newby's guide to ship and fleet strategy - Page 5

Phoenix-D · #41 February 16th, 2002, 07:49 AM

Try reversing- Optimal Weapons range as primary, board as secondary. I also heard this had been improved in Gold?

Phoenix-D

Mephisto · #42 February 16th, 2002, 08:44 AM

Reversing doesn't solve the problem. It is just an bug and already fixed in GOLD. So wait for it.

Grandpa Kim · #43 February 18th, 2002, 07:43 AM

quote:
Originally posted by tesco samoa:

I usually have 4 of these puppies supporting a mid size fleet of 50 ships.

And 2 of the mid size fleets support a large fleet of 100 + ships

So your talking 11 fleets to take control of an area.

Must be a ***** to implement when a game only allows 200 or 300 ships.

dumbluck · #44 February 18th, 2002, 08:11 AM

SJ:
If I remember correctly, someone on this forum somewhere (don't you just love how specific my answers are?) had decent luck with ship/planet captures. The way they did it was to set the fleet strategy to the corresponding "Capture" strategy and set the ships to NOT break formation. That way, they all follow the fleet strategy. You also might have to give the capture ships a weapon (not sure on that one though, see below). I can't remember what they set the secondary fleet strategy to, but the general Idea was that every turn (or whatever frequency it occures at), the AI attempts it's primary strategy and tries to capture. If it can't, it reverts to the secondary strategy and proceeds to pound on the target. This cycle repeats until the primary strategy can be achieved (by the capture ships, anyway); at which point they rush in to attempt the capture.

You might have to give the capture ships a weapon (I think shield depleters were the favorite) so that the they will stay close to the combat and be in range to attempt the capture. Any ship without weapons automatically reverts to "Don't get hurt", IIRC. The same problem exists for PDC support ships. PDC isn't considered a weapon, so without a weapon thrown in, they just run for the corners. However, I think that the "don't break formation" overrides this, and the capture ships stay in formation anyway. I can't remember for sure, but this shouldn't be hard to test for yourself, anyway.

Note: If this works for capture ships, it should also work for PDC ships. IIRC, there are two entries for ships in the break formation menu: with weapons and without. So theoretically, you could set the ships with weapons to break formation, but the ones without weapons to stay in formation with the leader. (I think the leader has to stay in formation as well, so you may have to set a PDC or Capture ship as the fleet leader. Or I suppose you could make the repair or supply tender the leader, although I don't see why you would want to....

)

Anyway, that's just my overpriced $0.02...

Grandpa Kim · #45 February 18th, 2002, 09:12 AM

quote:
Originally posted by dumbluck:

Any ship without weapons automatically reverts to "Don't get hurt"

PDC isn't considered a weapon, so without a weapon thrown in, they just run for the corners.

Can someone confirm this? If true, I gotta make some changes!!! Actually, I'm beginning to see ways to take advantage of these oddities.
Could it be that shield depleters are not considered weapons as well? That could be why boarding ships run for the corners.

PvK · #46 February 18th, 2002, 09:25 AM

In the case of both PDC and Shield Depleters, they are BOTH weapons, but if there are no targets they can hurt, and the ships have no weapons that have any targets, then the ships move to corners.

PvK

dumbluck · #47 February 18th, 2002, 09:51 AM

PvK:
Are you sure???? I thought it was a well established fact that PDC were not weapons. For instance, it explains why they aren't affected by the default weapons mounts. Other weapons get damage bonuses with the mounts, while PDC damage stays the same, and isn't even listed in the ship creation screen as being altered by the mount (while all the weapons get the little "L" in their picture for Large mount, etc.).

As to the shield depleters, I don't know. I've never used them.

[ 18 February 2002: Message edited by: dumbluck ]

Grandpa Kim · #48 February 18th, 2002, 06:54 PM

Now here's a couple things that have been bothering me.

If a ship is set to say, "short weapons range" with secondary at "point blank" will it fire at all if it is currently at maximum range (with no move points left)?

Similarly if the type priority is set to "ships" as the first priority, will it bypass bases, satelites etc. without firing, to get to a ship?

Oops, one more. Which takes priority, "targeting priority" or "type priority"?

tesco samoa · #49 February 18th, 2002, 07:16 PM

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by tesco samoa:

I usually have 4 of these puppies supporting a mid size fleet of 50 ships.
And 2 of the mid size fleets support a large fleet of 100 + ships

So your talking 11 fleets to take control of an area.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Must be a ***** to implement when a game only allows 200 or 300 ships.

Nah I just downsize everything.... or something.

I have never played a game with the limiting factor 200 or 300 on ships and bases.

I follow the school of if you can support it you should be able to build it.

tesco samoa · #50 February 18th, 2002, 07:23 PM

Ships will fire all weapons when they are in range.

ON the second question. They will fire at their primary target if they are in range else they will shoot at whats next on the list until there is nothing to shoot at.

On the 3rd question I believe it is Type priority But I could be wrong here.

Dumbluck.

PDC's are not weapons in the 1.49 world

The Large mounts etc... only apply to direct fire weapons.

One thing I love is the fact that armor skipping weapons will destroy armor after there is nothing left on the enemy ship except armor.

I believe that is a bug.