Another problem with retreating from combat

[Tim_Ward]

Fighters.

[Suicide Junkie]

How will that help the defense?
Unless fighters are super powerful and uberfast, and tough enough to take PD fire from a fleet of retreating enemies even while facing any fighters the enemy sends...

All I ask for is a toggle option in settings.txt to prevent retreat. Let them fall back for a while if they have artillery, but eventually they'll have to face the music head on.

[Spectarofdeath]

I guess what it comes right down to is preference then. There should be a no retreat option for the game, and a retreat option. To me I prefer to have the retreat. It adds realism. It's not like through history two opposing forces get in range of each other and a giant steel curtain falls around them and God says "Lets get ready to rummmmmmmmmbbbbbblllleeee!!!" Retreating can even be used as a offensive manuever, if you have all your ships retreating you might lure the enemy into sending his fastest ships at you at maximum rather then escorting the slower ones and defeat in detail ensues. Personally, I play this way, I design the same ship several times. Lets say a Destroyer. I give one all the speed it can handle. This would be my scouting destroyer designed to penetrate enemy space and give me a heads up whats going on in the sector. I give the next one all the weapons it can carry and hold. This is my battle destroyer, designed for combat with the enemy. And last I might make a support destroyer of some kind, say one with mine/sat/fighter launching, or maybe it's a repair ship, or maybe a AA ship. The point is, I don't just design one class of a ship and then wait for it to be obsolete then design another, I design multiple at once. I might not do this for every single ship design, but when it comes to the lighter ships, multiple designs (for me) is the way to go. How you feel about them running wild through your space is how I felt watching my colony ship get trashed by a scout with 1 DUC in SEIV on like turn 3 because it couldn't actually retreat, it had to run the clock down.

[Tim_Ward]

Suicide Junkie said:
How will that help the defense?
Unless fighters are super powerful and uberfast, and tough enough to take PD fire from a fleet of retreating enemies even while facing any fighters the enemy sends...

All I ask for is a toggle option in settings.txt to prevent retreat. Let them fall back for a while if they have artillery, but eventually they'll have to face the music head on.

Fighters are for the benefit of single ships.

If the enemy insists on making a bee-line for a planet, then your ships should be defending the planet. It would make more sense for them to tackle the fleet seperately, not try and attack them both at the planet.

[AAshbery76]

I'm getting annoyed with these A.I colony ships and supply ships outrunning my destroyers all the bloody time to play this retreating game that drags the game down.Maybe this should be looked at in the Balance Mod.

[RCCCL]

Slick, my strategy on warp point defense is to go into the sector veiw and place my bases/sattilites/ships around the warp point, so that wherever the ships decide to flee to they have to go through alot of weeapons fire.

[Suicide Junkie]

Tim:

Well, maybe not the homeworld right away. You have more than one planet per system, and dividing your forces against a concentrated attack is not going to work.

[Tim_Ward]

Two things;

1) I'll work if the defences on each planet are large enough to make up for splitting your fleet. Cargo capacities of planets are much larger in SEV, at least they are in balance mod so that leaves plenety of room for weapons platforms, etc.

2) Not every planet will be in movement range of the enemy fleet, so you might be able to deduce which planets are under threat and defend accordingly. Also, doesn't retreating cost a movement point as it did in SEIII? If you chase them across the map, they can't move and attack planets in your turn. If it doesn't, it should.

[Wenin]

No one should be having problems with AIs when it comes to retreating. You simply station your task force in the sector that will be their line of retreat. Then you send in a single sheppard dog ship to push them into that sector. When the battle starts in the retreat sector, everyone is at point blank range practically. =)


You should be feeling for the AI that they can't do this against you. =)

The retreat feature makes the game easier for the single player.

I can consistantly use a small set of ships to harass and widdle down the supplies of an attack fleet. Then I clean them up when they are out of ordance or supply. I'm able to do this without retreating.

[Spectarofdeath]

The problem with this is some ppl might consider it cheating since the AI is so predictable and you know exactly what it's going to do.