Advanced ship modules overriding target priority calculations

You can make invincible first-target ships

from GalCiv2 Forums

I read that the order that the AI targets ships is Total Attack / (Total Defense + Hit Points) highest number first. However I was seeing a ship of mine that had very high defense and comparatively little attack being the first one fired upon and covering the whole fleet. I did some testing and it was because it had a module that increased fleet attack. It makes a certain amount of sense that you'd want to take out that ship first since it's powering up the whole fleet, but this ship was not going to be taken down so much more vulnerable and dangerous ships got a free pass. The ship does have to have some attack power to be targeted though but a 1 attack 200 defense ship with a module would get targeted before a 200 attack 0 defense ship. This would be very abusable by the player. The worse part is that it also works for non-fleet modules like the KillZone Computer which only affect one ship and only in your influence. I remembered once I had high defense ships covering for low defense ones and then other times it didn't work that way. Now I know why.

The more logical way to handle this would be to add the fleet module attack bonus to the ship with the module's attack for the calculation since it is the source of it

I checked to see if there is a flag on the modules that says something like <target_first>1</target_first> but there wasn't so it seems like it's hard coded.

Is there anything that can be done about this or am I stuck being able to fool the AI so easily? They can do the same but I doubt they know how to do it.

5,132 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

So am I the only one concerned about this?

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

The AI is incapable of using fleet modules, so there are only two options: refrain from using the modules yourself or remove the necessary techs from the game. Both have pretty much the same effect, but the second option also prevents the AI from wasting it's time researching techs it can't use.

Beyond that, however, there is nothing we can do.

 

 

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

If you think it's too cheesy to put it on a ship with a single weapon battery and a pile of defences, just throw it on an unarmed ship, the smaller you can make it, the better.  The targeting formula will revert to the normal pattern, but you'll still get the bonus from the module across the fleet.

I don't see that there is a huge advantage compared to just outfitting all capital ships with defences.  True, the space you use for defences could have been used for weapons, but a sufficient defence means that your fleets may be able to battle more enemy fleets before requiring repairs.

If all your capital ships have defence then any combination of your ships will work fine against most attackers and you can carry on if you lose one or two along the way.  If only one ship has defence then you either need to have a spare kicking around nearby or you have to retreat.