Combat targeting was merged into master (PR-2330) and so i'll poll for opinions how to make the different types of fighters more distinct.Jaumito wrote: ↑Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:33 am this thread is born from another discussion about the relevance of having several fighter types.
The consensus then was that, at the moment, interceptors and bombers are rather underwhelming to say the least. One proposed solution was to introduce target priorities for all fighter types, to allow for more, and more interesting, ship design choices and strategic decisions.
(TODO: insert link to thread where we discuss that currently fighter/bomber/interceptor distinction makes no sense)
This is what the implementation does currently.
- Flak parts target space boats
- Interceptor fighters target space boats
- Bomber and Fighter fighters target ships and space boats
- It is possible to define target 'tiers', shooting 'first' at one kind of preferred target and fall back to a secondary tier of targets if there are no preferred targets in the combat
Note that flak parts are very efficient; I guess
The way I imagine the types to work in a broad sense:
- Bombers hunt space ships
- Interceptors try to stop them by shooting down bombers and being cannon fodder
- Fighters try to achieve supremacy regarding to space boats; e.g. eradicating other boats and destroying anti-boat ships (aka ships containing Flak parts)
- Bombers should target ships first: Bomber boats will shoot only at enemy ships (if there are any)
- Bombers should target fighters if there are no ships: Bombers will shoot at space boats if there are no enemy space ships. If you do not choose this you want that Bombers can not attack enemy space boats
- Interceptors should target Bombers first: Interceptors attack only Bombers (if there are any) and shoot at any type of space boat if there are no enemy Bombers
- Interceptors should target ships if there are no fighters: Interceptors will shoot at space ships if there are no enemy space boats. If you do not choose this you want that Interceptors can not attack enemy space ships.
- Fighters should target enemy ships with flak first: Fighters attack enemy ships which contain the Flak cannon part if there are any (== ships with SR_WEAPON_0_1 parts are first tier targets). If you do not choose this you do not want flak parts to be part of the targeting condition.
- Fighters should target enemy boats first: Fighters attack enemy boats if there are any (== boats are first tier targets). If you do not choose this you want ships and fighters to be on the same target tier.
- The default number of combat rounds should be increased from 3 to 4: Currently there are three combat rounds, with the first round being used to launch space boats leaving only two rounds for boat combat. If we increase this to four combat rounds, there is more time for flak and ships to resolve boat combat. Also currently adding extra hangars makes little sense (because those boats will only fight for a single round), with four combat rounds those will fight two for rounds.
After the poll is finished next Monday I will implement the mostly chosen options as PR.
I suggest that we merge it into master and get some playing experience with it.
edit1: add Jaumito quote