Area Weapons

[Donchik]

Hi,

I've got a tough planet to invade, so I built up a task force capable of busting it's defensive bases, and the defending fleet ready for invasion.

I was ready with about 130 ships mixed up capital, carriers, and cruisers.

Formed up nearby, and then attacked. When I did this the area weapons on the capital ships fired knocking 7 kinds of c**p out of my fleet! More than half the taskforce was instantly vapourised, and 90% damaged beyond the ability to move!

Is this correct? I'd assumed that area weapons were smart enough not to destroy my own ships. If this is intended gameplay, how can I use any area weapons? Any fleet, both defending or attacking would be at more risk from their neighbouring "friendly" forces than the enemy.

Thanks for your advice,
Don

Screenshots and saves game data to follow

[sbach2o]

ORIGINAL: Donchik

Hi,

I've got a tough planet to invade, so I built up a task force capable of busting it's defensive bases, and the defending fleet ready for invasion.

I was ready with about 130 ships mixed up capital, carriers, and cruisers.

Formed up nearby, and then attacked. When I did this the area weapons on the capital ships fired knocking 7 kinds of c**p out of my fleet! More than half the taskforce was instantly vapourised, and 90% damaged beyond the ability to move!

Is this correct? I'd assumed that area weapons were smart enough not to destroy my own ships. If this is intended gameplay, how can I use any area weapons? Any fleet, both defending or attacking would be at more risk from their neighbouring "friendly" forces than the enemy.

Thanks for your advice,
Don

Screenshots and saves game data to follow

This is working as designed. The only ship not damaged by an area weapon is the firing ship itself.

So: The only sensible use of these things seems on single-ship task forces, preferably big ships. One could send them against weak enemy detachments.

Not that I've ever tried this. I wouldn't let one of these go unsupervised (you never know where they are going to hit the red button). But a single warship seems to me too insignificant to put under manual control, except for very special purposes or early in the game.

[Donchik]

Save Game files upload as below:
We-Boskaran 2856-10-10(Before Attack)
We-Boskaran 2856-10-10(During Attack)

Full sized screen shots also uploades as below and smaller versions attached:
2012-02-10_065655
2012-02-10_065943

Cheers,
Donchik

[Donchik]

Hi sbach2o,

Thanks for the reply, looks like our emails have crossed[;)]

I'm confused by the view that this is "by design".

If one has areas weapons on defensive bases then they effectively knock out you own defending forces, and bases before the enemy really engages.

Also I'm not designing my own ships yet, and simply use the default designs. To have default capital ship designs that cannot be used in fleets makes no sense. Would you agree, or have I missed something?

I really think it's a bug, and if it was by design, then the system should not use it's area weapons when friendly ships are within range, again, all views welcome.

Many thanks for your thoughts, I really like DW, and I'm impressed by the detail, if this is a bug, no problem, I'm sure the DW team are on it, if not maybe it needs a bit more thought.

Best regards,
Donchik

[Arcatus]

yea, Area weapons are broken IMHO.

Not sure how to fix them, but if size and cost was increased (with allot) and they could damage fighters (they don't damage them in the current version) some brand new design choices are introduced...

[Fishers of Men]

Everything you see concerning the design and execution of area weapons is not bugged. But there has been a great deal of debate on how to use these weapons effectively. My choice is to place them on far away monitoring stations, resort bases, research stations, or some distant mining operations where there is no friendly patrols or freighter lanes. That reduces that chance of collateral damage to my or allied ships. The lone wolf military ship deep in enemy territory tactic has also been tried with some success. I would like to ask Elliot how he would best use them, since he is the designer of DW.

FoM

[Donchik]

Hi FoM,

I assume that it's not expected that Capital ships form the backbone of fleet formations. Seems rather odd, as unless you want to design your own ships you'd not be able to use all the weapons potential of the capital ships.

Do you think an option similar to radar secotor blanking might be incorporated. This would effectively block the area defence wave over radial zones that have friendly ships within range?

DW design team input would be most welcome.

Cheers,
Donchik

[Whydmer]

One improvement would be a defensive tech for Area weapon defense, that would mitigate the effect of area weapons, even if only on your own ships/bases.