Hello guys!



Thank you for the feedback on the previous game design document on Galaxy & Exploration. As promised, here's the second winner of the GAMES2GETHER votes: the GDD on the battle overview.





Rationale



The battle has a few base components inherited from Endless Space. The first and foremost is an epic, cool-looking cinematic battle. Having a cinematic battle is followed by a number of gameplay trade-offs. This means the entire battle from the ground up has been designed with the idea of strategic planning in mind as opposed to in-battle moment-to-moment tactics.







Coming from Endless Space, there are of course some lessons we’ve carried on. One of those lessons are the idea of how scale and context of battles are very important. This means that the ships will follow a completely different scale from Endless Space. Going between each ship size will feature an around 3 times increase in size. This means several hundred fighters could fit inside a large ship! Not that we will be able to put that many fighters in any one battle considering the graphical upgrade.



Importantly, the cinematic battles will also feature dynamic length – allowing us to shorten small scale battles and give proper time to large scale battles. The gameplay of battles is featured in what we’ve called the "Three layers of planning". But before that, let’s have a look at the battle.







The Battle



Before the battle occurs, players make various planning choices that are explained in the next section – these planning choices include where the battle takes place and what kind of fleets are engaging as well as reinforcement strategies and more. These layers of planning are there for several gameplay reasons, but are also there to increase the variety and fidelity of the cinematics. The ‘Battle Arena’ will define the visual arena you see, the "Ship Design" will have visual weapon modules that turn and fire and the ‘Battle Plays’ define the movement of ships. All of this should lead to a lot of variety in the cinematic experience of the battle.



This focus on decisions taken before and just up to the battle as opposed to decisions in the battle changes the dynamic significantly. Ships can now take damage on specific parts of the ship, specific modules can take damage and be destroyed during the battle, which means that the maneuvering present in "Battle Plays" (explained in the "Three Layers of Planning" section) will have a large impact on the battle outcome and the arena affecting the efficiency of modules and ships will also have a large overarching effect on battles.



The battle is split into 5 phases. A cinematic arrival phase, three battle phases and finally a cinematic resolution phase. The cinematic part of the battle is, besides looking awesome, meant to highlight what parts of the planning had an effect on the outcome of the battle.



To this end a couple of systems are in place. The Battle Director, as it has formally been named, will be in charge of analyzing the battle and figuring out what is worth showing to the player. It will evaluate all of the events that can occur during a battle and select what you see, attempting to show you the most awesome battle possible. The Free Camera View is also there to allow the player to experience the battle from their own desired perspective and finally a Tactical View exists to give the player an overview of what is happening in terms of fleet movements.



Finally the battle report will give you all the information you would need to understand the outcome. The battle report will:

• Visually show the battlefield
  
  
  • Show Fleet movements
  • Show important key movements
    
    
• Give information on ships
  
  
  • Certain ships performing really well will receive "medals"
  • Show the sections and modules damaged in the battle
  • Show each ships relation to the "Battle Play"

Also, this time around – Heroes will appear on the battlefield and fight side by side with the fleet! Upon the battle beginning, all that there is left for the player is to sit back and enjoy the epic battle!











Three Layers of Planning



An initial goal of the battle system in Endless Space 2 is that there should be no difference between using the auto-battle compared to manual battle. To retain the strategic gameplay of battles, the battle is split into 3 layers of strategic planning, which defines the outcome of battles. These are Ship Design, Battle Arenas and Battle Plays.



Ship Design

Ship Design is heavily expanded from Endless Space and even Endless Legend. It will receive its own GDD – so this will only serve as a short summary.



Similar to Endless Space, the game will feature 3 different ships sizes (Small, Medium and Large), which will require Command Points to field in your fleets. Fighters and bombers will also be featured as a type of module.



Each faction will have 5 combat ship hulls – 2 small, 2 medium and 1 large that will correspond to 4 roles (Attacker, Defender, Support and Carrier) and each faction will also a civilian ship. Ships corresponding to their roles and faction have a "Slot Layout". Slots are positions on the ship where modules are placed. Note that the position and angle of modules are relevant to whether or not they are used at any given time in the battle – a weapon module can only fire if it has a target within its arc of fire.



Damage calculation also will not occur in phases as it did in Endless Space. Damage calculations are more fluidly considering each salvo of shots angle and defenses. Each shield and hull will have different stats to deal with different types and ranges of weapons – and the destruction of a ship occurs when its core has been destroyed.





This system along with a focus on weapon variations – such as rockets usually being good at one thing, say hull damage - can with a later technology allow a player to equip EMP rockets instead that are good at another thing, say disabling modules and/or shields. Using this system of creating ship designs and smartly combining those into fleets with the other layers of planning allow the players to gain an advantage of the battlefield.





Battle Arenas

The Battle Arenas are generated from galaxy parameters. This means if you have a system with an anomaly, say "Aurora Wave" – that anomaly will likely be featured in the battle arena with an effect on battles in that system. The goal of this system is to generate different predictable battle arenas. Players can choose to place their fleets and battle in systems they feel they have an advantage. Players may even be able to modify the arena using system improvements or special ship modules.



The Battle Arena is generated from:

• Galaxy Nodes:
  
  
  • Anomalies.
  • Planets.
  • Sun Type.
    
    
• Player Interventions:
  
  
  • Special modules.
  • System improvements.
    
    
• Temporary or aggregated events:
  
  
  • An anomaly appears in a system for X turns.
  • ‘Ship Graveyard’ appears from repeated battles in the same node.

These "arena hazards" can have global effects on the battle or can be localized in the battle arena. Flying through an anomaly could disable shields – or the sun type could simply emit a type of radiation weakening the targeting system of missiles!



Battle Plays

Finally, upon two players engaging in a battle, the final layer of planning occurs: the "Battle Play". This will be no stranger to Endless Space veterans, but for the rest of you. The Battle Cards have 3 parameters: a buff effect, a type and a counter type. Each player plays a card in 3 phases of the battle, and the counters would remove the effect of the opponent’s card if he picked the counter type.



The Endless Space 2 model will only choose one "Battle Play" at the start, but this model will be expanded to include fleet movements as well as card effects.







At the start of a battle the player will be presented with a number of choices:



[LIST=1]

Pick a "Battle Play".

Distribute Fleet into Flotillas.

Choose Reinforcement Pattern.

[/LIST]



The Battle Play contains a number of effects that help define under which conditions it would be useful (To add some prediction capability) – such as a long range-based play or a defensive play. These will also be tagged as a "Play Type", which is where the "Card Counter" system explained above comes in. Countering a play will reduce or negate the buff effects of the opponent’s card.



Then the player will have to distribute his fleet into Flotillas – smaller fleets that are specific to the current battle. These flotillas can have contextual buffs or restrictions (such as only large ships), based on the chosen play. These flotillas will follow the path defined by the play, and this will be where battle manoeuvres are chosen and this is where interaction with localized arena hazards will occur. Note that these arena hazards can have positive effects as well as negative effects.



The last large choice to make is reinforcements. Reinforcements will be an additional pool of CP that can be added to the battle. The choice involves how soon – in which phase this additional flotilla will arrive at. This choice of when they arrive will be a trade-off between having a battle penalty for being unprepared to having a battle buff for coming in late with additional information and preparation.







VIP Feedback



Visuals

• Praise for localized modules and damage/explosions.
• Concerns about "visual variation" – i.e. not seeing the same battle over and over again.
• Some comments on hoping the battle director – if done good enough, will provide a lot of variety in battles.
  
  

Visuals is a very high priority and we hope we will be able to provide a ton of visual variety. This is primarily a content issue – so will be an ongoing process for the entire lifetime of the game.



Battle

• Comments on how ‘banter’ between heroes would be cool in loading screen.
• Positive comments on the point of "battle play movement" – with the caveat of making sure that it does exactly what is expected.
• Questions regarding how many sides can be involved in a battle and who and how many can reinforce a battle.
• Questions regarding how heroes will show up in the battle.
• Some questions/requests to have "programmed behaviors" in the battle. (I.e. in Situation X, ship type would stop). Including some worry that lacking this could make ships seem a bit silly.
• Clarification on the fact that splines are pre-designed in the "Battle Play" and that they are chosen as a set. Meaning it currently does not support players "drawing splines" or mixing and matching splines.
• Question regarding Medal system.
• Concerns about uniformity and lack of variation on ships.
• Also questions regarding heroes and how to make them feel more unique.
• Comments on ‘battle card’ system, regarding making it more than just rock, paper, scissors – idea of adding "deck-building" by finding "unique" plays in the game through exploration/quests/heroes.
• Wishes to be able to save "battle setups".
  
  

The battle will only occur between two sides - while it is possible to have more, it would be impossible in terms of our GUI requirements. The splines will also be 'static' related to the plays. But you may still have different plays in different situations (unlocks/battle arena/etc.). In terms of the questions regarding customizing splines and giving ships behaviors - these are things are currently not a priority, but we will be keeping this open as we move forward.



On the point of variety - we are aware of the concerns of each faction having the same distribution of small/medium/large ships and the roles associated. But the content attached (modules, slots and ship design as a whole) - we are free to add a lot of variety. And even if we don't - the system was made with this sort of customization in mind. As such I assume a MOD will exist for those who really thinks it's too simple. The reason we're going this way is firstly for visual feedback - when you see a ship, you know its function based on its shape. And secondarily for the purposes of having 'reasonable' balance between factions on a battle level - pushing the larger balance efforts to empire level.

Medals are made as a way to feedback which ship designs are doing well and to differentiate XP. We can provide additional bonuses in addition to this, but the overall idea is to start with those two functions and then evolve the system based on early playtests.



For Heroes, they will participate in the battle in their own ships. Heroes come from the academy and thus will have separate ships (though you could imagine quest heroes having different ships). These will be defined primarily by their class.



We will also look into ways of saving setups and ship designs and such between battles, between games. However, we do not know exactly yet what will be possible.



Modules

• Positive comments on weapon variety and wish for more of that.
• Also ideas on ‘customizable’ weapons.
  
  

We are trying to focus on weapon variety more than just pure numbers. We are also moving away from the rock/paper/scissors style mechanics and doing something more general. But we still want to retain a certain idea of 'shields are good against certain types of weapons and hulls are good against other types' for example. But the entire system will be more open.



Ship Design

• Some fears of wacky design messing up gameplay.
  
  

We will not focus too much on ship designs as there will be a s

I think what worries me about this battle system is that I get the impression that it will be going through a lot of trouble to implement things that could just as easily be solved by letting players command ships in battle by selecting what they attack and where they go.



There is always this argument that tactical control over ships is somehow going to devolve into micromanagement hell etc. but having played Stardrive 2 and seen how very simple and effective the battles are done there I am left wondering if this won't just be another unsatisfying battle system that is remembered more as quirky than 'innovative'.



Choosing where my ships go BEFORE I even know where the enemy is going to be or how they group their ships is odd to me.



I still like the concept of battle cards, but they could just as easily be integrated into an RTS system as anything else.

Cool! I like the idea of placement of weapon modules dictating an arc of fire that one needs to take into account when deciding their movement.



A few questions:

1.Will we be able to study enemy ships prior, in terms of not only what modules they have, but where these modules are placed? This knowledge would allow us to reasonably predict how their ships would move.



2. When deciding how each flotilla moves, do we do so only for the first combat phase, or for all phases (or do we set the parameters we want)? What happens if the flotilla's movement is executed in the first phase, and there are still 2 phases left? Does it then not move or does it move based on what it deems is best?



3. Are there any benefits to sniping the hero's ship in battle, like a debuff to enemy fleets or the like? Are we able to customize the hero's ship in terms of modules? Do their ships get bigger as they level up?



4. If we have carriers with fighters and bombers, do we decide the movement and target of these fighters or is it decided automatically? Can we for instance order all bombers to target a specific ship before the battle starts?

It sound very interessting. And KnightofPhoenix has already asked the question I was about to ask more or less too.

Fleet sizes:



I think it would be more interesting to have larger fleet sizes. The smallest fleet cap(game beginning) should be equal or larger than ES1 largest fleet.



If the player is to have so many strategic choices, th player should also be able to group the ships by role and order them to attack/retreat not only as a whole battleball, but also in groups.



Picking from your example, I could sent my light ships with a volley of EMP missiles to deplete the shields at the beginning of the combat, then retreat them to the back of the fleet for the other ships to move in for the kill.



In gameplay terms:



The player should be able to create groups of one or more (or all) of the ship'ss fleets.

The fleets should have a front/middle/back composition where each ship group can be ordered to occupy.

On each combat phase the player should be able to change the front/middle/back positioning.

The new battle system looks great. Though I feel like there should be, with you doing all the decisions beforehand, fewer hard counters, especially with tactical cards, because those could be OP in some situations in ES1 when you got unlucky or lucky.

Brazilian_Joe wrote:
Fleet sizes:



I think it would be more interesting to have larger fleet sizes. The smallest fleet cap(game beginning) should be equal or larger than ES1 largest fleet.

That'd make fleet spam more viable and OP though. I think the fleet sizes are fine the way they're in ES1.

I know it said that multi-empire fleet combat is out, but I was wondering if in the intrest of reinforcements I could pull an allied empire in for one phase of battle? like a quick slashing attack or to take the option to interfear with anothers battle by sweeping in and out.

I have another question.



In addition to potentially avoiding the enemy arc of fire, does flanking and attacking from the rear provide bonus damage?

The fact that we were choosing cards before battle was a pretty cool idea I think. It kinda felt like a small card game. Like Gwent in Witcher 3. I always liked that about Endless Space 1 but I think we needed more cards to make battle a little bit more special because when you get used to the game, you realize that you just have to pick the same cards everytime and some cards are plain useless.



In Endless Space 1, battle results seemed pretty inconsistent to me. I mean I would fight against a fleet of 24 CP and destory every single one of them except a small ship, and the game would decide that it was a DRAW? It doesn't really make sense to me. I think we need different terms like; "Pyrrhic Victory", "Decisive Victory" or "Close Defeat". Depending on our casualties in that battle.



I also think that fighting ground should provide some sort of penalty to both sides. Depending on what kind of planet it is. I mean if the battle takes place on the orbit of a Red SuperGiant, the radiation coming from that planet should make it so that some of the systems in our ships do not function properly. Therefore directly effecting the outcome of a battle. Let's say Red SuperGiants "somehow" makes laser guns not function properly, therefore any kinetic and missile heavy fleet would have the upper hand in that area. This will force us to think before making a move and not use the same type of fleet in every situation.



I would also like to have more battle positioning options because It seemed to me that putting the highest HP ships in front and filling the rest with glass cannon ships is like the bane of this system. It is really superior to any other tactic.

I would like to second rockmassif's request for a finer grading of battle result terminology. Comparing both fleet's beginning and final MP/CP value and giving the outcome an appropriate name based on that should hopefully not be too hard.



A slot-based customization system is of course more restrictive than a simply weight-based one, but I do hope it will lead to greater variety between ship hulls. Will there be any small visual changes associated with customization, apart from different projectiles? (E.g. missile bays not opening at the beginning of the battle if the ship doesn't carry missiles, the large cannon on top of the Sophon ship using different barrels for different types of cannon)



I'm very happy to hear that the battlefield will have an impact on the battle (without littering every system with space debris), and selecting a battle plan before the combat starts is a lot closer to what I imagined the card system of Endless Space could have been.



Increased weapon variety also sounds like very good news indeed. Just remember to run the numbers and let the VIPs test it thoroughly, so you can avoid another "Long Range Missiles/Kinetics are always the way to go" situation.



However, I'd like to say that adding clear targeting priorities to the different flotillas might be a good idea. This could be player choice independent of the spline, or simplybe pre-defined per battle plan and clearly indicated for each flotilla. That would make purpose-building ships for different roles a lot more viable, in my opinion. After all, that way we would know for sure that these ships with rapid fire weapons will actually shoot at the enemy's small ships when put into a certain flotilla, instead of flanking to uselessly waste their shots on a Dreadnought that shrugs off all the fire before they get wiped out by the enemy's small ships.

(This was, in my opinion, the bane of ES1s ship customization. Why would I stick missiles on a large ship if it might decide to fling that full barrage of 20 against a 1CP ship it would kill with two or three of those missiles?)

That looks great! I especially like the battle arenas, ship graveyards are a great idea!

Gratuitous Space Battles seems to be an interesting format that could be adapted.



You place ships in a formation, you can give each ship X amount of orders.



Attack priority XX for XX percentage.

Stay in X distance of target friendly ship.

Withdraw after X amount of damage.



These formations could be saved for each fleet and then after a battle when you see the visual battle and then have a detailed battle report after with DPS Etc you might load up your saved formation and change it for the next battle.

I never liked the old battle card system and another version of it will still end up being rock, paper, scissors. It was also annoying when you had 20+ battles on systems to select each time and often the only real difference was to nose breaker with doomed fleet.



I think if you are going to have more options in each engagement and want people to watch each battle you need to reduce the amount of fleets, if you only had 3 fleets per node colonised for example your attacking fleet would be smaller and it would be more tactical with withdrawing, hit and runs, ownership over ships with medals, the desire to not lose hard paid for ships. I don't think this kind of cap is the exact answer but if you are able to spam fleets and have a similar blockade with as many fleets as you want in a system it will dilute your attempts at making battles more interactive and watched.



I really think, tactical set-up of your fleet with more choice over ship design (Which it sounds like you are doing) and simple pre set-up of your fleet is all you need rather rolling the dice on battle cards. I wrote this post for ES1 ages ago and reading it back now there are bits I would change but I still like the threat idea and it mixes the ship and fleet design idea without needing to deal with battle cards which set out fleet orders. /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/11521-combat-fix-no-cards-threat-system



With the threat system as suggested in my previous post, you simply think about your fleet composition when designing the fleet and merging your fleets, you then click battle and ships will target ships based on the numbers. This or a version of Grat Space Battles I personally think will outstrip battle cards. Depending on which battle type used If you lose a battle it will either be a need to redesign your fleet (Threat System) or change your fleet orders and maybe fleet design (Grat Space Battles System) rather then they countered my combat cards I now don't know if my fleet is designed well or I just got unlucky.

Will there be steps taken to reduce fleet spam?



Will we be able to build static defenses that can damage and destroy smaller/less powerful enemy fleets? Starbases/defense emplacements/weaponized satellites?

Didnt read all the answers so please forgive me if saying something that was said before. Overall i liked what i ve read and the new battle system looks promising but as Slashman says, asking ships to move without knowing where the enemy is sounds silly. Another thing that i believe is really needed and havent read about it, is manual targeting. I believe is a very important feature and should be included. Ordering a fleet to focus fire on a specific target, like a carrier or a capital ship is mandatory. I know most people want as less micromanagment as possible but a nice combat cant be achieved whithout enough choices made by players. We are supposed to be emperors but at least make the battles (that will be a major part of the game) enjoyable.

Nomas wrote:
I know most people want as less micromanagment as possible but a nice combat cant be achieved whithout enough choices made by players. We are supposed to be emperors but at least make the battles (that will be a major part of the game) enjoyable.

The thing for me is that I don't know that most people want as little micro management as possible. People wanting to spend a gajillion clicks managing their empire but then not wanting to spend more than 2 clicks making sure it doesn't fall to the enemy in combat is extremely weird.



But lets say for the sake of argument that we got a tactical battle system with control of the ships. Why exactly does it HAVE to be micro heavy? The current system sounds just as micro heavy except that you make your moves blindly and hope that they let you shoot the enemy more than he shoots you.



I could understand choosing fleet formations before hand, but choosing fleet flight paths before you know anything about the enemy placement or flight paths is just plain silly.

Hi,



First say that I always liked the Amplitude idea of planned battles, both in ES and EL, avoiding lots of micromanagment.



Second, I'm a bit confused with the mechanics of the battle. If I understand correctly, this works like this:

1st: You choose a "battle play", which is something close to ES1 battle cards but lasts all the battle.

2nd: You divide your main fleet into flotillas and choose moves in a system close to EL, may be, choosing one move per battle phase?

3rd: You choose what reinforcements and when enter the battle.

4th: See a cinematic with the 3 battle phases, where you are not doing anythig.

5th: Get a report.

Is that?



Third some questions:



-Will we be albe to see the opponent initial distribution, or at least fleet composition, to plan our moves?



- Will there be the "auto" option like in ES, where you just choose a card per phase and get the report with the result? Asking because I like playing battles, but normally skip that ones that I'll clearly loose/win, like killing 2 minor faction units with my V era 8 units army in EL (note that I'm not saying I dislike Amplitude system, just I'm skipping obvious battles).



- How hard will be the difference between ship hulls? Ask because in Disharmony the bigger hulls seems clearly favoured (not complaining, played like this and had fun, just a suggestion) and IMO a similar CP with similar tech levels should have similar power: 4 ships with 1CP = 2 ships with 2CP = 1 ship with 4CP.



- About damaged modules:

- How can you repair them? Dust, some card like "Nano-repair systems"?

- Will the damaged modules work the next battle? (Understand that destroyed ones obviously won't)

- Can a ship have all modules destroyed and survive because hull has some HP? (Suppose that then you'll have a useless ship)



- Have you considered some system defences, like space stations/cannons in Imperium Galactica II or militia in EL, that allow systems defence themselves without an orbiting fleet?



Well, I've got more questions, but in general other people asked it before, so waiting...

Few smalls questions about fleet and flotillas.

I understood that a ship can give an effects on this flotillas or on the entire fleet. It's a good way to have ship focus to help the others. But in ES1, it wasn't very interesting to do that because we don't have the tools to protect one special ship. What's the possibilities offer by ES2?



"Battle Play" can change the fleet's comportement. But flotillas can't have different behaviors? For exemple, a fleet compose by a flotillas of carrier and a flotillas of close-range ship. Can I choose a "Battle Play" who propose to the vulnerables carriers to stay longer in long range and order to the other flotillas to rush and intercept the enemy? Currently the "Battle Play" seem impacted all the aspects of the battle. My fear is that reduce the possibilities offered to the player or have stupid large number of "unique Battle Play" to cover all the possibilities. It isn't more simple to choose a "Battle Play" by flotillas? Or one "Battle Play" by default for the fleet and can replace it by another on a flotillas in particular?

Thats exactly my point. We can have manual combat without being micro heavy. Picking where to move or what to shoot and when is not that of a big deal. Especially since we had fleet caps there was never enough ships in combat that can delay the game. EL had amazingly good battles without being micro heavy. It had some flaws ofc but still a nicely executed manual combat style. I dont understand why ES2 must have so heavy automated combat.

If i got it right from the original topic some weapons will have special abilities that will affect combat. Being able to choose when to use them is mandatory, at least for me, and again choosing moves before before combat sounds silly indeed.



EDIT: was supposed to be a reply on Slashman's last post but seems i missclicked somewere O:

I want to ask some questions...



1) when i enter "Battle Plays" someone have to choose the movement that my fleets will take. This will be done, if i didn't misunderstood, by a selection of movement option setup, where my flottillas will follow invisible rails through the scenario, encountering enviromental hazards, using only the module that have arc of fire on the enemies and hopefully getting the right card at the right moment. Ok, cool, i'm fine with that. But who actually is the one that make the choose? The attacker? The defender? Both in secret or both with the info of the other player/CPU about their choices? And if it's the last one, who will have the last choice? or there is a trade until both parts ar satisfied with the setup?



2) There will be an ingame way to save and review overly epic and awesome cinematic battles? It will be cool!



3) There will be planetary defenses that will help you defend a system as part as hazard/arena system? i'm thinking at a barrage of ion cannon shots from the surface to disable module temporarly or disrupt ships's shields, or colossal railguns that can shoot 1 time in a battle a medium - large ship for massive damage, and stuff like that.



4) Don't know if i can ask here or this will go into "GDD - ship design", but you said that there will be a 3x increment in size for each ship size. Beside "bigger is better" what i want to ask is what will be the the difference in size between sizes and if will be respected in terms of CP... I mean, for example how many small size ships should i use to face a medium size one to be a balanced fight?



5) There will be any cover in some arenas? Like the "ships graveyard" hazard or an "asteroid field node" arena where objects can obstruct line of fire? or where projectiles destroy asteroid and stuff, missing the target but clearing the line of fire? in cinematic will be soo cool!



6) Can we give flottillas some beheaviours? like i want this flottillas to attack enemies with low health first or i want this flottillas to attack ships this size first.



thanks!

Choosing football style plays, cards, managing flotillas, reinforcements, that sounds like a lot more micro than just a normal manual combat battle system with basic AI. Games like StarDrive, Sins, SotS1, and Distant Worlds, all have manual combat and it requires very little if any interaction most of the time, you might pick a target to focus on when required or pull a weakened ship out of the fight, but for the most part it is just sit and watch. I don't understand why you want to avoid that.



I disliked the card system in ES1, it's really the only thing in the game I hated, but I could live with it. It's just a wonky gimmick and takes too much of our "planning" and throws it away, because you picked rock and the AI picked paper and all of your tech and design advantages are gone. I don't see how that kind of randomness or luck based mechanic fits in a strategic game like this. It seems like you are amplifying (huehuehue) the issue in ES2 by adding these silly football style plays, where you blindly pick a strategy and route for your ships and watch them act like morons as they fly their ships in the completely wrong area of the map to be effective.



If you need to keep battles completely automatic, I would suggest something more like GalCiv3. Allows us to set combat roles for our ships during the design phase, and have them act based on those roles in combat. Say we build fast ships that want to close in on the enemy quickly and blast them with short range weapons, while another ship is designed to hang back and lob missiles from max range. Add some fine tuning like in Distant Worlds, telling the ships which targets to prioritize (high health, low health, weak, strong, etc) and when or if to bug out. A handful of drop down options in ship creation can create a ship that behaves in a specific way every battle, and with the correct balance of ships you can have organized battle fleets that don't require manual orders.