SE5 - Strategies

Thermodyne · #1 August 11th, 2004, 03:01 PM

Quote:

I think the most essential feature is pretty basic. Ships with don't get hurt orders should not run to the corners that are PAST the enemy fleet. Right now they often run straight at the enemy while seeking that far corner..not very helpful.

Perhaps ships set to "Don't get hurt" should be able to refuse combat and run off the map if they are fast enough to do so before getting damaged.

Renegade 13 · #2 August 11th, 2004, 08:44 PM

People have mentioned retreat being an option. While I like this idea, there is one problem. Does anyone else remember how retreat is SEIII worked? Often, an enemy colony ship or transport could run off the end of the map every single time you attacked it. This became annoying, because the only way to destroy that ship was to push it into the corner of the system map, and block (with other ships) the 3 possible escape routes, so they could not retreat from the combat.

If there is to be a retreat option in combat, my request would be to have it so situations such as the one described above can not occur. Unfortunately, I'm not at all sure how that would be implemented!

Fyron · #3 August 11th, 2004, 09:13 PM

Make it so that you can only retreat if either:

1) You move faster than all of the enemy warships. You should always be able to run away if you are faster.

2) You mill about at the edge of the map for 10 turns without being fired at. If you are slower, but the enemy is not chasing you down, why can you not just continue on your merry way? Or, if your warships set out to engage the enemy warships so that the non-combatants can get away, why should this not be allowable? There are many realistic situations in which this occurs. Naturally, this option will require making the AI smart enough to send at least one warship against each fleeing enemy non-combatant if there are no enemy warships, or only sending ships after fleeing non-combatants if there are enough warships to devote to crushing the enemy fleet.

Instar · #4 August 11th, 2004, 10:42 PM

Im a fan of more complex strategies myself, like setting up flanking or whatever. Scriptable AI would be great though, it would make things tougher to mod maybe, but it'd be nice to have.

Thermodyne · #5 August 11th, 2004, 11:06 PM

"People have mentioned retreat being an option. While I like this idea, there is one problem. Does anyone else remember how retreat is SEIII worked?"

It was a good option for getting past warp point defences too

Master Belisarius · #6 August 11th, 2004, 11:33 PM

Quote:

"People have mentioned retreat being an option. While I like this idea, there is one problem. Does anyone else remember how retreat is SEIII worked?"

It was a good option for getting past warp point defences too

Exactly my friend! Always I have considered the tricks around the SE3's retreat, as a feature! Not a bug or problem!

Azselendor · #7 August 12th, 2004, 01:56 AM

I'm sure this has been mentioned already, but how about being able to draw out generic strategies like a football game plan. This way, in strategic combat, a player can still hold some control over thier fleet.

Perhaps a 'fog of war' option for combat too.

Paul1980au · #8 August 12th, 2004, 07:04 AM

how would you work with a fog of war option in combat - you would have to factor in cloaking levels, scanners, computer tech levels, defensive bonuses - movement ability - other special tech.

It sounds interesting but perhaps fog of war is better kept to the actual empire level part of the game - the overhead manangement part.

Raging Deadstar · #9 August 12th, 2004, 07:11 AM

I think all these stratergy suggestions are great and all but I think we really need to keep things simple with the option of customisation. We might be "veterans" of the Space Empires but new players probably don't want to be swamped in options.

Also A better Combat Simulator to test them out would be a start.