Am I missing something when it comes to space combat

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Am I missing something when it comes to space combat

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> Am I missing something when it comes to space combat

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Am I missing something when it comes to space combat - 7/26/2015 11:43:31 PM

Stevechase

Posts: 161
Joined: 10/5/2013
Status: offline

Have over 125 hours and am disappointed. It does many things well but my opinion of the space combat so far is that it is so boring as to break the immersion. Fleets are merely selections of various ships with no rhyme or reason to them. The idea of a fleet should be to have a mix of ships where each type can perform its designated function within the fleet. You can put all kinds of ships in a fleet but it is fleet in name only. In DW "Fleet" seems to be just a name given to a bunch of ships that just throw themselves at the enemy pell mell (Command and Conquer like). I'm I wrong?

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RE: Am I missing something when it comes to space combat - 7/27/2015 12:29:17 AM

aniketos

Posts: 13
Joined: 6/12/2015
Status: offline

Are you talking about fleet tactics or some such thing? I've had this rummaging around in my own head recently as well. I haven't near as many hours in the game as you but thus far, I cannot quite see the best way to make fleets fight more coherently than they already do(or don't).

And as of right now, I am still trying to see if there are ways to get fleets to jump together instead of one, to a few, to the blob at a time. So far, my best efforts at making fleet tactics is going the circuitous route of establishing how a ship should fight in the ship design screen. That's the best I've come up with.

(in reply to Stevechase)

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RE: Am I missing something when it comes to space combat - 7/28/2015 8:24:55 PM

ASHBERY76

Posts: 2136
Joined: 10/10/2001
From: England
Status: offline

DW was never really a tactical combat game but more about logistics.They added things like fighters,missiles,ect in the expansions but it never really added a tactical feel to the game imo.

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(in reply to aniketos)

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RE: Am I missing something when it comes to space combat - 7/29/2015 4:44:41 AM

SirHoraceHarkness

Posts: 400
Joined: 5/17/2015
Status: offline

The stock ai is pretty bad at ship design so I would recommend at least the basic icemania ai enhancement mod as it lets the ai pump out much better ships. Of course if you really want to build a tactical fleet you will need to design them yourself and run them manually as even with the ai enhancement mod wars are not run very well on automatic.

(in reply to ASHBERY76)

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RE: Am I missing something when it comes to space combat - 7/29/2015 5:23:53 PM

DeadlyShoe

Posts: 217
Joined: 6/2/2013
Status: offline

A lot of it comes down to how you design your ships. They need to be designed with a certain philosophy and then set to tactics appropriate to their equipment. Some available roles in DW, in my experience:

* Long range combatant ("Archer"). Decent speed & turning, designed to always engage at long range with velocity torpedoes or missiles. Can often get away with inferior shielding. Good at spaceport sieges, and against ancient vessels in the early-mid game. (Won't work on Shakturi owing to their armor!) This design philosophy is excellent for Escorts.

* Tackler. This is a ship optimized for short range combat & mounting a hyper deny module. Usually cheap enough to be expandable. It doesn't have to be particularly fast but is better at its job if it is. This ship keeps enemy vessels in combat. It can be a good idea for them to emphasize defense over firepower, depending on your technology and philosophy.

* Slugger. This ship sacrifices speed for extreme armament & shielding for its size. It's designed to win fights - nothing more, nothing less. The primary flaw of this design tends to actually be logistical; slow ships are PAINFULLY slow at refueling or repairing at spacedock, especially when low on gas! I tend not to use this design for that reason, unless my ships simply cannot match the enemy.

* Warship. Generalist design that is designed to be adaptable. It mounts both long and short range weapons so that it can use the best weapons for a particular ship design. It needs to have a reasonable turn of speed so that it can be certain that it is choosing the engagement range.

* Pirate Escort. Pirate Escorts are a special case. When the AI is managing them they function as independent raiders, so they need to be designed with that in mind unlike empire escorts. Good speed is paramount so they can reach planets and deliver their raiders, and you want firepower so they can down enemy shields for boarding.

* Psycho. These ships close to point blank range in all circumstances. This is good for railgun ships for obvious reasons, but is extremely dangerous. Impact Assault Blasters also benefit from this.

(in reply to SirHoraceHarkness)

Post #: 5