SE5 - Strategies

[tesco samoa]

too add to thermo's stuff

Steel panthers had oppurtunity fire... Would this be a great option in SE games ?

Would really add to the options of range vs damage...

then you could add stuff like hold fire until 75% chance to hit etc.....

[Joachim]

Some great suggestions so far!
I would also like to see squadrons as part of a fleet, boolean orders (probably not scripted) and fleets taking turns in firing, spread evenly between sides. Frex, Xiati have 10 ships and the Cue Cappa 3, fire order would be X1, C1, X2, X3, X4, C2, X5, X6, X7, C3, X 8-10. Things like training/experience /crews/captian/blind luck determining fire order.
Thanks for asking for our input!

[Fyron]

Unless Aaron has decided not to have real time combat in SE5 after all, firing order is moot, as ships will fire at the same time as enemy ships. They will also have reload times in ms or some such unit, so firing will become very staggered. So, weapons will fire from each ship whenever it is ready, without SE4's method of all ships on one side firing at the other side before the other side gets to respond.

[Caduceus]

Consider an "empire generator" add-on, that would allow non-tweakers like me a chance to concoct AI's for downloaded shipsets. It could let me know ahead of time whether there is a conflict of sorts in the AI brain instead of cutting and pasting the generic AI stats.

Wildcard

[spoon]

But for Simultaneous Turn games, strategies were essential in getting your ships to do what you wanted during combat.

Thanks for asking!

I think I'd like to see better default settings, because everytime I teach someone how to play the game, they throw up there hands in dismay when we get to the bit about setting strategies. Here are the defaults I would like to see:

Fleets: Add a button (or whatever) in the Fleet Creation screen that dictates whether ships in that fleet should follow Fleet orders or Ship orders. Default this to Follow Ship Orders.

Targeting Priority: The default isn't the best. I tend to use: "Nearest, Has Weapons, Most Damaged, Strongest". (Maybe take a poll on this, I'm not sure if that setting is best either!) The default often has ships running past point blank targets and getting themselves into trouble.

Formation: If you don't allow Break Formation to be set in the Fleet Creation screen, then default all ships to Break Formation.

Modding: For modding purposes, it would be great to be able to assign default strategies to the various Design Types found in the DefaultDesignTypes.txt. For example, if I modded in a Missile Attack Ship as a Design Type, it would be nice to be able to assign it's default strategy to Maximum Range.

Thanks again!
-spoon

[Master Belisarius]

Think one of the SE4's strongest sides, was the great customization possibilities.
For SE5 I expect even better options to customize the game... and specially, more tools to improve the AI behavior.
For this reason, really liked the suggestions posted here, about to include some kind of script language to manage the tactical combat.

[Pooka]

"Now for a more specific request: I'm interested in getting your feedback on the strategies in SE4. I'm reworking them for SE5, but I wanted to get the fans input on how well the strategies worked in SE4. Did you use them? What part was most useful? Which part did not work so well?"

Well, it's been said, but to add my voice, I only played simultaneous movement. My desire, in buying the game, was to play on PBW so even when I played single player, I made sure I was using the same conditions, etc. Strategies are, thus, both my greatest tool, and greatest curse.

The ability to modify the AI behavior was a godsend, unfathomably useful in concept. Unfortunately, the degree to which you can make your fleet behave appropriately to a combat situation was very lacking. The AI handles non-specialized ships very poorly, and has a lot of bizarre quirks to it that just don't make sense.

These have led to most people (in my experience) having all ships break formation, taking a lot of potential out of the fleet-level strategies.

I agree that being able to influence where certain ships (pickets, screens, fighter Groups, missile boats, fleet tenders, etc.) appear in the formation, and a degree to which they could deviate from formation would be extremely valuable in giving the fleet-level strategies more usefulness.

If, for example, I could tell my pickets they could range up to 10 sectors away from their 'proper position' in formation, but my fleet tender needed to keep really close to my point-defense ships so they'd not get killed, that would enable me to use strategy in constructing fleets instead of simply trying to come up with complimentary designs that mob-rush the enemy as soon as battle is joined while all my fragile ships run for the corner of the map.

Some kind of defensive strategy that consists of huddling together with protective ships instead of scattering out to be picked off piecemeal by swift-moving fighters would be very nice as well.

Also, I agree with others that a greater degree of control, perhaps adding some semblance of 'situational awareness' would be very nice.

At the very least, if AI behavior could be clearly documented, we could better adapt to it's short commings.

You've written a fabulous game so far, and I look forward to seeing how you improve upon it.

[Chronon]

I agree with everyone posting here that the strategies will be extremely important in multiplayer, and that they need to be very flexible and user friendly (scriptable would be the best). For more flavor, I would actually like to see this take place in a special screen that pops up an Admiral's picture (or military title of your choice, depending on the empire file) and you almost have a dialogue with him/her/it. Admiral, your orders are to defend Planet X at all costs! Or, Admiral, take Gamma Fleet to Planet Y, destroy the enemy vessels there, and send in your troop transports to capture the planet. There could be some level of strategy at the ship level, too, which could remain in the design window. Or, there could be a separate window just for ship strategies just off the fleet deployment window (or whatever it's to be called).

I do hope there is a retreat option! That is one of my biggest frustrations with the tactical combat. I really wish my battlecruisers could outrun that battlemoon to the warp point and escape.

[Randallw]

4) And while not pure combat strategy, but strategy none the less. I would like to see income from trade moved by ships. This would add some depth to the game by making the blockade a real part of the wars. And require each empire to build, maintain and protect a trade fleet. I think this would add realism and depth to the game. Of course there would need to be a minister for this too, it could be a lot of work with a large empire.

In "Hearts of Iron" when you build a transport you have the option of using it to carry troops or as a supply transport in a pool divided around the empire to move supplies.

[dogscoff]

I only use strategic these days- either in PBW (Where you don't get the choice) or in single player (Where tactical gives you an unfair advantage over the AI).

I like the idea of giving different parts of your force different strategies. Just the other day I sent a fleet against a heavily-defended enemy planet. I had a load of well-armoured troop transports capable of wading through the planet's defensive fire, and more than enough warships and boarding craft to take care of the defending ships. What happened? The warships went to attack the planet, and were destroyed. The boarders milled about uselessly and were destroyed. The troop transports hid in the corner and were picked off by fighters and enemy warships. If I'd been able to give one set of specific orders to the transports (charge straight for the planet) and a different set of orders to my attack ships (attack ships, NOT the planet) I'd have won that battle.

I also like the idea of some kind of code-like scripts: I've often wished for this on a strategic level (ie out of combat) and it would be great if it could somehow extend into combat as well. Maybe it could be coded so that one script governs a ship's behaviour both in and out of combat..?