AI - Autoretreat option

from Sins Forums
I was thinking, there should be some kind of AI button to allow for an auto-retreat option for battles that you may not be able to monitor closely (especially if you have sevral battles going on at once). These stances will determine when the ships retreat; let's just say for the sake of an example, the four stances are 0% (to the death) 25% hull integrity, 50%, and 75% hull integrity. That way, when their hull integrity (armor hit point) gets down to the set percentage, they attempt to disengage and retreat to either a.) the system they last visited, or b.) the nearest friendly or allied system.

By doing this, you can send a fleet to raid a planet, set them at 50%, and then go about managing the rest of your empire, or preparing an invasion fleet, not having to really worry about the fact that you would lose all your ships.

Likewise, let's say your the recipient of a surprise attack while you are busy monitoring another battle. You can't really monitor the surprise attack that closely, but know that their retreat stance is set at 25%. So you know that you are not likely to lose ALL your ships before they can jump out, so you monitor the situation, but are free to spend the bulk of your time starting build queues or focusing on the battle you were engaged in before the surprise attack took place.

In short, there are a ton of ways the Auto-retreat AI stance could come in handy, and hope you can see fit to implement this in-game.
6,074 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Actually sounds like a really good idea to me. I know some will complain about AI playing the game for you but when you get a huge empire it is really hard to micro-manage everything. That is something I discovered pretty quickly in Hegemonia so hopefully your idea will get implemented in some form.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah auto retreat is a must imho , saves my butt a lot in COH.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
another thing that should be noted here is the simple fact that, even set at 75% it is likely the smaller, weaker ships will be destroyed, such as frigates. However this would most likely save your cap ships, and give you some chance to save a few cruisers as well. The Auto-retreat is an aid to an emporer that is suddenly inundated with combat in several places, or who simple does not really care about the outcome of a raid, because it was meant only as a distraction for the enemy, and not meant as something that would manage your fleets for you.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
It's been suggested and discussed before as a potential button for the unfilled space on the command palette. We'll have to wait and see if it comes to be
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
That's a really bad idea for a fleet, a great idea for capital ships. If your fleet starts retreating, you'll end up having the ai assrape your slower, harder to retreat with capital ships as they rapidly become the only thing still fighting and retreat all by themselves when everything else is dead or gone. Particularly since you'd need to do it at a minimum of 75% to ever get a cruiser out alive, let alone a frigate. Once they start running it's all she wrote with their shields down, that wide circle through the enemy formation to turn around will be the last maneuver if they aren't near full hull at the least.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
would it be possible to have an announcement occur like :

"its a TRAP!" as you push the retreat button ?

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
where's the auto retreat option? please put in!!!!
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
While it might be great for singleplayer, isn't that a tad too out of place for Multiplayer games?

The point being that, there should be some elements that requires the players attention, beyond telling ships where to go.

If you're losing you shouldn't have a "Get out of Jail" free card for your ships. Either retreat manually or not at all, in my opinion.


Yeah auto retreat is a must imho , saves my butt a lot in COH.


The CoH option might work, as it's something that has to be used manually. Perhaps if ships retreated to nearest star, as opposed to retreating to the homeworld or where they came from. Sorta like a panic button.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
its not get out of jail...its still nerve wracking when the cap ship takes sooooooooo long to move out of the grav well...I'd like to have a fighting chance of saving my cap ships before they get blown. I always misjudge!!!
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
.its still nerve wracking when the cap ship takes sooooooooo long to move out of the grav well...


Ooooh yeah. My favorite was when my flagship jumped out... with 4 HP remaining.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
Ooooh yeah. My favorite was when my flagship jumped out... with 4 HP remaining.


Had a moment very much like that in my game vs kosc--check out the replay if you haven't
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

Ooooh yeah. My favorite was when my flagship jumped out... with 4 HP remaining.


Had a moment very much like that in my game vs kosc--check out the replay if you haven't




Yeah, that particular even was Vs. the AI for me... if I had my enemy ships HP down that low, I'd just jump some frigates after him (1200 in frigates Vs. 3000 in capship + 2000 or more in levels... oooh yeah).