Feature request: Formation and other command options.

posted on November 24th, 2010, 5:30 pm

Would it be possible to add additonal formation options, such as ones that mimic the vanilla cloverleaf and what not in so far as relying on the ship being in motion the entire time ?

Also, would it be possible to further refine some of the other commands such as the patrol or guard commands ? They dont always work that well, and guard in particular, both in vanilla mods and FlOps, tends to have the ship just stop and point at the sighted enemy, irregardless of if the enemy is shooting the guarded item, or simply visable in passing.

posted on November 24th, 2010, 5:37 pm

I recall this being requested before. AFAIK the FO is working on this.

posted on November 24th, 2010, 6:45 pm

Formations are on the list of things to improve, I believe.  From what I remember the main reason they removed things like the cloverleaf is that while it looks nice it doesn't help the player much and moves their fleet into range of more enemies.

posted on November 25th, 2010, 2:26 am

Formations are on the list of things to improve, I believe.  From what I remember the main reason they removed things like the cloverleaf is that while it looks nice it doesn't help the player much and moves their fleet into range of more enemies.

The only truely useful vanillia formation imo was the wall, as it allowed all ships in your fleet to bring weapons to bare at once. Unfortunately that (along with map height in general) got removed because the FO team decided having to think in 3 dimensions added nothing to game play. *shrugs*

posted on November 25th, 2010, 3:13 am

3 dimensions could have added something, but the way it was implemented in A2 it was just annoying.

posted on November 25th, 2010, 1:36 pm

3 dimensions could have added something, but the way it was implemented in A2 it was just annoying.

So all we have to do is transform a 3D cloverleaf and wall into a 2D variant. Any volunteers with modding experience?

posted on November 25th, 2010, 5:39 pm

Cloverleaf was already 2D, it only moved on the plane the ship was on.

posted on November 25th, 2010, 7:07 pm

And the wall formation can't be 2D.

I think we have all the stationary 2D formations.

posted on November 25th, 2010, 8:13 pm

Wall cound be implemented by having the ships get a lot closer, and minimizing the way the bigger/support ships get put in the 'back', so their guns can come to bear faster.

Cloberleaf would be useful in it would keep everything moving, and either break up enemy formations as the ships go after the manuvering vessels, or have the enemy targtet a seperate ship allowing the damaged vessel to regen sheilds while manuvering away.


What would be nice would be an alteration of the orbit manuver from vanilla, set so the ships circle in front of the target, darting in to shoot them circling back out.

And the strafe formation mode (the straight lines one) would be perfect for short ranged craft.

I'd say add stuff like flanking manuvers and all, but A2s limited enough I doubt anyone could code it.