I tried using search tool but couldn't find anything- so quick question about fleet battles. In previous Gal Civs when you entered into a fleet battle you and the enemy's ships would focus all firepower on a single ship at a time, destroying that ship and moving on to the next ship during each side's 'round' of firing. My question is if this is still the case in GalCivIII, or if fleet battles will be more dynamic?
My problem is simply that not only is this 1-at-a-time boring and unrealistic, but makes it so varying up the sizes of ships in your fleet is more about resource/construction time management than any sort of combat advantage. I guess what I'm saying is that there's a reason navies all around the world are comprised of varying vessel sizes, and not just the biggest ships they can afford to field.
I believe making smaller ships still viable as large ship designs are unlocked could add depth to fleet battles. For example, and this is merely an example not a suggested system, but let's say ships received evasion bonuses vs larger ship classes. Let's take tiny ships:
Tiny vs Tiny: 0%
Tiny vs Small: 10%
Tiny vs Medium: 20%
Tiny vs Large: 30%
Tiny vs Huge: 40%
then place tiny ships in a fleet battle system that did NOT cause fleets to target ships on a one-by-one basis, but instead each ship fired on ships within their individual weapon ranges; suddenly making late-game fleets mixing large and smaller ships makes sense. Imagine the following scenario:
2 fleets:
Fleet A: 4 Huge
Fleet B: 1 Large, 2 Medium, 6 Tiny
In GalCiv II's current system, Fleet A would wipe the floor with Fleet B, probably with barely taking a scratch. In the first 'round' of combat, Fleet A will destroy more than 50% of Fleet B easily.
But in this new scenario where ships receive evasion bonuses and each ship fires at ships in their weapon ranges, Fleet B could send their Tiny ships in to surround Fleet A's dreadnoughts and draw fire, while the two Medium and Large ships strike from a distance.
Granted, Fleet B will probably still lose, but could stand to actually hurt Fleet A enough to give Fleet B's side a chance in the war.
Now this was an imperfect and very quick thought experiment, but I am curious to the community's thoughts on this- and if there's been any reveal yet as to how fleet battles will play out in Gal Civ II. Personally, whatever happens I hope for something more dynamic than what's essentially the current system of lining ducks up and shooting them one-by-one.