Post by brygun on Oct 19, 2019 15:37:13 GMT -6
One of the ongoing hiccups is when ships really ought to go certain directions but can't. Some examples being:
= Carriers bumping into land or trapped in inlets by needing to turn into the wind
= Damaged ships player chooses to withdraw abort "detach" to come back or even rejoin squadrons
= Flooding ships to be moved out of the battle line and slowed down for a time before returning once "safe"
= AI ships such as those returning to base getting stuck on land zig zag coasts
= AI ships on return to base detach heading to closest base might be better off going to one farther way when the enemy blocks the closest base
And others.
In trying to have a useful suggestion to fix (other than it needs fixing) it occured to me that many of these could be made manageable by adding a "go to station" squadron command. This being the choose menu of things of Core, Screen, Support, Independent.
It would need either to send the ship/squadron in a direction.
Using the four cardinal directions of north, east, south and west gives the player some options based on the map and tactical situation.
As an example "Station North" would see the ship/squadron move a wide distance north of the flagship or reference squadron. Perhaps in early years this is the edge of visible range (needed for flags) but later when radios would be around would get over the horizon.
I thought about allowing a map point to be chosen but this then requires adding a datum for each squadron of where it might be sent to. This would be more ideal but much more complicated as it requires changing more of the game code.
Eight directions would add in North-East and such but it starts to make the menu much larger.
So I suggest allowing the player to send squadron to station in four direction would give us ways of coping with multiple positioning challenges.
= Carriers bumping into land or trapped in inlets by needing to turn into the wind
= Damaged ships player chooses to withdraw abort "detach" to come back or even rejoin squadrons
= Flooding ships to be moved out of the battle line and slowed down for a time before returning once "safe"
= AI ships such as those returning to base getting stuck on land zig zag coasts
= AI ships on return to base detach heading to closest base might be better off going to one farther way when the enemy blocks the closest base
And others.
In trying to have a useful suggestion to fix (other than it needs fixing) it occured to me that many of these could be made manageable by adding a "go to station" squadron command. This being the choose menu of things of Core, Screen, Support, Independent.
It would need either to send the ship/squadron in a direction.
Using the four cardinal directions of north, east, south and west gives the player some options based on the map and tactical situation.
As an example "Station North" would see the ship/squadron move a wide distance north of the flagship or reference squadron. Perhaps in early years this is the edge of visible range (needed for flags) but later when radios would be around would get over the horizon.
I thought about allowing a map point to be chosen but this then requires adding a datum for each squadron of where it might be sent to. This would be more ideal but much more complicated as it requires changing more of the game code.
Eight directions would add in North-East and such but it starts to make the menu much larger.
So I suggest allowing the player to send squadron to station in four direction would give us ways of coping with multiple positioning challenges.