Tactical Combat Solution: Initial Deployment Turn

[Noble713]

I'm sure others have mentioned this (at least for defenses), but here goes:


This feature was in SE3 (and in SE2, I think), and I don't know why it was removed. You know that 1st turn in tactical combat when you can't move your ships, and you can select enemy forces by left-clicking? This should be the deployment turn. A large box is set up around your ships (depending on which direction they came from), and you can instantly move any ship to any square by dragging it there.

Problems this would solve:

1. Cluttered formations. I HATE going into battle with 2+ fleets of 20 ships each, as they always start out stuck together and spend the first few turns trying to spread out.

2. Will allow you to break a large fleet up into smaller formations with specific positions (fast ships on the left flank in a Flying V, heavy ships Line Abreast on the right flank, missile ships forming a Dome in the center).

3. Would solve the problem of bases being on the wrong side of the planet. Just move 'em when the tactical combat starts.

4. More logical arrangement for warp point battles. Why oh why would you park your vulnerable carriers and repair ships RIGHT NEXT to the warp point you are defending? These things should be at least 10 squares away, and with a deployment turn, you could put them there. Same goes for missile ships and other stuff that wasn't meant to slug it out at point-blank range.

[Jubala]

Yes! Come to poppa! Give it to me baby!

Well, that would be my reaction if I saw this added in a patch readme.

It would be even better if you could have some "favourite pick" formations you use often to just go with and then adjust what's needed. But that can probably be done with formations as they are right now, so Noble's idea would be enough methinks.

And both attackers and defenders gets to do this. Very important. Especially if TCP/IP play is added because in AoW only the defender can do it and alot of time is wasted waiting for the attacker to get into formation before he/she advances.

[Daynarr]

quote:

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Originally posted by Noble713:
I'm sure others have mentioned this (at least for defenses), but here goes:


This feature was in SE3 (and in SE2, I think), and I don't know why it was removed. You know that 1st turn in tactical combat when you can't move your ships, and you can select enemy forces by left-clicking? This should be the deployment turn. A large box is set up around your ships (depending on which direction they came from), and you can instantly move any ship to any square by dragging it there.

Problems this would solve:

1. Cluttered formations. I HATE going into battle with 2+ fleets of 20 ships each, as they always start out stuck together and spend the first few turns trying to spread out.

2. Will allow you to break a large fleet up into smaller formations with specific positions (fast ships on the left flank in a Flying V, heavy ships Line Abreast on the right flank, missile ships forming a Dome in the center).

3. Would solve the problem of bases being on the wrong side of the planet. Just move 'em when the tactical combat starts.

4. More logical arrangement for warp point battles. Why oh why would you park your vulnerable carriers and repair ships RIGHT NEXT to the warp point you are defending? These things should be at least 10 squares away, and with a deployment turn, you could put them there. Same goes for missile ships and other stuff that wasn't meant to slug it out at point-blank range.

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I agree with this 100%. Would solve MANY, MANY, MANY, (you get the idea )... problems.

[Tampa_Gamer]

I like it!

[rdouglass]

I like the idea about placing the bases at the beginning of combat, but I think we (the human players) have a big enough advantage over the AI in Tactical already. (I rarely ever use bases just for that reason) If the AI gets better at Tactical, then "Yes, lets have that feature". But for now, most intermediate to experienced players can waste most AI's with far fewer and more inferior ships in Tactical Combat. What with the "missle dance" strategy, etc. we have a huge advantage - the AI just doesn't use 'em.

However, being able to place your fleets on the EDGE of the map corresponding to the direction you entered the sector from; now that would be very helpful in those larger, multi-fleet battles. I don't think I'd want to place them ANYWHERE on the map - too much of an advantage. Another feature I'd like to see for combat is 'stacking' ships in combat squares. That's something you also could do in SE3 that IMO is very much missed.

[This message has been edited by rdouglass (edited 10 January 2001).]

[KiloOhm]

quote:

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Originally posted by rdouglass:
However, being able to place your fleets on the EDGE of the map corresponding to the direction you entered the sector from; now that would be very helpful in those larger, multi-fleet battles. I don't think I'd want to place them ANYWHERE on the map - too much of an advantage. Another feature I'd like to see for combat is 'stacking' ships in combat squares. That's something you also could do in SE3 that IMO is very much missed.

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I believe it does this now (well, you can't place them but if you have a fleet in a sector, then send a fleet from another direction, they will be on differen't edges of the combat area (this happened to me Last night when I declared war on a race where my ships were in the same sector. The next turn I moved a ship in to reenforce my units. My fleet was on the far right of the map and the ship I brought in was on the far left.



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Regards,
KiloOhm