Fleet Command Discussion - what we want developed.

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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alphalvr
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Post by alphalvr » Sun, 26. Feb 06, 18:46

well to go hand in hand hand with this id like to see things to actually use a fleet for, rather than just decaring war yourself.

ie game events, maybe, where in line with the news, things happen.

ie a pirate you took outs brother declares all out war.
u side with boron or split in a fracus...whatever...just things happening to make the fleet useful, rather than the current `ive got a fleet lets jump into the 8 or so so sectors and let rip, not very involving with no repercussions.

ie you ju,p into a khaak sector to wipe it out only to find some others have retaliated from another sector and jumped in to one of your main sectors and is having a merry old time :o now that would be good

but i digress :roll:

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giskard
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Post by giskard » Sun, 26. Feb 06, 19:05

alphalvr: Yes theres some work that could be done in this area but we already have the khaak invasions and xenon invasions.

I think players prefer organised fleet engagements rather than hap hazard randomly spawning egagements they could miss entirely.

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Whispering Death
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Post by Whispering Death » Sun, 26. Feb 06, 21:48

I don't think this is really that hard. Real Time Strategy games have been doing this exact same thing since they where able to make them 3D.

Basically you're just asking for "Homeworld" (Relic Games, 1999).

Almost all these problems have already been solved by previous 3D RTS games. It would be far from simple, but the best answer is just to include a similar interface in X3.

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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 00:32

A few comments so far :

Dont limit yourselves. Just because we dont know how to do something now, or cant see how to do it now, should not limit discussing what we want.

What we want, is the important thing to establish. When we can quantify what we want as something akin to a specification, then we can look at how to do it.

Dont limit yourself to what you know how to do. If you script a lot, go beyond scripting. If you mod a lot, go beyond modding. If we limit ourselves to what we each can do, we will achieve nothing. If we push the envelope on what the whole group can do, we can do anything. (And now is not the time to worry about how).

And at the end of the day with this discussion, if we go back to Egosoft and say that this is what we want, but it cannot be done within the existing mod/script framework, will you do it as a full add-on, then I will still be happy with the discussion. I can see it very likely that what we all really want will require actual game programming to achieve. But there are ways of doing this, including a stand alone program that is activated when you want to give fleet orders that freezes the rest of the game timewise while your doing it (just an off the top of the head option).

It may be up Egosoft to say what can and cant be done, but in the meantime, lets not limit ourselves.

Push the envelope to the limit and lets see what our collective imaginations can define for us, and then look at the collective groups skills in terms of implementing it or defining a spec to ask egosoft for.

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Post by Grassturtle » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 02:02

giskard wrote:Thanks for starting the thread apricotslice.

Im spending a lot of time out the house right now for personal reasons relating to family health so im not here as often as i normally am.

Anyway...

I love the ideas and comments being posted. I think all are good solutions but Morbius ideas sound the most interesting to me so far.

Preconfiguring a fleet would appear to be best way to go, the easiest to deal with at any rate.

Id also like to see some work done in the fuel supply area for fleets. EG if a TL ship exists in the fleet, all ships get their jump fuel from that ship instead of having to carry they own. Refueling so many ships is a royal pain but refueling 1 ship would not be.

Being able to assign ships to groups indepentantly of their home base setting would mean a carriers fighters could have their roles assigned before they launch so when they do launch they automatically carry out the jobs they where give.

Such system would allow strategists to plan out their fleets in advance and deploy them in the sector they wanted simply by launching a carriers fighters. Other ships such as m6s could also be given similar roles but since they dont launch from carriers it just means 1 less order needs to be given during deployment.

I feel its important that members of a fleet can jump togather the moment the fleets flagship jumps. But having lot of ships suddenly turn up at a jump gate would cause problems.

It might be better to allow fleets to jump to any part of a sector, somewhere clear of stations and asteriods. That way the player could jump his fleet to empty area, deploy his ships and launch his attack from there.

On the subject of strategic control of fleet ships, the groups idea would be the way to go, control the groups rather than the ships. Tell a group to attack target A and have members of that group carry out those orders.

The trick is though, wingmen assigned to protecting a group leader should follow the orders they where given previously, eg defend leader. So the moment the leader is attacked, they jump in to action. If they have no orders then they should do as they where told when a group order is issued.

I think that would work very well.

Let us also not forget that fleet commands should allow the player to chose his own formations and not force somebody elses idea of a fleet on all players. The group system would allow this and we would soon see people posting their fleets in this forum and a whole new debate on the best fleet setup would begin.

A day i am looking forward too, i must say.

Giskard
:thumb_up: :thumb_up:

i dont think it will be said any better

A side note :

about jumping into sectors not using jump gates ....

i know exactly how this can and probably should be done ..... and not sure why it wasnt
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Post by Dr.Donkeys » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 06:10

My idea of the way this should work follows a story.

Player jumps into a north gate of a heavily populated enemy sector. He is flying an M5 class ship and quickly scouts around to see the locations of 5 enemy M1-M2 class ships. Time for a fight.

Player presses "," to open the universe map and takes a look at the side menu bar.

A "Bookmark" was created by the player earlier. It is labeled simply "Staging Area". Clicking on it automatically moves the universe map to sector Rhy's Desire and zooms in on the sector.

The sector map shows many ships, some of which belong to the player, some don't.
The player ticks a checkbox at the side menu filter box labeled "my assets". Everything on the map disappears, except for the 10 M4s and 10 M3s and factories owned by the player.

Player drags a rubberband selection box around the whole blob of owned ships. The M4s and M3s should be enough for the task at hand. But they need proper equipment.

Player doubleclicks on the "Battle Ready" filter button and a battle ready config window opens.
The window shows all of the saved options for determining battle readiness.
Player unticks the box next to "M4" and "M3" labeled "Mass Driver"; now Mass Drivers are not a requirement for either of those ship classes.
The battle readiness filter is configured by the player to show only ships which mounted at least 4 BPACs and are carrying at least 5 of any type of missile.

Player clicks "save as loadout template" and is prompted for a name. He types "Raiding Party" and clicks OK.
The sector map appears.
Player clicks the battle ready tickbox and all of the ships disappear from the sector view. None of them meet battle ready specifications.
This would be a problem if it wasn't so easy to equip them all with the battle ready "Raiding Party" template of exactly 4 BPACs and 5 of any type of missile.

It is easier to equip the ships as a group using the "Raiding Party" Battle Ready Filter/Template.

Player drags a Rubberband selection around the blob of his ships in the sector map and presses Ctrl+1 on his keyboard. Those ships now are Group 1 and can be named.

Player right-clicks on the newly formed icon for the group and selects from the context menu "name group", and the naming box appears.
Player types "Xenon Killers" and clicks OK. Group 1 is now known as Xenon Killers and is still selectable by pressing 1.

Player drags the Battle Ready filter button icon onto the icon in the map designating Group 1/Xenon Killers and the ships start to move.
The player has just ordered them to fly to his equipment dock in this sector (their default homebase because it is the nearest player-owned dock when the group was made)
They will dock, automatically remove any items that do not meet Battle Ready "Raiding Party" spec, and add all items required for the "Raiding Party".

A few minutes later receives an audio message.
"Group 1 was not able to equip for battle. Beta Particle Accelerator Cannon are needed."

Player opens the the Group Manager window by pressing Ctrl-G. Xenon Killers is displayed among a list of other groups and are shown highlighted on the Universe map.

Player right-click drags the Battle Ready filter button icon onto Xenon Killers in the Group Manager.

The Split M3 pilot who designated himself "flight leader" says over the com
"Split say, where to go?"

The ships do not move because they are waiting for another input. The player drags Xenon Killers' icon onto BPAC Forge alpha in the sector map and the group moves in default formation. Ships that need BPACs dock to buy and equip them.

Still on the Group Manager window, the player sees the text description next to Xenon Killers change to "Ready for Battle".

Player drags the Xenon Killers onto a Xenon J in view on screen.
"Split say, on my way" audio message.

A few minutes later, Xenon Killers comes through the north gate and moves to within 10km of the Xenon J and matches speed with the target.

Player decides they should not engage at less than 2km to avoid the Flak Arrays.

Player clicks on Xenon Killers and selects "Attack Range" then from the popout, 2km.

Player proceeds to watch as his small group of BPAC-equipped fighters attacks the J from 2km away.

Player decides that the default V formation is causing some ships to never be in range of the J at matched speed.

Player presses 1 to select Xenon Killers and selects from the popout menu "Formation" , then "Line" with ----- icon showing the formation style.

Now all the ships in Xenon Killers get in on the fight.

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Post by Grassturtle » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 06:32

I like that very much but i would like to add this ......

we need the ability to place HQ's so that we can properly stockpile for this type of engagement

or game play ....
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Post by Dr.Donkeys » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 07:39

Absolutely.

In fact, I don't see any reason why the icon drag, filter, or template user interface metaphor could not be used for practically any command in the game.

If you want a ship to move to a certain spot in the universe map or the sector map, just pick up its icon or "ghost" and drag it to where you want it to go. Same for groups and their icons.

This could be made context-sensitive by using the right or middle mouse button for dragging, so you could give the ship or group more detailed or negated instructions.

If you want to set a group's homebase to be your Crystal Fab in Herron's Nebula, drag the Crystal Fab's icon onto the group. Right clicking with drag changes this command to enable the popout menu so you can give a more detailed command to the ship related to the Crystal Fab. Such as, "get Crystals from: amount '200' "

Going way outside of the scope of "Fleet Management", this metaphor could extend into trade management as well. If you want to establish a relationship between several of your stations, you could group them and template their ships with a "Ready to Trade" template or filter. Ships do whatever needs to be done based on the player ruleset for trading in or among those grouped stations.

A good example of this for fleet management and supplemental trading is to have context-sensitive commands for freighters to auto-resupply player docks with weapons from the player's fabs. With priority given to this behavior during a "Ready for Battle" equip scenario.

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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 08:48

Dr.Donkeys wrote:The ships do not move because they are waiting for another input. The player drags Xenon Killers' icon onto BPAC Forge alpha in the sector map and the group moves in default formation. Ships that need BPACs dock to buy and equip them.
Thats the weak spot. In all likelihood, the station will not have enough stock for a fleet, and by the time they do, your original target is gone. This would especially be the case for ahepts or anything where only 2 can be stocked at a time.

Which comes back to the ability of a player to mass stock the guns, sheilds and parts decided on for main use by a fleet. Which means an HQ or store station with mass docking facilities for all sizes and almost limitless storage, so you can dock a fleet there and have it leave again restocked in minutes.

When you have a complex building what you need, we need a freighter mission that will deliver all made stock to an HQ automatically, up to any designated ceiling level.

Taking this example up a level, instead of fighters, we use 12 M2's which also need their loadout selected and to dock and change things, before heading into combat. Same senario needs to be applied, just as effeciently.

And up a level again, full fleets of M1's, M2's, M6's, and defense fighters and attack fighters.

Logistical nightmare, yes, but thats what we need to solve :)

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Post by Dr.Donkeys » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 09:19

If we are talking about completely integrating aspects of the fleet, its supply and fitment, the transportation, and the fighting; then we are talking about making major changes to the mechanics of the game.

Then I guess it's time to take a look at this dynamic in the game play now.
I think it's obvious what needs to change. The micromanagement style play of X2 and X3 needs to be updated with "smart" player assets that function together logically like building blocks for a goal.
This is basically what I was getting at with the "Ready for Battle" metaphor.
It is a straightforward and organized method for getting player ships to do whatever they need to do to get to the battle. Basically a "Get it Done" command. It's clear, really. If A player is staring at a crowd of Khaak, it shouldn't be time to be thinking about whether the 25MJ Shield Factory has enough Soja Husk. So why are we using the same sets of menus and interfaces for fighting commands as we use for slow-paced micromanager trading rituals?

The ability for the player to set up ship behaviors and routines without command buttons and without the need for extraneous button pushing is going to be the next step to take before any real sort of overall heat-of-the-battle fleet management can take place.

I envision a system where ships work together in groups to supply their "loop" without excessive interaction from the player. As in the fleet manager, buying ships from the Paranid Shipyard and assigning them with all of the default upgrades should be a simple 1 drag 1 drop operation.

You open the Paranid Shipyard, grab the item icon for TS Demeter Variant, and drop the icon on your SPP-XL in Farnham's Legend. The prompt asks you "how many" you put "3". There, you just bought 3 Demeters, Equipped with full cargo, speed, and turning upgrades AND assigned them to the Solar Power Plant. With 1 step. The upgrades were based on your active "Ready to Trade" template settings.

You could have optionally selected Jumpdrive in the "ready to trade" menu, and the ships would have stopped at Goner Temple to get Jumpdrives on the way back to start doing whatever the SPP-XL tells them to do.

These actions NEED to be based on a method of centralized player ship management that goes way beyond just being able to tell all your ships whether Pirates are friend or foe.

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Post by alphalvr » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 15:18

giskard wrote:alphalvr: Yes theres some work that could be done in this area but we already have the khaak invasions and xenon invasions.

I think players prefer organised fleet engagements rather than hap hazard randomly spawning egagements they could miss entirely.

Giskard
well the xenon invasions are a bit fake, a little work could be done there, and after restarting with 1.3 i saw a khaak invasion after about a few hours (jumped right in behind me in family whi in my buster) needless to say i died quick and i was only trying to run away. reloaded and it didnt repeat.......35 game days and not another sausage :cry:

perhaps im a bit strange but battles i havent pre planned and organised would be much more exciting quickly gathering together my fleet that r out on manouvres and getting them to jump in and save whats left and extract revenge :wink: as opposed to `entire fleet jump to khaak sector tell me when you have mopped up im off for a coffee ` :)

xenon invasion = jump in what ships you want, start mission, decimate, collect 20 million :) hmmmn not my idea of a challenge. of course i could make it a challenge by using a disco....but i want to use fleet commands to :cry:

funnt thing with x is most games get tougher....to the point where ive given up in the past, x is the opposite....tough (well 4 some) at the start....then gets a bit easy

anyway, off again....what were we talking about....ah yes fleet commands, well yep they would be nice but still as chucking a immense fleet in wins anyway seems a bit lost without a challenge to go with it.......can u hear me beg :lol:

haphazard random spawing engagement...hmmn yes....thats it, that wot i want.....preferably armed to the teeth with heat seeking mass drivers (experimental) :D

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giskard
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Post by giskard » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 20:11

Dont forget a fleet could but 1 m6 and some fighters or several m2s. The same system would work for all types of fleets. Besides if anybody is assuming its all going to be m1s and m2s, consider the Frame rates during battle.

Any fleet commands would have to work for small and large fleets equally well.

I do think its possible to do this without ruining X or making it in to homeworld. I think a few movement commands and group options would be a good start. After that a sector view style map where orders can be given quickly would finish it off.

X doesnt need a roving 3d view of space like homeworld has. Just a strategic display where the ships can be controlled from would do.

So if i was to make a shopping list for this it would be this.

1) A standard set of fleet/group commands.
2) A strategic display to give orders quickly.

I dont think theres much else needed since you can alway target a ship and give it orders, X just needs a quicker way to deal with lots of ships.

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acrh2
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Post by acrh2 » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 20:31

This game is not really designed to handle large battle groups, and after playing around with them, I have to conclude that advanced commands like described above aren't necessary.

Here's the reason:

LARGE BATTLE GROUPS AREN'T NECESSARY IN X3.

One can accomplish any task in X3 with a single M2. Using more than 1 ship usually is neither necessary nor safe. In fact, since you don't get fighting rank increase for non-player kills, it's best to use one ship only.

There's one exception - M1. If a player prefers to fly an M1 (because of speed, the ability to carry favorite fighters, and the jumping capabilities), there would be a need to have some rudimentary ability to control wings of fighters belonging to a carrier.
Something above the most basic commands already available in vanilla X3, but not as sophiscticated as what was discussed above.

This is my own opinion reached after countless hours of player the game with fleets (using my Fleet Orders script).

Someone else's opinion might differ, but trust me, when you play with the fleets enough, most of you might reach the same conclusion - large fleets are not necessary.
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Post by Dr.Donkeys » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 21:16

acrh2, your answer to adding fleet management functions to the game is that all players do not need fleets because it is possible to beat all battles with an M2?

Face it, the reason fleet management is not neccessary at present, is that the AI fighters have strong ships, but weak minds. They do not exploit the weaknesses of the ships they attack. Fix the AI, and suddenly you do need some fleet coordination.

Even with existing AI; what about the players who can't buy or do not care to buy such a large ship?

What happens when it suddenly is not possible to clear Xenon sectors in a Python without fighter support? How about when the enemy fighters realize that it's possible to hit you with AHEPTs without mindlessly flying into Flak or PSG range?

I think part of the goal for adding fleet management should be to make fleet management fun; and at least somewhat necessary.

That might mean making it very difficult to attack a Xenon sector alone.

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Post by acrh2 » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 21:28

Dr.Donkeys wrote:acrh2, your answer to adding fleet management functions to the game is that all players do not need fleets because it is possible to beat all battles with an M2?

Face it, the reason fleet management is not neccessary at present, is that the AI fighters have strong ships, but weak minds. They do not exploit the weaknesses of the ships they attack. Fix the AI, and suddenly you do need some fleet coordination.

Even with existing AI; what about the players who can't buy or do not care to buy such a large ship?

What happens when it suddenly is not possible to clear Xenon sectors in a Python without fighter support? How about when the enemy fighters realize that it's possible to hit you with AHEPTs without mindlessly flying into Flak or PSG range?

I think part of the goal for adding fleet management should be to make fleet management fun; and at least somewhat necessary.

That might mean making it very difficult to attack a Xenon sector alone.
A whole bunch of what ifs.
What's your point? Am I wrong somewhere in my post?
Is what I said not 100% correct?

By the way, I am the author of Fleet Orders script, and the reason why I made this script is because I felt the need for it, not because someone requested it.
It is my opinion NOW that I stated in my previous post.
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Post by Grassturtle » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 21:40

apricotslice wrote:
Dr.Donkeys wrote:The ships do not move because they are waiting for another input. The player drags Xenon Killers' icon onto BPAC Forge alpha in the sector map and the group moves in default formation. Ships that need BPACs dock to buy and equip them.
Thats the weak spot. In all likelihood, the station will not have enough stock for a fleet, and by the time they do, your original target is gone. This would especially be the case for ahepts or anything where only 2 can be stocked at a time.

Which comes back to the ability of a player to mass stock the guns, sheilds and parts decided on for main use by a fleet. Which means an HQ or store station with mass docking facilities for all sizes and almost limitless storage, so you can dock a fleet there and have it leave again restocked in minutes.

When you have a complex building what you need, we need a freighter mission that will deliver all made stock to an HQ automatically, up to any designated ceiling level.

Taking this example up a level, instead of fighters, we use 12 M2's which also need their loadout selected and to dock and change things, before heading into combat. Same senario needs to be applied, just as effeciently.

And up a level again, full fleets of M1's, M2's, M6's, and defense fighters and attack fighters.

Logistical nightmare, yes, but thats what we need to solve :)
I saw the same weakness in donkeys post wich is why i posted the add on for player HQ's

with the HQ's and donkey's layout i think that is a very solid fleet management core .....

plus with what apricotslice added to it .... i see increased uses for some ships

such as TS's and TL's for fleet support ships

example :

using my fleet management setup that we have designd .... i am readying a fast response fleet action

i notice my TL assignd to that fleet does not have enough supplys to refit the fleet its supporting ....

I order my ships to within transporter range of my TL and oder them to start refitting anyway

then i order some of my ts's (that have been trasnporting goods to my HQ or HQ's)to load the goods i need

and jump to my TL (directly)and resupply it ..... all while my fleet is moving to the target or preparing to move to the target

........................................................................

also giskard mentiond not needing the 3D space environment as used in homeworld for fleet management <----- with this i totaly agree

however i think we need that sort of implementation for placing stations to achieve better cleaner placements

sorry about the off topic comment i just felt we shouldnt loose any valuable information
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Post by flagg209 » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 21:49

I think what I would like is an entirely different view available to the user upon pressing a said keystroke -

this would switch all existing interface to something akin of any RTS released over the last 4 years or so (iso view - 3d rotation totally not necessary).

Trade:

In the RTS view one can click on their factory and see resources available, and resources needed; clicking a button named "gather resources" will send a TS shuttle docked and homebased to that station to gather what is needed. If there is no TS available an option to purchase from nearest shipyard should flash. Clicking on a button in the factory entitled "sell wares" will take that TS or another TS somewhere within a certain distance that will by said ware (you can then perhaps develop a tech tree, where TSs go farther to sell their ware) Another option would be the stockpile ware option - say you own a GPPC forge - you have maybe 3 TSs running for resources and another that runs the actual product to the destination of your choice.

Build

In the Iso / RTS view one can click on a TL and select the dock at nearest shipyard command. The TL will then walk or jump (drive necessary) to nearest shipyard - from there the very familiar shipyard command window will open - you can buy your facts and then jump where you want them and deploy - For deploying facts a sector map will appear similar to how it is now. Lay in your coordinates and select build here. Finally I think you should be able to designate an HQ (weather a seperate station or a complex that you build out of facts). Once you designate your HQ two new products will become available at the shipyard: First a hanger (for storing ships) second: a warehouse for storing well wares!

Fight

(though I agree with the only needing one ship school of thought -here is what I think)

Basically a draging created box around all of your ships would give you control of grouping and orders. So say we have a carrier with 3 novas in it - since the carrier's main job is to launch fighters selecting the carrier and then right clicking on a pirate base will do two things: first the carrier will start to fire it's weapons on the pirate base; second: the carrier will launch it's fighters which will by default attack the carrier's target.
An M2 in the same situation will NOT launch it's fighters unless told to do so; at which time the fighters will attack the target. It would also be nice if you could highlight enemy ships and group them as well - for instance lets say there are 3 Khaak destroyers and you have 6 Argon M2s - you can select the 3 Khaak destoryers to be enemy group 1 and then select your group of 6 argon M2s to attack enemy group 1; the 6 m2s will then act according to a few options; for instance: Attack nearest threat; spread fire; cover fire (perhaps for a fleet of M3s to get in close) - that sort of thing

Think
Your primary resource is credits and your secondary is race relations - both can be attained from the RTS view (credits as seen in the trade section and race relations indirectly from the aboive)...your ship would be like a hero character in any RTS game - and basically if you die in either view the game is over.

All in all - I don't know how to program a single line in any language; and therefore don't know how feasible any of this is; I don't think it really needs to be that granular though as anything that thick (in my opinion) is going to be too hard to complete.

I don't know if any of this is desired by ego or not; but maybe they could incorporate this by buying an RTS engine similar to how FPS games buy the "unreal" engine or the "Q3" engine...

I don't know - just my dreams
I do this for Aiur...

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Post by gray1107 » Mon, 27. Feb 06, 23:41

Just wanted to stop by and say that this is a great thread with lots of good ideas!

The interface does feel like something put in at the alpha stage to 'get things going', I think just about every review has mentioned something to this effect. This really should be EGOs main focus at the moment, I'm slightly worried that they are going in the wrong direction with the thread asking for mission suggestions for the expansion. We need function first then content.

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Post by Grassturtle » Tue, 28. Feb 06, 00:34

acrh2 wrote:This game is not really designed to handle large battle groups, and after playing around with them, I have to conclude that advanced commands like described above aren't necessary.

Here's the reason:

LARGE BATTLE GROUPS AREN'T NECESSARY IN X3.

One can accomplish any task in X3 with a single M2. Using more than 1 ship usually is neither necessary nor safe. In fact, since you don't get fighting rank increase for non-player kills, it's best to use one ship only.

There's one exception - M1. If a player prefers to fly an M1 (because of speed, the ability to carry favorite fighters, and the jumping capabilities), there would be a need to have some rudimentary ability to control wings of fighters belonging to a carrier.
Something above the most basic commands already available in vanilla X3, but not as sophiscticated as what was discussed above.

This is my own opinion reached after countless hours of player the game with fleets (using my Fleet Orders script).

Someone else's opinion might differ, but trust me, when you play with the fleets enough, most of you might reach the same conclusion - large fleets are not necessary.
I agree .... and since i can and have single handely destroyed over 200 xenon in 1 sector in my buster ......

and single handedly destroyed several K's , J's , L's , M's , and N's in a falcon .....

and cleand out 5-6 pages of pirates with no assistance in my Nova Raider in grand exchange ...

we should just scrap the whole fleet management idea :o

:headbang: not !

:gruebel: where was i going with this :?

oh yeah .... not everybody can fight that well ..... and for very many of us that can ...

we want fleet management both for the people that cant fight that way and for a greater fealing of realism

the interaction capabilities in X3 are admitadly small ... but my hope is that with improved player interaction and ability ....

we will see improved NPC interaction and ability .....

even if we cant get a fully working model for X3 Reunion ..... then maybe this will be the jumping off point for ......

(dare i say it) X4 the frontier and beyond

i almost said X4 the final frontier :shock:
Station Comm : Would the pilot with the fleet of capitol ships, please take what they want.


Think outside the box .....

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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice » Tue, 28. Feb 06, 02:20

One of the joys of sleeping is waking up to an extra page of excellent discussion :)

Some thoughts from the last page or so of comments :

Egosoft made a giant leap forward with the graphics of the game, but in contrast, their menu interface is a giant leap backwards.

Like it or not, the interfaces of Homeworld and other such games have become a standard for graphical oriented games.

The current ship list is designed for a dozen at most on a screen. In terms of font sizes verses graphics display, the fonts are huge and clunky. In the same space used by a screen of ships now, you should be able to graphically display all the details of a single ship, or details of many ships and much of the dynamic options.

The nav map for example. Put the mouse over a sector and a list of stations and ships in it, what their status is, armament, orders, highlighted problems etc., all should appear in an instant and be readable. The graphics supports this now, the programming falls way short.

A lot of the frustrations of some people come from the apparent inconsistency of major graphical sectors and ships, but complete absense of graphical display of details.

Imo, Egosoft needs to headhunt a graphical detail display specialist to completely redesign the way the information is displayed within the game, and bring the information display up to the standard of the rest of the graphics. This would have to start with the nav map. And then the player property list.

Seriously, the forum is far better as a graphical display than the game menus are. Egosoft needs to think about getting web style click boxes and info popups into the game

You should be able to put your mouse over a ship, or click on it in the nav map, and instantly see a complete set of details for it, especially the absense of something from damage.

Every single game that uses long lists of assets gets bogged down and unworkable by the time you get past a 100 in the list. By 200, often the arrays overflow.

For a game that is intended to last 6 months and beyond, most players will end up with 100's of ships, and the interface has to facilitate rapid information and orders. Which it currently doesnt and cant.

The more people outline how they want to do things, the more it comes back to menus and sub-menus being the most ineffecient way of doing it, and I will add, the most obsolete way of doing it.

Just thinking with my fingers. :)

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