7 replies to this topic

[Vellron2005]

Ok so I just had an idea that it would be great if you could set a general behavior for your lancemates.

I'm talking about simple behaviors like:
"Stay withing 500m of target" - when a target is assigned as primary, stay witing 500 meters of that target and only use weapons in that range.

"Long range only" - Only use long range weapons like LRMs, Large Lasers, PPC and Gauss.

"Short range only" - Stay within range of the shortest range weapons equiped

"Ignore mechs" - focus fire on Vtols, turrets and land vehicles until no more such vehicles are in sight.

"Ignore tanks" - Shoot only at mechs and Vtols until no more such vehicles are in sight.

"Ignore Vtols" - Shoot only at mechs, land vehicles and turrets until no more such vehicles are in sight.

"Focus mechs/tanks/vtols only" - Focus fire only at a specified enemy type until no more such vehicles are in sight.

If behaviors like this could be specified than you could put a lanemate on "sky duty", "tank duty" or "mech elimination duty", and this would be very helpful.. Not to mention that you could have your buddies climb a high ridge and pick off mechs at range, rather than rush them into "that pilot had blue eyes" range..

Edited by Vellron2005, 08 January 2020 - 03:50 AM.

[Hawk_eye]

Commands, making your lance-mates try to stay at a specified range-band would be very much appreciated.

And to expand on this, how about being able to set a preferred range-band for a mech in the mech-lab?
If I build a Cataphract with a PPC, an AC/10 and a couple of medium lasers, I'd like to tell the bot that is going to pilot it to try to stay at medium (400m or so) range and use the PPC and AC and only fall back on the ML if something fast closes with him.

Not sure on the tank/vtol/mech thingy.
Probably handy in some circumstances, but I could live without those commands.
Remember, every command needs the programming to make it work and thus dev-time and if there is only enough dev-time/money available for one of those commands, I'd sure go with the "attack from range X"

[Nesutizale]

Yes it would be greate if we could setup some general behavior. No more guessing what the AI will do with the loadout you have given.

I can also see the usefullness of target priorities like VTOLS, Tanks or Mechs. Since VTOLS and Tanks mostly need little damage to take down but have bigger numbers you could build a mech around takeing these out with low damage, faster firing weapons.

[John McClintock]

Nesutizale, on 08 January 2020 - 05:11 AM, said:

Yes it would be greate if we could setup some general behavior. No more guessing what the AI will do with the loadout you have given.

I can also see the usefullness of target priorities like VTOLS, Tanks or Mechs. Since VTOLS and Tanks mostly need little damage to take down but have bigger numbers you could build a mech around takeing these out with low damage, faster firing weapons.

I usually just tell my potatoes to focus on mechs while I take down turrets, vtols, and tanks.

Works pretty good.

[Nesutizale]

Thats the same I do but I would prefere to fight mechs and let someone in my lance take care of the small stuff.

[Vellron2005]

John McClintock, on 08 January 2020 - 06:13 AM, said:

I usually just tell my potatoes to focus on mechs while I take down turrets, vtols, and tanks.

Works pretty good.

That's what I usually do as well.. I assign the lancemates to attack a particular mech, and then I focus on vehicles.. but then I see my guys attack other mechs, tanks and such, or by the time I take out most vehicles, the targeted mech is only lightly damaged, and then I core it out in 2 shots myself.

On the other hand, while I'm approaching the objective, my guys seem to destroy approaching vehicles before I even see them, so I guess they would probably be more useful on "minion duty" while i take out the big boys.. Only if I could tell them to act that way..

Edited by Vellron2005, 10 January 2020 - 01:04 AM.

[Koniving]

Vellron2005, on 08 January 2020 - 03:43 AM, said:

Ok so I just had an idea that it would be great if you could set a general behavior for your lancemates.

I'm talking about simple behaviors like:
"Stay withing 500m of target" - when a target is assigned as primary, stay witing 500 meters of that target and only use weapons in that range.

"Long range only" - Only use long range weapons like LRMs, Large Lasers, PPC and Gauss.

"Short range only" - Stay within range of the shortest range weapons equiped

Having thought it over...
It isn't terribly difficult to do something like this. The only part I wouldn't know how to do is how to assign the command to the lance command interface. But in theory, one would add a command line to F6-F8...
F6 could be "Ranged", in which it forces the AI to adopt the Combat Tactic; "Ranged."
F7 could adopt the combat tactic "Tank" (as in tank damage and march directly at enemies)
Etc..
The actual tactics are already in the game. It's simply commanding them to use a specific tactic rather than letting them choose for themselves.

[Koniving]

Vellron2005, on 10 January 2020 - 01:04 AM, said:

That's what I usually do as well.. I assign the lancemates to attack a particular mech, and then I focus on vehicles.. but then I see my guys attack other mechs, tanks and such, or by the time I take out most vehicles, the targeted mech is only lightly damaged, and then I core it out in 2 shots myself.

On the other hand, while I'm approaching the objective, my guys seem to destroy approaching vehicles before I even see them, so I guess they would probably be more useful on "minion duty" while i take out the big boys.. Only if I could tell them to act that way..

I've personally found the best approach is to assign them to go to a location. Then they react to threats accordingly, quick to take out threats before I even get a chance to lock onto them (especially if armed with PPCs and pilot skills high in energy). When it comes to mechs (which they are very inefficient about due to the fact that they target limbs at seemingly random), I'll have them all target the mech in order to draw attention, and pop-up to hammer them. This has allowed me to keep using a Blackjack sporting AC/2s and light/medium mechs, even though I'm campaigning at rep 8+ in Steiner territory with heavies becoming a little more common than I would like.

Side note: Hill humping is super effective.