Fleet in combat

Isn't there a fleet editor around here somewhere? I can't remember exactly but I think someone has address this exact problem...

Fleet editor's for when you want to design your own formations. All Rollo wants to do is change distance - which is 2 numbers (width and height of 'square' that the formation is defined in) for each formation in Formation_TaskForces.txt

If you want the option to have long and short distances, then you'll have to do some copy/pasting to set them up in advance.

Task Force Leader is easiest identified by renaming the ship with say ' *' appended to the end. You'll learn to grow out of Tactical Mode eventually though, but it's nice at first to have full control.

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Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

The leader usually seems to be the ship in front leading (and often getting shot at first). At least in my experience.

Say "No" to Arrowhead.

lol, I usually use Wall ..not sure why but I have no complaints about it really.

I made my own formation long ago - leader is at the back and we have a tight umbrella just in front of him.

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Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

I've never really noticed the effects of fleet leaders, if they die do your ships become weaker in combat?

Not weaker, I don't think but all your other ships (in that task force) will follow the leader and if the leader dies I *think* that will make them all break formation. Thats what I suspect happens but I've never really studied it.

heh, well I use tactical combat at times but mostly just to look at the battles - I let the computer fight it out for me after having setup all the strategies I want them to follow.

I get the feeling nobody stays using tactical combat for long, once they realise it's horribly overpowered against the AI and multiplayer doesn't allow tactical combat anyway (because it's impossible under the game's architecture{?} to have both players control their fleets).

If a few seconds to rename a ship to be taskforce leader (with a ' *') is too much micro then all I can say is to build a unique ship to be the leader and keep it as the leader.

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Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

The effects of losing a leader was readily appearant in SE4. I'm assuming it works the same way in SE5. (Break formation and I believe lose leadership bonuses)

What leadership bonuses? I wasn't aware SE had a leadership component. Experience levels for ships/fleets sure, but those aren't derived from a leader but from individual ships/fleets. Am I missing something?

There's no leadership bonuses.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

My mistake then. Why then are there leaders in the first place if not to provide leadership? I thought it was something like giving the fleet the benefit of the ship's experience points. Isn't there a component that does something similar? (Neural Interface?)

All ships equipped with a neural interface have the same exact experience level so, theoretically, you could have neural nets on all your ships and just train 1 ship up to the max and all your other ships would be trained as well.

As far as I know, leaders are only there so the other ships will have someone to follow, heh.

A task force leader is the main ship. In the formation description (see the "?" menu at the top of the SEV main window), the leader occupies the "L" slot. When fighting to a combat strategy definition that specifies staying in formation, the rest of the ships will attempt to maintain formation relative to that ship during combat. The leader is the only core ship that moves independently as far as choosing a target to move toward, or trying to establish an engagement distance...all the rest are simply playing 'follow the leader' as far as moving goes.

If the combat strategy allows the ships to break formation, then the leader only plays a "special" role at the start of combat. The formation is arranged at the beginning of combat, but after that it's just another ship...once combat starts, all ships move independently according to the task force strategy (and the formation dissolves).

Not much of a leader.

errmmm...what do you want a task force leader to be, then?

A Hero type, perhaps? heh - An able Grand Marshal of your fleet with varied bonuses that, with him as the leader in the fleet, would confer on your fleetmates additional bonuses. Have his bonuses scaled to what experience level he is, maybe? I don't know, just throwing around ideas.

I'd like to see a leader lead. Perhaps a bonus to the fleet. A small fleet led by a Napoleon should still crush a large one lead by a Dan Quayle for example. Right now, they are no more than a place to send the mail.

So this is an issue of semantics, it seems. What should the ship be called that is the focal point/basis for a formation of ships? There needs to be a name for that, beecause no matter how experienced or inexperienced the ships in a formation are, ONE of them has to be the starting point for the formation. Personally, I think that "Task Force Leader" fits that bill.

If you're talking about an individual hero or an individual command crew on a ship or something like that, there needs to be another word for it to use. "Hero" is one suggestion, obviously. Is it possible that you're a MOO2 player, so when you think of "Leader", it carries with it the connotation of some sort of bonus?

I'm not really thinking in terms of a role-playing element like MOO2. Let's think of it in another way: a fleet with a leader is the norm and there should be a penalty for breaking formation.

I feel it's pointless trying to script that penalty in - it already exists. Ships which have different max speeds are going to die faster if they don't stick to formation. However, this doesn't mean breaking formation is always a bad thing - if you've been lazy then all your ships are in one task force and thus their individual strategies get overwritten.

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Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

I've found formation movement to be rather inefficent. They spend too much time turning and re-forming and fewer ships can bring their guns to bear. An attacker can also pick off ships at the edges. I've also seen a gaggle of ships hanging behind a formation as well. Since there is plenty of room in space I'd like to be able to hedgehog the ships to maximize the offensive and defensive power (basically stacking them in the same area).