as per starships and micromanagement, i think that is only because of certain.. inadequacy issues. For instance; a starship will /never/ fire more than one shot at any given target, unless either a) you tell it to or b) there arent enough targets to deplete its full set of shots
Given that stipulation, starships are great at fire support. they will randomly choose a ton of hostile ships, and kill them fairly effectively.
Unfortunately, this isnt that great when it comes to dreadnaughts. Dreads have 5 shots, each doing a good deal of engine damage. Usually, youll find a dread shooting the same 5 units forever. This is kinda an issue, as the starship wouldnt kill those particular ships for a while.
Also, when a higher value target comes into range (dread vs dread), it doesnt really care. Hostile dreads will NOT priority engage a single one of your starships, preferring to spray them all rather ineffectually...
Neither will your own starships, for that matter. Usually, its not an issue... but when your 10x mk1/2 dreads come into range with a hostile starship (or, say... 3-6 bomber starships), id MUCH rather see my dreads coordinate and bombard the bombers no matter what else is in the area.
In this case, I believe a minor target priority change is in order. I note it is possible to mark a target of interest by ordering your units to attack, but this seems slightly useless. Something about certain targets taking priority, where you would rather they didn't (counterspies come to mind. Usually one per planet.. id rather my units keep the default attack in that case)
However, even with such a priority target in range, starships wont really pick one and blow it up.
I realise, however, that this is probably done for a good reason - specifically, the point of starships being large multiple attack vessels. I think its time for this to change somewhat.
Fleet starships (inc light/fleet/alien) these seem to be the best example of how a fleet starship would work. Large number of fleet suppressing fire, like flak guns. In general, I like these.
Dreadnaughts; These seem to be out of line. Multiple attacks are great, except for that they split their fire. This is not so great. However, there are a large number on the field - 5 being the ship cap for all sizes. Not only do I think this is a bit much, but I also feel that they are strong vs starships. 5 mk1 dreads will kill most any starship in 2 volleys. Sure, great anti-starship capabilities.. awesome range. Sounds great. until you add in the engine damage and multiple shots. I feel this part is out of line. Their ability should lie somewhere in the 'killing starships' category, which they do. However, the large number of dreads on the field means that they can suppress a good deal of other targets too.
Instead: Make them into long range BEAM LAZORS PLATFORM.. ok really, just decrease the number of shots, increase their shots power, and make the shots come from farther apart (like their wingie bits, for instance), Also, decrease the number on the field to 3 per mk level. Given like 2 shots per dread, at about 3x the power of the old shots, you are losing a little bit of damage, but I dont think thats so bad given the sheer number you ca have on the field. Also, make their bullets travel a wee bit faster? They are incredibly slow - a dread can shoot off some 6-8 volleys before they hit the target..
Raid/leech - cant comment on with the new changes. Damn you hard drive!
