Set allowed and prioritized targets for carrier strikes

[rimbecano]

When launching a strike, I propose that the player should be able to set priorities by ship type, damage status and engagement with friendly ships, to avoid things like a strike finding a capital or carrier task group and hitting the screen rather than the core, or a strike against a fleeing, mostly undamaged main body finding the enemy fleet's stragglers, which are already being engaged by surface elements.

I'd have this in a window that can be brought up from the airstrike window, and the options I'd have are as follows:

Option: Allowed ship types, type priorities
Type: A checkbox and a number entry box for each ship type
Description: Sets whether each ship type is allowed as a target, and how it should be prioritized. If an airstrike encounters a group of ships containing no allowed types, it will not engage. Misidentification may cause an airstrike to inadvertently attack disallowed targets, to improperly prioritize targets, or to fail to engage.

Option: Attack damaged ships
Type: Dropdown with options "No preference", "Prioritize damaged", "prioritize undamaged", "damaged only", and "undamaged only".
Description: Sets whether strike will engage damaged or undamaged ships. The "Prioritize" options will continue on to the specified target point if they encounter a group with no ships of the specified types, but will hit it on the way back if they do not encounter the specified type on the way out.

Option: Ships engaged by friendly forces.
Type: Dropdown with options "No preference", "Not engaged", "Engaged", and "Scramble against surface threat to task force", and "Emergency Scramble (no turn to wind)"
Description: Sets whether strike will engage only ships engaged or unengaged by friendly surface forces. "Engaged" carries some risk of friendly fire on misidentification, and allows friendly divisions to be used as strike targets (in other words, fly to this friendly division, then engage what it's shooting at). "Scramble" and "Emergency scramble" are only available if a known enemy surface ship is within view (or maybe within a certain distance in poor visibility) of the selected carrier division, and, when selected, the strike aircraft will only engage ships engaged with the division launching the strike, with no risk of friendly fire. "Emergency scramble" causes the strike to be launched without turning into the wind and, for ships without catapults, creates a moderately elevated risk of operational loss on takeoff for fighters and a severely elevated risk for other aircraft. Under some weather conditions, the emergency scramble option might not be usable for non-fighters. For ships with catapults, there is no extra risk for fighters in good weather, and a moderate risk for other aircraft, with risk increasing in poor weather.

[stevethecat]

'Please target the battleship that is caving my face in and not that single already sinking transport. Please.'

[dizzy]

Basic Pilot AI that we can work with, say, a priority mission checkbox that causes the pilots to first have to fly to their destination before being able to attack naval units. If naval units are not found at target location, then they can fly back to attack ships they detected en route.

[alsadius]

This feels a touch complex, but the principle is sound.

[valikdu]

Yes please.

[Blothorn]

I just came here to suggest something like this. Historically aircraft had remarkable troubles with ship identification (particularly based on size--CAs/BBs and light/fleet carriers proved particularly difficult to distinguish), but it would be nice to give aspirational preferences.

For a somewhat more streamlined experience, the options I had in mind were:
- Attack first ships encountered/attack ships near target. Sometimes my target is a wild guess (e.g. not knowing whether enemy ships will retreat or re-engage), and I don't want planes bypassing an enemy to fly to what may well be open sea. Other times, there are crippled ships (or healthy ships I already have a strategy for killing) close to the carriers, but I would like my planes to bypass them to strike a specific distant target.
- Prioritize escorts/battleships/carriers. About as fine-grained as I expect pilots to be capable of.