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on escorts and ship roles - 11/8/2011 11:13:00 AM

Wicky

Posts: 102
Joined: 4/1/2010
From: Linz, Austria
Status: offline

In the ship design screen, where you can select a "ship role" (in the upper left corner) you get to choose from freighters, passengers, starbase etc. but...

When selecting from escorts, frigates, destroyers, cruisers and capships, let's talk what does it do.
Right now, all of them have the same role of a "military ship". The AI autodesigns them from size small to huge, but that's not a binding argument, ie my escorts usually have size 1500 by the end of the game.

Granted, it's nice to know that a frigate is actually smaller than a cruiser, but please consider that other than this, the AI uses all these ships for the same tasks.
Like for example, cap-ships are sent on on escort missions (lol), enemy starbases are attacked with escorts (omg), and I've once even seen a cruiser patrolling my already well defended large spaceport (arghh)

Hope that anyone can understand even one word what I'm talking about. It's 5 ship-types, which are basically the same ship, only 5 different names.

Could we have this idea I've worked out:
Escorts, who only escort for example gasminers, colonizers...
Patrol ships who only guard mining stations, undefended planets etc...
Raiders who only attack enemy mining stations and freighters.
...It would be nice if we could design a ship blueprint for a certain task in mind.

1) Because a Patrol-Ship does not need much fuel tanks, and not much speed either since it only sits there in owned systems, defending.

2) Because an Escort-Ship needs more agility than others to catch up with the ship they are escorting. And lots of fueltanks, and solar collectors, since it will fly very far and has to wait there until the work of their protected one is finished.

3) because ships designed for attacking huge spaceports just won't do with 200 shields.

I always get angry when the AI packs tiny ships into a fleet to see them all explode in the first area weapon. Please, can we have military ship roles that only do what they were designed for? And so we can actually control what the AI does with the military ships.

Thanks for reading and sorry for long post,
Greets

Wicky

Post #: 1

RE: on escorts and ship roles - 11/8/2011 12:35:23 PM

Nehaektas

Posts: 7
Joined: 11/2/2011
Status: offline

Something like that would be fantastic. Good ideas.

(in reply to Wicky)

Post #: 2

RE: on escorts and ship roles - 11/8/2011 1:11:15 PM

Wicky

Posts: 102
Joined: 4/1/2010
From: Linz, Austria
Status: offline

Thanks. I want my escorts to "escort" and my capital ships to attack spaceports, because that's what they were designed for, and not reverse lol :)

< Message edited by Wicky -- 11/8/2011 1:12:29 PM >

(in reply to Nehaektas)

Post #: 3

RE: on escorts and ship roles - 11/8/2011 2:34:31 PM

Nedrear

Posts: 702
Joined: 10/29/2011
Status: offline

Since I micromanage my fleets and ships I never got such a problem. I only let the escorts - less weapons medium shields and high speed - run on auto while telling the sector escortfleets to patrol by hand. My frigate class nromally is quick and has a balanced amount of weapons and shields. Later it will carry rockets and beams in the same amount instead of pure beams. My destroyer got the bad weapons and these twice as much as shields. His speed is reduced compared to the frigate. He can use 1-3 troops.
Battlecruiser, the queen of your smaller sector fleets, are either designed to match all needs including "spying" by sensor and help the fleet at all possible or part of the mother ship war fleet where this monster takes the job while the battlecruiser are just armed to death. Again the higher the slower the ship. A bulk of genocide bombing cap ships dont need to outrun a fleet of nasty escort flies.

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(in reply to Wicky)

Post #: 4

RE: on escorts and ship roles - 11/8/2011 3:12:29 PM

Canute0

Posts: 616
Joined: 4/30/2010
From: Germany
Status: offline

At DW the Ship role just set the Ship role NOT the Ship size. Its just set how the AI will use that ship when you set it on Automatic.
When you design an Escort with the Size of a Death Star its your choise. Noone said an escort need to be a small ship.
You could design hvy shielded freighter with fighterbays instead to use Escorts.

Btw. Escorts are mosttime useless at DW since noone can interrupt hyperspace travel.

(in reply to Nedrear)

Post #: 5

RE: on escorts and ship roles - 11/8/2011 5:06:41 PM

Kayoz

Posts: 1516
Joined: 12/20/2010
From: Timbuktu
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Wicky

In the ship design screen, where you can select a "ship role" (in the upper left corner) you get to choose from freighters, passengers, starbase etc. but...

That the AI does not use its ships effectively is the real problem. I'm not sure what the developer's intention was, but the result as I see it, is the AI randomly assigning ships to an attack fleet till it has "enough" firepower, with no differentiation between a dozen fragile escorts and it's heavy-hitting capital ships.

There's a lot of talk of Legends adding management options for the player. But I find it worrying that I haven't heard anything indicating that the AI has been improved.

(in reply to Wicky)

Post #: 6

RE: on escorts and ship roles - 11/8/2011 6:47:21 PM

Erik Rutins

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: offline

The AI does not normally use Escorts in any Fleets. If you have a save showing this, I'd be interested in seeing it.

Regards,

- Erik

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Post #: 7

RE: on escorts and ship roles - 11/8/2011 11:41:51 PM

Stormy Fairweather

Posts: 66
Joined: 7/1/2011
Status: offline

I agree with wicky, expanded and defined ship roles would be excellent. I would also like to see the AI be able to handle production of multiple different designs of those roles.

(in reply to Erik Rutins)

Post #: 8

RE: on escorts and ship roles - 11/9/2011 3:31:09 AM

Gelatinous Cube

Posts: 696
Joined: 10/26/2011
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

The AI does not normally use Escorts in any Fleets. If you have a save showing this, I'd be interested in seeing it.

Regards,

- Erik

Yeah, I was about to say. I usually leave my fleets on Auto, except for a few big planetary invasion fleets. The Escorts/Frigates do patrols and escort colony ships, and react to pirates and small incursions but they don't join the big nasty fleets and they don't participate in AI invasions.

(in reply to Erik Rutins)

Post #: 9

RE: on escorts and ship roles - 11/9/2011 6:04:39 AM

Wicky

Posts: 102
Joined: 4/1/2010
From: Linz, Austria
Status: offline

Sorry that my writing was a bit rude. I've bought me some oropax (a noise-suppressor) and tonight I've slept more than 5 hours in a row for the first time in years.

(in reply to Gelatinous Cube)

Post #: 10