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[Morbo513]

I won't drone on so long as my last thread cause this one's relatively simple at face value. When you the player enter a battle, appropriate enemy/friendly fleets (friendly/neutral with your current enemy and hostile to you/your allies, and vice-versa) who are in sensor range and/or pursuing any fleet involved and/or not otherwise occupied can join the player's battle with a delay.

For example, I engage a Merchant Convoy while one of their Strike Fleets is just off-screen. They are so and so far away, so it will take them so and so long to reinforce, for argument's sake I have 10 minutes real-time before I'm outgunned.

As another example, I get intercepted and am massively out-gunned by a Pirate fleet. Some Independent bounty-hunters with even more, better ships than the Pirates are 5 minutes away, recognise my plight and take pity on me so they decide to join in. I can then commit to "moving in to engage", to delay the Pirates long enough for the Bounty Hunters to arrive.

For mechanical simplicity, this functionality could end at normal engagements instead of extending to retreat battles too. I imagine that'd be a lot more work to sort out.

Anyway, this would make joining battles the same for AI joining a Player's battle as it is the other way round. It would allow us to do away with the scenario where you're just a pixel too close to a second enemy fleet when engaging the first, or just a pixel far enough to dodge having to deal with it. Instead, if another enemy fleet's in range and not otherwise engaged it will join the battle, it's just a question of whether you'll be done before they do.

[Sutopia]

I think it's already implemented?
The time scale in campaign and battle is different, therefore only fleet in certain range will be able to join before battle finishes, and that was already in current game play.
Friend or foe will be able to join YOUR fight given they are in certain range when you initiate or engaged in one, with some delay of arriving.

[Histidine]

I think it's already implemented?
The time scale in campaign and battle is different, therefore only fleet in certain range will be able to join before battle finishes, and that was already in current game play.
Friend or foe will be able to join YOUR fight given they are in certain range when you initiate or engaged in one, with some delay of arriving.

Current system has no delay (every fleet pulled into the battle can deploy at start) and is also based on a pretty strict (and invisible!) range cutoff. The proposals would change that; any fleet in sensor range which wasn't otherwise doing something might join, but if they're far away they might not get there in time for it to matter).

I'm strongly in favor of the suggestion, mostly so being surprise ganked by multiple fleets is much less painful. The player wouldn't have to deal with being overwhelmed from the get-go; instead they could defeat or escape the initial forces and use the opportunity to flee, or attempt to defeat the enemy in detail.

[Megas]

Unless battle size is big enough to accommodate everyone for immediate deploy all (and player does not try to kill everyone with one or three ships), then it will not make much difference because AI knows how much you deploy and only throws a little more than enough at the problem.  If the fight escalates with more ships later, it makes no difference if the other fleets arrived now or later.  Only if everyone deploys all would delayed arrivals be noticed.

It would be nice if you know how much the AI deploys.  Currently, the enemy AI can see what YOU deploy, but not the only way around.  In other words, the enemy AI is cheating!

[intrinsic_parity]

I think the OP is suggesting that the radius that fleets can join the battle from is much larger, but that there is a time delay proportional to their distance from the battle (and maybe their burn level as well) before they can join. If that is the case, I definitely agree. I would say if you destroy all ships that are currently available to be deployed, you should be able to claim victory though, that way you could pick off small fleets in the vicinity of large fleets as long as you were fast enough (sounds like an adrenaline rush). Also, anything that retreats before reinforcements arrive should be able to escape without the retreat scenario. This might also discourage CR cheese as maybe a large fleet might suddenly join if you wait too long.

[Morbo513]

I think the OP is suggesting that the radius that fleets can join the battle from is much larger, but that there is a time delay proportional to their distance from the battle (and maybe their burn level as well) before they can join.

I couldn't have put it more succinctly myself.

Unless battle size is big enough to accommodate everyone for immediate deploy all (and player does not try to kill everyone with one or three ships), then it will not make much difference because AI knows how much you deploy and only throws a little more than enough at the problem.  If the fight escalates with more ships later, it makes no difference if the other fleets arrived now or later.  Only if everyone deploys all would delayed arrivals be noticed.

It would be nice if you know how much the AI deploys.  Currently, the enemy AI can see what YOU deploy, but not the only way around.  In other words, the enemy AI is cheating!

I like the mechanic of the AI not deploying all their ships at once, helps along the belief that their captains are careful with their resources too and not just deploying ships recklessly. I get your point though, those reinforcements aren't a danger if you're solo-kiting them. I think a relatively easy solution is the more ships the side loses, the more they deploy to compensate. But that's kinda beside this discussion.