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General Discussion / Re: Phase + Fortress shields vs 3 Ordos
« on: March 14, 2024, 09:33:11 AM »AI harbinger is very effective if you micromanage it to avoid larger ships and chase down destroyers and frigates, but relying on the player to micromanage orders is really not ideal. A lot of this could be solved by giving players finer control over how their ship AI behaves. For example: imagine if you could program the harbinger AI to act as if there is an avoid order on capitals and cruisers whenever it has no orders, but to ignore this programming whenever it does have an order.
Considering the purpose of command points is to discourage rts style play, it's clear that Alex imagines the commands are meant to be guidelines for your fleet to follow rather than something you need to micromanage. If that is the case, then allowing us to pre-program some behaviors that don't rely on giving explicit commands would fit right into this design goal. I understand this would be overwhelming to new players if available right off the bat, so instead the player should unlock it once they get their first colony. Some kind of "doctrine" system that lets you plug pre-designed behaviors into your ships (almost like adding hullmods to them, but with a different interface).
Heck, you could even start with only basic behaviors when you get your colony and unlock new behaviors when you get a military base and high command. Simple things could be like "be less conservative with missiles" or "be MORE conservative with missiles." More advanced ones would be like the harbinger behavior I described earlier.
That's a great idea. I've been thinking for many years that the game really lacks this system. The current approach, divided into 5 behavioral models (two of which are completely useless), is outdated and requires revision.
Try creating a topic in "suggestions", maybe Alex will pay attention to this, since he has started revising simulations.