Combat revamp/makeover?

[Dadds]

Hi Sir Emi.

Any chance of looking at a combat makeover? In particular to do with multiple ship vs multiple ship combats.
As it stands now, the strongest powered ship takes the first strike vs their strongest, then the next pair and so on...
If there is an overflow in defence (ie more defence ships/platforms than attackers), then all the remaining defenders battle on the attackers most powerful unit that still has strike ability. The battle is over for the remainder of the attackers fleet, even if they have only fired 1 shot at a defender causing him to retreat.
If the attackers most powerful ship fails to complete all its mission objectives because it runs out of guns or fails to do enough damage to mission target, the attack fails.
I find that annoying when i have a practically unused 2nd combat ship sitting by with all guns bar 1 armed and ready and not allowed to follow up to finish off the foe. It means i have to start yet another combat counter to wipe out the remnants of the mission when that one ship sitting idly by could have finished the job
The other thing i am noticing (maybe it should be posted in bugs?) is that if my carrier fleet engages in a battle with a combat ship in her hangar, that ship doesnt deploy to assist in the battle. Not sure if its that location bug causing the problem by loading a ship elsewhere into a hangar bay, transporting it to another location and then going into combat there. Perhaps the computer still seems to think that ship hasnt moved from its previous location and therefore doesnt come into the current field of combat?

Regards,

Dadds

[sargas]

What I am seeing is that the carried warships do not deploy automatically during an attack but will deploy in a defensive situation.  

This actually remedies the previous situation where all ships on the mothership deploy and conduct combat even when the mothership and its remaining children are in another location.  

I have no problem at all with deploying ships from the hangars when I need them or not deploying them when I do not.

What needs to be done is to give the attacker/defender the option to attack whichever enemy ship they want (for example, allow your strongest against any defender and the other attackers to assign themselves to whichever enemy ship they choose.  That could mean that all attackers can target the same ship and when that is done (if the attackers still have unfired weapons) they will attack the lesser enemies.  To take it further, the attackin ship #1 can attack enemy ship #3, while attacke #2 fights defender #X and attacker #3 fighting defender #X (or Y)


(edit - It was in Vietnam when a SFC ordered me to make my face look like my ID card.  I figured that if A equals B, then B equals A.  So, I got a new ID card with a moustache.  He was really upset.)

[Fenix]

That sounds interesting, if I'm reading all that right sargas that kind of sounds like you would like a turn based combat system rather than the semi-automatic system that exists now, where you could select which ships you would use to attack with as well as their targets, and what weapons you would be attacking with. I haven't done much combat so I'm not that familiar with the current system but a turn based system if that is what you are talking about sounds like it would offer more tactical diversity. Then again I'm just a noob lol, I'm just kind of interested in what all you guys are talking about, partly because I don't understand all of it. =)

[JamJulLison]

I actually would rather see weapon systems restored back to how they were before. I have hated the once a battle bullcrap since it was added in.    Once a round was fine. A battle doesn't make much sense.  Your telling me a laser can only be fired once?  That a squadron of viper fighters can only attack once?  Railguns I might be able to buy it taking a while to reload. The rest I don't.   As for a turnbase system.  It's not needed. You shouldn't get to pick and choose which ships you fight. No sane commander would just let one of his ships be a target. They would naturally have all available ship assist them.

There are some options that can be added in to make things better.

1. Auto-deploy hanger ships option.  This is an option you can turn on and off on each ship that has other ships in it. When on ships auto deploy for battles. When off they don't.

2. An option on ships and space stations to defend other players who might be attacked. Perhaps even go as far as being able to select who exactly your stuff is protecting. This would make it easier to defend other players from pirates.

3. Tractor Beams.  These could be used to prevent enemy ships from jumping away from an attack. They could be placed on ships and space stations. In order to overpower one of these a ship would need higher level combat drives to power out of it. This would finally give us a real use for Combat Drives too.

4. Combat Times.  Something really has to be done about combat times. That is something we all agree on.

[Dadds]

4. Combat Times.  Something really has to be done about combat times. That is something we all agree on.

PvP maybe some sort of ready status, or timer waiver may be a good thing to speed up combat between players. both, or all, combatants would have to request/agree to a timer waiver for it to proceed. Once a waiver or request was submitted, it would be irrevocable.
As for PvE events, a system of timer is important to add some game time reality to everyone to keep it fair for all. Small ships have short combat time which helps to build quicker funds. Bigger ships take longer but financial rewards can be much greater but it stops top players getting way too powerful too quickly.

[JamJulLison]

I was thinking more a kind of Officer that can speed up attack times for the offense and a separate timer for the defense that can increase it.  Then perhaps make combat drives be able to also increase the timer. The amount depends on the number of drives and their tech levl.