Idea I



What if all ships in a fleet contributed to a single "Flak Curtain" rather than each ship using Flak independently?



I think this could add some variety to the defenses which now are functionally the same, aside from the damage type they block. It might need to be a bit more dilute than the current system, and perhaps yield diminishing returns as well. The devs could crunch on the numbers, but what do you think of the concept?



Can we think of any other systems that might work on the fleet level?





Idea II



"TacAI" technology and/or Support mod. This would allow a ship to target multiple enemy ships per weapon salvo (if multiple Mods are present). Effectively this would mean extra attacks aren't "wasted" on a weak or damaged targets. However, this effectiveness would only gradually increase as the technology is advanced.



Additionally, this mod would be tied into how the current combat AI determines which ships are targeted by which weapons: Without TacAI weapons are targeted almost randomly; with very advanced TacAI, weapons would be delivered almost perfectly to the ships that are weak against them, and only in proper measure.



It might be fun to have one player develop lots of heavy "dumb" weapons, while another player chooses lighter but more finely managed weapon systems.





Bonus: Both of these systems could fit in well with fighter craft, if/when Amplitude adds them to the game (I believe it was mentioned that they would like to do this after release if possible). Fighters might be good at "getting behind" the Flak Curtain, and TacAI could perhaps double as "Fighter Defense".

I won't bump it again if there are no takers, but no one has any thoughts on these concepts?

I like the second idea, as I feel it would add more depth to the combat system. As to the first, one ship with very high flak could possibly neutralize all missiles.

From watching the battles it seems that ships do fire at multiple enemies seemingly at random. The one exception to this was once when I had a couple warships and a colonizer and the pirates ignored the colonizer.



There may be something to having one ship guard the others, but perhaps it could be some armor module that draws enemy fire. I would think that the flack destroys the missiles right before they hit the ship and thus it does not make sense for them to shield others.

Idea 2 is a good one.



Idea 1 might be hard for them to implement, but would be nice strategically.

Since ship targetting seems pretty random at present, I've actually used heavily armored 'Decoyboy' ships in my fleets to soak up enemy fire. I equip them with minimal offensive power, moderate defensive power, self-repair capabilities, and as much armor as I have leftover space for. They don't do much damage but they tend to improve the survivability of the entire fleet. Good TacAI might spot and counter my Decoyboy strategy, which is saddening.



I do like the idea of having flak be shared. Actually, I would suggest that only some of the flak modules be shared. Perhaps there might be shared shielding modules as well. Shared defensive modules should be worse than similar-tech ship-only modules, but would allow for specialized defender ships. As I would imagine it, flak should 'share' pretty well, shielding should share poorly, deflection should share not at all.

Monarch wrote:
...As to the first, one ship with very high flak could possibly neutralize all missiles.

True. If it were used this would have to have some sort of diminishing return, as I mentioned. What I mean by this is that the more Flak Mods you add, the less benefit they would give to your total.



I think it would be fine to put most of your flak on one ship, you would be screwed if you lost it, but those kind of decisions I think are what make fleet building fun. Also, if there were a hull type with defensive weight bonuses, it would make sense to put the flak on there and then Platescale could have his "Decoy" ship, and TacAI couldn't safely ignore it



Also, full disclosure: I just really, really want to see a Flak wall that is laid down like in Battlestar Galactica so cool...

Platescale wrote:
...Shared defensive modules should be worse than similar-tech ship-only modules, but would allow for specialized defender ships. As I would imagine it, flak should 'share' pretty well, shielding should share poorly, deflection should share not at all.

That is a very interesting idea...



So you could choose to tag qualifying mods as shared or not:

Shared, they are less effective, but cover all ships; unshared, they are more effective but only cover the parent ship... Very clever.



It adds choice and depth, with only a small change. It also makes the defenses a little mechanically different, which is nice. Well done, Sir.