Assigning defence priorities

[theArmourer]

Could an addition be made allowing a command menu-like a unit's-appear for defences? Like being able to assign attack priorties for heavy units, medium units, light units, and cyborgs?

[Roux Le Corps]

that would be a fairly good idea to implement... a little more micro managemnt but that flamer turret wwill get the borgs instead of the heavys now haha ^_^

[Zarel]

Erm, units can't assign priorities, either.

And stuff like "Retreat at medium damage" and "long range" and "hold position" are essentially useless for structures. Literally not a single thing on the unit order menu has any meaning for something that can't move.

[Roux Le Corps]

not quite on the ball here zarel, he means target priorities, currently it seems turrets target closest or weakest only and won't look for what it is most effective against ~exception being vtol... any AA is good against vtol hahaha~

~re-reading it made it seem like i was being an ass to start off... not my intention

[stiv]

Being able to set target priorities (even from a config file) would be a nice feature. We welcome patches!

[Roux Le Corps]

this is where i sit here in shame that at times i can be horrid with script... I recently tried and somehow corrupted my whole computer...

[Zarel]

Target priorities are currently calculated automatically for units; we are planning on using the same system for defenses.

A priority customization system seems like overkill to me. There's good reason no other game has such a thing. You'll be able to queue attacks, too, at some point; should be enough.

My response was pointing out that "command menu-like a unit's" was a silly comparison, since nothing in a unit's command menu would apply to a structure.

[stiv]

Target priorities are currently calculated automatically for units;

Yeah, we know. Hence this thread. Having some control over who shoots at what would be nice - even if it was just a preferred role like AA, Anti-Personnel, or Anti-Tank.

[Per]

Is it not a bit too much micromanagement to do that by hand? IMHO it would be better if the micro-AI just selected the best targets for you depending on what the weapon is good at.

[Zarel]

You can queue attacks by selecting and Shift+clicking on targets for full micromanagement. Adding a UI for customizing the micro-AI seems like a waste of work.

[Olrox]

I think we could have something like, using flamer as an example:

Check all the units inside the sensor range, if a tracked tank enters the radius and stays within it for at least 2.5 seconds or so (maybe .75 times the weapons' reload time?), and gets at firing range, the turret attacks the target regardless of type. If, before this time passes, a more suitable target (hover or cyborg) enters the sensor range, the turret simply ignores the tank, unless the "more suitable targets" doesn't get into firing range within another set period of time - in this last case, the weapon fires at whatever is at firing range.

Might seem a bit complicated, but probably would solve any problems I can think of. What do you think about it?

[Dylan Hsu]

Solution: Use units.

[Olrox]

Solution: Use units.

That won't improve the game, and the topic isn't on "help/troubleshooting" (the OP isn't seeking for advice on what should he do).

[Roux Le Corps]

Not everyone wants to rely on units, just trying to get a bit more use out of turrets and such ^_^

[stiv]

You can queue attacks by selecting and Shift+clicking on targets for full micromanagement.

Yeah, we know. But the topic here is defense priorities.

IMHO it would be better if the micro-AI just selected the best targets for you depending on what the weapon is good at.

I like that. It would certainly get us real close. And has the advantage of not requiring UI changes.

Still I can envision some dual-use weapons (lancer cyborgs come to mind) where you may want a squad in a strictly AA role and another in general shoot-anything mode.