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Author Topic: Starting Formation Grid  (Read 4413 times)

Axiege

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Starting Formation Grid
« on: January 24, 2013, 05:16:36 PM »

I would like to see a grid appear in the initial deployment stage of an engagement for the purpose of rearranging the starting positions of my ships. Each ship would take up a different number of spaces on the grid (ex: Onslaught would take up a 2x2 or 3x3 square of grid spaces depending on the scale) and the grid would only be deep enough to deploy a Conquest with a fighter wing in front of it (or bigger if needed to accommodate larger ships from mods)

I think this would serve another purpose besides giving greater tactical control to the player; it could remove the necessity of Fleet Points. It could allow large scale battle to occur where the entire grid is filled by each side, but still be limiting in the grid's size. Of course it could still work with Fleet Points, and would still give greater tactical control to the player.

PerturbedPug

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2013, 05:27:35 PM »

So, would this replace the FP systeam or just make it so the player can change the starting ship positions?
Either way +1
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Axiege

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2013, 06:02:10 PM »

So, would this replace the FP systeam or just make it so the player can change the starting ship positions?
Either way +1


It could go either way, if it doesn't replace Fleet Points it still gives more tactical options to the player.

firstattak1

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2013, 06:50:45 PM »

Both ways sound nice, as fleet points in my opinion are anoying, but if we keep them then we have tactical support :D.

Any way, Alex did say something about allowing ships to come in from the sides, so his could come in handy
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Gothars

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2013, 11:51:46 PM »

What exactly would this surplus "tactical control" be good for? I don't see how the position along the border matters enough to warrant a new system. It's just more time the player has to spend in menus instead of battle.
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Lucian Greymark

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2013, 12:03:29 AM »

I second gothars on the tactical point, however it would be a good way to eliminate fleet points
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zakastra

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2013, 03:21:42 AM »

Well I have found that often my flagship gets deployed on the wrong side of the map which can take 10-30 seconds to properly reposition at the start if there are big slow clunky ships involved to get them in the right places, Its not a huge issue, but I have wanted to be able to re-organize the starting deployment layout prior to Initiating combat. (assuming the player is in a position to do that, pursuing a fleeing fleet, and trying to bust through a blockading fleet should dissallow this as thereisn't time for proper redployment, but the less rushed confrontations should allow you to pick where the ships come in from.

Given Alex's hints on map borders lately and the possibility of deployment form the map sides, this may be something we'll get in time anyway, it certainly would be nice to have control over deployments which is finer than "Lets all charge down the middle Lol!"
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Axiege

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #7 on: January 25, 2013, 07:42:55 AM »

I was also thinking you could plan/manage/save formations outside of battle and load them in instead of rearranging everything every time.

Lucian Greymark

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #8 on: January 25, 2013, 01:18:54 PM »

I was also thinking you could plan/manage/save formations outside of battle and load them in instead of rearranging everything every time.


This would help speed things up immensely
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Reshy

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #9 on: January 25, 2013, 02:21:13 PM »

I've suggested before the ability to create formations for your ships so that you can make sure they fight in the most effective way possible  My topic got ignored.
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Cycerin

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #10 on: January 25, 2013, 06:10:03 PM »

Don't see why this is worthwhile when the faster ships immediately scoot off to cap points and the larger ones can just have escorts assigned the moment they deploy instead. What you are actually suggesting seems to be a total rework of the entire command layer where battles revolve around the biggest ships from the start, and capping points is irrelevant enough to have a mechanic counterintuitive to it as the starting focus of the battle.

I would rather see the ability to deploy a few ships from the sideline at the cost of command points or something, but saying all this straight before a major rework is sort of pointless.
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PerturbedPug

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #11 on: January 25, 2013, 07:44:33 PM »

Don't see why this is worthwhile when the faster ships immediately scoot off to cap points and the larger ones can just have escorts assigned the moment they deploy instead. What you are actually suggesting seems to be a total rework of the entire command layer where battles revolve around the biggest ships from the start, and capping points is irrelevant enough to have a mechanic counterintuitive to it as the starting focus of the battle.

I would rather see the ability to deploy a few ships from the sideline at the cost of command points or something, but saying all this straight before a major rework is sort of pointless.
He also said that this would replace the FP system with a new system where you would have to fit in as many ships as possible in a grid with only so many squares. Plus shuffling around the ships can be helpful sometimes (like placing a capital ship down then surrounding it with the ships that are to escort it).
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Cycerin

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Re: Starting Formation Grid
« Reply #12 on: January 26, 2013, 09:48:43 AM »

I see, it makes more sense then, yeah. But I would rather spend as little time in the planning stage of the battle as possible, personally.
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