Matrix Games Forums

I think there could be some improvement in this area as some are very similar to DW1 but works differently in this game. The retreat when shields are below 50% or any armour damage usually have the ships retreat immediately as shields often are penetrated often to a small degree. This setting should perhaps be more like if armour damaged to at least 20% or shields down to 50% they will retreat.

I also think the AI should use less suicidal settings for when their ships retreat, it is too east to destroy their ships if you are stronger rather than them retreating to fight another day. I think it would make for a more challenging game if the AI could to some degree change ship tactics based on if they think they are stronger or weaker, or at least change it from time to time.

If the ship are set to retreat when 20% of non defence component are destroyed there is a good chance the hyperdrive will get damaged before they can run away. The AI should use a wider range of combat tactic settings to be more challenging.

I also think that Attack stances need some fine tuning. From my experience I often see wasted weapons as the ship never bring them in arc, even on Aggressive settings. I have mainly experience of the "Human" ships and quite often they tend to turn their side to the enemy ship and not able to fire their front gun as they are slightly forward of the enemy, even if all they have are point defences on most other mounts, the Frigate and Destroyers are good example of these behaviours... this is on Aggressive. Instead they should point the nose at the enemy to make good use of ALL their weapons.

I also get the feeling the AI don't understand when a weapon have 360 degree field of engagement if the mount don't have it, such as with missiles. I have experienced the AI trying to turn weapons at the enemy that fire 360 degree while not able to fire other weapons that don't have 360 degree fire, thus also wasting shots for no good reason, let's say you put railguns on one side of a Cruiser and concussion missiles on the other.

I'm wondering, does the fleet's disengagement setting (50%, 200% strength etc) even work? I've kept an eye out for it and can't tell- I often run a limited number of super-fleets and enemies rarely run from it, while raiding fleets of mine rarely flee an attack fleet.

And, haven't looked at it yet in detail, but I presume the AI empires don't even have the capacity for alternate tactics currently. From what I remember, when they are gifted ships (you can give your ships to other empires when the ships are in their territory), when they have certain tactics, the AI won't do anything with them until they get put into a fleet.

Regarding adjusting things like orientation of the ship with respect to its aggressiveness setting, it does seem like 'aggressive' should try to point right at its target instead of parking close to it. It seems as though there is inconsistent regard for facing, so perhaps its a resource limitation. Boskaran ships seem to need it for direct fire builds, though it hasn't really been an issue to me regardless.

For the AI to take advantage of different tactics, it first needs to be a bit more competent in ship design. No more bombardment weapons on destroyers and cruisers. No rear facing direct fire weapons. No PD on hardpoints with a limited firing arc. Then it needs to be able to discern between different roles. Picket ships, long range capitals, planetary siege fire support, etc.

There's a line that needs to be avoided, though- the AI must be less competent than most first time players, unless we're talking mods or optional settings. It certainly does that now, except when it comes to taxing colonies, timely deconstructing terraforming facilities, and assigning home bases to fleets.