Should I be more motivated to be aggressive in combat?

[Konqq]

I have noticed that the best way to survive combat is to try to more or less run away from all the ships and let them come to you, picking them off with powerful long range weapons.

I don't have a general problem with this, but is there any reason for me to take more risks?  Should I be willing to jump into the fray for any reason?

As far as I can tell, the only motivation for me to gamble at all is to save solar months, however the difference in time if I take even twice the turns to finish a battle seems negligible.
I have only played on normal, and I know that higher difficulties take longer, but is there any other way we could be motivated to get into the fray and take a risk?
Missions have a set number of turns?
More solar months pass during battles?
Smaller available area to run/kite?

I'm not sure of the best solution.

[Shrugging Khan]

Higher difficulties make it outright impossible to go into the thick of the fight, since tweaked damage/durability values heavily penalise any non-kiting approach. To my experience, anyways. So saving time isn't possible.

[chemical_art]

I admit combat is...simple as I've played. On normal combat is not difficult, even against 20 flagship, if one can outrun the initial barrage

[Tridus]

The only time I "jump in" so to speak is on the case where you're robbing freighters and if you run over them you can steal an item. Otherwise, kiting pretty much always works better. Your ship simply isn't durable enough to go toe to toe with multiple enemies.

[Professor Paul1290]

I think some of the player weapon ranges are too long right now. I think they got lengthened at some point for balance, but I don't feel like the extra reach is really necessary anymore.

Burlust fights in particular seem to have some serious problems with the player's current weapons range.

Maybe the range of player weapons should be cut back to what they were previously?

[Professor Paul1290]

Just found this, it seems that it being too easy to out-range most opponents has also been mentioned in one pre-release review so far:
http://www.controlcommandescape.com/reviews/the-last-federation-review/

"The best thing to do wherever possible is simply power your engines, get out of range, and then power up your weapons so you can annihilate anything before you’re within range of their weapons. This is a strategy that will work for the vast majority of battles, the only exception being those that continuously spawn enemies."

I've added this link to this ticket and also linked it to Burlust battles being easy to exploit as it seems to be a significant contributing problem there.
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=14192

[chemical_art]

Just found this, it seems that it being too easy to out-range most opponents has also been mentioned in one pre-release review so far:
http://www.controlcommandescape.com/reviews/the-last-federation-review/

"The best thing to do wherever possible is simply power your engines, get out of range, and then power up your weapons so you can annihilate anything before you’re within range of their weapons. This is a strategy that will work for the vast majority of battles, the only exception being those that continuously spawn enemies."

I've added this link to this ticket and also linked it to Burlust battles being easy to exploit as it seems to be a significant contributing problem there.
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=14192

Yeah that link is pretty accurate. The combat I found at first was fun, but already I find it dull. Simply too much "one-strategy-fits all" approach. Total War often found itself in this way, but benefit from having battles be less frequent (and thus more important) and having the graphics to make it enjoyable to just watch

[x4000]

Should help:

* The ranges on all enemy ships (except the lances that insta-hit you) have been substantially increased, such that even on normal difficulty they now almost always have the same range or a bit more than you.  Their shots don't move any faster, but it does mean that you can't kite in the same way as before, shooting enemies before they even get shots off at you.  For the higher difficulties, the enemies increasingly outclass you in range.

[Professor Paul1290]

Nice.

[chemical_art]

I wonder if the fact that range can be boosted with extra attack power causes some of the balance issues. The current optimal method was kite out of range, transfer engine power to weapons, become a sniper. If increased power instead of range increased something else (rate of fire? weapon speed?) I wonder if that would be easier to balance the ranges.

[Professor Paul1290]

I wonder if the fact that range can be boosted with extra attack power causes some of the balance issues. The current optimal method was kite out of range, transfer engine power to weapons, become a sniper. If increased power instead of range increased something else (rate of fire? weapon speed?) I wonder if that would be easier to balance the ranges.

That might be a good idea too. I think projectile speed would be the least hazardous to balance.

[Histidine]

Power to weapons already buffs damage. That's all it needs, really.

[Azurian]

we can also do:

Lowest Weapon Power : highest range/lowest weapon power
Highest Weapon Power : lowest range/ highest weapon power

[x4000]

Also:

* The effect that adjusting your power level to weapons has on your attack range is now very very small, pretty much negligible.