does anyone care about air staging?

[ZLO_RD]

Gorton's toggle idea can be good
Also I wish they would deselect themself so you can't interrupt then unless you select only them... but I am not sure since you can't select only ones that have no fuel
I mean whole idea with toggle or deselection is just to make them fly home and refuel, cause they very often get other orders at least when I micro them =/

[JaggedAppliance]

I have a hotkey for fighters so I use that and then there's 2 groups at the bottom bar, one with fuel, other without or almost without fuel so I just select the fueled group then if I have some getting refueled.

[codepants]

I think you're missing the point entirely codepants.

Doing something (setting them on patrol) give you more to do, wastes fuel, is not a good move.
That's odd by itself.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Setting other units on patrol gives you "more to do..." I don't see why air units should be special.

And this is completely irrev to the idea of having at least a button to tell planes to refuel, ideally a toggle to do it automatically when they reach low fuel.

You can select them and tell them to dock with the air staging facility. Not as efficient as it could be, I'll agree, but it's there. As for the auto toggle -- would you want them to leave the battlefield at x amount? How would they know when it was OK to go? Again, yes, the ideal solution would be that they "know what to do," but any solution where they "automatically" go refuel, there's going to be issues of when exactly do they do that. You don't want half your squad staying behind at a critical moment.

[briang]

I think you're missing the point entirely codepants.

Doing something (setting them on patrol) give you more to do, wastes fuel, is not a good move.
That's odd by itself.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Setting other units on patrol gives you "more to do..." I don't see why air units should be special.

And this is completely irrev to the idea of having at least a button to tell planes to refuel, ideally a toggle to do it automatically when they reach low fuel.

You can select them and tell them to dock with the air staging facility. Not as efficient as it could be, I'll agree, but it's there. As for the auto toggle -- would you want them to leave the battlefield at x amount? How would they know when it was OK to go? Again, yes, the ideal solution would be that they "know what to do," but any solution where they "automatically" go refuel, there's going to be issues of when exactly do they do that. You don't want half your squad staying behind at a critical moment.

Please give me an example where units make such decisions for themselves in this game. Are you asking that we give air units battlefield awareness? I think that would require more lines of code than the rest of the entire game. What a preposterous thought... If you can't decide when it is a good time to hit the incredibly convenient button to refuel them it isn't a problem with the game.

[Gorton]

I think you're missing the point entirely codepants.

Doing something (setting them on patrol) give you more to do, wastes fuel, is not a good move.
That's odd by itself.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Setting other units on patrol gives you "more to do..." I don't see why air units should be special.

And this is completely irrev to the idea of having at least a button to tell planes to refuel, ideally a toggle to do it automatically when they reach low fuel.

You can select them and tell them to dock with the air staging facility. Not as efficient as it could be, I'll agree, but it's there. As for the auto toggle -- would you want them to leave the battlefield at x amount? How would they know when it was OK to go? Again, yes, the ideal solution would be that they "know what to do," but any solution where they "automatically" go refuel, there's going to be issues of when exactly do they do that. You don't want half your squad staying behind at a critical moment.

How about "When they're out of fuel" ?

[codepants]

Again, yes, the ideal solution would be that they "know what to do," but any solution where they "automatically" go refuel, there's going to be issues of when exactly do they do that. You don't want half your squad staying behind at a critical moment.

How about "When they're out of fuel" ?

I'd rather have them refuel at around 30%, honestly. Otherwise you could order them to battle with 3% fuel, then run out either before they get there or during the fight. Theoretically at least a fraction of your force will run out around the same time.

But not at a "hard" 40%, because if they enter with 43%, they could leave to refuel before or during the fight (same problem with any "hard" % except at least above 0 they don't take forever to make it back to the staging facility).

And still... planes with an empty tank can make the difference in a fight, so you might want them to go until you order them to.

In any case, I think we're arguing nuances here that don't really matter in the end. I agree with you in principle: units that manage themselves would be easier to manage.


Lichking suggested something like:
if(fuel < 0.3 && idle && idletime > 5000 && autorefuel){gorefuel();}

Where:
- fuel is the percentage of fuel the plane has
- idle is whether or not the unit has any orders queued (move, attack, etc)
- idletime is set to 0 every time the unit completes its last order and counts up in ms
- autorefuel is a boolean set by the player


@braing, I think you're agreeing with me...? Clarify if not.

[briang]

No. I'm saying the existing functions are more than sufficient.

[Mycen]

Lichking suggested something like:
if(fuel < 0.3 && idle && idletime > 5000 && autorefuel){gorefuel();}

Where:
- fuel is the percentage of fuel the plane has
- idle is whether or not the unit has any orders queued (move, attack, etc)
- idletime is set to 0 every time the unit completes its last order and counts up in ms
- autorefuel is a boolean set by the player

This would be nice though. I mean, if they're not doing anything anyway...

[Hawkei]

Put your planes on patrol anywhere on the map.

This is pretty much where the problem starts (for late game air at least).
Putting your ASF on Patrol will result in half of your airforce chasing a single t3 spyplane and getting annihilated in the process.

You don't patrol with ASF... You patrol with cheap and expendable aircraft. Such as Interceptors or Swift Winds... Holding back your ASF in one big cluster on the ground leaves you wide open to drops and raids. It's called Airspace Control.

The advantage with this tactic is that nothing can make an incursion without you knowing it, and you might even be able to bait the enemy ASF into an unfavourable engagement - for the cost of a few cheap and expendable aircraft. All without risking your ASF swarm.

Yes, I do use air staging. I have it incorporated into my build templates. Manually using the R&R facility is really simple. You zoom in on your armada and quickly select all the ASF's in the red. Tell them to R&R, then shift click return to landing area. Only takes a couple of seconds, and the fighters will take turns on the pad. Patrol and attack move do the same thing - Though on attack move the aircraft are much more responsive when they take damage. Having a whole force of T3 gunships pushing inland, on an attack move command, with some aircraft carriers sitting behind, is a very powerful attack force. As the gunship will automatically pull back as they take damage, repair, and re-join the fight. With the rate at which carriers can repair, fully healed gunships will be joining the fight just as quickly as those pulling out. This form of attack is virtually unstoppable.

[mirroredwang]

Put your planes on patrol anywhere on the map.

This is pretty much where the problem starts (for late game air at least).
Putting your ASF on Patrol will result in half of your airforce chasing a single t3 spyplane and getting annihilated in the process.

You don't patrol with ASF... You patrol with cheap and expendable aircraft. Such as Interceptors or Swift Winds... Holding back your ASF in one big cluster on the ground leaves you wide open to drops and raids. It's called Airspace Control.

The advantage with this tactic is that nothing can make an incursion without you knowing it, and you might even be able to bait the enemy ASF into an unfavourable engagement - for the cost of a few cheap and expendable aircraft. All without risking your ASF swarm.

Yes, I do use air staging. I have it incorporated into my build templates. Manually using the R&R facility is really simple. You zoom in on your armada and quickly select all the ASF's in the red. Tell them to R&R, then shift click return to landing area. Only takes a couple of seconds, and the fighters will take turns on the pad. Patrol and attack move do the same thing - Though on attack move the aircraft are much more responsive when they take damage. Having a whole force of T3 gunships pushing inland, on an attack move command, with some aircraft carriers sitting behind, is a very powerful attack force. As the gunship will automatically pull back as they take damage, repair, and re-join the fight. With the rate at which carriers can repair, fully healed gunships will be joining the fight just as quickly as those pulling out. This form of attack is virtually unstoppable.

How does this work exactly?