Drag and select

[IamHollywood]

The ability to drag a square, or other shape with the mouse to select a certain area filled with units. Maybe have it so that if you drag over an area that has multiple units(fighters, bombers, ships) you could press another button and it would cycle through which units in that area you want to select. Example; there is a squad of bombers flying over the ocean, right above the same persons fleet and some fighters, if you hilight the area with the bombers you will also be hi-lighting some ships and some fighters. Now, if you press another button without releasing the mouse button such as space bar, it would cycle through the different units such as first aircraft carriers, then bombers, then fighters etc...

I don't know, I just want the ability to put a number of bombers in srbm launch mode with 3 clicks instead of 60.

[rus|Mike]

It was brought up already quite some times... I don't really understeand why people try to bring up some improvement ideas while it's obvious that nothing is going to be done.

[Trivette]

So why isn't something going to be done? I'm talking in general about all improvement ideas. I don't know, I kind of like the simplicity in Defcon. If you start adding drag boxes, then more will probably follow. More and more things until this just becomes like another micromanagement heavy RTS. I don't like that idea . The grand strategy aspect of Defcon is where it's at

[xander]

One aspect of Defcon is the management of fleets. At the beginning of a game, you have the option of creating large, easily managed fleets; or small, flexible fleets. Some kind of group select would completely destroy the ramifications of those choices (i.e. you can create new 'fleets' on an ad hoc basis by creating new selections). Thus, not only is this never going to happen, it would be bad for it to happen (in my opinion, anyway).

xander

[torq]

I don't see the point in this.
Fleets are managed in groups if one prefers, bombers should be manipulated individually, and the only mobile unit left is fighter which has too short a lifetime to make any difference.
You don't want defcon to be like C&C - grab 5 fighters, 2 bb, 3 carriers 3 bombers and 2 subs and click on some enemy unit. It's going to be mess.

[IamHollywood]

I don't really understeand why people try to bring up some improvement ideas while it's obvious that nothing is going to be done.

I didn't expect their would. I just wanted to see what other people thought.



I gues it is easy enough to go through each bomber and put it in srbm mode. But, I was saying that sometimes its a pain trying to select each one clicking, then right click, then click srbm, then space bar.

One of the strategies I used to use a lot was; to put 10 or so bombers in srbm mode and charge directly into the enemys territory, hoping to scout units and have the ability to immediately strike on them. I don't use this much anymore, and if I do I launch 1 nuke at a time at random cities ahead to distract any anti air fire. and also use that bombers extended radar range in naval combat mode.

One thing off topic, I though I saw a fighter shoot down a nuke in a recent game. Is this possible? I tried doing it myself, but it didn't work.

[bert_the_turtle]

One thing off topic, I though I saw a fighter shoot down a nuke in a recent game. Is this possible? I tried doing it myself, but it didn't work.

Both people who have seen the code and people who did massive fighter vs. nuke experiments say it's impossible; your eyes must have fooled you and it really was AA fire that killed the nuke, and the fighter was just shooting at it at the same time.

[Why?]

Why do fighters target missiles when they can't shoot them down? For radar tracking?

[rus|Mike]

Because IV didn't make the final version from the first attempt.

[Pox]

The only time fighters attack nukes is when you order them to, except when talking about an AI player - they seem to send fighters at nukes as boredom relief.

[palehorse864]

I don't think anything is going to be done, though a few improvements to the UI would be nice, especially considering some people have a bit of mouse delay (they stop dragging the mouse and the cursor goes for a half-second longer).

I would rather see hotkeys for functions though. Right click to get a unit's sub menu and either click the option as normal or press a key for the option

(R) passive sonar
(F) active sonar
(V) MRBM's

right click and hit V to surface subs, something like that. It would also be really nice during setup. Want three battleships per fleet? Press the fleet key, press the battleship key three times, press the "place units" key and click somewhere in the ocean. Do the same for other equipment. For those who don't want it, the old clicky method would still be available.

Heh, I would be willing to buy a Defcon 2 if it were just for UI improvements, some options to color units (dark blue, i'm looking at you), etc.

[Cnl_Death]

Would'nt be too bad if ypu could attach and detach units from fleets, mid game.....

[xander]

Would'nt be too bad if ypu could attach and detach units from fleets, mid game.....

But that entirely defeats the point of making fleets. The point of fleets is that they are formations that you set up at the beginning of the game. You can either choose flexibility (lots of small fleets) or manageability (a few large fleets). If you can change them around mid game, what is the point of having fleets at all?

xander

[Cnl_Death]

You make a valid point.... its just sometimes I'll have a single carrier floating around and it would be usefull to be able to attach it to another slightly depleted fleet, i.e one or two free slots. Rather than have a single vessel floating around on its own.... I can hardly see it being implented though.... (thanks for not stabbing)