View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | Date Submitted | Last Update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0008345 | AI War 1 / Classic | Suggestion - Game Mechanics | May 31, 2012 12:21 pm | Oct 1, 2012 9:47 am | |
| Reporter | Wingflier | Assigned To | keith.lamothe | ||
| Status | resolved | Resolution | fixed | ||
| Product Version | 5.035 | ||||
| Fixed in Version | 5.088 | ||||
| Summary | 0008345: CTRLS - Change Auto-FRD Engineers/Military to Engineers/Military FRD by default | ||||
| Description | From what I've experienced, Auto-FRD Engineers is practically a required option to have enabled, because if you don't have it on, even your Remains Rebuilders won't go and repair your defenses unless you specifically FRD them. Considering that Engineers and Remains Rebuilders are very vulnerable, and very often die in a fight while repairing defenses on a chokepoint planet, it means that without Auto-FRD, you would constantly have to go back and check to see if these units were on FRD, otherwise your defenses/units are just going to sit there damaged/destroyed for long periods of time. Nobody wants to do this, so luckily, Auto-FRD does it for you. However, there are many situations where you may not WANT your Engineers on FRD. For example, if you're trying to repair your fleet on an allied planet, but want to keep them just out of range of the battle. Or if you want one half of your engineers rebuilding your forces while the other half heals your units - there's dozens of situations that you may not want engineers to be FRD in. In this case, the Auto-FRD option becomes quite a nuisance. Of course in the case of Auto-FRD Engineers you could argue that you can simply keep turning it off and on all the time. However, in the case of Auto-FRD Military, this is basically a useless option. Nobody wants the game to force their military into FRD on all allied planets. In its current state, this is practically useless. To fix both of these situations, I think we should change the options from "Auto-FRD" to "FRD by default". This means that when an Engineer or Military Unit enters an allied planet (even by construction), it defaults to FRD mode. However, giving it a command without FRD on the same planet allows you turn off the FRD mechanic, which is very useful in many situations - and allows you to make planet-by-planet decisions of this nature. I think this is a lot more practical and makes both of the options more realistic. Thanks for your consideration. | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
| Internal Weight | Feature Suggestion | ||||
| related to | 0001843 | resolved | Chris_McElligottPark | Key binding to override global auto-FRD |
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Well I for one use auto-FRD for military and engineers all the time. And I DO want my ships to go into FRD after they are done with my explicit orders automatically, both engineer and military. It seems that there should be three possible FRD modes, able to be set separately for military and engineer. 1. The current auto-FRD, go into FRD if idling (though a suppress FRD order needs to be implemented, see the related issue) 2. What you are describing in the OP (I am assuming that just constructed ships would also get FRD if this style of auto-FRD is on, assuming the rally for them does specify otherwise?) 3. No auto-FRD, basically the current behavior if these options are unchecked. I have seen lots of unit management styles that would benefit greatly from option 2, even though it is not the management style I like to use. |
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Yes, newly constructed units would also get FRD if the "FRD by default" option was checked. Basically, anytime a unit entered a new planet, whether by wormhole or construction, it would default into FRD. However any order given while on the same planet, would remove FRD unless the 'V' key was used. There are literally so many times you would want FRD for your newly constructed units but not while in a battle, or in a specific situation. In addition to the ones I listed, two more I can think of are when you have a large group of MK2 or 3 engineers, who you have to rebuild manually, on a dangerous planet producing units - every time a battle occurs they go and heal your guys (which is fine) but then they don't go back under the shields as before, because they start construction as soon as they are in range. Or what if you capture some rare MK3 Engineers with your Parasite Starships, and simply want to put them in a safe place so that you don't accidentally lose them in a battle. Are you going to turn off AUTO-FRD for the entire galaxy just to preserve them? I certainly hope not. These kinds of situations happen to me all the time. There has to be a happy medium. |
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I should note that I'm fine with the solution related to this issue as well. http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=1843 I didn't realize something similar already had over 20 supporters |
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The whole engineer sometimes not going back under a forcefield is another issue. Sadly, this is moderately difficult to fix, though I guess that the engineer move logic could be made such that if there is a forcefield covering a point within their repair distance from their intended target, then they should move under that forcefield to get into range instead of just normal move. However, that is a moderately expensive check. And also, a different enhancement request. ;) In any case, these options should most certainly be choosable per planet as well, with a "use global setting" option selected by default. |
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Already mentioned it on the mantis record for the one with a ton of votes, but: For 5.088: * Added a "Control-Group-Specific" tab to the CTRLS window, similar to the "Planet-Specific" tab: ** Instead of selecting a planet on this tab, you select one of your 10 control groups from a dropdown. ** Currently the tab has: *** Auto-FRD Military **** When this is set to "On", all your military units in this control group will be set to Free-Roaming Defender. Note: certain ship types (like fortresses that multi-repair, and zenith siege engines) never auto-FRD. **** When this is set to "Default", the global Auto-FRD toggle will govern. **** When this is "Off", this behavior will not happen for ships in this control group even if the global Auto-FRD toggle is on. **** If a ship is in multiple control groups with conflicting settings for this, the priority order is as follows: Off, On, Default. *** Auto-FRD Engineers **** When this is set to "On", all your engineer/rebuilder units in this control group will be set to Free-Roaming Defender. **** When this is set to "Default", the global Auto-FRD toggle will govern. **** When this is "Off", this behavior will not happen for ships in this control group even if the global Auto-FRD toggle is on. **** If a ship is in multiple control groups with conflicting settings for this, the priority order is as follows: Off, On, Default. This is far more manageable in the model than trying to have state at the individual ship level keeping track of whether it's eligible for auto-frd, etc. |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 31, 2012 12:21 pm | Wingflier | New Issue | |
| May 31, 2012 12:40 pm | TechSY730 | Note Added: 0025284 | |
| May 31, 2012 12:41 pm | TechSY730 | Relationship added | related to 0001843 |
| May 31, 2012 12:41 pm | TechSY730 | Note Edited: 0025284 | |
| May 31, 2012 12:46 pm | TechSY730 | Note Edited: 0025284 | |
| May 31, 2012 1:24 pm | Wingflier | Note Added: 0025290 | |
| May 31, 2012 1:33 pm | Wingflier | Note Added: 0025292 | |
| May 31, 2012 1:35 pm | TechSY730 | Note Added: 0025293 | |
| Jun 1, 2012 9:08 am | tigersfan | Internal Weight | => Feature Suggestion |
| Jun 1, 2012 9:08 am | tigersfan | Status | new => considering |
| Oct 1, 2012 9:47 am | keith.lamothe | Note Added: 0028544 | |
| Oct 1, 2012 9:47 am | keith.lamothe | Status | considering => resolved |
| Oct 1, 2012 9:47 am | keith.lamothe | Fixed in Version | => 5.088 |
| Oct 1, 2012 9:47 am | keith.lamothe | Resolution | open => fixed |
| Oct 1, 2012 9:47 am | keith.lamothe | Assigned To | => keith.lamothe |
