Patrol target Prioritisation (Suggestion)

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Scoob
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Joined: Thu, 27. Feb 03, 22:28
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Patrol target Prioritisation (Suggestion)

Post by Scoob » Fri, 26. Feb 21, 21:30

Hi,

I deploy fleets of ships to Patrol Sectors. Usually I use the "Protect Position" to better focus my efforts. However, often my Fleets make poor target choices because I cannot influence exactly what they should prioritise.

For example, I have a Fleet of slow but powerful Destroyers. A Xenon K intent on mischief enters the sector! My Destroyer Group will make short work of it, long before it endangers civilian shipping, right? Nope, they seem more intent on chasing down that lone Xenon M.

Another example: I have a Fleet of fast, nimble Fighters which are configured for an Anti-fighter role. They ignored that Xenon M and are currently head-butting the Xenon K.

If we had the ability to set a target bias list - perhaps as some sort of preset we could apply to Fleets - then that'd be PERFECT. I.e.

- Fighter Bias
1 - Attack S-Class Ships
2 - Attack M-Class Ships
Implied; Don't attack L and XL ships

- Corvette Hunter
1 - Attack M-Class Ships
Implied; Don't attack other classes

- Capital Ship Killer
1 - Attack L-Class Ships
2 - Attack XL-Class Ships

You get the idea.

To further enhance this behaviour, being able to set the Target List to Attack / Defend / Flee roles would be EPIC:

- Fighter Bias
1 - Attack S-Class Ships
2 - Defend against M-Class Ships - aka fight back if attacked
3 - Flee - L-Class Ships
4 - Flee - XL-Class Ships

Being able to maintain various pre-defined Lists for this, like we do with Blacklists and Trade Restrictions currently would be amazing.

Sure, the play could run into trouble with a Fleet being attacked by a target it's not allowed to fight back against, but that's on the Player. This would promote true multi-role Fleets with Destroyers equipped with heavy, anti-capital weapons focussing on other Capital ships while perhaps taking pot-shots and any M-Class vessel that pokes the bear. Fighters on the other hand would be focused on Fighters. No reason not to have some Capital Ships equipped in and anti-fighter role and set to hunt specific target classes.

I have no understanding how target prioritisation in handled internally, why would I. However, I do see poor target choices quite often, based on the pool of targets available and the implied roles (based on their Class and weapon load-out) with ships often going after things they really should be avoiding.

Obviously this is just a very rough outline of something I think might work, and I think it'd be very useful to the player who has a good range of assets to play around with.

Note: I'm aware that Carrier-launched Fighters on Intercept should/ Prioritise other Fighters, but this really doesn't work so well for reasons that have been discussed many times - the whole process breaks down when multiple Fighters come back to (try to) dock and end up sitting ducks ignoring all targets and attackers.

What do people think? I long for better control of my ship's target choices and to be able to tell them what to run away from.

Scoob.

Y-llian
Posts: 484
Joined: Tue, 16. Jan 07, 21:46
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Re: Patrol target Prioritisation (Suggestion)

Post by Y-llian » Sat, 27. Feb 21, 01:51

I’ve come to the conclusion that the denizens of the X-verse love the idea of suicide. Perhaps there’s a cloning facility somewhere in the aether where folk get resurrected, which might explain their willingness to treat death like another day in the office.

- Single Elite takes on a K.

‘No fear here, I shall peck you to death with my baby teeth pulse lasers!’

- Single Behemoth fires up travel drive and parks itself in the middle of a Xenon swarm.

‘Nothing and no one stops the Argon navy. We laugh in the face of Graviton turrets! They fire but doughnuts and we shall eat heartily!’

- The PAR navy heads for HOP space, yay! A ship at a time, oh no!

‘Last one through the gate eats Bofu! There is no greater shield than our faith friends. This we shall prove!’

If I recall in X3, you were able to tell your ships what class to attack - been a long time though - but this would be great.

I like your suggestions... Anything would be welcome to save these absolutely brave fools from themselves.

I may be succumbing to lockdown fever... ;)
Last edited by Y-llian on Sat, 27. Feb 21, 09:33, edited 1 time in total.

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chew-ie
Posts: 5445
Joined: Mon, 5. May 08, 00:05
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Re: Patrol target Prioritisation (Suggestion)

Post by chew-ie » Sat, 27. Feb 21, 09:13

Y-llian wrote:
Sat, 27. Feb 21, 01:51
I’ve come to the conclusion that the denizens of the X-verse love the idea of suicide. Perhaps there’s a cloning facility somewhere in the aether where folk get resurrected, which might explain their willingness to treat death like another day in the office.
That's why we need the Borons back - the'll introduce proper retreat tactics. :P

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Nila Ti: Folgt mir, ihr Kavalkade von neugierigen Kreaturen!

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aurelcourt
Posts: 267
Joined: Fri, 20. Oct 17, 09:20
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Re: Patrol target Prioritisation (Suggestion)

Post by aurelcourt » Sat, 27. Feb 21, 14:33

Scoob wrote:
Fri, 26. Feb 21, 21:30

If we had the ability to set a target bias list - perhaps as some sort of preset we could apply to Fleets - then that'd be PERFECT.

[...]
100% agree :-) That should be getting higher and higher on the priority list by now !!

Thoughts :
I think a way to set it up would be using the menus like the Trade Rules or Blacklists : we'd have a separate one for Wings/Group Behaviours (Alpha, Beta etc...) that we could modify and/or create.

Here we'd find initially the "Attack with commander" / "Defend" / "Intercept" behaviours that we know, and we could change them and add more.

I think the required settings would be :
  • Engagement range (5 - 300km?)
  • Docking status : Docked (if possible) /or/ Escort leader
  • Target priority1 : S/M/L/XL or combination
  • Target priority2 : after first targets have been destroyed/out of range
  • Behaviour if no target found : return to dock/escort /or/ attack all ennemies
  • Attack pattern : Chaaaarge / Artillery (keep max weapons distance = bomber/sniper) / Maintain distance / Broadside / ...?
  • Danger ratio : 1/1 - 2/1 - 3/1 - 4/1 - 5/1 = how many ships (or how much fleet power) to send against one target. I'm always annoyed at my carriers sending 12 heavy fighters to deal with 1 scout...
>Then to add even more control to this, the Fleet Commander loadout menu would allow to "activate"/"deactivate" a wing so it takes part (or not) in the battle.

>And finally a Reinforcement tool (based on templates + player Shipyard) to automatically rebuild losses after a fight. Newly built ships would join automatically the fleet, in the same configuration/group as the one destroyed.


There are plenty of ideas to take on how to code all that in existing mods (for example : X3 Litcube's MLCC or X3 Mayhem Fleet Menu)

This way your Patrol Fleet could send wings all over the sector if required (on a 1/1 or 2/1 ratio it could deal with multiple threats at different places at the same time !)

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