Fleet Command

[Phalanx]

It is all well and good for us to squabble about how ships should be built and all, but I wanted to adress an issue that has been driving me nuts: fleet command.

In large fleet engagements, someone will have to be calling the shots for one side. Or would you rather have a bunch of random ships flying around crazily and spinning in circles shooting randomly, like on most team based PVP servers?

I propose a solution to this problem: The Integrated Tactical Interface. (ITI) The ITI is a fleet command system that will enable fleet command like this:

1. All ships in the fleet link their comms systems to the designated capital ship's ITI.

2. If the fleet admiral wants to command a ship to do something, he right clicks on the ITI, bringing up 2 grids: one represents horizontal movement, one represents vertical movement. He will click on the ship he wants to move, then selects a place on the horizontal grid, then select a place on the vertical grid. (Note: an admiral can keep formations on file for easy access by saving his fleet's current formation to the formations menu, a feature of the ITI.)

3. If an admiral wants to command a ship to attack another ship, he must click on the ship(s) he wants to attack with, then click on the ship he wants to attack.

4. Once an admiral issues an order through the ITI, it will show up on the ordered ships command console. The captain will then move his ship/attack, according with his order. Or he can do his own thing. Like spinning in circles.

Discuss, constructively criticize, or expand on this idea, as long as it is productive.

[Vinyl]

I support this idea, but we'd probably change the name to something cooler if/when it gets added.

[ACH0225]

There was something like this in Mackeroth's outdated original post, I think. As I recall though, it was decided that it would link up to the capital ships computer and they would fly as a formation as one, with the individual ships doing their own pew pewing.

[Vinyl]

This way provides a more precise way for the leader of the fleet to order and coordinate their ships though.

[Iv121]

Yeah first to let you know there is no in-game voice chat.

Eventually this question goes to my vision of fleet fights. There is ONE golden rule I follow - NEVER FORCE PEOPLE TO DO WHAT THEY DON'T LIKE (so long they don't hurt the others).

As a result of this ideal it is up to the specific ship decide what it does, does it want to follow what orders it gets or not. Eventually they are all mercenaries, pirates, traders, in other words free people with no limitations of rank like in military unless they want to. That means the commander is whatever authority they all agree on. For this reason the commander can only give the fleet general orders and not pinpoint on the screen how the ship should move.

Consider it this way - if the commander commands the ship go somewhere and the ship goes there it is a mere RTS game, no need in the player in the middle moving the ship - we can as well take control of the ship remotely and do whatever we like with it. That is why orders should be generic and never specify exact positions. We want everyone to enjoy the game and not just fulfil a shopping list.

[Vinyl]

However, a captain who has been ordered to say move to x,y,z can do one of three things: Disobey his superior and not move and risk being expelled for insubordination, move to the location like he was ordered to, or propose a better course of action like say attack ship B instead of move here. And that's even assuming you have other players manning your ships, from what I can tell, most fleets will be mostly made of NPC captains while players do things like Highcom/Fleetcom/etc.

[Iv121]

Well in order to win they will have to co-operate, but I do not want the player to feel a puppet, I want him to act and do things not watch from the side without forcing him to disobey in order to do that. Consider how people play co-operative games or team based PvP (assuming it's not a random match and they actually co-operate), you are told general orders - hold this position , attack that guy, flank from the north. Maybe you are told to go to that group of boxes and keep guard but in space there are no boxes to define and no specific reason to stay at the exact x,y,z co-ordinates. Orders like flank from 3 oclock are more sound, useful and let people think themselves about the details. Im not even talking about the fact that one man cannot keep track of all those little details in bigger fleets. Imagine he has 20 frigates and like 20 more fighters ...

[Vinyl]

Of course the kinds of orders Phalanx listed aren't going to be all of them, and most factions with more than one player in them that're actually coherently working together would use some form of external chat, probably voice, in order to work together better. But most people will want to have complete control of their own faction, so most fleets will be composed of NPC captained ships which will blindly obey orders unless told otherwise.