The raid fleet- thoughts and suggestions

[nightraven1901]

G'day folks. Got an idea or three for the raid fleet idea as seen in present version; hopefully you'll like them.

So, I'm guessing that it's not intended for raid fleets to basically invalidate small-scale actions by rolling in with three times the force either side who instigated combat started with, nor do I think they were intended to spawn swiftly enough that many AI ships are drawn in a long line between the default hyperspace emergence point and the base location to be eaten and surpassed by the raid fleet that followed them. This often actually ends the fight for you; the raid fleet will pincer the enemy force between your ships and theirs resulting in a very one-sided victory in some cases. Though, I want three-way fighting, and I like the surprise generated by raid fleets coming in and mixing things up. But:

1) There should not be enough raid ships to happily wipe both sides at the initial fight. Limiting their spawn size based on number of ships present would be very nice.

2) The raid fleet should probably not jump directly into the spot used by the previous attacking force. This effectively guarantees a pincer. Possibly a third, out-of-the-way spawn point should be created and used.

3) There should probably be an option menu for raid fleets. I recognise this would require some effort to implement, but would allow some finer control over the mechanic to veteran players. A slider governing size vs. initial forces, frequency of occurrence, and maybe even goals/tactics used by raid fleet would also be nice. At least, a simple off-switch should be available for competitive multiplayer, to prevent cries of unbalance ruining multiplayer.

As always, thoughts, suggestions, would be cool. More people providing feedback equals a game closer to what we want, after all,

[Corey]

1) There should not be enough raid ships to happily wipe both sides at the initial fight. Limiting their spawn size based on number of ships present would be very nice.

The ultimate plan is to try to work it so that the raid fleets are comprised of a certain proportion of the fleets already present, but actually scripting that is a lot less trivial than you might expect- there've been a lot of changes to how that script works on the backend, so the plan is to test it how it is with 2.2, and then with 2.3 we'll try to make the necessary changes to get it to take into account them number of ships. In general, as far as their size right now, the biggest complaint is typically that they were too small, though I'm also not sure if you're playing 2.1 or the 2.2 demo.

2) The raid fleet should probably not jump directly into the spot used by the previous attacking force. This effectively guarantees a pincer. Possibly a third, out-of-the-way spawn point should be created and used.

We have also said this this is also the ultimate plan, however for this we are also waiting for some other work to be done first. This involves not just creating the marker, but putting it on all ~150 odd maps. We intend to introduce other in-battle random events (and some abilities and even just some environment art) which also requires map editing, so we want to get to a point where we can do it all at once, rather than having to load, edit and save the 150 maps multiple times (the map editor for EaW isn't the quickest tool to load, and takes even longer when you try to extract the preview images with everything).

3) There should probably be an option menu for raid fleets. I recognise this would require some effort to implement, but would allow some finer control over the mechanic to veteran players. A slider governing size vs. initial forces, frequency of occurrence, and maybe even goals/tactics used by raid fleet would also be nice. At least, a simple off-switch should be available for competitive multiplayer, to prevent cries of unbalance ruining multiplayer.

This would be entirely impossible within the game engine. We can't add options like that. As for multiplayer, raid fleets rely on LUA scripting and story events, so they can't be there anyways.

[nightraven1901]

Corey, my thanks for a wonderfully detailed response delivered in exceptional time! I'm actually watching your LP as we chat, so you're really doing the work today. Keeping me entertained across multiple fronts sir, for which you shall have my sincerest thanks. Cheers mate!

Point 1: I figured the game engine would make this hard. I've done some very minor mod work in the past; I understand that the game just likes being written in a way that makes our lives as modders tougher. That said, you seem to have everything under control here. Exceptional.

Point 2: Ah, I see. It wouldn't exactly count as a design priority now, so I appreciate that it hasn't been your current focus. That said, if that's the end plan, then this problem should melt away about ten seconds after implementation. Excellent.

Point 3: Ahhhh, I see. I wasn't aware you were using the storyline system to implement the fleets; that'd pretty much preclude my idea. That said, while fine control is likely impossible, an on-off switch may still be feasible (Apologies; haven't actually ripped open EaW myself before so I'm half-aware of how this is working) possibly by excluding the entire code block relating to their spawn? Only really thinking of it for the eternal quest for broadness of appeal; people like options after all; and several people I've spoken to don't like the idea of random fleets popping into existence to mess up your well-laid plans. That said, if it isn't feasible, it simply isn't feasible.

Cheers for you work and reply mate. You're doing a sweet job!