automation

[lwarmonger]

I like the game, but the ships need more automation features. It would be nice if I could set ships to "automated patrolling," where they become part of a pool of ships that patrols my mining bases. Or automated escorting for ships. Or automated raiding, ect. That way I can roughly guide new ships into what I want them to do without micromanaging and without relying on the AI to guess.

[Hussar712]

i like that idea

[forsaken1111]

I would like it if I could set tasks for the automation, rather than relying on it to think of the right thing and ask me.

It would be nice to be able to give fleets broad orders, or specific objectives.

Like I select a fleet and designate to hunt pirates. It should sit at a spaceport until something is attacked by pirates, whereupon it should immediately go there and attack those pirates. Same if a pirate ship/base is detected elsewhere through exploration. Should come with a checkmark for "Allow incursions into other empire's systems"

I would also like it if I could declare an attack on a colony/base/whatever and have the automation take care of it. Select an enemy planet/base and right click, mark for attack. Then the automation should take the nearest available fleet, ready it for combat, and attack that target. Once the attack is done they resume normal automation to regroup or continue fighting.

[Gertjan]

I like to be able to que orders for fleets and ships.

[Fideach]

You are able to queue orders for ships, for fleets I am not sure.
It is in the right click menu, at the bottom when you have a ship select and are giving orders. You can queue next order for it.
Rather or not it works well I don't know for sure.

I would love to see a over all "War Room" for you to be able to give orders, assign objectives, etc to pool of ships. Instead of the AI just doing whatever it wants with automated ships.
For example, have different organizations that you could name. Each organization would have different responsibilities and objectives. One would be the internal patrol group, one the boarder patrol, etc.
Internal patrol would escort and protect ships inside the empire.
The boarder patrol would take care of defending the fringes.
Then have another organization that handles the assaults on other empire\pirate bases.

Even set up some advisers on it to recommend to you when you need to build additional ships for them to use as your empire expands. Or maybe allocate a budge and shipyards to them so they can build as they need.

[Hyfrydle]

I would love to see a over all "War Room" for you to be able to give orders, assign objectives, etc to pool of ships. Instead of the AI just doing whatever it wants with automated ships.
For example, have different organizations that you could name. Each organization would have different responsibilities and objectives. One would be the internal patrol group, one the boarder patrol, etc.
Internal patrol would escort and protect ships inside the empire.
The boarder patrol would take care of defending the fringes.
Then have another organization that handles the assaults on other empire\pirate bases.

 
This is a fantastic idea I think a major problem in DW is not knowing what the automated ships are actually doing and with a large empire this gets a serious problem.

[rhohltjr]

ORIGINAL: Hyfrydle

I would love to see a over all "War Room" for you to be able to give orders, assign objectives, etc to pool of ships. Instead of the AI just doing whatever it wants with automated ships.
For example, have different organizations that you could name. Each organization would have different responsibilities and objectives. One would be the internal patrol group, one the boarder patrol, etc.
Internal patrol would escort and protect ships inside the empire.
The boarder patrol would take care of defending the fringes.
Then have another organization that handles the assaults on other empire\pirate bases.

This is a fantastic idea I think a major problem in DW is not knowing what the automated ships are actually doing and with a large empire this gets a serious problem.

Don't stop there. If you could have a "War Department" you could have specialized departments for other areas in your empire. That opens the door for individual advisors which you could hire or fire. They would add special expertise to whatever department they are assigned according to their abilities.
Wish list addition?

[Gertjan]

No too much micro IMHO

[Hyfrydle]

I think info screens would be more useful and they wouldn't increase the micromanagement.

[Erik Rutins]

I must admit, the idea of some kind of war planner that allows you to set objectives and strategic plans while keeping fleets automated is very cool. It also sounds like a fair amount of additional development time though, so we'll have to see what that would involve.

[rhohltjr]

ORIGINAL: Gertjan
No too much micro IMHO

A war department screen would remove some micro management if it's done right.
It does sound like a lot of extra dev (and test)work though.
Perhaps it can happen.

I have been part of this forum since UV through Witp and AE and I have never noticed
Erik having as much hands on anything at Matrixgames as he has with DW. [X(]

Erik, you go back to SSI with GG correct?

[Mark Weston]

Here's my question re: automation. Does the "role" a ship's been labelled with affect how the AI uses it? i.e. does it use Escorts, Frigates, Destroyers etc. for different purposes?

[playedabit]

War planner? Please implement it, developers.

Yesterday I posted something similar in the wish list thread but I went only as far as to ask for a screen where I'd be able to influence and control how the AI distributes patrol fleets by assigning priority to systems, and to be able to assign ships to a patrol pool. More manual control would be welcome, of course.

[Gertjan]

I would pay for a micro expansion of 10 euro if some new time consuming (in terms of development) and game enhancing features were implemented.

[Webbco]

+1 on that one gertjan!