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Author Topic: Ambush Bickering  (Read 16952 times)

Lucky33

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #150 on: February 14, 2020, 10:28:45 PM »

If you order the battleships to escort the transports, former will stuck behind the latter.

And the point was that if frigates can get ahead of your ships under Full Retreat order they will have even less troubles getting wherever they want if you try anything more complex.
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Sidestrafe2462

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #151 on: February 15, 2020, 01:44:43 AM »

They get in front? damn son what if the freighters stop moving (ie the very easily called out rally)- in any case this is no longer an ambush. This is simply forcing the transports into a battle in a poorly thought out way.
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Lucky33

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #152 on: February 15, 2020, 02:11:34 AM »

It was your idea of the better way to handle things. It has little to do with the possibility of an ambush because it is decided before even getting onto the battle map. However your suggestion nicely illustrates why it is impractical to keep battleships and transports herded up together. In an attempt to get away from the smaller threat you made things much more vulnerable to the major one. Without resolving minor issues (frigates can still attack transports and destroy them using them as a cover and yes AI is smart enought to do exactly this).
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Sidestrafe2462

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #153 on: February 15, 2020, 09:29:02 AM »

It was your idea of the better way to handle things. It has little to do with the possibility of an ambush because it is decided before even getting onto the battle map. However your suggestion nicely illustrates why it is impractical to keep battleships and transports herded up together. In an attempt to get away from the smaller threat you made things much more vulnerable to the major one. Without resolving minor issues (frigates can still attack transports and destroy them using them as a cover and yes AI is smart enought to do exactly this).

The issue is- why the hell would they stay interspersed when fighting a larger force? that force cannot flank. they can sally ahead.

This tactic defends perfectly against small scale assaults, ie an ambush- You ambush would fail against this kind of formation. Weakness against a larger force isn't relevant, as this is an ambush of smaller units.

There is a reason why we don't have the warships in a big blob- to provide good fields of fire, in and around the ships they are protecting. In any case missiles don't care, they can just fly over friendly units and a fleet's worth of SRMs will kill ambushes.

Stop twisting what i'm saying. It's rude and it doesn't show respect for the statement.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2020, 09:32:01 AM by Sidestrafe2462 »
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Sidestrafe2462

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #154 on: February 15, 2020, 09:34:45 AM »

It was your idea of the better way to handle things. It has little to do with the possibility of an ambush because it is decided before even getting onto the battle map. However your suggestion nicely illustrates why it is impractical to keep battleships and transports herded up together. In an attempt to get away from the smaller threat you made things much more vulnerable to the major one. Without resolving minor issues (frigates can still attack transports and destroy them using them as a cover and yes AI is smart enought to do exactly this).

This was my statement of how ambushes wouldn't work and why.

The issue is- why the hell would they stay interspersed when fighting a larger force? that force cannot flank. they can sally ahead.

This tactic defends perfectly against small scale assaults, ie an ambush- You ambush would fail against this kind of formation. Weakness against a larger force isn't relevant, as this is an ambush of smaller units.

There is a reason why we don't have the warships in a big blob- to provide good fields of fire, in and around the ships they are protecting. In any case missiles don't care, they can just fly over friendly units and a fleet's worth of SRMs will kill ambushes.

Stop twisting what i'm saying. It's rude and it doesn't show respect for the statement.
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Lucky33

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #155 on: February 15, 2020, 09:53:36 AM »

You just suggested to put both transports and battleships in the big blob.

Simpler. Doesnt mean better. There are escort buttons. Select every ship except one, tell them to escort a single ship. Tell that ship to run like hell.

Obviuosly, ambush will succeed against that.

And what am I twisting?
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Sidestrafe2462

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #156 on: February 15, 2020, 12:15:29 PM »

You just suggested to put both transports and battleships in the big blob.

Simpler. Doesnt mean better. There are escort buttons. Select every ship except one, tell them to escort a single ship. Tell that ship to run like hell.

Obviuosly, ambush will succeed against that.

And what am I twisting?

The part where i didn't suggest anything. The part where I said that this was the reason why ambush wouldn't work.

I will take the time to make a suggestion though. In a regular battle, reinforcements could be deployed from reinforcements from any direction on a timer. Since entering battle means the fleets have matched velocity, it would make sense for ships to move around the relatively static battlespace and hit from other angles. This would allow the player to set up hammer/anvil assaults with strike frigates and make battles and reinforcements feel more dynamic. Of course, frigates would be on a much shorter timer. Suggestions?

Telling every ship to escort one ship pretty much turns the formation into a big defensive ball, and since escort pretty much means cover the flanks and interdict anything going behind the escortee, telling a bunch of randoms to cover one ship means that
A. There's a lot of guns sitting in one area
and B. There's no flanking it.

You neglected to explain how ambushing the death ball would be easy.

I will also note that you seem to have given up on talking about ambush as attacking lonely logistics ships. This means I have succeeded in making you see reason, unless we revert back to that state whatever discussion this thread continues to produce will most likely be on the effectiveness of defending ships in pursuit mode.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2020, 12:21:39 PM by Sidestrafe2462 »
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Lucky33

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #157 on: February 15, 2020, 02:57:29 PM »

If you order the battleships to escort the transports, former will stuck behind the latter.

And the point was that if frigates can get ahead of your ships under Full Retreat order they will have even less troubles getting wherever they want if you try anything more complex.

This is me, there, dismissing your whole idea about ambush failure.

It was your idea of the better way to handle things. It has little to do with the possibility of an ambush because it is decided before even getting onto the battle map. However your suggestion nicely illustrates why it is impractical to keep battleships and transports herded up together. In an attempt to get away from the smaller threat you made things much more vulnerable to the major one. Without resolving minor issues (frigates can still attack transports and destroy them using them as a cover and yes AI is smart enought to do exactly this).

And here I'm telling you that will happen as a result of your suggestion. Not in the ambush. But if you:

Yes, exactly, frigates are faster than anything even in a full bore pursuit. Any attempts to do something what is not a max speed retreat will help frigates even more for the reason that more complex maneuver requires more coordination and creates more delay and messing things up in general.

Go into tactical mode. Form your fleet with transports in a forward position, multiple battleships in the back.

Example 1. Command Full Retreat.

Example 2. Try to bring battleships in the position to screen the tranports.

First is much simpler and faster to execute.

Example 3. Trade battleships for frigates and repeat example 2. Feel the difference.

Simpler. Doesnt mean better. There are escort buttons. Select every ship except one, tell them to escort a single ship. Tell that ship to run like hell.

Retreat them all once they get near the end.

3 orders, hard to mess that up. Chain of command and easy communications makes it hard to mess up orders. In any case, what if i decide retreating isn't necessary? "all ships, move to area j11 and defend it." One order, and suddenly every ship, including caps, is ready to fend off frigates.

You've conceded that the caps will be part of these battles. Since they are, there's no need to run. Stand and fight, cowards!

Stand and fight.

They get in front? damn son what if the freighters stop moving (ie the very easily called out rally)- in any case this is no longer an ambush. This is simply forcing the transports into a battle in a poorly thought out way.

No longer an ambush.

It was your idea of the better way to handle things. It has little to do with the possibility of an ambush because it is decided before even getting onto the battle map. However your suggestion nicely illustrates why it is impractical to keep battleships and transports herded up together. In an attempt to get away from the smaller threat you made things much more vulnerable to the major one. Without resolving minor issues (frigates can still attack transports and destroy them using them as a cover and yes AI is smart enought to do exactly this).

It has little to do with the possibility of an ambush.

See? You didnt address my argument about frigates getting wherever they want and first at that, even before combat starts, simply as a given. Without defender issuing any battle orders. Because this is how the game works.

Everything else is the discussion of your proposal for the tactical battle. I simply accepted your idea that ambush will not start and you will get exactly that you ordered.

So? What did I twist?
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Sidestrafe2462

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #158 on: February 15, 2020, 03:45:50 PM »

Hold on. Did you just admit that ambushes are impossible?

You're twisting it by telling me that getting a bunch of ships to move in one piece is too complex and will create vulnerabilities. TBH, what I'm trying to say is that i can give rally orders and my ships follow them just fine, while you're telling me that giving orders will make the ships vulnerable. Drop it, were literally arguing about one person misunderstanding a point which isn't relevant anymore.

I dismissed your point about the frigates because while it is true, tactical mobility doesn't do much for you when the cap ships have open angles to shoot you and there are small/medium turrets on the escorts. They can pick where they wish to attack and move as they like, except within gun range of the escorts. That little bubble tends to coincide with the logistics ships.
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Lucky33

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #159 on: February 15, 2020, 10:33:54 PM »

Nope. I simply considered your assumption.

I'm free to tell the possible outcome of your actions as long as they were taken as they are, without any twisting. And thats exactly what I did.

My point wasnt about tactical mobility. Availability of the ambush option is decided prior to the deployment just as with the  flanking.

1. Strategic level. There all the bubbles are. Attacker (limited force of the fast frigates) flies around the defender while  waiting for the opening in the form of transport ships veering close to the bubble's border.

2. Operational level. Everything that happens prior to the battle map. Attacker initiates the battle and desides to choose an ambush option. Reason fot its existance is the possibility that, in terms of travel time, the attacker force might be closer to the transport ship than less agile ships of the defender. And that comes from the fact that in the pursuit, frigates have the flanking position option which requires flying around the whole fleet which can do nothing about it even if it tries its best. Availability of the flanking option is decided before deployment. But in our case, insteed of coming into flanking position against entire defending fleet, attacking frigates are going to cut off the stragglers. Which are obviously closer and what takes less time.

3. Tactical level. Battle map. Here you can give direct orders to your ships.
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Sidestrafe2462

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #160 on: February 15, 2020, 11:47:16 PM »

Nope. I simply considered your assumption.

I'm free to tell the possible outcome of your actions as long as they were taken as they are, without any twisting. And thats exactly what I did.

My point wasnt about tactical mobility. Availability of the ambush option is decided prior to the deployment just as with the  flanking.

1. Strategic level. There all the bubbles are. Attacker (limited force of the fast frigates) flies around the defender while  waiting for the opening in the form of transport ships veering close to the bubble's border.

2. Operational level. Everything that happens prior to the battle map. Attacker initiates the battle and desides to choose an ambush option. Reason fot its existance is the possibility that, in terms of travel time, the attacker force might be closer to the transport ship than less agile ships of the defender. And that comes from the fact that in the pursuit, frigates have the flanking position option which requires flying around the whole fleet which can do nothing about it even if it tries its best. Availability of the flanking option is decided before deployment. But in our case, insteed of coming into flanking position against entire defending fleet, attacking frigates are going to cut off the stragglers. Which are obviously closer and what takes less time.

3. Tactical level. Battle map. Here you can give direct orders to your ships.

Makes enough sense. I really doubt that even with a freighter bouncing close to the edge they'd be too exposed however. Fleets large enough for the freighters to be worth targeting tend to be, like you said, over saturated with heavy combat ships. sometimes to the point where the logistics ships are over or under the combat vessels. In any case, it would also be difficult to time these assaults. Since the pattern is random, a target could "come within reach" at any time from any angle. Odds are there but low that the frigates are positioned in a way to exploit this opening.
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Lucky33

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #161 on: February 16, 2020, 12:06:54 AM »

Well, it was all about the possibility of the ambush scenario. If it is possible and the only question left is how to do it then we have exhausted the argument.
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HopeFall

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #162 on: February 16, 2020, 12:14:39 AM »

I feel there's an argument to be made about fast ships, and small ships, and bringing use to them again. But people really need to stop with "Big Ships Slow". They're not. They wouldn't be. The engines on them are so large, especially with diminished gravitational influence, that there's no way they're 'slower'. I'd argue capital ships are, in fact, faster. Or maybe cruisers are. Than frigates.

But I mean more in "Top Speed". Manueverability, of course, they should be significantly worse at.

Just because something is bigger, does not mean it is slower. I think. Is my point.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2020, 01:01:21 AM by HopeFall »
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Lucky33

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Re: Ambush Bickering
« Reply #163 on: February 16, 2020, 03:38:20 AM »

They are slow. In top speed. You can look at the stats for yourself. My guess is that on tactical map, drive usage create resistance between combined field of all drives in the fleets and any individual ship. This is why you can glide at the "higher than top" speed with disabled engines but once they are back online your ship will slow down. Or you hit the borders. I have no idea what the "bubble metric" is but its definitely not Kansas. Thats for sure.
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