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[TrashMan]

It takes time to give order and time for them to get executed. Neither can you give 20 orders at the same time (which you can do in a game if you pause). However, this is easily solved by implementing two very simple systems:
1) latency
2) order que

Basically it takes a few seconds (depending on factors) for the ship to start executing the order you are giving. This simulates the chain of command, communication latency, etc..
And order are executed in orders they are given. So even if you pause time and order Carrier A to attack, frigates B and C to fall back, once you unpause they won't immediately jump to.
first the carrier will recieve it's orders (that itself you should take 1-2 seconds at least) after which it will start executing it after 2-3 seconds
Once the carrier gets it's order, the frigates will recieve theirs.
So, the timline:

0 seconds - start, orders given in command interface, game unpaused
2 seconds - carrier gets orders
4 seconds - frigate A gets orders, carrier begins executing
6 seconds - frigate B gets orders, frigate A begins executing
8 seconds - frigate B begins execuing

If you ordered frigate A and B together as a group in the interface, then they will count as one (so both will act on 6 seconds)

Basically this simulates you verbally giving orders, like you are a captain, sitting in your chair and going:
"Comms, instruct the carrier Vengance to push the attack on the enemy destroyer! Tell frigate group 1 to pull back!"

Then your comms officer will relay those orders and then the ship captains would implement them

[nomadic_leader]

It seems like a good idea, since the current CP system is a bit too needlessly abstracted for my tastes. Below is the posts from another  thread where this idea was formulated, perhaps to save people time rehashing what was already discussed there.

Since the developer probably won't revisit CP before the game is finished, it might make sense to try and approximate this with modding somehow.

One of the dumbest things about RTS games is that you can micromanage everything as the king/admiral, and give orders to a distant spaceship, soldier, zerg, or whatever like every second, as though you were  dragging them around on an invisible leash, without any regard to communication difficulties, attentiveness, etc.

There is no way a spaceship crew can function if their admiral is changing and belaying his own orders every second ("go here... no, go here... no, go here"). Carrying out an order/objective on a big ship involves a long chain of command and tens/hundreds of people from the admiral to the captain to the mates to the NCOs down to the guys carrying ammo back and forth etc. It just isn't possible to rapidly and continually change orders that much and not confuse everyone in the ship.

Also, it's really boring and stupid from a gameplay perspective. When you give an order in real life, you say "go and do this" and you leave it to the subordinate as to the specifics because they are trained for what they do. In RTS games though, you've got to micromanage for best results, basically stepping into the unit/ships body to get it done, by clicking a million times. You're basically just flipping between shoddy 1st person control of a bunch of units, rather than actual commander level decisions.

So I like that the developer tries to address this issue with CP. However using it as a pooled resource is  a little problematic. It would make more sense if each individual ship had a sort of timer on how fast you could give it new orders, with little ones being more responsive and big ones being less. Your own flagship's  capacity to distribute orders throughout the fleet (number of communications officers, etc) could also still effect things as well.

The CP doesn't address any of the issue you brought forth.

Different/conflicting commands? Not a issue. I happens in real life and orders change as the situation changes.

The only real effect of RL orders is latency and time. I takes time to give order and time for them to get executed. Neither can you give 20 orders at the same time (which you can do in a game if you pause). However, this is easily solved by implementing two very simple systems:
1) latency
2) order que

Basically it takes a few seconds (depending on factors) for the ship to start executing the order you are giving. This simulates the chain of command, communication latency, etc..
And order are executed in orders they are given. So even if you pause time and order Carrier A to attack, frigates B and C to fall back, once you unpause they won't immediately jump to.
first the carrier will recieve it's orders (that itself you should take 1-2 seconds at least) after which it will start executing it after 2-3 seconds
Once hte carrier gets it's order, the frigates will recieve theirs.
So timline

0 seconds - start, orders given in command interface, game unpaused
2 seconds - carrier gets orders
4 seconds - frigate A gets orders, carrier begins executing
6 seconds - frigate B gets orders, frigate A begins executing
8 seconds - frigate B begins execuing

If you ordered frigate A and B together as a group in the interface, then they will count as one (so both will act on 6 seconds)

Basically this simulates you verbally giving orders, like you are a captain, sitting in your chair and going:
"Comms, instruct the carrier Vengance to push the attack on the enemy destroyer! Tell frigate group 1 to pull back!"

Then your comms officer will relay those orders and then the ship captains would implement them

[TrashMan]

*snip*

That was me. I just moved the idea to the suggestions forum, where it should be.

[nomadic_leader]

Yes, I know, I  just wanted to reproduce my own post for the discussion. Thanks for making a separate topic

[TrashMan]

No comments? No thoughts?
Not even "U suck?"

Surely this is better than an artificial limit on the number of orders you can give.

[nomadic_leader]

Well, you basically solved it in the other thread already; there's no opposing argument that can be made.

It's nice because there could be various hullmods, officer-skills (or sigh, yes even player skills) which could improve the latencies. You could even work in electronic warfare stuff that increases latencies for enemy fleets.

[TrashMan]

Well, you basically solved it in the other thread already; there's no opposing argument that can be made.

Never underestimate human ingenuity. Better to wait and see if some surface rather than to proclaim "best idea evar!"

[nomadic_leader]

Then, what about the problem of confused players giving tonnes of orders to a ship that it can't/won't carry out immediately, because there are other orders in the queue for that ship, or other ships? (thereby filling up their queue with  spam even more)

Maybe players shouldn't be able to give a particular ship an order until there are no more orders in the queue for that ship? Ponder.

[Darloth]

Could take a leaf from Airships: Conquer the Skies, and give every ship an Order Delay.

You can give an order or group of similar orders almost immediately (as long as, of course, you haven't given one recently, since that would mean your flagship's comm equipment and crew is busy - skills and hullmods would reduce that a lot.  My view on Similar is you can issue the same command on multiple targets, or the same command TO multiple targets, but not different commands.  "Avoid this this and this", or "Escort this one and that one, with those ships on this escort and those other ships on that one" but not "Avoid there, strike there, and you, escort that")

A ship can receive an order almost immediately, but then can't receive a second order until its Order Delay has passed.  CR percentage or Officer stats/skills would probably be the biggest determinant here, though I'm sure there could be some other modifiers.

This cuts out much of the "I told them to do this, why isn't it happening!" player confusion, but maintains the "You have asked too much in too little time".

Since you can then display this order delay on the tacmap (both your own, probably via the top-right timeout bar, and other ships, maybe some sort of ring around them than fills in or something), it is also a lot more discoverable than any queuing system.  One might argue that a queue would make things easier to manage a large number of different commands, but that almost seems like it's going against the change you're proposing.

It's an interesting idea.  I'm not sure I'd -like- the idea, but I'd certainly like to -try- it!

[TrashMan]

Then, what about the problem of confused players giving tonnes of orders to a ship that it can't/won't carry out immediately, because there are other orders in the queue for that ship, or other ships? (thereby filling up their queue with  spam even more)

Trying to overdesign for human stupidity is pointless.
You had beta testers getting lost in a circular corridor. If a player doesn't read the hints/tutorials, doesn't ask around or can't figure it out himself, don't even bother with that waste of oxygen.

[nomadic_leader]

Trying to overdesign for human stupidity is pointless.
You had beta testers getting lost in a circular corridor. If a player doesn't read the hints/tutorials, doesn't ask around or can't figure it out himself, don't even bother with that waste of oxygen.

Look around man. When game players were a self-selected group of only those willing  to read man pages and figure out unix commands or whatnot, this attitude would have worked out.. Now, you'd be asking a developer to cut off a bunch of their customers.

If you want these suggestions to be entertained, we need to preempt objections based on user comprehension.

[intrinsic_parity]

If orders are to be a useful strategic asset, they need to be able to consistently result in the actions the player intended and this works against that. By the time my carrier gets the order to strike with bombers, the enemy ship may have already retreated into the enemy fleet and the bombers get slaughtered etc. Adding any significant delay will mean the player is actually trying to give orders based on a prediction of what the AI will do, and the AI is not designed to be predictable.

There's also the problem of implementation. Ships can't even successfully follow orders now, adding more reasons why they might not follow orders will worsen the problem.

[Death_Silence_66]

There's also the problem of implementation. Ships can't even successfully follow orders now, adding more reasons why they might not follow orders will worsen the problem.

I agree, ship AI needs some improvements before the CP system gets reworked.

[Schwartz]

I'll play devil's advocate. What' the point? 8 seconds is almost unnoticeable as far as actual combat events are concerned. Whether a ship gets its orders immediately or a few seconds later will have little impact and just needlessly complicates a simple system. Assume a cruiser is already on-course to overextend into an enemy formation. It will take him far longer to reverse thrust and get his ass out of there than this proposed command delay. A commander giving 5 orders at once seems odd, but let's assume he gets the same tactical map on his bridge that the player gets. Assume he's reasonably fast and well-practiced in using it. Orders don't need to be verbal, so imposing a delay seems arbitrary.

[nomadic_leader]

I'll play devil's advocate. What' the point? 8 seconds is almost unnoticeable as far as actual combat events are concerned. Whether a ship gets its orders immediately or a few seconds later will have little impact and just needlessly complicates a simple system. Assume a cruiser is already on-course to overextend into an enemy formation. It will take him far longer to reverse thrust and get his ass out of there than this proposed command delay. A commander giving 5 orders at once seems odd, but let's assume he gets the same tactical map on his bridge that the player gets. Assume he's reasonably fast and well-practiced in using it. Orders don't need to be verbal, so imposing a delay seems arbitrary.

But there is a delay, because the large spaceships have hundreds of people and for the orders to work their way down the chain of command does take time.

Automation is BS, even at SS levels of technology it's still probably cheaper and more reliable just to have dude load a shell into a gun rather than some complicated automatic feeder mechanism that introduces a bunch of new failure points.

So there is still a chain of command and orders still take time.

Gameplay wise, the reason to have a delay is  to disincentivize super clicky micromanagement that other RTS games suffer from, which isn't even realistic but rather just a byproduct of the limitations of the AI.