Your Favorite Strategy/Formations

Taera · #1 July 2nd, 2003, 07:09 AM

I dont use default strategies - i design several of my own. My usual strategies are Smart Max Range, which makes the ship stay away (max range, then optimal range) from the target and NOT to go after seekers or fighters. There is Bull strategy which is ram, then shoot (works perfectly when done right). Then there is Brawl which is a modified Version of optimal range and Hunt which is optimal range with emphasize on attacking "other" targets such as transports, carriers and smaller ships.

Formations, for warfleets i use the Turbine formation - as i stated elsewhere i find is quite efficient. For massive fleets i favor wall formations. For smaller/lighter fleets i use the Spider formation. Generally i now also try to avoid formation fighting. But sometimes its useful.

mac5732 · #2 July 3rd, 2003, 04:26 AM

I like to use the double wall formation in tactical... I've used it in some stratigic ones but didn't seem to have much problem, whats the difference in using some formations vs break formation, wouldn't that scatter your ships more if you scatter and weaken you fire power?

just some ideas mac

Taera · #3 July 3rd, 2003, 04:38 AM

there is a drawback and a benefit to that.
The drawbacks of formations, there are two major ones - for one unless your using moderately tight formation AND/OR long-range weapons (APB, WMG...) your damage would be spread and if youre facing tight formation some of the weapons might not get to shoot at all. Second drawback is when the formation turns around - chances are its going to get messy.

Now the only benefit i know of, which for me often offsets the drawbacks, is that the enemy has to spread fire aswell. Formations such as Turbine get your ships spinning around and if they all are well armored and shielded chances are they will not die fast and might come out of battle hardly damaged. This depends on the firepower of the enemy however. Fyron here had been telling me its useless because for ships its all-or-nothing because they die when shot at. Its all debatable, and for organic or crystallurgy races the damage spreading / ship rotation might be quite useful.

Joe Cool · #4 July 4th, 2003, 02:07 AM

Where do I find "turbine" formation? I look under Crown->Strategies->Formation and I just get a list of ships that will break formation...
Also, I asked this in another post, so sorry if you see this twice, but can you have several fleets flying together and have them all join battle, with their own strategies?
Thanks,
Joe

Taera · #5 July 4th, 2003, 04:34 AM

Formations are different from strategies. You cannot directly modify/add formations. TO see the existing ones go to Help window and go to formations tab. Changing formation, you should know that, if you've been playing around with fleets and their strategies

To answer your question, as i did in the other thread

yes, each fleet, unless it breaks formation, is like an individual ship - it is completely independent of anything else. If it breaks formation still the ships follow their own strategies, and the rest of the fleets are inaffected.

Soulfisher · #6 July 7th, 2003, 08:03 AM

I prefer Wall formation (set to break formation) because it keeps your ships "all in front": they all can engage the enemey at the same time. The Dark Wing formation (a formation I've seen in some mods) also provides nearly the same results, but with more protection for the leader.

With this in mind, I created a new formation for my mod called "Command Wall". Esentially, the leader is far behind the rest of this close double wall formation.