Difficulties in managing large fleet engagements

posted on July 2nd, 2010, 2:48 am

Very vague request, but (somehow) please make large fleet engagements easier to manage. Currently, explosions hide many ships when they go off, making it difficult to see what's going on. Additionally, the color race icon isn't prevalent enough to distinguish same race opposing ships from each other (easily enough).

Anything to help in this area would be appreciated.

posted on July 2nd, 2010, 3:24 pm

I manage my fleets when they get too big by selecting everything and to select a damaged unit I click on its icon in the part that shows what ships I have selected. Retreat/repair microing is fine.
Unfortunately tho, I often encounter a problem where ranking up or one of my ships dying (I don't know which) while I'm trying to use an ability on a ship of that class causes deselection of the ability, so it is very hard to micro the abilities in battle (seems to mainly happen with targeted abilties.)

I think the race/color icon should be a little larger and put next to the rank icon. This way the icon appears more prominently and you can even tell ranked allied ships from your ranked ships by only looking at one spot (helpful if you get in a huge battle and you want to know if it's your veteran or your ally's.)

posted on July 3rd, 2010, 7:36 am

if exploding ships would push away other ships...this might be useful. That way ships are not hidden in explosions.

posted on July 8th, 2010, 2:50 pm

Or perhaps the Pause feature could be modified to be able to control your ships and stations normally while playing against computer player (pause - give orders - unpause). I would find that quite invaluable...

posted on July 8th, 2010, 4:45 pm

Or perhaps the Pause feature could be modified to be able to control your ships and stations normally while playing against computer player (pause - give orders - unpause). I would find that quite invaluable...

I think that would modify the game mechanic a little too much and make it into more of a turn based type game which I would not be happy with. 

posted on July 8th, 2010, 5:17 pm

Well, it would compensate for the fact that computer can give as many orders as fast as he likes, can distinguish among all ships on the map immediately regardless of the visual situation on the map (explosions clouding ships around them). And it would be available in singleplayer only (if there is only one living player).

posted on July 8th, 2010, 11:10 pm

the fact that computer can give as many orders as fast as he likes, can distinguish among all ships on the map immediately regardless of the visual situation on the map (explosions clouding ships around them)

but that is balanced already by the fact that the ai is stupid. it sends its ships to crazy places, attacks turrets single file etc.

posted on July 9th, 2010, 2:07 pm

but that is balanced already by the fact that the ai is stupid. it sends its ships to crazy places, attacks turrets single file etc.

Hahaha!  Not to mention other stuff like sending his harassment fleets into the side of a Starbase, rather than a nearby undefended expansion.

"Starbase Smash!!"  (In Hulk-Voice)

posted on July 9th, 2010, 2:15 pm

Would it be possible to hotkey an enemy fleet (much like a friendly) just for viewing purposes?