Curious - how do fighters pick their targets?

[scotten_usa]

When I order a fleet to attack a specific target, I notice the fighters and bombers often do not attack that same ship. Any idea why, or is there any way to control their targeting?

That said, I have noticed that fighters generally are very smart about who they attack. Example: I arrive at enemy homework that has a starbase and a defensive base. I order the fleet to attach the defensive base, and the mass of fighters attack the starbase. Normally my fleets are strong enough to destroy a defensive base quickly, and the fighters "soften up" the starbase.

[rogerbacon51]

Fighters are supposed to pick their targets from the list of targets the parent ship has. I've had some problems with fighters. If they launch and there is no target within range they are supposed to patrol next to their parent ship but sometimes they fly off in a random direction. When that happens I manually recall them and then, if a target is within the parent ship's range, they will acquire that ship as a target after launch. There is no way to manually pick tgheir target.

[jpwrunyan]

Kudos for starting an interesting thread. Unfortunately I have no idea how fighters work. Recently I have been using point defense weapons instead. I would guess however that fighters use the same or similar logic as other ships in your fleet for choosing targets of opportunity. If you tell a ship to attack another ship currently out of range, it will fire at other enemy ships currently in range as it moves closer to its primary target. Might fighters do the same?

[Modest]

If you tell a ship to attack another ship currently out of range, it will fire at other enemy ships currently in range as it moves closer to its primary target. Might fighters do the same?

In a way - yes. But not alweys, and not all. I often see that some fighters and bombers in such situations are sticking to target of oportunity insted of preforming a bombing run and going to the designated target. Also I have feeling that fighters are far more ofthen doing that than bombers, which I think have better tendency to go straight to the aim (it that is the case indeed, I would call it logical and good behavior). But most of fighters and bombers are attacking what I ask them to.

[jpwrunyan]

Well, two things:
Fighters may abort attacking the carriers primary target if the carrier is still out of the fighter bay range (whatever that is). But anyway for ports and bases I notice that there is a certain engagement range that enemies must be within for fighters to launch at all.
Second, interceptors are supposed to attack bombers and other fighters. Maybe the presence of enemy fighters is affecting your fighters' behavior.
This is still all just speculation on my part.

I have an idea! Lets check the galactopedia!
Oh...

[Modest]

That is true - if I move my carrer a bit from it's target it is still ok. If I move it more than bit (actually this "bit" is a quite long range, as fighters have longer range of operation than any other weapon) they mass disengage and are returning to it's carrier (or are engaging other targets, that are in their's operational range).
As for interceptors that is done exellent in my opinion, because every time when I see enemy fighters and bombers coming in, my own fighters simply disengage from theirs' targets (selected by me, or simply targets of oportunity) and are engaging enemy fighters and bombers. My description was about situation when enemy does not have any fighters at all. I just forgot to mention that - I am sorry

Galactopedia will surely help! Great idea!
Wait a minute... Where it was... Hmmm... Strange...

[rogerbacon51]

ORIGINAL: Modest

That is true - if I move my carrer a bit from it's target it is still ok. If I move it more than bit (actually this "bit" is a quite long range, as fighters have longer range of operation than any other weapon) they mass disengage and are returning to it's carrier (or are engaging other targets, that are in their's operational range).

Let me define a 'bit' for you. Fighters break off attacking when the range from their parent ship to the target exceeds 1500. I thought this was too short so for my sublight emphesis mod I changed it to 15,000. This way carriers work more like WW2 carriers and never see each other. Just my preference.

Code: Select all

    private void CheckReturnToCarrier(Galaxy galaxy)
     {
         if ((!this.OnboardCarrier && (this.MissionType != FighterMissionType.ReturnToCarrier)) && (base.ParentBuiltObject != null))
         {
             if (base.ParentBuiltObject.CheckHyperjumpPending())
             {
                 this.ReturnToCarrier();
             }
             else if ((this.MissionType == FighterMissionType.Attack) && (base.CurrentTarget != null))
             {
                 if (galaxy.CalculateDistance(base.CurrentTarget.Xpos, base.CurrentTarget.Ypos, base.ParentBuiltObject.Xpos, base.ParentBuiltObject.Ypos) > 1500.0)
                 {
                     this.AbandonAttackTarget();
                     this.EvaluateThreats(galaxy);
                 }
             }
             else if (galaxy.CalculateDistance(base.Xpos, base.Ypos, base.ParentBuiltObject.Xpos, base.ParentBuiltObject.Ypos) > 1500.0)
             {
                 this.ReturnToCarrier();
             }
         }
     }

[ASHBERY76]

Hacked the source?

[Modest]

Oh! Thanks Rogerbacon50 Now I know exacly how long is their range... And as a matter of fact I must say that Your modification sounds very interesting

[jpwrunyan]

How did you get the source code?
I mean how specifically. I know ways to do it in theory. What did you use?