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« on: October 09, 2013, 08:39:48 PM »
As I've progressed in the game (running Exerelin, but I think that's irrelevant) to the point that I am able to take on the biggest fleets out there, the level of micromanagement that's required to keep my forces alive has slowed the pace of combat down from action space shooter, to RTS levels. In fact, slower than RTS... since the game is paused when I'm giving commands. I'm sure some people prefer a heavier RTS element, but I was under the impression that's not what this game was supposed to be about. I find myself constantly hitting <TAB> every few seconds to see which ships are getting pummeled, so I can manually tell them to retreat. I find it very disruptive to the flow of combat.
One problem is my fleet's AI. I've given them extremely powerful shields. If they understood that they should, you know... keep them on, and facing toward the enemy... then I wouldn't have to replace hundreds of 'Elite' (but criminally stupid) crew members after every battle. If I helm one of the Apogee's and lead the cruisers into battle, I can kiss my frigates goodbye. If I helm a Tempest and lead the frigates into battle, I have to watch my Apogees flounder around with their shields turned off while a phase cloaked cruiser lines up it's next shot.
That said, I know that if my fleet's AI gets better, then likely so will the enemy's. So I'll still need to micromanage more than I care to.
As it stands now, the only way I know when one of my ships is in trouble is because I either spam <TAB> constantly to check on everyone, which I hate. Or I see their name appear in the upper left of my screen after a blinding flash, which I hate even more.
Which leads me to some ideas....
The first and simplest is a panel of settings (probably on the <TAB> screen in battle) that you can set up before the fight, or change during, telling each class of ship (Frigates/Destroyers etc) under which conditions they should automatically retreat from the battle. These settings could be stored with your save so you can set them once and forget about them.
Something like:
FIGHTERS [ ] 99% Hull [ ] 50% Hull [X] Never Retreat
FRIGATES [X] 99% Hull [ ] 50% Hull [ ] Never Retreat
DESTROYERS [ ] 99% Hull [X] 50% Hull [ ] Never Retreat
etc.
That alone could reduce the amount of <TAB> spamming necessary during battles by a huge amount.
The second idea is more complicated, but I think it would add an element of excitement and realism, while also reducing the amount of <TAB> spamming required to micromanage your forces. The idea is that your forces would regularly report in specific activity during the battle.
I'll describe what I mean with an example:
I've sent a group of Tempests to cap a Nav Point while I helm my Apogee, leading my cruisers to a second waypoint.
A yellow box appears on the left of my screen with:
1. The icon and name of the ship reporting in: [Tempest - ISS Nemesis IX]
2. A brief and clear message: HOSTILES INCOMING!
3. Icons of the ships that have been spotted: [Medusa] [Medusa] [Omen]
A large yellow ping happens at the edge of my screen to show me the direction that the report is coming from. (When the report comes from off-screen)
The box stays for several seconds, and may even offer some buttons (Engage, Hold Position, Disengage) to give orders to the forces reporting in. There could be a set of hot-keys dedicated to giving these in-combat commands. There could also be a VIEW command that briefly switches camera to the reporting ship.
5 seconds later, another yellow box, and ping appear:
[Tempest - ISS Nemesis IX] HOSTILES ENGAGED! [Medusa] [Medusa] [Omen]
Then a red box appears with red ping on the edge of the screen:
[Tempest - ISS Kiss My Butt] SHIELDS DROPPING! [Medusa]
This means the ship is forced to drop their shields while taking enemy fire, to avoid Overloading.
Another Red Box:
[Tempest - ISS Kiss My Butt] TAKING HEAVY FIRE! [Medusa] [Medusa]
The ship has started taking hull damage.
Again it might offer some commands: Hold Position, Disengage, Retreat.
Then a green box:
[Tempest - ISS Nemesis IX] THREAT NEUTRALIZED! [Medusa]
... and so on.
The types of events that trigger these reports would need to be tweaked so they aren't overly spammed at the player.
The reports could be accompanied by verbal audio cues, "Taking heavy fire!" with a nice radio squelch effect.
For extra flavor, use a ring modulator to get that Star Wars (Episode IV) radio sound from the Death Star battle.