v1.12.0 Changes Discussion Thread

[Vasious]

1.12 Update: This is sort of good news, bad news. The good news is that I have been spending a lot of time on Aurora over the last few days. The bad news is that I have been playing it, rather than programming.

My campaign has been very good in the 'just one more turn' sense. I've fixed a couple of bugs along the way, but mainly just playing. I'll try to get back to the development side this week. As someone mentioned above, the forecast is not great for the next few days so that will help. Although I just bought a drone so frustrating not to be able to play with it

Pretty sure that is Good News and Good News, except the bit about eh weather grounded drone

[Dutchling]

More Imperium of Man updates can never be bad news!

[dag0net]

The Chinese should be a spoiler race that can spontaneously erupt on Holy Terra.

[Cobaia]

Can someone give me a practical example on how to use the Anchor Fleet mechanic?

[mike2R]

Can someone give me a practical example on how to use the Anchor Fleet mechanic?

Positioning a chain of ships with resolution 1 active sensors ahead of the fleet, in the direction of incoming missiles.  This would keep the missiles on sensors much longer, to rack up the tracking time accuracy bonus.

Positioning ships with smaller, quick firing lasers or rail guns in the direction of incoming missiles.  With area fire orders, they might be able to get multiple shots at salvos as they fly past towards the main fleet body.  Which lets you do useful anti-missile work with ships that can also do decent anti-ship damage in a beam fight.

It may be trickier to use this than the similar escort mechanic in VB6 though.  The AI in VB6 was very fixated on firing at big ships, and would reliably ignore small forward escorts.  C# AI doesn't seem to be this way, so may well pick off forward ships if it detects them, so may need to consider enemy sensor resolutions carefully, and even consider cloaking.

[dag0net]

Can someone give me a practical example on how to use the Anchor Fleet mechanic?

Positioning a chain of ships with resolution 1 active sensors ahead of the fleet, in the direction of incoming missiles.  This would keep the missiles on sensors much longer, to rack up the tracking time accuracy bonus.

Positioning ships with smaller, quick firing lasers or rail guns in the direction of incoming missiles.  With area fire orders, they might be able to get multiple shots at salvos as they fly past towards the main fleet body.  Which lets you do useful anti-missile work with ships that can also do decent anti-ship damage in a beam fight.

It may be trickier to use this than the similar escort mechanic in VB6 though.  The AI in VB6 was very fixated on firing at big ships, and would reliably ignore small forward escorts.  C# AI doesn't seem to be this way, so may well pick off forward ships if it detects them, so may need to consider enemy sensor resolutions carefully, and even consider cloaking.

Careful, sure, but missiles take time to travel which gives you time to see which sub-fleet is being targeted and place it on the far side of the rest of the fleet to interpose pd, with the non-targeted fleet 'retreating' towards the target fleet to reduce relative missile speed and increase engagement window(eg).. The AI making use of this kind of behavior is one tool to lessen the overwhelming utility of missile spam by forcing players to respect the fleet as a whole.



::A retain/do not retain memory of orders for subfleets on join/divide?

[Kristover]

Steve,  is it possible to code a 'Resupply and Refuel from Stationary Ship' conditional/order?  Part of my Fleet Doctrine, particularly early on when I'm building support vessels for my exploration efforts, is to pair 2-3 Survey Ships with 'Replenishment Vessels' - mid size support vessels with both refueling and resupply capabilities that occupy a specific niche away from single purpose Tankers and Supply Ships which are generally moving resources/fuel/supplies between colonies.  Something akin to the current John Lewis class of Replenishment Oilers used by the US Navy or the old Fort Victoria class used by the Royal Navy.




Resupply from Stationary Supply Ship

I've added a new order to "Resupply from Stationary Supply Ship".

This functions exactly like Refuel from a Stationary Tanker, except for supplies instead of fuel. The order will not work if the target fleet is moving when the fleet arrives.

[davidr]

Steve,

Have you any idea when we might see the ability to save and re-import medals + conditions from one game to another. My fingers are getting worn out re-inputting the same details each time on the medal screen.

DavidR

[Cobaia]

Hello,

Regarding the GU changes. Is it possible to add a create x time in the Ground Unit Construction tab for those who go down to the squad level of OOB?

[rekrats]

Hello Steve,

would it be possible to add an stabilize lagrane point standing order to keep the jump point stab fleets busy if there are no jump points to stabilize?

[StarshipCactus]

Woot! Ground force replenishment!

Another devastating strike against the forces of micro-management! This time, we won't need to wear ourselves out with tons of clicking to replenish our ground army for the next strike.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Steve,

Have you any idea when we might see the ability to save and re-import medals + conditions from one game to another. My fingers are getting worn out re-inputting the same details each time on the medal screen.

DavidR

If you are using the same medals in every game, just create the import file once and use the Medal import for every game.

[Kristover]

Steve, just saw the ground force replacement model and thanks for addressing it!  I rather liked my idea about doing it through the ground force complexes but your model is pretty cool as well - I'm thinking that I will end up making a 'support structure' of support commands on my populated worlds that will mimic the training commands/installations and depot-level activities that currently support the US Army here state-side.  Replacement sources that are built get funneled there and as units rotate back, they will draw from them.  I will still likely create forward replacement battalions like I do now to forward replace battlefield loses and sustain offensives.

One question, as equipment is replaced will the old equipment disappear or will it remain in the unit and have to manually destroyed or transferred to another formation?

[Polestar]

The recent change to permit ground forces replenishment is absolutely wonderful and gives me a lot of hope for the future of ground combat more generally.

The change I REALLY hope to see is simply to let officers grant a fraction of their skills to units in attached formations, so that it will become worthwhile to have a fleshed out formation hierarchy.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Steve, just saw the ground force replacement model and thanks for addressing it!  I rather liked my idea about doing it through the ground force complexes but your model is pretty cool as well - I'm thinking that I will end up making a 'support structure' of support commands on my populated worlds that will mimic the training commands/installations and depot-level activities that currently support the US Army here state-side.  Replacement sources that are built get funneled there and as units rotate back, they will draw from them.  I will still likely create forward replacement battalions like I do now to forward replace battlefield loses and sustain offensives.

One question, as equipment is replaced will the old equipment disappear or will it remain in the unit and have to manually destroyed or transferred to another formation?

Equipment will remain, so if you want to replace something that still exists you will need to do it manually. However, if the replacement code works as planned, I will probably add an option to also replace older units in the same series, with the outdated version transferred into the replacement formation. Lets see how the current functionality goes though before I add more complexity.