Picking your fights.

[Lyric]

Recently on a couple of patrols, the SLRN were stalked by a couple of enemy Lynxs whose intention was to just shadow us and call out our location. I have no problem with that as we can always chase them off, however a line must be drawn when said Lynxs decide to hug the centre of our formation meaning of we engage them we all are pulled in.

After much thought towards resolving this, my suggestion is to add more detail to the engagement ring [not the one of your finger!]. I suggest when you engage an enemy you can choose which of your allies [who are also in the circle] you want to take into the battle with you initially. This allows fleets to better manage their forces and to combat the said scenario above.

For the people who say: why don't you just spread out and get one person to kill him? Because it means we are slowed down again. We need to all spread out, get one person to engage and then get back into formation which all takes up a lot of time. Time we don't have if we are trying to entrap an enemy

So why not go in together and kill him? Because 1.it will pull in big reinforcements for his side and again it slows us down massively.

Edited July 1, 2015 by Richard Bolitho

[Leviathan]

Instead of you choosing which of your allies you want to join the battle, each ally should have the option to join or decline. That may be more appropriate.

[mouse of war]

yes, definitely

[Lyric]

Instead of you choosing which of your allies you want to join the battle, each ally should have the option to join or decline. That may be more appropriate.

Agreed. Only for allies though. All enemies of the aggressors should be dragged in if they are in the circle

Edited July 1, 2015 by Richard Bolitho

[SeamanStaines]

Yes I agree the combat initiation mechanics need some thought. My particular gripe is that AI who can sail against the wind charge you and you start the combat stuck in the middle of an AI fleet. I would like an inner circle that freezes the position of combatants at the moment of battle initiation and a second circle with a timer, distance or hail function for gathering additional forces from either side into the fray.

 

I would really like to see combats begin with some distance between fleets/ships in order to get organized.

[MacVaultDweller]

Yes each ally should have the option to join or decline.

[Prater]

Yes I agree the combat initiation mechanics need some thought. My particular gripe is that AI who can sail against the wind charge you and you start the combat stuck in the middle of an AI fleet. I would like an inner circle that freezes the position of combatants at the moment of battle initiation and a second circle with a timer, distance or hail function for gathering additional forces from either side into the fray.

 

I would really like to see combats begin with some distance between fleets/ships in order to get organized.

 

 

Then there will be no combat, people will just sail away.

[SeamanStaines]

LOL, perhaps some might not, but I would rather not open that debate again.

[SueMyChin]

I suggest when you engage an enemy you can choose which of your allies [who are also in the circle] you want to take into the battle with you initially.

 

Instead of you choosing which of your allies you want to join the battle, each ally should have the option to join or decline. That may be more appropriate.

 

IF they were to implement this, what would stop every large fleet taking a fodder ship along with them to initiate an instance against an attacking enemy, leaving the rest of his fleet in OW free to escape the attackers? I see the solution being just as easy to exploit as what we have, unless I'm missing something...

[Magnum]

Perhaps (just an idea) give Lynx (or perhaps Pickles) the ability to "click tag" where they can mouse over a single ship icon and then click an additional button to engage just that ship, with a cool down so they can only do it once every 20 min (1 day in game)?

 

Then a large fleet could put some of their scout ships to work chasing off the enemy scouts.

 

 

 

I'm just trying to think outside the box, er circle ...

[blueskull]

what if wed get rid of the Engagement cicly timer all along? as soon as two enemy ships get into a certain distance they are engaged in combat.  this way it would be always a 1v1 at start and everyone closeby could choose to join or not

[Magnum]

what if wed get rid of the Engagement cicly timer all along? as soon as two enemy ships get into a certain distance they are engaged in combat.  this way it would be always a 1v1 at start and everyone closeby could choose to join or not

 

Not a bad idea ......

[Johny Reb]

First, we are talking about griefing here and I am not a fan of it but I am actually quite happy to see that it is happening to SLVF as they have daily been camping the Florida coast griefing noob lynx in bellonas. So, tit for tat. (I'm not against their presence there. I imagine they are hoping to grab someone who ported there with their frigate) Tagging ships you can't catch, especially noob ships that will get you no xp, and you cant sell for any gold if you should actually capture any when they will get away eventually anyway is griefing in my opinion.

 

Back to the subject at hand. You all seem to be arguing for mechanics that allow splitting. If a lynx can come up and just tag one of you without pulling in the whole group then he has effectively split your group. What will happen next is the ambush fleet will sail down on you at that point and tag you with an advantage. Thats a horrible mechanic.

 

I believe the devs said that to prevent this kind of griefing they planned on adding a battle reject option if the ship attacking is much lower in its battle rating. So a lynx could never attack you if you didn't want to be attacked because you could just reject it. I think this is the easiest way to handle it but it must be balanced expertly because lesser ships should be able to attempt a larger ship at times.

 

As for the attack circle I agree that it has some problems. I think it needs to be composed of two rings. The larger ring is as is. A countdown ensues and anyone in that ring at the end of the battle is pulled in. There should then be a second ring that is much smaller and follows your ship within the larger ring. If the two ships get within the smaller ring, either one of the Captains can initiate the battle immediately. The positive side to this is fleet positioning. That NPC that motorboats straight up wind when you attack it could never gain the wind on you at that point or force you to run upwind to hold the wind leaving your nose in the wind when the battle starts because as soon as it got close you would initiate the battle even if the timer was not to 0 yet.

[Magnum]

First, we are talking about griefing here and I am not a fan of it but I am actually quite happy to see that it is happening to SLVF as they have daily been camping the Florida coast griefing noob lynx in bellonas. So, tit for tat. (I'm not against their presence there. I imagine they are hoping to grab someone who ported there with their frigate) Tagging ships you can't catch, especially noob ships that will get you no xp, and you cant sell for any gold if you should actually capture any when they will get away eventually anyway is griefing in my opinion.

 

Back to the subject at hand. You all seem to be arguing for mechanics that allow splitting. If a lynx can come up and just tag one of you without pulling in the whole group then he has effectively split your group. What will happen next is the ambush fleet will sail down on you at that point and tag you with an advantage. Thats a horrible mechanic.

 

I believe the devs said that to prevent this kind of griefing they planned on adding a battle reject option if the ship attacking is much lower in its battle rating. So a lynx could never attack you if you didn't want to be attacked because you could just reject it. I think this is the easiest way to handle it but it must be balanced expertly because lesser ships should be able to attempt a larger ship at times.

 

As for the attack circle I agree that it has some problems. I think it needs to be composed of two rings. The larger ring is as is. A countdown ensues and anyone in that ring at the end of the battle is pulled in. There should then be a second ring that is much smaller and follows your ship within the larger ring. If the two ships get within the smaller ring, either one of the Captains can initiate the battle immediately. The positive side to this is fleet positioning. That NPC that motorboats straight up wind when you attack it could never gain the wind on you at that point or force you to run upwind to hold the wind leaving your nose in the wind when the battle starts because as soon as it got close you would initiate the battle even if the timer was not to 0 yet.

 

one problem with your dual ring idea is that I'm pretty sure only the person initiating the ring actually sees it. I have been caught in someone else's ring and from my perspective I am just suddenly "entering combat" with no warning to get out of their ring.