Wingmen commands

Hi All,

We are revisiting how wingman commands work for Unstable Space. Our current idea is to restrict each group to just having 1 ship. So Group 8 would only have a single vessel.

The main reason for this change is to make feedback to the player clearer when the wingmen fail to do what you want. If there are 3 ships in Group 8 and you give a formate command, but 1 ship is docked, you will get a positive response. But 1 ship will be left behind.

This becomes even more confusing when you have ships with special abilities (like a tanker) mixed in with ships that don't have those abilities.

And further, moving the ships into single groups lets us give ships more custom behavior and responses. Ordering a tanker to attack your target is going to get you a negative response (possibly and insulting negative response).

But what seems like a good idea on paper may be a real pain in practice. So we are seeking thoughts and considerations from our players

I think restricting players to 8 wingmen isn't ridiculous by any stretch of the imagination, although it would make station assaults a little more risky if you couldn't just hire a dozen Brethren to take the fall for you...

The other issue is being able to employ an unlimited number of ships but only being able to order eight at a time. If you'd have to give up all of your transports in order to go on a punitive raid against that pirate den, it would strongly discourage it. Ideally you should be able to have an unlimited number of ships in your employ even if only eight are under your direct command at a time.


[edit]Is it really such a bad thing if multiple ships in a group don't all respond the same way?

I think this shouldn't be a hard restriction... After all, a player can just self-limit themselves to 1 wingpan per group, no? It's YOUR job as a commander to know what yer minions are up to, after all.

The problem is not really how your ships are organized. It is more how we are issuing orders and receiving responses from individual ships. It becomes confusing from a programmning point of view when Jon has to sort out what ships do as a group, and what the same ships do as individuals when they have received ship-type specific orders. For example, you have a mining rig, a fuel ship, and a science ship in group 1. Via the mining commands, you order the mining rig to dock to an asteroid and start mining. All ships in group 1 receive this order, but only the mining rig responds to it. Now you have your ships in group 1 at different 'states' Two are perhaps still formated to you and one is mining. Then you decide to go scout out some more asteroids. You give group 1 the order to 'formate'. Now here is the problem: Should the mining rig also formate? Or should it carry on mining? And how should that group respond? Affirmatively, leaving one ship behind? Or negatively, because one ship cannot formate as it has counter orders? Inevitibly, this will cause confusion with some players, depending on how they expect the mining rig and the group to react. This is just one example. As long as we have multiple ship types in the same group, and as long as we keep on increasing the unique functions and abilities of those ships, we will have an increasingly complex and non-intuitive command system.

I guess I just repeated what Grandpatrout said.

The issue is surprisingly complex, and we had to give it a hardbrainstorming to come up with our current idea of how to deal with it.

perhaps you can allow single ships to be given overriding commands in a group by doing say, a multi-key command. just a thought.

it's not piracy, it is the forceful redistribution of cargo.

I don't see this as complex at all. Ships that receive orders should perform those orders to the utmost of their ability, cancelling any former orders they may have had. It's the player's fault if he groups dissimilar objects together.

[edit]Regarding other points:

Why is it necessary for the group to respond as a single entity? Is it not possible to have each ship respond in turn? For instance, I envision the following:

Foxtrot Prime: "Foxtrot Able, this is Foxtrot Prime."
Merrimack (Foxtrot Able Alpha): "Go ahead, Prime."
Boulton (Foxtrot Able Beta): "Yes sir. We are receiving, sir."
Ganymede (Foxtrot Able Gamma): "I's got yer signal, mate."
Foxtrot Prime: "Formate with me."
Merrimack: "Aye-firmative."
Boulton: "Sir, yes, sir."
Ganymede: "That's a big ten-four."
Foxtrot Prime: "All Elements, move to engage my target."
Merrimack: "You betcha."
Boulton: "Yessir! Moving to neutralise your target!"
Ganymede: "I's flying a bleedin' transport here, Foxtrot! What do ya want me ta do, sneeze at 'em?"
Kristobel (Foxtrot Bravo Alpha): "Aye."
Beneful (Foxtrot Charlie Alpha): "Negative, I've got my hands full over here!"


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