Optimizing the attack sequence through wormholes.

[x4000]

- even early on I tend to separate my attack fleets into ship type groups (1=fighters, 2=bombers, 3=missile_cruisers) because they need to go through the gate in a specific order and I find the galaxy map easier for giving gate orders than ctrl-right-clicking the actual wormhole.

Huh, that's interesting -- I tend to just stage my guys by my side of the wormhole while I am off doing something else, and then come back and send them through.  Very interesting that you send them through in a specific order.  This is off-topic for the thread, but what order do you send them through in, and what's the benefit you're seeing?  I love when players come up with strategies I never thought of when designing the game.

Thanks for asking for input

Of course!  So far it looks like most people are in agreement with you, rather than me -- so if that's how things prevail, I'll switch it over.  I think that doing Alt+0-9 for priorities will be a nice compromise if it hits that point.

[keith.lamothe]

For example, if I'm expecting the other side of the wormhole to be mined and under direct fire coverage, I want to send through cheap ships like fighters to soak up the initial salvos before sending my cruisers through to fire on the defenders.  If they have 100 cruisers and a minefield and I have 20 fighters and 90 cruisers it could be the difference between victory and defeat, though most often it's just the difference between me losing 1500 worth of metal in fighters and 4000 or 5000 in metal+crystal in cruisers.  Higher-end defense can make it more important; if I'm trying to flood an ion cannon or pull defenders away or occupy tractor beams I'd rather use T1 fighters than T3 or other more expensive ships.

So mostly it's cannon fodder tactics to save the non-cannon fodder a bit of grief.  If for some reason the AI had a fairly homogenous defensive fleet in the immediate wormhole area I might want to send in the "takes very little damage from X or is very cheap" ships first, the "deals a lot of damage to X" ships second, and everything else third or even just wait until the AI fleet is down.

So another way of putting it is getting around the potentially lethal auto-targeting by not giving it any choices for the first salvo (if all it sees are bad targets, they'll still shoot at the bad targets).  It's just a marginal gain, but that can be enough.

[x4000]

For example, if I'm expecting the other side of the wormhole to be mined and under direct fire coverage, I want to send through cheap ships like fighters to soak up the initial salvos before sending my cruisers through to fire on the defenders.  If they have 100 cruisers and a minefield and I have 20 fighters and 90 cruisers it could be the difference between victory and defeat, though most often it's just the difference between me losing 1500 worth of metal in fighters and 4000 or 5000 in metal+crystal in cruisers.  Higher-end defense can make it more important; if I'm trying to flood an ion cannon or pull defenders away or occupy tractor beams I'd rather use T1 fighters than T3 or other more expensive ships.

Ah, that makes sense -- when I suspect mines, I do the same sort of thing.  And I like to send a scout or two first to see what is over there, too, although they can't help with mines.  But you're taking it several steps further -- smart!

So mostly it's cannon fodder tactics to save the non-cannon fodder a bit of grief.  If for some reason the AI had a fairly homogenous defensive fleet in the immediate wormhole area I might want to send in the "takes very little damage from X or is very cheap" ships first, the "deals a lot of damage to X" ships second, and everything else third or even just wait until the AI fleet is down.

That makes sense, too.

So another way of putting it is getting around the potentially lethal auto-targeting by not giving it any choices for the first salvo (if all it sees are bad targets, they'll still shoot at the bad targets).  It's just a marginal gain, but that can be enough.

Oh yeah, that sort of thing can definitely help.  Plus if there are lightning turrets right on the other, then they burn their first shots on just a few ships, and then when the rest of the stuff comes through it has a chance to hit them without being shot.  I'm always bringing along low-value stuff to suck up the damage when hitting ion cannons with low tech stuff, too.  You've got some good strategies there, I really like how you're putting together some pretty crafty solutions.

[netWilk]

Higher-end defense can make it more important; if I'm trying to flood an ion cannon or pull defenders away or occupy tractor beams I'd rather use T1 fighters than T3 or other more expensive ships.

Perhaps tractor beams should drop locks and retarget bigger/higher threat targets if something more dangerous comes in range.  Say, drop locks on T1 to target T3 if those show up.  This might be helpful for players as well, if going against a Schizo AI.

[x4000]

Higher-end defense can make it more important; if I'm trying to flood an ion cannon or pull defenders away or occupy tractor beams I'd rather use T1 fighters than T3 or other more expensive ships.

Perhaps tractor beams should drop locks and retarget bigger/higher threat targets if something more dangerous comes in range.  Say, drop locks on T1 to target T3 if those show up.  This might be helpful for players as well, if going against a Schizo AI.

You know, I tried that once during the beta, but it just never worked out as well as I would have liked.  Maybe I'll have another go at it at some point.  But I kind of like the "mechanical" feel of having them target on a first-come, first-serve basis.  If you're playing against a Schizo AI or an AI with a huge incoming waves in general, the best tactic is generally to have lots of extra tractor beams if possible (Mark II tractor beams grab even more guys).  I'll put this one on the maybe list for now, unless a lot of people chime in and think this would be a good thing...