General fleet commands needed. |
It's a bit bothersome how this system works...
Say I have 18 targets, all running in all directions...but instead of ordering a general hunt.I have to micro each ship towards it..I can't even set them on pursue.
In addition..fleet in this game makes no sense whatsoever..
There is no perks of using fleet, and only negatives in having stupid formations that make the entire fleet vulnerable and inflexible.
I want those formations gone, and just replaced with a 'container' to put ships into, to make it more tidy on the board.
Also, general orders like Sword of the stars would be nice..its SO handy to just have the ships on hunt when the battles is engaged.
Janster
Not exactly
First, ships in fleets gain Fleet experience. An experienced fleet will be harder to hit and it'll hit more often.
Second, you can just set your strategies to "break formation" and not have to deal with the formations at all. Not having ship orders is probably a hold-over from the SE4 days where combat was turn-based. You can turn automove and autotarget on at any time, though, which will give roughly the effect you want.
Agree - macromanagement a must
An RTS game I still play now and again - Majesty - has a unique system that eliminates a lot of micromanagement (sometimes too much). You tag locations and enemies that you want explored/attacked and the various heroes you have go out to those tagged targets of their own free will. They individually decide which tags to go to, when to retreat, what equipment to get, etc.
Giving fleets goals that individual ships or task forces decide how and when to do would help significantly reduce micromanagement while still providing the human with tactical abilities.
For example: You have Fleet X with TF1 - Attack Ships, TF2 - Carrier group, TF3 - Support group
You could give TF1 the goal of 'Engage enemy ships' and 'Ignore formation'.
Give TF2 the goal of 'Engage with fighters','Avoid ship to ship combat', and 'Retreat only if necessary'
Give TF3 the goal of 'Avoid all combat' and 'Retreat only if necessary'
This would make combat a lot more fun when fleet are involved, IMO.
Being able to design formations in-game would also be nice 
-----
Give me atmopshperic manipulation cannons, or give me death!
subject
Giving fleets goals that individual ships or task forces decide how and when to do would help significantly reduce micromanagement while still providing the human with tactical abilities.
For example: You have Fleet X with TF1 - Attack Ships, TF2 - Carrier group, TF3 - Support group
You could give TF1 the goal of 'Engage enemy ships' and 'Ignore formation'.
Give TF2 the goal of 'Engage with fighters','Avoid ship to ship combat', and 'Retreat only if necessary'
Give TF3 the goal of 'Avoid all combat' and 'Retreat only if necessary'
You can do all that already (well, except the last part of TF2/3's strategy). The problem, as mentioned in the post above yours, is that the AI isn't too bright about following those orders.
Until that's sorted out, adding these sort of orders wouldn't help. :/ Broad-scale fleet orders are probably more feasible. (and adding combat groups like most RTS games have, so I don't have to hunt down and band-select my fighters every time!)
I didn't mean to imply they weren't a good idea, just explain one reason they might not be in yet.
Mid combat
I meant all of that so you can change what a fleet's specific strategies are on-the-fly. There are plenty of times I can think of where one strategy doesn't work for all circumstances, and being able to change strategies would improve the viability of fleets from a player perspective, I think.
-----
Give me atmopshperic manipulation cannons, or give me death!
It seems fleets was another
It seems fleets was another concept that was not finished.