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Author Topic: Fighter/Carrier Behavior Suggestions  (Read 1881 times)

Thaago

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Fighter/Carrier Behavior Suggestions
« on: April 13, 2018, 03:47:47 PM »

While we're talking about fighters again, I have a few things on my wish list I want to put out there:

1) If a carrier is under threat, and has appropriate fighters (like interceptors or heavy fighters for fighters and frigate threats, or even bombers if the threat is a cruiser+), and has not been specifically ordered to a strike or escort, it will recall its fighters to help protect itself. Perhaps modified by personality?

When I fly around with a Hammerhead + makeshift hanger it is really apparent that the ideal behavior if I'm being attacked by fighters and frigates is to recall my own, but the AI doesn't unless the wing gets mauled.

This would also help the situation where, in a carrier vs carrier fight, an interceptor-carrier won't effectively kill a strike-carrier's bombers.

2) In general more interceptor vs fighter targeting? As an example, if I have set some sparks or talons to escort a ship, they do a good job protecting it from fighters. But otherwise they tend to attack ships rather then seek out and destroy fighters. Perhaps this could be modified by ship class, like if you have a wing of interceptor  and a wing of heavy fighter, target an enemy ship, and press engage, both wings will fly towards the enemy ship. The interceptors would preferentially engage fighters in the region of the enemy ship, attacking it if there are none, and the heavy fighters would preferentially attack the ship.

3) Fighters be a little more aware of slow missile threats when flying around. Maybe this is intentional, but if there is a lone rocket or LRM floating gently through space, there is a good chance fighters will sweep right through it. I don't expect fighters to survive a 4x Annihilator salvo from an Enforcer, but at present they don't seem to try to dodge. This may not be fixable, as if the fighters get too 'shy' it will also be a real problem.
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Megas

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Re: Fighter/Carrier Behavior Suggestions
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2018, 04:48:24 PM »

At the very least, I want my AI carriers to send fighters at the enemy instead of escorting my flagship.  There are only two ways I can use my fighter-heavy fleet:  Grab a battleship and tank everything at the frontline (so fighter escorts buzzing around my battleship might attack nearby enemies) or build an Ops Center character similar to Helmut's and Fighter Strike every enemy one at a time (which is too much micromanagement and robs skill points I want to spend elsewhere).
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Blothorn

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Re: Fighter/Carrier Behavior Suggestions
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2018, 05:07:30 PM »

At the very least, I want my AI carriers to send fighters at the enemy instead of escorting my flagship.  There are only two ways I can use my fighter-heavy fleet:  Grab a battleship and tank everything at the frontline (so fighter escorts buzzing around my battleship might attack nearby enemies) or build an Ops Center character similar to Helmut's and Fighter Strike every enemy one at a time (which is too much micromanagement and robs skill points I want to spend elsewhere).

What personalities do you have? According to the Wiki, aggressive and reckless officers will almost always default to attacking, cautious and timid officers will almost always default to escorting, and steady/unled ships will choose 50/50.
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Megas

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Re: Fighter/Carrier Behavior Suggestions
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2018, 06:42:34 PM »

Mostly unled because I have far more carriers than (four) officers.  My officers tend to be steady because I want generalists that I can plug into any ship (because I dislike my characters being married to one or few ship types), basically unled with bonuses.  Most of my officers tend to be placed in my backup flagships (i.e., those I pilot myself if Paragon is overkill or too slow for a job).
« Last Edit: April 13, 2018, 06:45:27 PM by Megas »
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Morrokain

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Re: Fighter/Carrier Behavior Suggestions
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2018, 01:09:38 PM »

Granted, this is a mod, but I'm also noticing that a carrier's ability to determine the best effective range to send out fighter swarms is not very ideal right now.

They seem to stick to the fighter with the highest range without officers. It won't matter in Vanilla since the ranges are the same, but if you try and vary them then the AI can't really handle it.
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