Proposed Redesign of Autopilot
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Stardock Forums
I. The Problem
The GalCiv autopilot behaves in a manner counterintuitive to the expectations of strategy game veterans. It determines implicitly when an autopilot order is to be executed, and the rules for that determination are not always apparent. Because almost all ships will be on autopilot all the time, the net result is that it can be difficult to dynamically react to gameplay situations as ships that may have otherwise been useful under unpredictable circumstances will have expended movement points before you may control them.
A secondary issue is that autopilot (autosurvey, etc.) is cancelled whenever a ship is clicked on, or a ship is doubleclicked in the shiplist. Particularly because the latter is the most obvious way to locate a ship on autopilot, this results in needless micromanagement of the ships' orders.
II. Proposed Solution
A. Principles
Ships will continue to store destinations beyond their one-turn movement range for continuation on subsequent turns. However, ships will never move outside of an explicit order from a human player, except for as allowed in C.1., below. Auto-orders will never be cancelled merely as a result of selecting a ship but will, rather, require an explicit command.
B. Interface/Behavior Additions
1. Add a Continue Move button/hotkey. The Continue Move button moves the currently selected ship further along the path to its stored destination. If it has not reached that destination, the destination will continue to be stored.
2. Add a Continue All Moves button/hotkey. The Continue All Moves button moves all ships with auto-orders as in B.1., similarly to how pressing [Space] at the beginning of a turn or an implicit auto-pilot phase will do now.
3. If a ship has an auto-destination or auto-orders, selecting the ship and right-clicking a space on the star map will replace the current orders with a Move order to that destination. Note that Auto-Survey, etc. will be cancelled and replaced with an explicit movement as well.
4. If a ship has an auto-destination or auto-orders, selecting the ship and right-clicking on itself will cancel the current auto-destination or auto-order. No movement points will be expended, and this ship will return to the Tab (Find) rotation.
C. Option Additions
1. A gameplay option (i.e. from the Esc Menu) will be added for "Continue All Moves When". The valid choices will be "Manual", "Beginning of Turn", and "End of Turn". "Manual" directs that moves will -never- be continued automatically unless the appropriate command is given. "Beginning of Turn" directs that moves will always be continued automatically at the beginning of the turn (as if [Space] were pressed, currently). "End of Turn" directs that moves will always be continued automatically at the end of the turn. Note that in the latter case, you could still continue one or all moves prior to the end of the turn by explicitly choosing the appropriate command.
III. Conclusion
The addition of the above interface elements will bring the Autopilot/Movement interface of GalCiv up to par with other established turn-based strategy games. The option outlined in C.1. will optionally continue the current behavior, but will make it predictable. Allowing manual initiation of the autopilot will allow skilled players to more finely control their ship movements without the current needless micromanagement necessary to constantly cancel movement orders. In short, everybody is benefitted.
Comments?
~SDC~
The GalCiv autopilot behaves in a manner counterintuitive to the expectations of strategy game veterans. It determines implicitly when an autopilot order is to be executed, and the rules for that determination are not always apparent. Because almost all ships will be on autopilot all the time, the net result is that it can be difficult to dynamically react to gameplay situations as ships that may have otherwise been useful under unpredictable circumstances will have expended movement points before you may control them.
A secondary issue is that autopilot (autosurvey, etc.) is cancelled whenever a ship is clicked on, or a ship is doubleclicked in the shiplist. Particularly because the latter is the most obvious way to locate a ship on autopilot, this results in needless micromanagement of the ships' orders.
II. Proposed Solution
A. Principles
Ships will continue to store destinations beyond their one-turn movement range for continuation on subsequent turns. However, ships will never move outside of an explicit order from a human player, except for as allowed in C.1., below. Auto-orders will never be cancelled merely as a result of selecting a ship but will, rather, require an explicit command.
B. Interface/Behavior Additions
1. Add a Continue Move button/hotkey. The Continue Move button moves the currently selected ship further along the path to its stored destination. If it has not reached that destination, the destination will continue to be stored.
2. Add a Continue All Moves button/hotkey. The Continue All Moves button moves all ships with auto-orders as in B.1., similarly to how pressing [Space] at the beginning of a turn or an implicit auto-pilot phase will do now.
3. If a ship has an auto-destination or auto-orders, selecting the ship and right-clicking a space on the star map will replace the current orders with a Move order to that destination. Note that Auto-Survey, etc. will be cancelled and replaced with an explicit movement as well.
4. If a ship has an auto-destination or auto-orders, selecting the ship and right-clicking on itself will cancel the current auto-destination or auto-order. No movement points will be expended, and this ship will return to the Tab (Find) rotation.
C. Option Additions
1. A gameplay option (i.e. from the Esc Menu) will be added for "Continue All Moves When". The valid choices will be "Manual", "Beginning of Turn", and "End of Turn". "Manual" directs that moves will -never- be continued automatically unless the appropriate command is given. "Beginning of Turn" directs that moves will always be continued automatically at the beginning of the turn (as if [Space] were pressed, currently). "End of Turn" directs that moves will always be continued automatically at the end of the turn. Note that in the latter case, you could still continue one or all moves prior to the end of the turn by explicitly choosing the appropriate command.
III. Conclusion
The addition of the above interface elements will bring the Autopilot/Movement interface of GalCiv up to par with other established turn-based strategy games. The option outlined in C.1. will optionally continue the current behavior, but will make it predictable. Allowing manual initiation of the autopilot will allow skilled players to more finely control their ship movements without the current needless micromanagement necessary to constantly cancel movement orders. In short, everybody is benefitted.
Comments?
~SDC~
