Logistics CMD + FFG = Fail?

[RedrumJackle]

O_o;

I'm in a game right now where my logistics CMD is getting attacked through a Force Field that fully covers the CMD. In random instances the enemy seems to shoot the FFG but in some cases it happens they can shoot right through the FFG and hit the CMD. o.o;

Its like this...

'Hey lets mix it up.. lets make him think his FFG is working and shoot it for a bit, then lets attack his CMD!' says AI commander

'YEA sounds like a great plan he won't expect it.' says AI private

Me = 'WTF!?! THEY Can shoot through my shields?! I've scanned them! They don't have that power! Check the FFG ASAP!'

Mechanic says 'Its fully operational, in fact it was just taking.... or wait it is now taking damage again. Sir I'm not sure if its the FFG malfunctioning I think its the LCMD shield that is interfering with the FFG.'

I say 'Fix it damnit, thats what your supposed to do.' CLICK.

XD

Ok but seriously, >.> the LCMD and FFG don't seem to mix correctly its like they take turns taking the damage. The attack held Etherjets, Fighters, and Bombers. Watching the fight i could see shots hit the FFG then a moment later other shots were piercing the FFG and hitting the LCMD. o.o;

[RedrumJackle]

<.<

Since the FFG has been situated there every other wave now seems to hit the FFG only.

I'm not sure if this was a issue due to me creating the FFG during the assault on my LCMD or not. o.o; But I felt that the shield was acting incorrectly, I'm having no further episodes as before. >.>

[RCIX]

It has to do with how forcefields work; what happens is when the shot's fired, it looks at the target and figures out which forcefield it would slam into first, then marks that. That results in a tag-team damage distribution thing, where as one FF is shrunk, then others take the damage for a while. This is unfortunate in the case of logistical command stations, since they take damage along with the FF.

Perhaps the forcefield should be removed in favor of some other ability? Right now, unless the thing gets a separate forcefield from its main health, or a major health boost to help the forcefield part be useful.

[keith.lamothe]

This isn't really a bug, the LCMD is simply functioning as a forcefield generator.  I'll ask Chris if he wants me to do anything about this, but I'll move this to the main forum in the meantime.

Thanks for letting us know, though, it does sound like the situation could stand improvement

[CogDissident]

Maybe make the logistics post spawn an automatic attachment field gen, sort of like how the advanced factory spawns baby factories for teammates?

Oh, since we're talking about them, logistics stations stack sort of oddly with grav turrets. The grav turret reduces your speed to 8, then the logistics station adds 40, so you move at speed 48 (or 44, or 42, increasing with grav turret tech level) through the grav turrets that are supposed to set any ship's speed to that level. I mean, it only helps allied player ships, but is this as intended?

[keith.lamothe]

The speed effect interaction sounds right to me.  I don't know if that was Chris's intention but I think it helps add value to the LCMD by overcoming a restriction that is normally pretty difficult to overcome.

[CogDissident]

It really is what makes logi stations the most useful for me personally, since putting one down really is a lot of income I could be getting if I used a mk2 or mk3 economic station.

[RedrumJackle]

Took me a bit to find this thread again. LoL

I do apologize about my venting sarcasm with the comical writing. >.>; *scratches head*

However I think I handled it well.

I will add in that the FFG managed to work how its supposed to throughout the game. I'm not sure if it was perhaps a error in the manner things were happening. Allow me to explain in steps that occurred.

First my Logistics CMD was up and running.
Then while I was busy looking elsewhere I see that the LCMD i just put up flashing in red saying its getting attacked. I'm like O_O!!! Oh snap...

Grabbed all my engineers, and pulled them into the planet getting attacked.
Took the LCMD put a FFG in cue right on top of the LCMD so that the field would cover it completely. Spammed my Engineers on it, and popped the bubble up in 4 seconds.

Bubble popped up, some shots went through and still hit the LCMD but i figured the calculations of the FFG would halt the bullets from further attacks on my LCMD. So I went back to my home planet to grab spawning replacements of my dieing fleet to send them into the defense to my other planet.

Meanwhile the entire time the message where your CMD is getting attacked has remained. So i'm like what the hell? my FFG is there, they couldn't have whipped it already with only 100 or so ships.. *Sends fleet, and goes to check on LCMD* the field is still up... why?

*looks closer and sees that the shots are taking turns between a still LCMD fully covering FFG and the LCMD*

It was really weird to see, but highly annoying as they kept dragging my LCMD down so i couldn't heal it. >.>

If that will help you better understand where the whole situation derived from. o.O!

Its just never happened before, and to have it suddenly happening was rather alarming. As when I have something being attacked, I normally pop a FFG if i have the spare means to do so. In order to save what ever is being attacked for awhile longer.

Anyway, thanks ^_^

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, sorry about the frustration, the problem is that the forcefield generation mechanic is designed for units that are protecting other units, rather than being protected by other units.  As a result, an ff-generating unit does not generally check "am I being protected by another ff" (this saves a bit of cpu), and so if something actually directly targets the ff-generator itself, it will generally be hit even it's awash in a sea of other ffs.

For 3.184 we're taking the ff-gen off LCMDs entirely, and giving it a more useful feature in compensation (halving the speed of all enemy ships on the planet).  We figure you can build an ff next to it if that's what you really want, and it will behave as you are used to

[CogDissident]

How about having mk2 logi stations halving enemy ship speed, and mk3 logi stations working as grav-drillers for enemy-ships (so you can finally counter AI types that love teleport raiders/battlestations and sneaking them into the rear of your colonies, at the cost of a ton of possible income).