Desired enemy carrier behaviour?

[Scepticer 1]

I thought I'd start a thread about how we would want the enemy carrier to behave (strategy mode of course).

From what the Devs have hinted the enemy carrier today more or less does not cheat:

- It plays by the same rules (or very similar) as the player.

- It is depending on resources produced and its island network.

- When it assaults an island the enemy carriers current equipment is weighed against the islands 'equipment'.

From what I have observed the above definitely seem true:

- In the start the enemy carrier takes islands quickly. Cripple it by almost sinking it and it takes a while before it assaults an island again and when it does it is weak and often fails.

- If I cripple the enemy carrier and meet it again later it is often semi-repaired. Turrets missing etc. Leave it alone a long time and it seems it get stronger and starts to take islands again.

'Problems' I see:

- It takes islands to quick in the start compared to myself.

- If I cripple it by almost sinking it it takes too long to gain strength (compared to how easy it is today that is).

- Sinking it makes taking remaining islands without the enemy carrier around a bit pointless.

- Being able to chase it until it runs out of fuel is too easy.

- It is too easy to kill the enemy carrier in direct battle.

SO, bring on the ideas! (Lets brainstorm, be creative and see if we can come up with some good ideas for the devs to consider)

- If you were the game designer how would you improve the enemy carrier behavior?

- What game changes could be implemented (easily) to make it better?

or

- Just list what issues you see today with the enemy carrier opponent to spur the discussion!

[Thygrrr 1]

This is (roughly!) how I'd want the enemy carrier to act, split up into "strat", strategy, "fake" absentee combat, and "real" 3D combat. They could each be influenced by additional factors, such as if an island has only 2 connections, the drive by shooting approach is preferred over the CC destruction appoach.

Strategy: Evaluated once every time the carrier is done capturing an island.

• (strat) 50% of the time it attacks one of the player's islands
  
• (strat) 20% of the time it actually shows up to defend an island the player attacks if it's within fuel range
  
• (strat) 20% of the time it seeks out a neutral island within fuel range to quickly capture it
  
• (strat) 10% of the time it moves to its own stockpile to resupply and rearm (should incur a supply/strength bonus so its next attack will be easier)
  

Absentee Combat (i.e. player only witnesses it in the form of a flashing island), evaluated between strategy decisions.

• (fake) 20% of the time it vandalizes your island by just destroying the docks. This should take a very short time, think of a drive by shooting.
  
• (fake) 20% of the time it vandalizes your island by destroying the CC, but quickly moves on to attack the next island, "baiting" you with the neutral island
  
• (fake) 60% of the time it stays and fights, taking time proportional to island defense rating and the island generic mission type and inversely proportional to its own strength (both game difficulty setting - harder means enemy is quicker - and its current state of equipment)
  

Real Defense: Both carriers within range of the same island, island is enemy controlled. Tactics should last for 5 minutes before re-evaluating.

• (real) 20% of the time the enemy carrier attacks your ground units, reinforcing its island
  
• (real) 20% of the time the enemy carrier attacks your air units
  
• (real) 20% of the time the enemy carrier attacks your carrier
  
• (real) 20% of the time the enemy units constantly patrol the generic mission points of interest (so they can show up even if you cleared all the defenses)
  
• (real) 10% of the time flee (unless massively threatened / damaged, it should flee instantly then)
  

Real Offense: Both carriers within range of the same island, island is player controlled. Tactics should last longer, 5-15 minutes before the carrier changes its mind.

• (real) 30% of the time the enemy carrier attempts to destroy the island's generic mission objective and/or build/hack the command center, which involves taking out the island's defense first
  
• (real) 20% of the time the enemy decides to directly wreck the command center (if it has a hammerhead, it will be used!)
  
• (real) 20% of the time the enemy decides to attack your carrier
  
• (real) 20% of the time the enemy decides to vandalize the island by destroying the docks before proceeding
  
• (real) 10% of the time flee (unless massively threatened / damaged, it should flee instantly then)

I have no prolem if the enemy carrier uses some sort of cheat technology for instance that makes hacking firewalls easier for it, or if its units try to focus on scramblers but really don't have the telemetry range penalty applied to them as strongly or at all. While we're at cheating, the enemy could maybe have access to a module that captures island defense buildings one by one, meaning they could steal your island's scramblers or manta hangars to get more units for their offense. However, since these ideas change the game a lot from a design perspective, they aren't part of my main "wish" list.

Dream ideas:

• enemy carrier harrasses me with long range fighter strikes (and I can do the same)
  
• enemy carrier harrases my islands with long range strikes, creating diversions/projecting power (and I can do the same)
  
• enemy carrier is controlled by a human player over the internet :rolleyes:

[Scepticer 1]

:) That's extensive answer Thygrrr, hope you don't scare everyone else away with it. :)

I would also say it is ok to give the enemy carrier some carefully implemented cheat possibility to achieve desired overall gameplay.

From an overall strategy game perspective I think it would be desirable if:

- Enemy carrier in essence can't be beaten until just a few islands remain (give it an option to flee until then, fleeing should cripple it for while).

- Enemy carrier starts to attack player/engage in island fights only when few islands remain (I like the fact that it is a little illusive).

- Enemy carrier "island capture rate" is slightly adaptive to the players - need to fit everyone. Sliders are good too but difficult to know how to set them at the start.

Today it always flee when I approach an island it is attacking. Would be really nice to sometime meet its ground/air units too. Let me do that even if it has to cheat to flee away after a while.

[joote 1]

To keep things simple you could give the enemy carrier twice the strength but only half of the speed.

[Thygrrr 1]

I think the enemy carrier should be beatable early on, BUT it should be an immensely high risk endeavour.

• you have to neglect your own conquest progress chasing the carrier
  
• depending on logistics, finding the enemy carrier can be a one way trip (meaning you don't have fuel to return)
  
• risk expensive replacement costs for lost equipment
  
• risk being left dead in the water with the enemy carrier escaping and disrupting your supply chain with impunity
  

Ideally, there might be two enemy carriers. Meaning you gain a lot from attacking one, but defeating it isn't a certain victory (and probably inadvisable early on).

[Gnrl_Grad 1]

- Enemy carrier in essence can't be beaten until just a few islands remain

Yes it should be almost impossible to kill him early game

- Enemy carrier starts to attack player/engage in island fights only when few islands remain (I like the fact that it is a little illusive).

sounds good, although some surprise (hit and run) attacks every now and then would be fun too and keep you on your toes

- Enemy carrier "island capture rate" is slightly adaptive to the players - need to fit everyone. Sliders are good too but difficult to know how to set them at the start.

Yes he should start slow and if the player is fast at taking islands he can then get faster, but not the other way around ie. start fast and get slower.

I would consider giving him unlimited fuel (perhaps only when being chased in combat) so he is harder to catch, and damaging his engines are then the only way to slow/stop him. Damage to engines maybe should also be lower, so if a carrier cannon hit does 10 damage to engines it should only do 5 instead making it longer and harder to slow him/stop him. Having him run out of fuel during a battle seems kinda lame.

Maybe he should have at least 1 of each vehicle in reserve just for carrier v carrier battles? And definately use them in battles vs the player carrier.

[Thygrrr 1]

Come to think of it, three carriers would be awesome.

e.g. Red, Blue, Yellow.

[Dreadnought808 1]

Agreeing with most of the above, I'd like to add this:

Have the enemy carrier rebuild if you destroy it early and there's still plenty of enemy islands left. So you'll gain an advantage if you sucessfully destroy the carrier early on, but it's not a sure win. This seems like a better idea than to give the enemy two carriers.

[joote 1]

Agreeing with most of the above, I'd like to add this:

Have the enemy carrier rebuild if you destroy it early and there's still plenty of enemy islands left. So you'll gain an advantage if you sucessfully destroy the carrier early on, but it's not a sure win. This seems like a better idea than to give the enemy two carriers.

+1

Very good idea. I think this would work very well.