Ability to single fire a special weapon in a group of ships

posted on October 18th, 2009, 5:07 pm

Currently, as I understand it (and please correct me if I'm wrong), if I have a group of (say) 6 Griffens and I hit the Sensor Blackout special ability, all 6 ships will use that ability. In most cases (or at least the ones that I can think of), especially with my Griffens flying close together, 5 of those are a waste. I'd like the ability (say 'hold SHIFT and click the Special Weapon') for that ability to fire off of just one ship. The algorithm for picking which ship might be 'whomever has the most special energy'.

Some ships' special weapons (I'm thinking the Sovereign's Engine Overload, which I believe has a damage component that would stack in the above case, or the Support Refit's mines or shield recharge (situation)) would want to stack, so the current default (fire all ships' special weapon) would probably want to stay as is.

Just a thought

posted on October 18th, 2009, 5:21 pm

You would be correct, and this is not necessarily a fault in programming.  It is simply that the AI and command structure is set if you set the autonomous commands to auto, every ship will use their special abilities once they have the power.  Namely the first availble one.  It is not an error on the the scripting, it simply means if you wish each one to not use it all at once you have to micro manage each ship in the group for when you want it to be used.  This can become tedious as hell.  Believe me I know, as do most everyone else here.  Specifically in the heat of a huge battle.  I do not know if there is a script or code that can be made that will say something like:  IF griffin 1=blackout used THEN griffin 2 - 6 hold TILL griffin 1 depleated THEN griffin 2 use blackout IF griffin 2=blackout used THEN griffin 3, etc, etc.  But that's the reason why.  Its pretty hard to specify how and when each can use it and not counter act each other when its on auto.  The only option for this for now is to manage it yourself by each ship and is again, as I said, tedious.

posted on October 18th, 2009, 5:38 pm

Hehe, that's where the fun of microing comes into play though

Plus, how should the computer now that you don't want to use 2 Griffin Sensor Jammer's at once or 3 etc. (you should do so on occasion, as that will cripple more ships). It has to be left the way it is now, otherwise it will actually cause more problems (many vessel special weapons for instance are best used in multiples... not singlets).

posted on October 18th, 2009, 5:50 pm

The computer wouldn't have to know that you want 2 (or 3) ships' weapons fired - that's still in the player's control. S/he would just hold SHIFT and click the special weapon button twice in rapid succession.

(to be fair, this idea is a knock off of Blizzard's TAB / sub-group 'navigation' and spell casting. It's in WarCraft now and supposedly in SC2)

[AngelusVxV]

posted on October 18th, 2009, 5:55 pm

Last edited by AngelusVxV on October 18th, 2009, 6:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

bite me mister I have 5000+ posts.    Just teasing. =P --  But considering the code having to be worked with for AM2 and FO there are limitations until that code is made and worked on.  Which is still why when you group ships and set them to full auto use of the special weapons once the charge is done, it uses the first available one for each ship.  Being the least costly power.  That hits first.  So it doesn't go up and wait for the more costly ones.  If it has extra power then it will use the next in the list.  Meaning again, if you want it used specific to your play style, you do not put it on auto but you manage each.

posted on October 18th, 2009, 6:15 pm

Well, in the past I had suggested the ability disable certain special weapons you don't want auto cast... but that requires some additional work

posted on October 18th, 2009, 6:26 pm

Hmm...its actually possible but a bit of work.  That would require putting the special weapons into catagories.  Then making a seperate catagory for each into the GUI.  Then making seperate levels for each that you can set.  Say..we'll go with the borg assimilator.  Tier 1, the assimilation beam, tier 2 the uber torps, tier 3 the advanced holding beam, etc.  That is a lot of stuff to code and make availible, when its easier if the players just micro manage.

posted on October 18th, 2009, 9:10 pm

Hehe, now I get the first line of your post AngelusVxV

I guess it is possible to do that... it just seems like it would be more complex to learn to me, especially for new players.... and of course, the coding aspect as you mentioned, would probably be quite difficult. I dunno 

posted on October 20th, 2009, 10:05 pm

sounds not like a two-liner, but perhaps it might be possible at some point. noted down

posted on October 20th, 2009, 10:14 pm

Setting weapon autonomy for individual specials might be good for support ships, so you can have one that mostly uses a buff and one that mostly uses an offensive ability.

posted on October 21st, 2009, 10:36 pm

and please correct me if I'm wrong)
Some ships' special weapons (I'm thinking the Sovereign's Engine Overload, which I believe has a damage component that would stack in the above case, or the Support Refit's mines or shield recharge (situation)

  The Griffen's Sensor Jammer most certainly does damage.

  Mort and I were playing (Klingon's Vs Rommies) and I had a dozen Sang's smashing his shipyard when about 8 Griffens decloak and fire Jammer together.  Every single Sang blew up at once.  They most CERTAINLY do damage.

  We were both a little shocked to be honest.  They could have blown up 50 or 100 sangs like that.  I was hurt.

posted on October 21st, 2009, 10:45 pm

Yeah, Sensor Jammer does damage to units with longer sight ranges... that's a little excessive though. I hope that the ability along with Engine Overload's damage are made not to hit infinite units for the next patch...

posted on October 22nd, 2009, 3:20 am

what do you mean by "infinite ships"?

posted on October 22nd, 2009, 3:25 am

I mean that within the radius of effect, every ship that is there will be hit by the special weapon. If you have 5, 10, 20, 200, 2000 ships piled up, they will all be hit. I'd prefer it to be limited to a certain number of vessels, as sometimes clumping is needed (and not all factions have a "declumper" type vessel).