Fleet prefixed audio alerts and standing orders

from Sins Forums
I had a chance last night to try my first round, overall I think it's going to be great.

One of the big challenges with this game, especially with large map games, is going to be keeping track of everything that's going on. I think some standing orders and more in depth audio alerts will go a long way in allowing the player to keep track of everything.

Standing Orders.
The attack settings (gravity well, local, weapons range) are a great first step, but I think these can be improved on. An option for your ships to withdraw after encoutering XX% hull damage or overwhelming odds or force them to fight to the death would be *very* helpful. Maybe withdraw to nearest friendly system or nearest repair bay?

Also, how about:
Gravity well or mutli-well patrol options.
Having fighters and bombers auto scrambling, but able to sit in the hanger to keep down on ship clutter.


Audio Alerts:

The one thing that I think is my best idea is to have a unique preamble for the ship alerts based on grouping. So if you set a ship group with CTRL+1 and they find an enemy they should say something like, "First Fleet, engaging hostile pirate". That way I know immediately what's going on and don't have to look away from whatever I'm doing.

Some status reports on combat would be very handy too, so I know if my attention is needed or not for a fleet engagement...

"Second Fleet, engaging weak/moderate pirate/tec/etc force"
"Second Fleet, under heavy attack"
"Second Fleet, withdrawing due to heavy damage"
"Mayday Mayday, Second Fleet taking heavy losses! There are too many of them! ArrrGGHHGGHGHlll *static* "

I'd imagine a lot of these audio alert cues are already on the way, but I don't know of any games that have actually used the CTRL + # groupings in their audio alerts before, but I think this a game where it would come in VERY handy.
5,264 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
The fleet based numbers could be confusing for "shared" units. E. G. in fleet 1 + 2.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Some status reports on combat would be very handy too, so I know if my attention is needed or not for a fleet engagement...

"Second Fleet, engaging weak/moderate pirate/tec/etc force"
"Second Fleet, under heavy attack"
"Second Fleet, withdrawing due to heavy damage"
"Mayday Mayday, Second Fleet taking heavy losses! There are too many of them! ArrrGGHHGGHGHlll *static* "


I do like the idea of audio alerts along that vein of thinking, it makes it easier to know what ships are doing what, where you are kicking butt and where you are getting yours handed to you.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
The fleet based numbers could be confusing for "shared" units. E. G. in fleet 1 + 2.


if theyre in both fleets, theyll be in the same spot anyways, so it doesnt make a difference
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

The fleet based numbers could be confusing for "shared" units. E. G. in fleet 1 + 2.


if theyre in both fleets, theyll be in the same spot anyways, so it doesnt make a difference


Not necessarily -- sometimes I use a "sub-fleet" designation system. E. G. Fleet 1 is my "grand fleet", while fleets 2-5 are "sub-fleets" which end up deployed across half a star system. I use 2-5 until I need a hammer, and then I use 1. Or, 2-5 are various "elements" like siege units / carriers. Fact is, 2-5 may not be where most of fleet 1 is.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I think these can be improved on. An option for your ships to withdraw after encoutering XX% hull damage or overwhelming odds or force them to fight to the death would be *very* helpful. Maybe withdraw to nearest friendly system or nearest repair bay?


Auto-retreat options (and/or other AI stances) have been discussed before as something that may show up in the unused button slot on the command panel.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
I do agree we need more unit chatter in this game. Go play Homeworld/Homeworld 2 sometime, for some good examples. I'd think the audio should provide information based on the size and number of ships in both fleets, IE...

Say your Group 1 consists of five frigates, and the incoming attackers are five frigates. It might say "Group one engaging enemy... This doesn't look good." Whereas if the enemy is twice their number, "Group one requesting immideate reinforcemeents, Command!" and if the numbers are reversed; 10 frigates of yours to five of theirs, "Group one, engaging inferior enemy. I almost feel bad about this."




Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Or here are a few.

Weak enemy: Command! We are engaging clay pidgins for unscheduled sporting event!

Equal enemy: Command we are under attack, please send backup with Band-Aids and cold packs!

Superior enemy: Command we are under attack are leaving brown trail behind as we flee so as to slow enemy.. Please save us!


All kidding aside would it be possible to have custom alerts inserted? I am not sure how difficult that is to incorporate now and days.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
another thing that would be interesting to incorperate on Multiplay would be a voice chat ability. i kno that that takes up a lot of space but when you have group a fighting player c and ally b is picking his nose somewhere you can yell rather then take your hand off the mouse and type
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
kno that that takes up a lot of space


How so?
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

slows down the bandwidth and such


You can't "slow down" bandwidth (bandwidth measures how much information can be sent in a given time frame, not how fast its sent to its destination)... unless you mean latency (how long does it take info to get from me to you), in which case no, probably not to any noticeable degree. That said...

Yes, speech would consume a small amount of bandwidth (on a cable connection, at least...) but its not really that big. IIRC, its somewhere around what a 56K connection could handle easily. Which is to say, anyone with DSL or better internet access (pretty much a "must" for most online gaming these days) wouldn't really notice it.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
I believe that Yarlen has already said voice chat won't be in the game. With Ventrillo, Teamspeak, etc, out there already we'd just be recreating that function needlessly.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

I believe that Yarlen has already said voice chat won't be in the game. With Ventrillo, Teamspeak, etc, out there already we'd just be recreating that function needlessly.



Eh, the only real advantage with "bundling" voice chat would be the ability to avoid needing a server, which those programs do need. (Servers are a problem if, for example, both parties run behind a "double" firewall -- I can configure the router end of it to let the server run, but my ISP "masks" my IP address automatically, complicating the creation of a server if, for example, my brother and I want to chat using vent).
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
well for both of those things u need to rent a sever
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

well for both of those things u need to rent a sever


Thats my point

Thought it is theoretically possible to make one, instead...