Auto-Deploy & Recall for Carried Units

[MrmanNaqa]

Problem Description

Currently, players have to manually deploy and recall fighters/drones during and after combat situations. While this provides control, it might lead to micro-management, especially in larger battles.

Introduce a toggle setting to allow automatic deployment of carried units (fighters/drones) from escorts (carriers) during combat. Once combat concludes, these units should automatically recall back to their respective carriers.

Related Issue Links

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Desired Solution

Preferences Toggle: Add a toggle option named "Auto-Deploy Carried Units in Combat" in the game preferences. This can be turned ON (for automatic deployment) or OFF (current behaviour).

Post-Combat Auto-Recall: After combat, the game should automatically initiate a recall sequence for all deployed units to return to their carriers.

Benefits:

1. Reduced Micro-Management: Players can focus more on combat strategy than deploying/recalling units.

2. Fluid Combat Dynamics: Ensures all available units are utilized in combat, enhancing the battle experience

Optional but enormously effective Enhancement: For players who'd like more granularity, consider introducing a sub-setting where players can choose which carriers have this auto-deployment feature enabled. This allows a mix of manual and automatic deployments based on player strategy (e.g. boxwings should never be deployed to combat).

Alternative Approaches

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Additional Context

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[mOctave]

Seems reasonable. However, how do you define the end of combat? Is it when the last enemy ship flees or is disabled, when all disabled ships have been destroyed, captured, or repaired, when all flotsam from the battle has been collected, when all flotsam in the system (including asteroids) has been snagged, or a certain time after that to prevent rapid deployment/recall? It seems to me that everyone would have a different desired "end of combat" even if the start was obvious.

[DarcyManoel]

This would likely make fighters and drones more appealing to use, not having to control their engagement

[MrmanNaqa]

Seems reasonable. However, how do you define the end of combat? Is it when the last enemy ship flees or is disabled, when all disabled ships have been destroyed, captured, or repaired when all flotsam from the battle has been collected, when all flotsam in the system (including asteroids) has been snagged, or a certain time after that to prevent rapid deployment/recall? It seems to me that everyone would have a different desired "end of combat" even if the start was obvious.

Personally, I would define the end of combat as you mentioned firstly when the last enemy ship flees or is disabled and there are no more hostile ships or entities in a defined circular range around every one of my ships and escorts in the same system. I do believe that there should be a certain time before auto-recall but not a cool-down timer for deployment unless a carried unit is being repaired, then the priority should go to finishing the repairs and afterwards it would auto-deploy.

It is true that different people may have different perspectives about the end of combat, but if we take a look at the current state of the game, escorts will attack hostile entities when they are in a defined range of any of my or my escort ships in the same system and after the enemies are disabled or destroyed they will get back to grouping around the flagship, which at least for me justifies my perspective on the end of combat as being the same behaviour of escorts in the current version of the game.

Lastly, based on what is said, I believe the most normal behaviour for carried units is to act based on the situation of its carrier, If it engages in combat then carried units must also be engaged or deployed automatically to engage, this would make the most sense of all.

[MrmanNaqa]

This would likely make fighters and drones more appealing to use, not having to control their engagement

Just like turrets and guns :)

[mOctave]

That makes sense. I think that would indeed be a beneficial change.