Set Target priority

[Mermel]

I have wondered about this for quiet a while.
I tend to set the target priority for my standart fleet ships to their preffered foe in the rock paper sciccor sceme.

So, first thing after passing through a wormhole and at the start of the fight is

Fighter hunt Bombers
Bombers hunt Frigates
Frigates hunt Fighter

It always forces me to pause the game and search for an appropriate ship in the main view, quiet a hassle at times and slowing the game down for me.

Does anyone know if there is an easier option to pick a preffered target?

If not... I would really like to see being able to select the preffered targets from the ship summary on planet on the right side of the screen.
Thats a feature I'm really missing in this otherwise great game.

[Mánagarmr]

All units already have a preferred target by default. They try to aim for whatever they do the most damage to. So you really don't need to mess with these kinds of micro management unless you want to override their default.

[Mermel]

That is what I mean. I really want to override their default. Often actually.
When it comes to bigger battles a right default target for ships makes a huge difference. I tested it a couple of times and by now and it makes a huge difference. Without proper selection of foes it's a game of luck if I win a given battle, with them it becomes a lot more reliable.

I never had the feeling that ships really take their damage boni into considerance when fighting. Fortresses firing at Polycrystal type hulls for example.
Okay, that is the other way around as I can't set an enemy type to not fire at, but I think it makes the point. Even with overkill a fortress should shoot at those targets last when everything else is gone, but they don't.
The targeting logic seems to spread out the damage evenly, at least that is the way it seems to me. Not a bad thing per se, but firing at hulls they get boni against first makes a big difference.

[Mánagarmr]

but firing at hulls they get boni against first makes a big difference.

That is what they are supposed to do. If they aren't I suspect something somewhere isn't working as it should

[Hearteater]

The target selection process is very complex and extensive, but it absolutely takes bonuses and all other factors into account.  It tries to maximize damage rather than kill targets as fast as possible.  If this is your issue, there is an option to turn on focus fire for non-sniper units which may produce the results you expect.  But that mode isn't optimal for raw dps.

Preffered targetting is primarily for handling unusual threats that need to be taken out despite not being optimal targets.  Raid and Plasma Siege Starships are common examples.  That said, I do wish I could set preffered targets of the ship summary list.  But it isn't something you should be doing often.

In your Fortress example, were the non-polycrystal targets second to enter range?  Because targetting isn't recalculated every frame, ships can stay on a non-ideal target for a short bit before switching.  This is magnified the more ships that are fighting because there is a limit to the CPU time spent on targetting each frame, so time remains for other critial game activity.  A 10,000 ship battle will definately show this effect.

Definately try the focus-fire option though.

[TechSY730]

When you give an explicit attack order to something that is auto-targetable, they will auto prioritize units of that type (well, first, units of that type and mark, followed by units of their type). You can see the current preferred target (if any) in the tooltip for that ship. This preference is set on a per ship, though, not a per ship type.
You can clear their current preference by sending a stop order (Bound to the End key by default).

There is already a suggestion somewhere to allow setting these priorities without having to actually target one (and thus finding an enemy one on the same planet) first, and I think there is a another suggestion to allow a way to set these priorities across a ship type (like, for all sniper turrets to prioritize raid engines or fighters to prioritize bombers or whatever), and not just ship by ship (which would have the advantage of the preference survive a rebuild).

EDIT: I was going to post about the complex targeting process and how there are many other factors, and the alternate targeting logic tries to maximize kills per second rather than damage per second, but Hearteater ninja'd me on both points.

[LaughingThesaurus]

I'm willing to bet what Tech said is exactly what happened. You might have given an explicit attack order before, which changes what your ships prioritize. Be sure they don't have preferred targets before sending them to fight, and be sure to attack move nearish enemy ships rather than right clicking directly on them. The right click is what'll cause those problems.

[KDR_11k]

In my current game I want my champion to aim for the gravity drains first, especially annoying because giving the attack order and then resuming the move order won't make the target preference stick if you do that while paused so you have to unpause before giving the move order again.

[Mermel]

Hmm. Some of these might be the case.

In conclusion this will be another feature request:

1.
Being able to set target priority over the ship overview
2.
Hotkey to clear any override target priority and resume default behaviour

Would love to see those

And thanks for all the replies. Nice forum, nice game.

[LaughingThesaurus]

You can do number 2, with the full stop button we mentioned. That clears all target priorities that you set by right clicking on enemy ships. End key by default should clear those.
And thank you, too!

[MaxAstro]

I would personally LOVE to be able to set target priority from the ship summary bar to the right - especially from the extended, F1 summary.  To the extent that if I had the time right now I would create a Mantis issue, and I probably will later tonight.

The biggest issue that I often run into is taking out Tachyon Guardians with small numbers of Frigates.  Currently the only way to set their target priority is after they arrive in the system - which often results in them having "wasted" their first salvo.

And honestly select your ships -> right click a ship icon on the summary to set priority is so intuitive I was amazed to see it's not how the game already works.

[TechSY730]

I knew this was on mantis somewhere, and I finally found it: 1711: The ability to manually set the preferred target of ships (http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=1711)

[Bognor]

MaxAstro: Tachyon Guardians' hull type just got changed to medium, meaning you now want Fighters to attack them, not Frigates.

Mermel: Another common cause for apparently suboptimal targetting by Fortresses is the ships you think they should be targetting having radar dampening.

[SNAFU]

And honestly select your ships -> right click a ship icon on the summary to set priority is so intuitive I was amazed to see it's not how the game already works.

This. This right here is the ideal solution all around I think. Let us set preferred targets by just right clicking (add a modifier key if you wish) the ship type we want dead in the planet summary!

If I had a dime every time I found myself playing 'Where's Waldo?' to find a ship of the type I want to set as a preferred target... 

[Mermel]

Whoever is capable to edit that request page.... write in the solution.
The issue is there and targeting over the ship list seems optimal.
Would really love to see that little bane of micro as a feature

edit:
My auto targeting issues are gone. After some testing I found every instance was lead back to one of the issues mentioned above. Thanks for the help