[proposal] Advanced Unit Behaviors

Right now, we have 3 basic unit behaviors, Return Fire, Attack at will, and Hold Position.
however, these three only really affect when they fire, and if they move into range or not.

any manner of advanced hijinks requires microing the piss out of your units, and we're gunning for a macro-intensive game, aren't we?

therefore, i am putting forth a suggestion for the following "Advanced" unit behaviors:

Skirmish
units utilizing this behavior would engage the enemy as normal. However, they would make a concerted effort to do so at their maximum range at all times, actively backing away from enemies that get too close.


Hunt
units set to this behavior will act more aggressively than normal, autonomously charging units found via radar, regardless of their own position. additionally, they will pursue the target to the death. if the target is killed, and no new target is found, they will return to their "start" position.


Raid
anything set to this behavior will avoid direct combat whenever possible. it will still shoot buildings and non-combat units in range, but will flee the moment an enemy combat comes within visual range. it will also flee if a nearby ally is killed.

Recon
units set to this behavior will stop movement if anything comes within visual range. if set to patrol, it will continue patrolling while keeping whatever it sees within its maximum viewing distance. it will allow itself to get closer to non-combat units, however. if a defensive building is spotted, it will keep as far away as its sight range allows.

Support/Protect
if an allied unit comes under fire while this behavior is active, the unit will immediately move to that units position to protect it, and will then attack nearby enemies that are visible. if given the assist command, the unit will move to attack enemies near what it is assisting.

if any of you have complaints, aditional behaviors, criticisms, etc, feel free to say something.

sorry if some of the text looks oddly sized, editing text sizes is a little off it seems

Sounds pretty cool. If it is implemented it needs to be able to be set at the unit's factory so we can automate certain factories for certain behaviors. Like if I create an air factory with a whole planet patrol order I can set it to recon so the air units out of it won't just constantly die each time they find the enemy base

I think the game should have some sort of micro-ing. This pretty much eliminates the need to pay attention to unit combat and wars.

Yea, I gotta agree here; unit behaviors which auto-optimize combat maneuvers are a bit over the line. Patrolling as we have it helps reduce tedious micro, which is to say scouting every square inch of a planet... having your units do skill maneuvers for you is a bit much.

I like it, and a commander of an army should not have to bother with "skill maneuvers", or as we call it, basic tactics. That should be left to the units themselves. PA is not Starcraft, and Starcraft sucks.

There's a fine line between giving players tools to reduce micro and promote macro, and having the game play itself for us.

I think these are probably too close to the "letting the game play itself for us."

However, these are still good ideas. That just need to be tweaked and brought back a little so they're more macro tools, rather than autonomous gameplay tools.

i can understand that. sometimes i just feel like kickstarting a topic to get the communal brain going.

I agree. It's a great start.

Just needs some refinement.