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Combat/Battles

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Combat/Battles

from GalCiv3 Forums

I'm not sure if this has been brought up in other topics, but I looked around and only saw one other post that saidanythingabout combat (several about UI enhancements)

 

As the game stands in its current form, combat is very stale and feels like it is on rails.  From a person who has played countless strategy games over 25 years I feel that the entire combat system needs an overhaul to be competitive with other grand strategy games.  So the ideas I am suggesting are really nothing new, just elements taken from other games.  Some of them are taken directly from Stardock's other games:

 

  • Auto combat needs to go.
  1. Take a page from Endless Legend; combat occurs right on the map.  
  2. Or havebattle on a different screen much like Master of Orion's battle system. (in3 dimensions)
  3. The battle happens in real time so that it may begin and end at any time during your turn.
  4. Bring in programming for tactical combat
  5. Introduce tactical special abilities that can be researched in the military screen related to the beam/missile/kinetic base attributes
  6. Still include auto calculate feature for trivial battles

 

  • Hero system (4x strategy)
  1. Introduce heroes to manage colonies/fleets
  2. Give heroes attributes/skills based on the beam/missile/kinetic stats
  3. Give heroes attributes/skills based on the manufacturing/research/economics/influence/approval/relics stats
  4. Give heroes attributes/skills based on any stat in the game!

 

  • Level system (4x strategy)
  1. This system is already in place for colonies, for the most part
  2. Add in a leveling system for ships/fleets
  3. Make pirates and opposing factions scalable to your level

 

  • Main Quest/Side Quests

 

  1. Take a page out of Fallen Enchantress, have quests for the player to complete that rewards based on difficulty
  2. Have a main quest for each of the factions to compete for supremacy of the galaxy

 

Now that this game has been programmed in 64-bit the possibilities should be limitless given hardware limitations for the user.  This game right now just feels like a slightly polished up remake of GalCivII.  I really hope that the developers are serious in implementing some major 2015 changes or this fan base will quickly jump ship for a better strategy game.

114,369 views 27 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Frankly, I'd love any form of player involvement during battles.

 

It doesn't even have to be very detailed, some simple tactical command would be enough to start.

Reply #27 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The combat roles are cool and all, but they are inferior to a much simpler system.

Maximize damage- ship charges the enemy at full speed in order to maximize damage. Pretty much what all ships do now.

Maximize range- ship engages the enemy at the max range of its longest-range weapon, then falls back.

Minimize damage- ship attempts to stay out of range of the enemy.

Now add on top of this some risk/reward in regards to weapons and engagement ranges so that close-quarters weapons have a significantly higher DPS. There is no need for these roles, most of which make no sense anyway.

End of quote

Surely you also need an escort role replacement? I.e. "protect these ships from the enemy"?

I have been playing for a while with the handicap of not building any carriers (because, let's face it, they are so powerful they are boring). To compensate the power gap I have been using the combat role mix "capitals+escorts" to implement the old tactical maxim of specialized attackers and defenders. That should be a valid tactical option in any combat simulation whether it's medieval pikes+bows or wet navy carrier+AAW-cruisers, or the system is missing something very basic...

Though, your observation has merit. The current ship roles are too complex for the available ships and tactics you can implement with the current ship components. I think that qualification is needed because the problem lies there. We need ship components and new ship combat behavior that would utilize the combat roles to their full potential. It's a nice, flexible system that would allow all kind of things but there's currently no meat with what to fill its skeleton.

For example, we are missing ships that would try to quickly get past enemy "nuisances" in order to hit and kill soft, valuable targets. Which would incidentally also be a "carrier counter" thus solving that issue in the game.

Edit: And BTW, please, don't add any active combat time user involvement to the tactical battles. Really. This is a TBS game. If I wanted to play an RTS game I'd buy one. There are tons of space-themed space RTS games out there but precious few good TBS ones. Don't ruin this one. If you add tactical options that can be preset and applied before the combat is played out, that's fine, but adding a mandatory click-fest to the tactical combat screen isn't.

Switch your hat from "captain" to "admiral". You give your orders and send your captains in and trust them to execute them and to respond in intelligent manner to whatever the enemy happens to do. As the saying goes 90% of most battles are decided before they start.

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