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Too much action in wars... - 9/10/2012 10:15:13 AM

Pukako

Posts: 14
Joined: 8/30/2012
Status: offline

Hi there

So I'm at war with the angry insects.

They have multiple ships, fleets and raiders all attacking different parts of my empire at once. There's one of me, who can do one thing at a time, and the automation of my ships results in them chasing random ships over the other side of the galaxy.

There must be an easy way of making sure my military does useful things and I don't belive that this game falls into the same trap as a lot of RTS games, where the computer does 100 things at once.

But what is it????

Also, when my exploration ships are automated, they ALL want to explore the homeworld of the angry insects, which results in them getting somewhat damaged. I'm tired of telling them to, perhaps, as you are an exploration ship, how about exploring the nearest unexplored star? Is there a way to make them do this automatically, without me telling them every single time?

Post #: 1

RE: Too much action in wars... - 9/10/2012 11:19:12 AM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

The AI uses explorers as scouts in war. You can see your opponent doing that as well. A possible fix is to take manual control of them and tell them to "explore sector". They will be busy for a while, and hopefully keep away from the war.

I agree there is a problem with message spam during war, and you could possibly try look for message filters. During war I could not care less about civilian ships being attacked. War time is usually happy days for pirates, both because fleets tends to stop protecting home lands and go into attack mode, and because the users attention is elsewhere and the messages drown in spam.

Take a look at the fleet posture thread in the War forum. I have not tried that much myself, but I think it should be possible to have most of the empire take care of itself while you run the main war.

And of course. You can pause the game as much as you want, and I think you can slow it to 0.25 speed if wanted. But if lots of things happen at once, it is always a challenge. However, the AI may be able to do lots of things at once, but what it does is usually not very optimized. Raiding a major mining system, the AI can send a 15 ship fleet to bust a mining base and go away. I will send a 4 ship fleet and bust every mining base in the system, while my 15 ship fleets do more useful stuff...

(in reply to Pukako)

Post #: 2

RE: Too much action in wars... - 9/10/2012 11:33:50 AM

Bleek

Posts: 720
Joined: 10/26/2011
From: United Kingdom
Status: offline

When I first started playing I was overwhelmed with battles too, it felt like too much was going on.

I handle the universe by creating fleets that are named after their home or easier, grid sector i.e. 'Defence Fleet E3'.

I then set the fleet posture to defend that sector and automate.

I ignore civilian and explorer ships getting hit in battle. The natural expendable casualties of war.

I then create 2 to 3 'attack' fleets that are not set to auto and that I control myself doing raids and strikes in cycle, refuelling whilst another fleet runs in. This leaves you to concentrate mainly on offensive action and let the defensive fleets take care of your colonies and sectors.

Don't forget the left hand menu listing enemy targets, that helps and also shows what fleet is attacking what.

Finally I change the alarm sound to something a lot quieter and more subtle!

I hope that helps.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 3

RE: Too much action in wars... - 9/10/2012 2:47:08 PM

oogs

Posts: 10
Joined: 8/27/2012
Status: offline

I slow down time and manually control anything. At this point in my current game, main worlds don't need a defense fleet as they have 2-4 defense bases and a large shipyard which put out a combined 10-15k firepower. A good chunk of that is set up as AOE. The enemy seems to run around with small ships for some reason, so they die quickly.

As for offensive actions, I send fleets to systems and manually target the tougher structures, then let them wreak havoc in the area automatically. The only fleets I micro manage constantly are my troop transport fleets, since I have to make sure I don't over-commit (thus, I can take more planets simultaneously) and also make sure I'm nowhere near that allied World Destroyer that has already blown up a world I had under siege (and killing the cap ship and troop ship fleets in orbit

(in reply to Bleek)

Post #: 4

RE: Too much action in wars... - 9/10/2012 3:21:01 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

I do the same as oogs offensively. Park good fleets in a system after blowing up space ports and other things that hurt badly.

Previously it used to be an issue that the ships took off after fleeing ships, but I think this has stopped. It was always fun to see a fleet leader being dragged to an enemy capital to die with the rest of his fleet in tow.

(in reply to oogs)

Post #: 5

RE: Too much action in wars... - 9/10/2012 3:32:19 PM

WoodMan

Posts: 1345
Joined: 6/2/2010
From: Ol' Blighty
Status: offline

Hi Pukako,

I'm guessing you're new to DW, so welcome! The main thing you have to remember is that you *can* do as many things as you want at the same time. There is no need to feel overwhelmed when you can pause the game whenever and for however long you like. Just imagine you are playing a turn-based game using the pause.

As for exploration ships, they are trying to scout out enemy positions for you. I agree, it can be a bit suicidal and I often take manual control, which again means more stuff to control via pausing.

Basically you have a choice over how much control you wish to exert, you could leave things automated and not bother pausing at all if you wanted, but to be much more effective you are going to need to take more time.

_____________________________

"My body may be confined to this chair, but my mind is free to explore the universe" - Stephen Hawking

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 6

RE: Too much action in wars... - 9/10/2012 4:09:39 PM

Pipewrench

Posts: 453
Joined: 1/5/2010
Status: offline

Pukako,

The AI is preforming the classic carrot and the stick strategy. It will drive you mad as your chasing a sensor contact that does not fully break because the AI escapes and then stops. Use this tactic as well. It provides a great way to pull forces away from an area. One explorer without stealth can draw a fleet while you bring in heavy hitters to destroy the target before the AI can react. You can even use the carrot to draw them to one of your fleets just outside of your system who are built for ship to ship engagements. Experiment and have fun.

When your at war the explorers become your eyes and ears to the military. If they are near to an enemy system they will try and gather intelligence whenever possible. Exploring becomes secondary if on automatic. Depending on your stealth capability they can sit quietly and recon.

hint
* watch your own systems to see if another empires explorers are hanging around watching. If they have enough stealth they will be hard to spot and that might make you a little paranoid while you learn the ropes.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 7

RE: Too much action in wars... - 9/10/2012 4:17:37 PM

Shark7

Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bleek

When I first started playing I was overwhelmed with battles too, it felt like too much was going on.

I handle the universe by creating fleets that are named after their home or easier, grid sector i.e. 'Defence Fleet E3'.

I then set the fleet posture to defend that sector and automate.

I ignore civilian and explorer ships getting hit in battle. The natural expendable casualties of war.

I then create 2 to 3 'attack' fleets that are not set to auto and that I control myself doing raids and strikes in cycle, refuelling whilst another fleet runs in. This leaves you to concentrate mainly on offensive action and let the defensive fleets take care of your colonies and sectors.

Don't forget the left hand menu listing enemy targets, that helps and also shows what fleet is attacking what.

Finally I change the alarm sound to something a lot quieter and more subtle!

I hope that helps.

I fix the explorer thing by redesigning them with guns, a minimum speed of 50 and shields. Set to stand-off and flee at shields 50%. They can take care of single escorts, space slugs, etc on their own. Really makes things interesting.

On freighters, unless something has changed in the last patch, you can put as many point defense and Ion Cannons on them as you like (meaning they can get away since the Ions temporarily disable targets). On the other hand, you make a lot of money building replacement ships for the private sector, so weigh exactly what you want to do carefully.

_____________________________

Distant Worlds Fan

'When in doubt...attack!'

(in reply to Bleek)

Post #: 8