Need "hold position" order to avoid mines

from Sins Forums

Either the ship movement AI needs to be smart enough to NOT charge headlong into a clearly marked minefield, or there needs to be a "hold position" command for ships.  I keep telling them to move the heck away from the mines, and they keep auto-attacking and moving back into danger.  The only thing that works is turning off auto-attack. 

I want them to *shoot*, I just want them to stay put.   This is particularly true if you've got the upper hand on the edge of a heavily mined gravity well full of homing mines.   You want to stand still, finish blasting the bad guys, and *then* take your time sensing and destroying mines.  Being able to tell ships to hold position seems like a simple solution.

And partially off-topic -- mine sweepers are essential.  There should be a ship that will hunt, sense, and sweep mines automatically, especially in the case of those darned homing mines.  Using scouts to drag mines out of the way or sacrificing them to clear a big mine clump is tedious and disrupts game flow.  "oh, crap...mines... better send over a squad of sweepers" would keep things moving.  They needn't be particularly fast at it or worth a thing in combat, I'm just tired of being tempted to run my heavy capital ships through the field in hopes it'll sweep the mines and survive.

6,854 views 22 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

There is such a setting. There's an auto-attack range toggle between Gravity Well (ships can target anything in the grav well), Local Area (ships can move a little bit to target and get in range) and Hold Position (ships won't move on their own, only fire if anythin comes into range).

 

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

is there a quick key for that? or do you have to go through the menu options each time to change it.

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

hold position on fleets is very useful for dealing with the mines. As a bonus any fleetless ships you send in will join that fleet, rally to it and not go off on their own.

it would be nice if the fleet AI were smart enough to just avoid mines though

it doesnt have to be smart enough to sweep them

 

you can set up hotkeys for most things if they don't already had one. check the menu.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

under ship managment or fleet managment (don't remember which its called) it is the bottom left button, hit it twice for hold position.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting ShadyZu, reply 2
is there a quick key for that? or do you have to go through the menu options each time to change it.
End of ShadyZu's quote

You know, to be honest I don't remember. I know that if you set it for a fleet, any ship joining that fleet will match the setting, which should cut down on the number of times you have to tweak it considerably if there's no direct hotkey.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

no default hotkey, but you can set one

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

You can also set different ships within the fleet with different engagement ranges. Just set the fleet status first and then chang each group.ship after.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

you know, ur reply only showed up five min after it said it was posted.

(as in on home page it says that there is a new reply from Tkins here, but when I open this thread, yours didn't show up until I refreshed the page 5 min aterwards. (was nearly continually refreshing thru the 5 min.)

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

A quick fix for that, Orodum, is to just hit edit on one of your posts and accept (don't have to make any changes). The reply will show up right away then.

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah I get that all the time too. I think worse at work where we use IE6.0

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

I think worse at work where we use IE6.0
End of quote

Ditto. Aren't these IT guys at work supposed to be, you know, pretty smart? Like, smart enough to know that IE6 is not the best thing in the whole wide world to have anymore? :)

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Especially for security concerns! Why would a company want to use such an outdated browser!?

 

OH well.

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

FF3  acts sometimes weird too, especially on extremely long post.

On topic however, i've played the game since release and hadn't noticed those engagement range buttons. I've just disabled auto-attack and let strikecraft deal with mines with the help of a scout. Reminder to self: R-T-F-M!

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

I think there should probably be some sort of automatic AI behavior to avoid mines, but there would also need to be a way to force them to enter a minefield if that's what you wish.  Ships making wide turns into minefields is just crazy.

Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

I think there should probably be some sort of automatic AI behavior to avoid mines
End of quote

That would sort of defeat the point of having mines - why have them if there's no effort on the part of the player to avoid them :P

Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top

For some different defence set ups I use Gravity Well and Local Area. For Attacks I tend to use hold position and Local area.

Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top

Aha, there it is... under tactics management.  Serves me right, I've never really messed with the tactics or fleet management, I just group ships with ctrl-1, ctrl-2, etc like most other RTS games.  I'll have to mess with the fleets and see if they're worth using, looks like they'll keep the fleet in a tighter formation.

Thanks!

 

Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 15

I think there should probably be some sort of automatic AI behavior to avoid mines


That would sort of defeat the point of having mines - why have them if there's no effort on the part of the player to avoid them
End of Annatar11's quote

 

I think he means after they've already been spotted.

 

I hope that's what is meant ...

Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top

I'll have to mess with the fleets and see if they're worth using, looks like they'll keep the fleet in a tighter formation.
End of quote

That's their primary role :) All the ships fall in formation to the fleet leader, and don't wander off outside the fleet's cohesion setting. It also cuts down on required micromanaging (unless, of course, you want to do it) in a neat way - if you have a fleet selected and show it to attack, only the primary combat ships will attack. The support ships (repair boats, debuffers/buffers) will keep in formation and focus on their primary duties rather than tickling the big boys with their space-pea shooters :P

Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Tkins, reply 10
Yeah I get that all the time too. I think worse at work where we use IE6.0
End of Tkins's quote

 

IE 6...someones IT dept needs to teleport to the newest century.

Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 15

I think there should probably be some sort of automatic AI behavior to avoid mines


That would sort of defeat the point of having mines - why have them if there's no effort on the part of the player to avoid them
End of Annatar11's quote

to block off areas to ships.  that's the actual prupose of real-life mines, not neccesarily to destroy ships, but to force them one way instead of another, to slow them, and to force them to bring minesweeper ships with them when they go anywhere. mines are a slowing mechanism, and not expected to destroy ships, although occasionally they do.

Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top

Has anyone used the tight, standard loose formations? I really can't tell a difference at all between them.