Once again, thank you for a truly great game. My wife is not very pleased with Stardock...but my 4 and 6 year-olds love watching it
I am sure this topic has been covered before during the beta, but here are some thoughts on additional rules of engagement for fleets. Since we are encouraged to use fleets to utilize the AI to help us manage several fleet engagements at a time, this is an area that I feel could use some tweaking. Since we are supposed to be playing at the grand strategy level, it would make sense that we can provide some additional orders such that the commanders have some basic parameters to operate in battle to cut down on micromanaging each battle. These suggestions are largely based on my experience with other games that have similar fleet mechanics and/or goals (e.g. Space Empires V, MOO3, Kohan series, IG II, Conquest: Frontier Wars, etc.). Please read this with the caveat that I have not yet had a chance to explore the data files. The overall goal here is NOT to demand more work out of IC/SD in terms of coming up with alternative rules of engagement, but instead for them to modify the rules of engagement toggles to read external files upon each game start-up so that the players and modding community can be employed to come up with the rules and experiment with them.
RETREAT OPTIONS
Current State: UI Button/hotkey to order ship and/or fleet is to retreat.
Minimal Request: Button would control individual ship retreat thresholds. Button default should remain such that ship will only retreat upon manual order, but could also be cycled/toggled through for ship to retreat automatically when it reaches hull strength of 25% 50% 75% depending on toggle.
Maximum Request: As above, but 3 separate toggles which would represent ship retreat orders based on actual location of ship (e.g. player-owned system, neutral system, or enemy system). For example, during an enemy system raid, I may want to set the retreat level at only 50%, but for system defense I may not want it to retreat at all.
FORMATION OPTIONS
Current State: UI Button/hotkey to toggle through 3 formation types (loose, standard and tight).
Minimal Request: UI Button/hotkey would toggle with more useful formation types (e.g. current toggles only relate to SPACING between objects, they should also toggle initial PLACEMENT of objects – such as placing capital ships in the middle, flak/support ships dispersed throughout formation, V or wing formations, etc.).
Maximum Request: As above, but toggle/cycle choices would generate based on external text file that can be easily modded (for those of you that played Space Empires IV or V, think in terms of the "Formations_Fleet.txt" file). The text file would contain basic information for each formation type such as name, picture to display on UI button for toggle state, and then contain rules for placement of ships based on general classifications (e.g. core, escort, picket, etc.) that are used now for placement (the relationship between the general classifications and the specific ship types should be placed at the top of the text file for reference). The text file would be "read" at the beginning of each game.
ENGAGEMENT RANGE OPTIONS
Current State: UI Button/hotkey to toggle between 2 ranges (hold, local or gravity well)
Minimal Request: UI Button would toggle between one additional range called "keep distance" or something to that effect which orders ships to keep maximum distance between bulk of enemy ships (e.g. would be useful for Carrier fleet sitting on the edge of a gravity well).
Maximum Request: As above, but toggle/cycle choices would generate based on external text file that can be easily modded (for those of you that played Space Empires IV or V, think in terms of the "Strategies.txt" file). The text file would contain basic information for each engagement range type such as name, picture to display on UI button for toggle state, and then contain rules for engagement ranges depending on programming mechanics. The text file would be "read" at the beginning of each game.
TARGETING OPTIONS
Current State: No user input, targets chosen based on internal default AI priority.
Minimum Request: I suppose just setup some additional strategies without allowing the player customization described below.
Maximum Request: Since actual targeting preferences depends on fleet objective, composition, enemy type and enemy fleet composition, there is a great deal that could be improved upon here. There is no "one size fits all" approach. So the approach should be to give the players the tools they need to customize their targeting options as they see fit. The default targeting could remain such, but tools should be added to allow players to create "targeting profiles" that each individual ship could be toggled to. These targeting profiles should be created in an external text file that can be easily modded (again, similar to what was done for Space Empires IV or V with the "Strategies.txt" file). The text file would contain basic information for each targeting profile such as name, picture to display on UI button for toggle state, and then contain rules for target priorities based generally on different target types (example listed below). The text file would be "read" at the beginning of each game.
So for example an entry in this text file could look like this:
Name= "Raid - Enemy TEC"
GUI Button Picture="Raid_vsTEC_Button.bmp"
Targeting Priority 1= Most Damaged Hull
Targeting Priority 2= Most Damaged Shields
Targeting Priority 3= Strongest At Start
Targeting Priority 4= Nearest (Absolute)
Number Of Target Type Settings= 45
Target Type 1 Name= Capital Ship (note - could be more specific for each one)
Target Type 1 Engage Distance= Medium Range
Target Type 1 Damage Amount= 100%
Target Type 2 Name= Siege Frigates (Medium Range)
Target Type 2 Engage Distance := Medium Range
Target Type 2 Damage Amount := 100%
etc.
Targeting Priorities could also include-
Target Nearest (Absolute, or grid increments)
Farthest (Absolute, or grid increments)
Largest \ Smallest
Fastest \ Slowest
Most \ Least Damaged
Most \ Least Shields
Most \ Least Experience
Strongest \ Weakest At Start
