Starting combat distance |
Is the range between combatants at the start of combat hardcoded into the game or is it found in the data files somewhere? I have found that anti-ship drones start much closer to the target ship(s) than regular vessels. This is really unnecessary due to the huge speed advantage drones have over other ships. Perhaps it would be better if the initial distance was a randomly generated value maybe between 150-300 units.
Re: Starting combat distance
It applies when a drone-only force initiates combat. They start much closer to the enemy than ships typically do.
I don't know if it's hard coded, but I tacked the issue on to one of my bug reports with a save game. Don't know if it's being fixed or not.
It's sort of trivial in most cases, but could be a factor in some situations.
Re: Starting combat distance
I suppose you could look at the distance as the time it takes for the ships to pick up that the drones are there. Since drones travel much quicker than normal ships, and are harder to spot, they would get closer to the ships before the 'battle' begins. Does the same thing happen if you use fighters? If so I would imagine it would be deliberate. It seems reasonable to me, but I might be thinking about it the wrong way, any other ideas?
Re: Starting combat distance
Typically, ships travel from the center of a sector to the center of a sector.
You can move ships/satellites/etc. around in the sector view, though I'd imagine that enemies in that sector would prevent this.
If a ship moves within the sector in one combat (say, chasing another, faster ship that emerged from a warp point, then fled) then either you have to move it in the sector view, or else it stays wherever it parked at the end of that combat. Giving it the move command from one sector to another might not work, I've not tested that.
As far as Drones go ... dunno about that one.