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Author Topic: Tactical combat AI-Varied opening moves/Regrouping/Large ships first  (Read 1651 times)

goduranus

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A)It seems that the AI always uses the same moves in tactical combat, send the whole fleet to capture points, then assault the center of the player's fleet. I think it would be cool if there were some varieties to the AI's opening moves, doesn't have to be too many, and can be randomly selected from a set of pre-programmed moves, rather than dynamically reacting to the player's own moves.

I would like to suggest some examples:
1. Advance through the center of the map with defend order, wait 3 minutes, then cancel defend order to make fleet spread out;
2. Advance through both sides of the map with defend orders, the cancel the orders to pull the fleet to the center to try to catch the player in a pincer;
3. Advance through either left or right side of the map, to try to make an asymmetric battleline

B) Also, to deal with the problem of front line ships getting thinned out while reinforcements are trickling in, I think large AI fleets that have ships in reserve should try to move the deployed ships back toward its own spawn point as it takes losses, so that reinforcements take less time to get to the front line. Right now, it is very easy for the player to defend near their own spawn point, thus enjoying an easy retreat as well as causing the AI enemy to be destroyed singly as it trickles it.

C) Finally, this may be a bit iffy, but maybe the AI should have battleships lead the charge, instead of frigate screen first? Right now the AI seems to deploy small ships first, then reinforce with big ships as the small ships get destroyed. But small ships die fast, so the result is that battleships and cruisers end up trickling into the battle without support. But battleships and cruisers are often also very slow, so by the time they get to the battle, many of the smaller ships on the front line would have died. I propose that AI deploy large ships first, then the smaller ones. The result would be that the firepower on the front lines would decrease less quickly, since bigger ships are more resilient, as well as that gaps in firepower are filled more quickly, since smaller ships are usually faster and take less time to reach the battle. Finally, large ships first would mean that CR on the whole fleet used up at around the same time, whereas small ships first would mean that any small ships would run out of CR, while the big ships will have lots of CR remaining, but would be less effective since they have no effective escort.

« Last Edit: March 28, 2019, 12:23:10 PM by goduranus »
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Tei

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Re: Tactical combat AI-Varied opening moves/Regrouping/Large ships first
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2019, 06:47:46 PM »

A)It seems that the AI always uses the same moves in tactical combat, send the whole fleet to capture points, then assault the center of the player's fleet. I think it would be cool if there were some varieties to the AI's opening moves, doesn't have to be too many, and can be randomly selected from a set of pre-programmed moves, rather than dynamically reacting to the player's own moves.

I would like to suggest some examples:
1. Advance through the center of the map with defend order, wait 3 minutes, then cancel defend order to make fleet spread out;
2. Advance through both sides of the map with defend orders, the cancel the orders to pull the fleet to the center to try to catch the player in a pincer;
3. Advance through either left or right side of the map, to try to make an asymmetric battleline

B) Also, to deal with the problem of front line ships getting thinned out while reinforcements are trickling in, I think large AI fleets that have ships in reserve should try to move the deployed ships back toward its own spawn point as it takes losses, so that reinforcements take less time to get to the front line. Right now, it is very easy for the player to defend near their own spawn point, thus enjoying an easy retreat as well as causing the AI enemy to be destroyed singly as it trickles it.

C) Finally, this may be a bit iffy, but maybe the AI should have battleships lead the charge, instead of frigate screen first? Right now the AI seems to deploy small ships first, then reinforce with big ships as the small ships get destroyed. But small ships die fast, so the result is that battleships and cruisers end up trickling into the battle without support. But battleships and cruisers are often also very slow, so by the time they get to the battle, many of the smaller ships on the front line would have died. I propose that AI deploy large ships first, then the smaller ones. The result would be that the firepower on the front lines would decrease less quickly, since bigger ships are more resilient, as well as that gaps in firepower are filled more quickly, since smaller ships are usually faster and take less time to reach the battle. Finally, large ships first would mean that CR on the whole fleet used up at around the same time, whereas small ships first would mean that any small ships would run out of CR, while the big ships will have lots of CR remaining, but would be less effective since they have no effective escort.



C irks me the most. Another effect of the AI deploying smaller to large is that the the smaller front ships sometimes gets sandwiched between your fleet and and their approaching capitals and cruisers, ensuring that your own larger ships absolutely squash them because they dont really have anywhere to run, though this usually happens on larger battles.
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Alex

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Re: Tactical combat AI-Varied opening moves/Regrouping/Large ships first
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2019, 07:01:10 PM »

Just wanted to mention that at least C) should be largely addressed in the .1 release - the AI will lead with more large ships, and especially so when fighting vs stations.
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Tei

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Re: Tactical combat AI-Varied opening moves/Regrouping/Large ships first
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2019, 08:12:01 AM »

Just wanted to mention that at least C) should be largely addressed in the .1 release - the AI will lead with more large ships, and especially so when fighting vs stations.

Oh thank god, dueling Capitals are a treat to see and now I dont have to murder their friends first to see it.
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Megas

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Re: Tactical combat AI-Varied opening moves/Regrouping/Large ships first
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2019, 07:33:26 AM »

Quote
C) Finally, this may be a bit iffy, but maybe the AI should have battleships lead the charge, instead of frigate screen first?
Also, if I deploy capitals and small ships at the same time, the big ships are in the back.  Usually, I need to deploy big ships first, then smaller ships in a second wave so that small ships catch up to the big ships before fighting starts, instead of small ships fighting and dying before my big ships see the enemy.

For most of my endgame fights, I deploy my flagship (capital or Harbinger) and the rest of my capitals (piloted by officers), close deploy, reopen deploy, then deploy the small ships, then tab out of map screen.
« Last Edit: April 06, 2019, 07:35:27 AM by Megas »
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