I'm very curious to know if a ship has multiple weapon types do they pick targets individually or will the ship pick a single target and all weapons fire at that?
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From what i understand, ships with multiple weapons can attack multiple enemies. Most of the time they will focus fire, but if one weapon can't reach the target it will try to find a substitute target. PDs will always fire at missiles and strikecrafts first.
But currently the targeting in the game files is linked to the behaviour of the targeting computer which is a ship stat.
I'm not 100% sure that out of range weapons do find a substitute target. There is currently a PD issue where if the other fleet has fighters the PD will not shoot at incoming missiles which suggests that this may not be the case.
Would be nice to get some clarification.
I'm not 100% sure that out of range weapons do find a substitute target. There is currently a PD issue where if the other fleet has fighters the PD will not shoot at incoming missiles which suggests that this may not be the case.
Would be nice to get some clarification.
Targeting works the same regardless of the computers, what changes is the prefered range (ie how far from the enemy ships likes to be when fighting). Ships try to kill enemies as fas as they can, there is a calculation on how much firepower they need to do so to not overkill weak targets. Missiles have no hitpoints or evasion, they are destroyed one shot by PDs. Strikecrafts have hitpoints but no evasion. I think ships prioritize strikecrafts because they have hps. I do believe it's a valid tactic to use strikecrafts to distract PDs, they are also potentially more damaging to ships as well. It shouldn't be a huge concern though, strikecrafts can only take 2-3 hits each and take some time to come back.
No it doesn't. The different computers/behaviours have slightly different targeting rules.
And the problem is that the PD wont fire even though the fighters are well out of range. Even though they cant shoot at the fighters they wont shoot at other things (missiles) within range.
And the problem is that the PD wont fire even though the fighters are well out of range. Even though they cant shoot at the fighters they wont shoot at other things (missiles) within range.
As far as i can tell from game code, all behaviors pick targets the same way, they just give different bonuses. I haven't noticed pds not shooting targets in range, might be some bug i'm not yet aware of. Could be the undesirable effects of a mod though.
00_ship_sizes.txt defines a "num_target_locators" for each ship. Corvettes have two, all other ships have four. I believe that represents the number of targets their command-and-control can track firing solutions on. A corvette with two weapon types of different ranges will pick a target within each weapon types' range.
What this means is that, functionally, you don't want any more than four weapon-combinations on a given vessel - e.g., size+type. For most vessels, this isn't a problem: for example, a battleship is likely to have a preferred L weapon type, a preferred M weapon type, potentially a S weapon, and some S point defense.
A corvette armed with S red laser, S missile, and S point defense, however, is overwhelming its C&C and failing to track the incoming missiles.
What this means is that, functionally, you don't want any more than four weapon-combinations on a given vessel - e.g., size+type. For most vessels, this isn't a problem: for example, a battleship is likely to have a preferred L weapon type, a preferred M weapon type, potentially a S weapon, and some S point defense.
A corvette armed with S red laser, S missile, and S point defense, however, is overwhelming its C&C and failing to track the incoming missiles.
The problem is that we know there are some settings and items in the game files that are not implemented in-game.
It would be nice if there was better comments in the game files around how this all worked or at least some confirmation from PDS.
Anecdotally I have often equipped my ships with both weapons that are good against shields and ones that are good against armor but in every case when they finish taking down a targets shields all weapons switch to a new target and the armor ones do not stay on the existing one.
I hope one of the 'optimizations' done to improve performance in large battles was to cut ships down to one main target each (+ PD).
It would be nice if there was better comments in the game files around how this all worked or at least some confirmation from PDS.
Anecdotally I have often equipped my ships with both weapons that are good against shields and ones that are good against armor but in every case when they finish taking down a targets shields all weapons switch to a new target and the armor ones do not stay on the existing one.
I hope one of the 'optimizations' done to improve performance in large battles was to cut ships down to one main target each (+ PD).
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PD is bugged... I have reported this several times in the bug forum WITH video evidence to support it.
If fighters are present in one side then if that side also have missiles/torpedoes then PD of the other side will never shoot at the missiles/torpedoes until all strike craft are gone. It does not matter if the strike crafts are circling around the carrier in the back and hundreds of missiles launched at the enemy, no PD will fire at the missiles. This is a fact!
It is super easy to check by just testing... make the fighters range abysmal and put them on a battleship. Make a fleet of enemy corvette with lots of DP and corvettes escorting the carrier carrying only missiles you will see first hand how this bug works (if you don't believe me).
Must admit I have not tested it with the release version of Clark, but tested with the beta and the bug was still there.
I can also tell that I have extensively tested how ship behavior work since I have included this in my mod.
There are a set of values that decide which ship a certain ship will want to target, it then tries to get into a set range and fire its weapons at this target. The ship will always fire as many of its weapons against this primary target if it can and will only fire at another target with weapons if the primary target is not in range. They will fire a weapon at a target even if it has zero chance to hit it and there is another target they can hit but decided to attack something else.
The behavior mechanic also do NOT take evasion into account when deciding a ship to fire at, this is often why corvettes get targeted so often because they have lower amount of HP. This can be a bit frustrating if you have modded your game in a way that large weapon have very low accuracy and in some instances can never hit an evasive corvette. Usually you can fix this by making sure that larger ships prefer firing at other bigger ships. There are workarounds for this such as putting more emphasis on armor value and so forth.
If fighters are present in one side then if that side also have missiles/torpedoes then PD of the other side will never shoot at the missiles/torpedoes until all strike craft are gone. It does not matter if the strike crafts are circling around the carrier in the back and hundreds of missiles launched at the enemy, no PD will fire at the missiles. This is a fact!
It is super easy to check by just testing... make the fighters range abysmal and put them on a battleship. Make a fleet of enemy corvette with lots of DP and corvettes escorting the carrier carrying only missiles you will see first hand how this bug works (if you don't believe me).
Must admit I have not tested it with the release version of Clark, but tested with the beta and the bug was still there.
I can also tell that I have extensively tested how ship behavior work since I have included this in my mod.
There are a set of values that decide which ship a certain ship will want to target, it then tries to get into a set range and fire its weapons at this target. The ship will always fire as many of its weapons against this primary target if it can and will only fire at another target with weapons if the primary target is not in range. They will fire a weapon at a target even if it has zero chance to hit it and there is another target they can hit but decided to attack something else.
The behavior mechanic also do NOT take evasion into account when deciding a ship to fire at, this is often why corvettes get targeted so often because they have lower amount of HP. This can be a bit frustrating if you have modded your game in a way that large weapon have very low accuracy and in some instances can never hit an evasive corvette. Usually you can fix this by making sure that larger ships prefer firing at other bigger ships. There are workarounds for this such as putting more emphasis on armor value and so forth.
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