The player will know if they want their ship/fleet to remain undetected that they should send stealthy hulls and/or equip stealth parts. Furthermore, if a player wants to move into a system outside of detection range but doesn't want to do it blindly, the onus is on them to gather the desired intel beforehand. The game already supports this; for example, cheap suicide ships or parts that increase detection range. Also, I think that relying on these mechanics supports the kind of emergent behavior phyvo was referring to, as opposed to making the potential consequences of acting without relevant information less severe. Just to be clear, I support the ability to try to retreat, but not being given the choice before every combat.eleazar wrote: Besides stealth i've never like how the aggressive/passive setting functioned. Most of the time it just doesn't matter because the other side will be set to aggressive and can see you. If we give those settings more significance in how combat plays out and/or add more options, it simply requires the player to make decisions about combat without usually knowing what that combat is going to be like. Players usually don't send a war fleet against an enemy knowing that they will be greatly outnumbered. It's when you make that discovery that a "Retreat" order really becomes useful. Yeah if "passive"="retreat" it would work great for unarmed ships, but that's about it.
I don't think the situation you describe will occur. When I am producing ships I tend to have a pretty good idea of what I want to use them for. Therefore I will be choosing the desired aggression setting at the same time I move the ship to the desired location or it will assume the aggression setting of the fleet that it is merged into upon its arrival.eleazar wrote: Considering efficiency, IMHO for a non-wreckless player using those fleet settings (if they mattered more) would take more time, since you have to hunt around to make sure all fleets are set appropriately for any potential battles, many of which won't actually occur. Making a decision only when battle occurs, provides with the info on the actual battle should allow quicker, better decisions, and the more fun, more in-control, less frustrating experience that is the goal for this topic.
It does not seem unreasonable to assume that the average player will be aware of their intents for their various fleets, and if they change their mind ("this incursion into enemy territory isn't going so well!"), they are likely to already be looking at the fleet and can change the aggression setting when they realize that that's what they want to do.
As for the orders/settings themselves, I think eleazars suggestions on the effects they would have are great starting points. In particular, perhaps the combat speed attribute could finally be put to use. However, "Hide"/Stealth should remain as one of the options in order to allow ambush/stealth bomber type "missions". I will explain below my thoughts on how to react if, despite trying to hide, combat is initiated anyway.
One issue with choosing aggression settings before battle is initiated is that the player cannot evaluate the circumstances and choose responses accordingly. At what level of being outnumbered should the fleet retreat if the player is not making that decision on a case by case basis? There is also the issue of what the fleet should do when combat is initiated due to being spotted.
For the question regarding retreat circumstances, choices could be provided to retreat if outnumbered by 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, etc.
As for the reaction to being spotted, allow the player to choose from the aggression settings minus hide. Selecting retreat from these options would produce the choices I outlined above.
Finally, I'd like to suggest that if this is implemented the aggression setting button be changed from a toggle to a drop-down menu. The choices described above for the retreat and hide settings could be implemented as sub-menus.
Aggression setting menu items (charge, attack, etc) should be represented with color-coded icons for quick recognition and tool tips that explain their effect on the battle.
My proposed aggression stance drop-down menu:
- Charge!
Attack
Defend
Retreat- "Retreat if outnumbered by"
- 25%
50%
75%
100%
- 25%
- "Action upon being spotted"
- Charge!
Attack
Defend
Retreat- "Retreat if outnumbered by"
- 25%
50%
75%
100%
- 25%
- "Retreat if outnumbered by"
- Charge!
- "Retreat if outnumbered by"