Re:
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
I'm fascinated by the latest ideas on combat, e.g. the manoeuvre sphere of optimal attack.
It strikes me that coming up with an idea of optimal attack will lead to a counter-idea of optimal defence for such an attack, and that the weapon loadouts will reflect such strategies. In some ways, there should be an arms race until a point of maturity (so the AI will know what best to do), and maybe we need to walk through that arms race to work out what that maturity involves.
For example; if I have a cap ship, I know that it will be attacked by fighters moving around their optimal sphere, throwing in ordnance. I need to do two things; 1) kill that incoming ordnance, and 2) attrit the fighters at that range. That means enough point defence and shields to deal with whatever they throw, and enough ordnance that can kill fighters moving on that sphere. That offensive weaponry would be energy if close enough, or else missiles.
Now, if I commanded a fighter force and knew the cap had such weaponry for that, I'd likely aim at one of two strategies; 1) increase the sphere radius to a safe range and use longer range weapons, or 2) swarm the cap to overwhelm the defences, accepting a high attrit rate. 1) would make life easier for the cap, as there's more time to intercept incoming, and 2) means it would need its own fighter screen.
Now, I decide to form small groups consisting of a torpedo boat and several screen fighters, and rush these groups at the cap. I also form several decoy groups consisting of fighters only, and form linear meta-formations assuming those at the back survive. Now the cap has a problem because the attrit kills many fighters, but there's a good chance some torpedoes get through. Again, the cap counters by trying to have enough fighters to screen that. So far it looks like most strategies will be very sore on fighters! That may mean using cheap, sacrificial drones to replace most fighters, as individual skill is less important than weight of numbers.
in any case, the main point of combat would be to gain/control/deny valuable assets, so the types of assets would need to be factored in, e.g. capturing a station or JG, or just a valuable cargo in a freighter, assuming it will surrender before destroyed. What types of ships and ordnance would be best used to do so, using what strategies?
Anyway, is it worth having a strategy/counter-strategy thread to work this out, befoe the AI is decided on?