: and just so I am not too negative, I am absof*****glutely addicted to SEIV so any UI flaws are only cracks in the icing on a very tasty cake!

[ August 21, 2002, 21:54: Message edited by: Hank ]

[tbontob]

Hank states:

A poor User Interface design choice is to use check boxes that change their label based on the state of the check box. Also another poor design choice is (as you pointed out) having the default state being a negative.

Proper design would use a radio button to switch between two different descriptions (labels) or one label describing a positive state and default it to on or off.

These design decisions are due to the fact that this is that it is a 1-man show. Having the programmer make, review, and fix UI design decisions only puts one set of biased eyes on the issue. Having the Users of SEIV checking the UI flaws is not the best situation either...

Finally someone who understands what I am complaining about!

I am addicted too. I am not trashing the game. If I had a choice between this game with all its warts, and no SE4, there is no choice.

[tbontob]

Well...here's the results of the scenario

On the first combat turn the captured cruiser runs away.

On all the following turns, it attacks the planet.

Changing the Secondary Movement Strategy in the "Movement" tab to any other selection results in the same thing.

Do you guys actually like doing all this multiple testing?