Attack Priorities

posted on June 11th, 2009, 8:45 pm

I finally got around to poking about in the Excelsior's odf.

Basically I was a little annoyed at how they were getting targeted first by all the AI out of any other warp-in ship... The Ambassador also tends to shift attention away from itself when using it's special weapon too.

So I was wondering, where did whatever the relevant A2 command (attackvalue or summat ) go, and if it is gone how is this kind of thing decided now?

posted on June 11th, 2009, 8:49 pm

I think all ships are considered equal priority, so would all be treated like they were the same. The type (scout, battleship, ect) isn't important apparently.

posted on June 11th, 2009, 9:03 pm

The AI bases it's attacks on defensive value, so the ship with the lowest value gets attacked first.  Since the Excelsior has the lowest defensive value of the warp in ships (excluding steamrunner, that will get attacked first, but normally it's out of range), it will be the first to be attacked.  It's also why the ambassador stops getting attacked when it uses it's special, because the +15 defense probably gives it a higher value than something else in your fleet.  Usually in my fleet I have a few sabers as well, so my excelsiors have a little breathing room before they start taking heat.

posted on June 12th, 2009, 6:41 pm

One change that the Devs seem to have made in the recent versions on the attack priority that I'm very pleased by, however, regards turrets.  Prior to 3.06, unless the turrets were the only things in range, my ships would have to be told to shoot them before other things.  Now, they'll finally attack them without me constantly micro'ing them.

May not seem like a big deal, except that if you're fighting on two fronts, you may switch to issue some orders, come back and find out that a single turret has wiped out half your fleet while they tried to kill shipyards that were no longer producing anything.

Fortuanately, now they seem to prioritize stations that can shoot them over stations that can't.

posted on June 12th, 2009, 8:11 pm

That's probably because all the turrets got huge defensive boosts 

posted on June 12th, 2009, 9:51 pm

The AI bases it's attacks on defensive value, so the ship with the lowest value gets attacked first.  Since the Excelsior has the lowest defensive value of the warp in ships (excluding steamrunner, that will get attacked first, but normally it's out of range), it will be the first to be attacked.  It's also why the ambassador stops getting attacked when it uses it's special, because the +15 defense probably gives it a higher value than something else in your fleet.  Usually in my fleet I have a few sabers as well, so my excelsiors have a little breathing room before they start taking heat.

That's probably because all the turrets got huge defensive boosts 

The above would seem to disagree
I don't know what they did...

Thanks Mal, that's good to know

posted on June 12th, 2009, 10:31 pm

Yeah, neither do I ... but turrets should have lower defense then most base structures... I honestly don't know haha