Boarding and Ramming Targets

[teal]

Started a new game vs. the AI Last night and thought I would try out being a suicidal/psycho ramming race. This actual works much better than I thought it would. Problem is that the targets the ramming ships choose are just screwy. They always seem to pick the "strongest" ship and will go sailing off towards that ship even though it is slow and in the back of the opppenents fleet and will get chewed up and eaten for breakfast as it goes past the smaller ships in the oppenents fleet. I want my ramming ships to ram the nearest ship so that they can do some damage before getting blown out of space. I spent a long time screwing around with strategies, but it doesn't seem that anything you tell it to do in the *targeting* portion of the strategies will effect the target of the kamikaze attack. If you put a direct fire weapon on your ramming ship it will just fire at those little ships it passes on its way by... :| So is there any way to alter the targets of a ramming attack or am I just out of luck? A little bit of testing seems to reveal that boarding attacks are the same way.

Note: I always play simultaneus move/no tactical combat even vs. the AI.

[dumbluck]

Yes, and you were close.

In the strategies menu, under firing, you need to change the Targeting Priority. It generally defaults to something like Strongest, nearest, most damaged, has weapons or some such nonsense.
You need to change the Ramming strategy (or is it named Kamakazi?) to be something closer to Nearest, has weapons, strongest, most damaged. Of coarse, you can tailor it to your needs, but if you want to have them attack the nearest ships, then make sure the first entry is Nearest.

Also, check the newbie FAQ sticky thread, I'm sure there is a section in there about the strategies screen. Heck, I probably need to check it to refresh on some things!

[teal]

Originally posted by dumbluck:
Yes, and you were close.

In the strategies menu, under firing, you need to change the Targeting Priority. It generally defaults to something like Strongest, nearest, most damaged, has weapons or some such nonsense.
You need to change the Ramming strategy (or is it named Kamakazi?) to be something closer to Nearest, has weapons, strongest, most damaged. Of coarse, you can tailor it to your needs, but if you want to have them attack the nearest ships, then make sure the first entry is Nearest.

Also, check the newbie FAQ sticky thread, I'm sure there is a section in there about the strategies screen. Heck, I probably need to check it to refresh on some things!

I did that. The result was as I described. The ships continued to steam full spead ahead to the big ship in the back of the fleet. Ignoring the little ships in front of them even when their targeting priorities were set to "nearest, weakest, has weapons, etc." If I put a direct fire weapon on them then they would fire on these weaker ships as they past, but still ram the big ship in the back. I'm a bit confused by this myself...

[Ruatha]

If you where about to die, would you choose to go with a little bang taking out a small ship or would you aim for the biggest meanest ship, trying to make your dent in history?

I say that the ships of yours are run by people, who wants to remembered.
Sitting there at the helm they see their orders;
"Nearest / Nearest / Nearest / Nearest", - No way ! they exclaim and heads for the juicy target instead.

If you start writing songs about the crews of the ships that ram the small enemy ships you might see a difference. Try it!

[ May 25, 2003, 15:15: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[dumbluck]

Do you have the ramming ships in a fleet? If so, they will try to follow their fleet strategy instead of their ship strategy unless you marked them to break formation.

Generally speaking I mark all my strategies to have everything break formation. However, there are a few instances when this is a bad idea.

1)Capturing planets
2)if your attack ships have different speed Ratings, and this is NOT a WP battle.

Again, I suggest the Newbie FAQ.

[ May 25, 2003, 15:51: Message edited by: dumbluck ]

[Grandpa Kim]

Originally posted by dumbluck:
Generally speaking I mark all my strategies to have everything break formation. However, there are a few instances when this is a bad idea.

1)Capturing planets

Why is this a bad idea? I have my planet capture fleets break formation and it seems to work wonderfully.

[Fyron]

Yeah... breaking formation is a good idea for capture planet strategy, not a bad idea. It allows ships to all get as close to the planet to destroy WPs as fast as they can. Just make sure all troop transports have capture planet strategy, and it works perfectly fine.

[Slick]

If you have a large number of ships in the fleet, they can block the way for your troop transport to make it to the planet; in or out of formation. The situation is worse if they are not in formation or you have a very "tight" formation with no room for the TT to get through. If your Troop Transport can't get next to the planet, no troops can land. For large fleets I recommend staying in formation, and pick a "loose" formation that can allow the TT through from behind since the TT initially runs away and usually has to get through your fleet to make it to the planet.

Slick.

[Fyron]

I hardly ever see that happen. Picking a starting formation that has lots of spaces in it, such as the V shaped one, typically eliminates the problem for me. 50 some planets conquered in one game, and the problem you speak of only happened once, when I was using the Phalanx formation.

[Slick]

I stand by my recommendation. If the number of ships is large, they will crowd around the planet in trying to destroy the WP's. The planet doesn't even have to be surrounded before the TT get's stuck. If the side of the planet that the TT approaches from is blocked, the TT gets stuck and the initial formation is irrelevent.

Slick.