two MAJOR questions for simul-games...

[TurinTurambar]

...and yes I read the FAQ.

Question 1:
The most important ability in a simul-game (imho) is to be able to whack a planet "on auto." That being said, programmed strategies are it. So, in the strategies programming, the window,"Types That Break Formation" is to be taken how?

a): Encountering these types will break up the general formation? Or,

b): These types will break from the formation in the event of combat/confrontation?

If "b" is true (which I have been told), how can Planets, Mines, and Satellites be part of a formation? I guess what I'm really trying to ask here is, "How do I get a fleet of Missile Cruisers to move to a planet and break formation?" (to avoid sweeping the trailing edge of a formation into weapons range and allow the ships to use their individual strategy types)

Question 2:
What does the "Sentry" command do in a simul-game?
Does it:

a): Cause the ship to wait in position and halt anything moving through its specific sector? Or,

b): Put the ship on stand-by in the given system until an enemy presence is detected, at which point it will move to intercept?

Being forced into war-footing at turn 6 of a PBW game is a difficult situation to overcome. Any timely advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

[ April 17, 2004, 17:46: Message edited by: TurinTurambar ]

[Fyron]

1) Your ships that have that design strategy will break from formations. Only ships and fighters can ever be in formations. Other things are in the list for no reason I know, other than it might have been possible to code them to be able to go into formation.

2) Sentry means the ships will not be selected with the "select next ship" button. They will desentry when any enemy object is present in the same system, whether it is ship, unit, planet, whatever.

[Alneyan]

I can only answer question 2, since there is no love lost between the strategical battles and myself. (And believe me, you do not want to emulate my own "strategies" when such battles occur. *Smirks*)

Sentry means that the ship will not move and will be considered "inactive" as long as no enemy enters in the system. Afterwards, the ship will carry out its orders, if it has any order besides sentry. The main use for this command would be to give orders for your ships when faced with an invasion, but it may be quite unreliable as you won't know *which* ships entered the system, how many and so on. (For example, you could order a Stellar Destroyer to blow up a star once an enemy enters the system, but it would occur if even a single scout enter the system, which isn't quite what you want)

Sentry can also be used to remove some ships from the "go to next ship" command, although fleets would work in this case as well. Lastly, all ships in a sector engage a battle with any enemy ship entering this sector, unless one of the sides has all its ships protected by cloaking. (Assuming the other side doesn't have a sensor able to see through the cloak) So you do not need the Sentry command to achieve this effect.

[LGM]

Turin Turambar - what a great character to use as your code name. Married his sister and killed his best friend.

[PvK]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
1) Your ships that have that design strategy will break from formations. Only ships and fighters can ever be in formations. Other things are in the list for no reason I know, other than it might have been possible to code them to be able to go into formation.
...

My memory/understanding disagrees with this. I think actually the fleet's strategy is consulted, and the indicated vehicle types will use their own strategies and break formation, while the types told not to break formation in the fleet strategy, will use the fleet's strategy and stay in formation. So, you cannot have, say, combat ship design A break formation but combat ship design B stay in formation, unless you place them in multiple fleets with different fleet strategies.

PvK

[PvK]

Originally posted by TurinTurambar:
... I guess what I'm really trying to ask here is, "How do I get a fleet of Missile Cruisers to move to a planet and break formation?" (to avoid sweeping the trailing edge of a formation into weapons range and allow the ships to use their individual strategy types)
...

Simply set the fleet's strategy to one that tells ships to break formation.

PvK

[Fyron]

Hmm... yeah, it is the fleet strategy that tells them whether to break formation or not. Really, it is a good idea to have all ship strategies set to break formation. Staying in formation is a really bad idea in 99.9% of situations.

[PvK]

Generally, yeah. Exceptions can be if you really want some ships to escort a specific ship (but then that ship needs a weapon and a combat strategy, or it will break formation anyway ), and getting a few specific ships to fight as a group in a certain formation, which I've used successfully when micro-managing in a competetive game, but ya, that would be the 0.1% ...

PvK

[TurinTurambar]

OK, so it seems to me that the Sentry command is useless in 99.2% of the game so nevermind that. My idea of a Sentry command is one for the wishbook I guess.

So, to strategy. If I get the gist of the replies, my best option is to set ship strategy at Max.Weap.Range and program the fleet's strategy to break on Planets. The fleet formation really then just becomes a vehicle for large-scale movement and a unified command. Ships set to MWR will fire long-range missiles, stay mostly out of the range of beam weapons on WP's, and damage the planet to the degree specified in the MWR strategy.

Should work, right?

[TurinTurambar]

Originally posted by LGM:
Turin Turambar - what a great character to use as your code name. Married his sister and killed his best friend.

The Edain are my favorite denizens of First Age mythos, T�rin was the greatest of them save maybe his father H�rin of Dor-l�min, and "The Tale of the Children of H�rin" is one of the best stories ever penned. But you already know all this, don't you Mr.Smarty-Pants? Then you also know that Turambar means "master of doom" in Quenya, and you have to admit, that's a nice "haughty" name for gaming!
... and hey, the story's a Tragedy... these things happen in tragedies! ;-)