building on your idea, perhaps units under a commander will retarget to an active structure or unit once the commander "notices" that it is not a threat. or maybe veterancy could play a role in retargeting away from these, or both (any middle rank unit would target something else if available, and if a commander is at least in one of the middle ranks, it'll apply that intelligence to units under its command.
that brings up another thought: commander smart targeting -- if you tell a commander to explicitly attack something, it will perform the following steps:
- if it's a structure or stationary unit (which is thus easier to hit, especially with the new collision detection system), then the commander will order just as many subordinates as are needed to destroy the structure in one volley, while retraining the commander laser on another target (thus repeat step one with the new target)
- if it's a moving unit keep the aiming laser trained on target, do a very rough calculation of how many units would need to fire simultaneously to score enough direct hits to destroy it at once (this may be more units than are available, in which case, just use the rest), and if there are any spare units after this calculation, have them hold fire. after the 'active' units fire a volley, if the target remains, have the spare units all fire at once (switching between fire groups each volley). if the target doesn't remain, then there are some units that are immediately available to fire at the next target.
with the above, commanders could substantially increase efficiency -- specifically in the kills/minute metric, and, if global ammo is implemented, units under a commander would have vastly better ammo efficiency.
This may should provide a bit more fun in, at least, multiplayer battles.
