Hello, as the topic says, is it possible to withdraw from a battle? It really seems strange I have to fight every single battle.

no. Though they may be adding that in next if it gets enough votes.

Akaelik wrote:
no. Though they may be adding that in next if it gets enough votes.

Yup, it will be included in the beta if it wins this week's G2G vote (1060200 Points so far). If not, it will be added later.

So the next update is directly the beta ? No more alpha something ?

It's moving fast

Photon_Ventdesdunes wrote:
So the next update is directly the beta ? No more alpha something ?

It's moving fast

Well, I can't say anything official about the beta yet.



Okay, go ahead moderators, call me Tease'nie again!

The choices for fleet movement was pretty mean. Both withdraw and auto explore would be really useful as its easy to forget about scout ships and the withdraw card for the sake of saving the few ships you have left is just as useful.

I agree with you Khaz. Hopefully they'll all be included in the full release.

Losing all ships in a battle can really be horrible. That'd be interesting if there was an immediate retreat which in the enemy could take free shots at the fleeing ships or an organized retreat where it would take longer but the amount of damage sustained would be less than that of an immediate retreat. Just a thought

If this is included in the game, I think it should be an option and not a fixed feature. It's easy to see the advantage of withdrawing your own fleet to save a few ships, but this could get annoying if the AI consistently retreats with a few ships.



I'm thinking about situations like the battles in Total War games, where the AI often retreats after losing too many men. If you don't chase down and kill them all before they escape off the edge of the battle map, they become a depleted army stack that you have to deal with in the next turn. Sometimes that can be interesting, if there are other army stacks nearby and they can reinforce the next battle. But usually it's just busy work to mop up the stragglers who retreated from the previous battle. That would be especially true in ES since fleets can't combine for battles. That's why I think it should be an optional setting, at least until we can see how well it works in the game.

Steph'nie wrote:


Okay, go ahead moderators, call me Tease'nie again!

I think you've all met Ste... ehm I meant Tease'nie, already. Our lovely community manager will answer all your questions... NOT!

So is it intentional you can't see what kinds of weapons ships have until you attack? Because it makes feel kind of random luck that you have the right type.

It's strategic The other player is not supposed to know either.

The retreat option I think should be available prior to the battle, as long as the ship has movement points left. That way, you're scouts don't get slaughtered by ships that are far far slower which it should clearly be able to flee from. A fleeing ship should then head automatically for the nearest system under your command (or if it's already in one, the nearest owned system to that). It should head in that direction until it runs out of movement points. On the next turn, it should automatically head to the next system along if it's somewhere in between systems, and then become controlable.



During battle, retreat should take up one of your battle stages. It should take about half the stage to complete. Retreat should count as a defensive manoeuvre, therefore, it still fits into the rock-paper-scissors style of the game's combat system. Once the ship retreats from a battle, it should head toward the nearest owned system, only not in the same manner as a ship retreating prior to a battle. Instead, its movement points should be ignored, and it should go straight to the next system along the route and stop there (with its remaining points depleted). That way, if the enemy is able to pursue and catch up to your ships, they can do so at their leisure. Naturally, if they follow your retreating fleet into a system where another, bigger fleet is waiting, they would have to face that fleet in order to get to the retreated ships, as that makes things more strategic.



That's my opinion, at least.

Retreat should definitely be a feature and I voted for it to be. I can't count the number of colony ships that I've lost to random pirates :/

Zenicetus wrote:
If this is included in the game, I think it should be an option and not a fixed feature. It's easy to see the advantage of withdrawing your own fleet to save a few ships, but this could get annoying if the AI consistently retreats with a few ships.



I'm thinking about situations like the battles in Total War games, where the AI often retreats after losing too many men. If you don't chase down and kill them all before they escape off the edge of the battle map, they become a depleted army stack that you have to deal with in the next turn. Sometimes that can be interesting, if there are other army stacks nearby and they can reinforce the next battle. But usually it's just busy work to mop up the stragglers who retreated from the previous battle. That would be especially true in ES since fleets can't combine for battles. That's why I think it should be an optional setting, at least until we can see how well it works in the game.

SHAMEFUR DISPRAY



Sorry. Couldn't help myself. Anyway, I think it would be better if the retreat option wasn't a card but an actual button on the UI. The retreating fleet much wait until the end of the current phase, so there is an element of strategy involved in knowing when to retreat and when to wait it out for another phase.

Zenicetus wrote:
If this is included in the game, I think it should be an option and not a fixed feature. It's easy to see the advantage of withdrawing your own fleet to save a few ships, but this could get annoying if the AI consistently retreats with a few ships.



I'm thinking about situations like the battles in Total War games, where the AI often retreats after losing too many men. If you don't chase down and kill them all before they escape off the edge of the battle map, they become a depleted army stack that you have to deal with in the next turn. Sometimes that can be interesting, if there are other army stacks nearby and they can reinforce the next battle. But usually it's just busy work to mop up the stragglers who retreated from the previous battle. That would be especially true in ES since fleets can't combine for battles. That's why I think it should be an optional setting, at least until we can see how well it works in the game.

Well, that isn't them retreating so much as routing and fleeing from battle, regardless of the commander's choice.



Be nice if the retreat option was countered by your fleet's engine speed. Are you capable of running them down? If your engines aren't fast enough to catch them, then ya shouldn't be able to. If they are, you should be able to catch at least some. Rearguard actions and all that allowing for most of the fleet to get away. Unless you have serious engine superiority, then you should be able to run them down with impunity.