Questions about preferred targets, questions about other things...

[mindloss]

Preferred targets: this was a good inclusion. This could be even better with some added TLC. Wishlist includes things like being able to have a list of priorities, have priority templates you can assign, be able to set the priority without actually targeting the bad guy...

But I don't really care about all that; this is fundamentally a macro game, not a micro game. Completely ignoring that I just said that however, I'm curious about when priority comes into play.

a) When selecting a new target, if a priority target is in your immediate range, it will be selected.
b) Whenever you come in immediate range of a priority target, you switch your target from whatever it was to the priority.
c) (undoubtedly this one) Something more intricate and involved.

Here's my main issue: say I want to do a "fly-by" on a target. I right click it to make it preferred, and then I pilot my ship past the target in such a way that it I am in range and have time to shoot. Invariably, my ship continues blasting backwards at whatever peon is chasing him instead. I realize I could get around this by right click attacking at the appropriate time, but that's often not as tactically sound as the fly-by, and if I'm not careful will leave my ship sitting there for target practice.

Is there any way to accomplish what I want within the current system? This doesn't come up often enough to warrant much attention, but this is maybe the ninth or tenth time I've run into it so I figured I'd write and see what anyone has to say.


On a completely unrelated note, if it's a quick answer, how does "gun loading time" work? It seems like sometimes your ships will fire ASAP and then wait out their reload timer; sometimes there's a very tiny delay (e.g. during wormhole egress), but most crucially, it seems like sometimes you will wait for the length of the reload time BEFORE firing the first shot, most notably when transports are involved in some way. Am I imagining that, or is that a tweak to disallow cheesy transport firing tricks?


Oh what the hell, I actually have a couple more related questions. When popping in and out of transports (trying to pull cheesy transport firing tricks  ), it seemed like some of my guys were flat out disappearing each time. Do your units take some kind of attrition for entering a transport in hostile space, or was it delayed gunfire that hit logically but not visually?

And finally, if someone fires, you move out of range and/or cloak, does the shot hit?


Thank you thank you. I've asked enough damned questions on this forum to fill up my own FAQ.

[x4000]

The preferred targets are really simple: whenever the ship does a targeting list check against ships that are in-range and not already slated for death, it ignores all its usual weighting for which targets are best to hit and instead moves the targets you said to prefer to the top of its list (below the preferred targets, of course, it continues using it's normal logic; so if all the preferred targets are dead, then there's no difference in the other targeting logic).

Ships do not switch targets unless their current target is dead or out of range, or they have been firing on that target for more than something like 15 seconds.  So doing a flyby is inherently not going to work; you'd have to manually target the target ship, have them kill that specific target, and then run them away after that.

There is no initial gun loading time, it's just reload after they fire.  However, ships aren't allowed to fire or be fired upon while fading in and out of wormholes.  Same with transports.

There is no attrition for getting into a transport, but whenever you go into a transport or a wormhole, then any incoming enemy shots accelerate and hit your ship instantly, sometimes killing it before it gets in.  Thus popping into and out of transports or wormholes to take pot shots at enemy ships is a no-go.

If someone fires and you move out of range, the shot will definitely hit you.  If you cloak, I think it doesn't.  If you move into a forcefield, it will hit the forcefield if you've got protection by the time the shot hits you.  If you move into a counter-missile protection radius when a missile shot is incoming... I can't remember on that one.  It used to be that it still hit you, but I think we changed that.

[mindloss]

The preferred targets are really simple: whenever the ship does a targeting list check against ships that are in-range and not already slated for death

By the way, I've been meaning to kudos you guys on this... the slated-for-death thing is obviously handled very well internally compared to some other games. It's satisfying to see my ships start zooming away 5-10 seconds before a last bullet or missile does the target in.

There is no initial gun loading time, it's just reload after they fire.  However, ships aren't allowed to fire or be fired upon while fading in and out of wormholes.  Same with transports.

Then I am either very mistaken or something was bugged. Earlier I was unloading ships from transports, and they took many (5+ ?) seconds before firing their first shot (although I think I heard the firing sound immediately, but checking the target's health showed no hit). This happened a good dozen times or so, so I assumed it was intentional. It was a solo game running smoothly.

There is no attrition for getting into a transport, but whenever you go into a transport or a wormhole, then any incoming enemy shots accelerate and hit your ship instantly, sometimes killing it before it gets in.

Thanks, that explains it perfectly.

[x4000]

Ah, transports -- yeah, forgot about that.  When you unload from a transport, as I think it says in the tooltip, your guys are basically "not ready" for several seconds after coming out.  So if you do a transport drop in a warzone, those guys will get shot to pieces.  People were exploiting the instant-readiness thing, so after much discussion that was the solution arrived at.

Thanks for the kudos on the targeting there, glad you like it.

[zebramatt]

It occurs to me to ask: are you trying to 'fly by' to destroy a target and run; or to simply shoot it once (to wake it up) and run?

[mindloss]

To be honest, the 'wake up' tactic had not occurred to me; that's even more useful than what I wanted. Nope, I was just trying to fly by and blast critical targets while sustaining minimum injury with a small strike force.

[zebramatt]

To be honest, the 'wake up' tactic had not occurred to me; that's even more useful than what I wanted. Nope, I was just trying to fly by and blast critical targets while sustaining minimum injury with a small strike force.

That's easy, then. Right-click the target, then shift-right-click another order (another target, another system, whatever) - they'll fall within range, destroy the target and leave in the most efficient manner possible!

If you want them to keep moving whilst they do it, it's a little more fiddly: right-click the target, wait for them to open fire, then shift-right-click a whole bunch of points around the target.

[mindloss]

Sure, problem with that is if it's a target that you can't take down, but just want to swat at. Then you have to do the fiddly micro.

[zebramatt]

So what we really need is a hotkey modifier for a "take a couple of pot shots and run" order?

 

[Nice Save]

If someone fires and you move out of range, the shot will definitely hit you.  If you cloak, I think it doesn't.

I think it still hits if you cloak. An Ion cannon definitely still hits a scout after the cloak comes back.

[x4000]

Okay, yeah, that's right -- thanks for the reminder!

[mindloss]

So what we really need is a hotkey modifier for a "take a couple of pot shots and run" order?

Yeah!! And while we're at it, a "win the game for me" macro button. Sigh, lazy devs, whatcha gonna do.

I think it still hits if you cloak. An Ion cannon definitely still hits a scout after the cloak comes back.

Actually, from what I've noticed I gotta disagree... the visual bullet definitely tracks the now-cloaked scout until it makes contact, and I think there's even a bang, but I don't think the scout actually dies. But I'm outvoted, so I dunno.

[zoutzakje]

if the shot is fired, and the scout cloacks after that, it will look like a hit but the scout won't die. At least that's how it used to be, don't know if it's still like that now.

[BobTheJanitor]

I'm pretty sure the scout does die, but people may be thinking it doesn't because they're zoomed out and seeing a stack of multiple scouts appearing to be just one scout. I know I have absolutely seen shots fired before cloaking kill a scout after cloaking, many times.

[zoutzakje]

oh I never look at the zoomed out scout group, I look at the icon on the right side of the screen, that shows how many scouts are left on that planet. I normally never look at that bar, but it is quite handy for scouting.