First off been loving the Alpha build so far. Still, there are so many things I’ve been wondering about the final game.
1.Ship AI
This really concerns me for assigning roles to my ships in the fleet. Let’s say for an example I have two ships. One is a tiny hull with lasers that focus on accuracy rather than firepower. (a fighter role)The other is a tiny hull with missiles designed to be high yield but not accurate against tiny ships. (a bomber role)
Now my opponent has a tiny hull with lasers that focus on accuracy rather than firepower. (a fighter role) Now his other ship is a large hull ship focusing on attacking other large and bigger class ships. (a battleship more or less)
I’m worried in ship combat my tiny fighters will focus on attacking the large battleship doing almost no damage while my bombers try to chase down the opponents fighters and not land a single shot. How is the AI being developed to address a situation like this?
2. Carriers and tiny craft(aka fighters and bombers)
If made like the traditional carriers of today this ship class will more or less change the game. What more or less ruined the gameplay of the last game was nothing matters, in the end bigger is better. This goes against all modern warfare. Giant ships one shooting tiny hulls is like me trying to shoot a fly in my house with a hand gun. There is no way that a giant cannon is going to hit a fast nimble ship. This is really going to allow tiny and small class hulls to be useful even end game. Also carriers allowing us players to bring swarms of tiny fighters and bombers to the front lines deep in enemy territory. This will let fighters focus on weapons and not life support or FTL drives. Just look at star wars and the TI fighter. It is a cheap mass produced fighter that cannot survive deep in enemy territory on its own. It uses the Star Destroyer to allow it to deploy.
3. Escape
Ok, everyone knows sometimes it’s best to turn tale and run. Masters of Orion 2 and Star Wars Empire at war both did a good job at allowing the players to turn tale and run. Sometimes, it just not worth fighting to the last man. Also for an empire that focusing on tiny craft it might be best to do a lot of hit and run attacks to wear down an enemy. Allowing a player to escape in battle would also encourage new technology such as ships that slow down or prevent escape. (Think the Imperial Interdictor star ship)
That was just some of my thoughts while playing the Alpha.