Targeting should weigh CV/CVLs (and maybe AVs) more heavily

[ludovic]

It's sort of frustrating when I have caught up to an enemy carrier division and my ships want to kill the surrounding destroyers first. I can try to manually target the carrier but that doesn't last for more than a minute and I'm not sure it even works at all.

Sometimes the auto targeting makes some kind of sense sense if the carrier is lightly armed and heavily armored. But I've run into situations where the carrier is a worse surface threat than the destroyers since it has quite a range of guns on it.

I'm not saying that surface ships should always target carriers, but they should be weighed more heavily than they are now in the targeting calculations.

[nimrod]

Oct 10, 2021 16:43:42 GMT -6 ludovic said:

It's sort of frustrating when I have caught up to an enemy carrier division and my ships want to kill the surrounding destroyers first. I can try to manually target the carrier but that doesn't last for more than a minute and I'm not sure it even works at all.

But I've run into situations where the carrier is a worse surface threat than the destroyers since it has quite a range of guns on it.

I'm not saying that surface ships should always target carriers, but they should be weighed more heavily than they are now in the targeting calculations.

Would highly second Ludovic's experience; and thoughts that smaller ships need to be a bit more aggressive in targeting larger ships. It pains me to see a CL or DD trying to hit a maneuvering DD at max range when a CV, CVL, or other capital ship is broadsides at 500 yards and is tearing it apart.

Beyond those comments, I'm not sure what the actual coding solution is though... If I give a targeting order than the ships need to actually follow / stick to their targeting orders. However, they also need to adjust - like if I forget that I've given specific targeting orders to a BB to defend itself against an on-rushing CL and 20 minutes later its firing at max range against a maneuvering CL.

Maybe some code along the lines of - CL and DD if within xxxx yards of a B, BC, BB, CA will prioritize light ships (CL / DD - in order to provide screening duties and protect the battle line from torpedo runs). If the CL / DD is not within screening range of a capital ship, it will prioritize the highest hit chance and if within 1.5% hit chance than the it will look at classification - i.e. start prioritizing CV, CVL, CL, CA, etc.

I just don't want screening ships to start firing at large ships when their are enemy DDs that are trying to conduct torpedo runs on my battle line.

[ludovic]

It happens occasionally outside of wanting to attack a carrier, but carriers are where it happens the most.

And it definitely depends on how it's coded. If ships select a target based on the expected value of the damage points/victory points for a particular shot (i.e. hit percentage * damage when armor is taken into account), then you could simply multiply this for carriers, since, as soon as torpedo bombers arrive, carriers are worth more strategically than the victory points for killing them would otherwise show. A BB/BC is worth more to sink than a CV but not as useful.

This could still result in destroyers targeting destroyers if the carriers are armoured enough, which is good.

[nimrod]

Oct 13, 2021 19:10:07 GMT -6 ludovic said:

This could still result in destroyers targeting destroyers if the carriers are armoured enough, which is good.

Personally, unless a ship is under threat (torpedo attack or being mauled); than I generally want my ships targeting either strategic value like carriers or something more significant due to the reduction of accuracy that a ship under fire has.

I have taken out a number of CVLs and a hand full of CVs with 4-6" guns firing HE... In game carriers just can't handle fire very well, and it is a known Achilles heel. Early game, you can sink the big boys with HE and the resulting fire just like the battle of Tsushima.

[ludovic]

Bumping my own thread again. I wish I got a screenshot of this but I didn't have the foresight to do so.

So I was in a surprise close-distance night encounter. The closest enemy ship to my destroyers and cruisers was a CV. The other ships in their flotilla were farther away and were of Unknown type. Yet, my ships were targeting the farther away, unknown ships! They apparently thought the carrier of so little value to shoot at that they preferred to fire at a ship that they couldn't even make out clearly.

I don't know if this was just a random one-off without any larger meaning, or if it is evidence that the targeting algorithm really hates to shoot at carriers.

[williammiller]

AI targeting code has been adjusted in the last few internal beta versions, so you should seen improvements to this after any updates are pushed out.

[cabalamat]

Mar 19, 2022 15:28:23 GMT -6 ludovic said:

Bumping my own thread again. I wish I got a screenshot of this but I didn't have the foresight to do so.

So I was in a surprise close-distance night encounter. The closest enemy ship to my destroyers and cruisers was a CV. The other ships in their flotilla were farther away and were of Unknown type. Yet, my ships were targeting the farther away, unknown ships! They apparently thought the carrier of so little value to shoot at that they preferred to fire at a ship that they couldn't even make out clearly.

I don't know if this was just a random one-off without any larger meaning, or if it is evidence that the targeting algorithm really hates to shoot at carriers.

Did you torpedo it? i would have.

[ludovic]

I think they were not on a course that was torpedoable for some reason, yet they still showed up right next to me at night.