Posted December 25, 2017
I'd like to be able to designate squadrons and flotillas within my fleet. So for example, split my destroyers in 2 assault groups of 5 ships each, and then have a group that's designated for boarding actions, and then have a group for long range support, etc. I like operating with multiple designs of the same hull, each having its own specialty. The problem is that I can't easily distinguish between them, without clicking on each every turn and seeing what they do. Also, moving multiple ships and issuing multiple commands is not hard to do, but it does feel a bit clunky when you are dealing with huge fleets.
As I said, it's hard to determine the roles of ships, so I'd like some way to distinguish between ships of the same hull but different designs. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just add a square on each hull which can be colored or contain an icon, designating the ship's specialty. e.g. this is a boarding vessel (red), this is a support vessel (green), this is a PD boat (blue), etc. A similar method could be used to distinguish between squadrons and flotillas.
Action groups should persist through the game, and not reset at the end of each battle. I should also be able to designate them outside combat.
More importantly, there should be a way to define how my fleet is supposed to position itself at the start of combat, and have that persist as well. A lot of time during battles is spent trying to reposition my ships so my heavy ships can be able to soak up damage and not have to go the long way to fight the enemy.
Both action groups and fleet positioning could be easily defined by the player by entering a "mock battle", without animations, where they can position the ships in any way they like. It'd also be useful to set up a basic behavior for new ships entering the fleet. e.g. all new destroyers enter action group 7, all new light cruisers enter action group 8 OR all new destroyers are to be positioned on the flanks of the fleet, all new light cruisers are to be positioned on the left flank, all new heavy cruisers are to be positioned in the center, etc.
As I said, it's hard to determine the roles of ships, so I'd like some way to distinguish between ships of the same hull but different designs. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just add a square on each hull which can be colored or contain an icon, designating the ship's specialty. e.g. this is a boarding vessel (red), this is a support vessel (green), this is a PD boat (blue), etc. A similar method could be used to distinguish between squadrons and flotillas.
Action groups should persist through the game, and not reset at the end of each battle. I should also be able to designate them outside combat.
More importantly, there should be a way to define how my fleet is supposed to position itself at the start of combat, and have that persist as well. A lot of time during battles is spent trying to reposition my ships so my heavy ships can be able to soak up damage and not have to go the long way to fight the enemy.
Both action groups and fleet positioning could be easily defined by the player by entering a "mock battle", without animations, where they can position the ships in any way they like. It'd also be useful to set up a basic behavior for new ships entering the fleet. e.g. all new destroyers enter action group 7, all new light cruisers enter action group 8 OR all new destroyers are to be positioned on the flanks of the fleet, all new light cruisers are to be positioned on the left flank, all new heavy cruisers are to be positioned in the center, etc.