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it would be nice when players can craft their own autonomous mechanoids, using the parts taken from enemy mechs. 

I only do preemptive attacks myself for now if the attackers are mostly grenadiers. Where the attacks are meant to cause as much damage as possible before I pull back to the primary defenses rather than cause a decisive victory. This usually means a small squad of two snipers and one rifle guy to cover and bait.

i do this too during the start phase (usually less than 100 days) when the raiders aren't a swarm yet, 'coz in the end game, the enemy have enough snipers (around a dozen) that if you let them get a single shot, one of your troops can die or get KO'd from concentrated sniper fire for each enemy volley, which is why mobility is so important.

besides, it's kinda hard to cherry pick prime targets (ie: grenadiers and molotovers) in end game swarms, but it's doable. though it still doesn't make much of a dent when the enemy has around a dozen of those guys and the player only has a few minutes to kill a couple of prime targets before the raider attack gets initiated, 'coz there's just not enough time for a preemptive against a large swarm to make a difference. 

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maybe if the prepping time for raiders will increase along with the number of raiders, preemptive strikes against enemy swarms could be feasible, so that the larger the enemy force, the longer it will take for them to prep their attack. giving enough time for players to launch a crippling offensive attack.

i think that's been suggested here before.

http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=2578.0

and then the devs came up with the "planning" order, which is fine and nifty i guess..
but yea, i still think that the ability to pause construction orders would be very useful too.

ahahaha.. thanks for the info dudes, i kinda forgot about this thread. 
i was still like, "that ancient ruin is messing up my lawn!! somebody hand me a frakking grenade! stat!"

ah, my main purpose for asking for battle formations was 'coz i'm too lazy to micromanage multiple troop movements on an open field. 

imagine having to reposition 9 or more colonists after each shot to avoid enemy retaliation. mobility is more useful than irregularly placed cover on an open field. if you can place your troops just outside the enemy range and then let them come to you, you will usually have the first shot, and if you focus fire all of your troops against a single target, then for every shot, you get to kill at least one enemy, afterwards you can fall back a few tiles to repeat the process.

imagine doing this for every shot if you have 3 squads of 9 colonists each, firing from multiple directions.. hahaha..

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i already do these "formations" manually btw, even with military inexperienced colonists. i just tell each drafted colonist the location where they should go. (which is too much of a hassle)

basically, i just wanted the option to do this automatically, to make preemptive strikes at the enemy more feasible.. just something for the devs to consider once they add enemy artillery. forcing the players to sally out and meet the enemy on an open field.

i kinda like the t-shaped entrance to the killzone on this one. 

thanks for sharing.

more cheap ideas :

-don't butcher corpses that are placed in gibbet cages.

-don't stone cut debris that are placed on certain stock piles (better yet, there should be an option for stockpiles to be set it as "forbidden" that lets colonists stock it with the chosen items, but they will not consume the items that are placed within.

-add a minimum thrown valid targeting so that grenadiers will not automatically lob at a target that are within 3 tiles of itself.

-reassign beds to different colonists. i want to place them in rooms closer to where they work.

that's all for now. 

i call it "open field battle" 'coz there's no sufficient cover to rely upon too much on an open field on a large map (cover tends to be irregularly placed to be used effectively by an entire squad, unlike individuals), so it's easier to outmaneuver enemies by drawing them out and using multiple small squads with feints, flanking, and ambushes from multiple directions rather than relying on cover, by using the mobility of a smaller force against superior enemy numbers. (typical 'divide and conquer')

however, moving multiple characters at the same time can get tedious since clicking at a location means they just end up bunching themselves together at that point and then players will have to micromanage each one to a new location of choice (to avoid friendly fire and stuff).

so i thought it would be much easier to have battle formation parameters for squads to choose from like :

orientation:
-horizontal : form a line horizontally on chosen location as the center
-vertical  : form a line vertically on chosen location as the center

depth :
-single line : form a single line
-double line : form alternating double lines (alternate to avoid friendly fire)

distance :
-tight : they stand side by side with no gaps (good for single line focus fire against prime targets)
-loose : they stand 1 tile apart (good for evasion and avoiding friendly fire on double lines)

sorting:
-range (place shorter ranged gear on the front row regardless of health)
-health (place pawns with lower health on the back row regardless of gear)

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-this would make it easier for open field battles which includes plenty of maneuvers during the course of the fight when handling multiple colonists, since you no longer have to assign each selected member to a new location whenever you do a maneuver.

-also, maybe raiders shouldn't "give up" as long as they are being engaged with hostility? the most i could do right now is to keep the enemy force preoccupied long enough so only a few of them attacks my base, then survive long enough for them to give up and leave, and then mopping up the stragglers that walked away too slow.. 

thanks, that would be awesome! 

other stats that the players can find useful in planning their offense/defense:

-enemy prep timer (shows how long before the enemy initiates an attack or how long before they can prep their artillery)
-total number of raiders. (so the player knows how screwed up they are.  lol )
-tally of raider equipment (ie: 4 frags, 2 molotovs, 6 m24s, 10 R4s, 3 miniguns, etc..) so the player knows what they're up against, instead of clicking on each raider to see their gear.

-maybe create an equipment that needs to be researched (like radar or telescope or something) before they can make these stats visible.

so i was having a go with preemptive attacks.

the cool thing about alpha3 is that raiders don't initiate an early attack when players decide to have a go with them. so what i did was i trained all of my colonists using M24s (i don't use this gun for my defense but i keep a few of them handy just in case) and repeatedly sent them off hunting muffalos each time a new herd spawns to increase their shooting skills so i can send them off on a preemptive attack to snipe a few of the raiders while prepping and what happened is this :

-i try to inch my way towards the enemy perimeter and observe the enemy movement.
-when the enemy snipers peel off from the herd, i arrange my snipers into position and wait for them to fire a shot and then let them retreat a few tiles back. so that the enemy snipers will charge in but i always get the first shot.
-i do this repeatedly until the enemy snipers die off or until i've baited them far enough that they decide to fall back to their starting position.

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-the problem with this is that in order to be effective (on tough cleo), i have to send off all of my colonists so they have an even chance against a larger group of enemy snipers on an open field. but the window of opportunity for preemptive attacks is too short most of the time, i can only pick off 1 or 2 enemy snipers (out of 50+ raiders) before the alert for raiders initiating their attack pops in. barely even making a dent on the enemy strength before i am forced to fall back on my defenses.

-keeping colonists drafted for longer times mean they have a higher chance for mental breaks. doing a preemptive attack means that each colonist will have to sit in on both offensive and defensive battles.

-when my colonists finally reach the base i have to direct them to swap their sniper gear to their respective defensive gear. this makes me lose the battle initiative since most of the time, the raiders will be hot on my heels and by the time my defenders get into position, the raider swarm is already flooding my tier 1 killzone, forcing me to fall back on my tier 2 defenses.

-currently, preemptive attacks have higher risks than rewards. perhaps if the raiders take a longer time to prepare their attack, sending a sniper team could actually make a dent on enemy strength. but right now, it doesn't. there's not enough time for a preemptive attack to actually make a difference.

-if i have colonists to spare, i could probably send a sniper squad doing guerrilla tactics to draw some of the raiders away, while keeping the rest of my colonists on defense. but this is just 'distraction' rather than an offensive battle. players can't seem to win without relying on clever defenses (unless using cheats or mods).  it's basically a war of attrition.

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-but what about artillery? this is the tough part. which means i have to divide my troops into 3 groups. 1 defense, 1 offense, and 1 distraction. i'll have to distract the enemy artillery defenders then send my offensive squad to wipe out the artillery. meanwhile i need to keep enough defenders on my base to halt the larger bulk of the enemy forces, and then outflank them with my offensive squad after they take out the artillery.

-or i can use some of my artillery against their artillery, and aim the rest of my artillery to create bombardment zones near the entrance of a choke point. (assuming that artillery has the ability to force fire on the ground, unlike turrets)

anyways, fun times ahead. 

perhaps the formula to calculate the raider strength should include battle statistics. ie:

-how many people are incapacitated during the previous battle
-how many turrets were "active" during the previous battle.

so maybe something like this :

raider strength = (total colonists - incapacitated colonists) + (0.4 * active turrets) + (colony worth/colony age)

(edit 2: i changed the formula a bit to include colony age to reflect the sudden influx of wealth that comes from trade as compared to gradual accumulation of wealth over time.)

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explanation :

-subtracting incapacitated colonist from total colonists, means that raider spawns will be based only on the number of colonists who can actually fight.

-calculating raider strength based only on "activated" turrets during the previous battle rather than total number of turrets, means that players can spread their turret around their base without increasing raider spawns. which should give players more flexibility when designing their base (edit: what i meant by "activated" was the turrets that raiders have encountered during the previous battle)
(ie: if the raiders attacked from the north and encountered 2 turrets, then they will calculate  the next raider strength based on 2 turrets. if the raiders attack from the south which has 18 turrets, then the next raider strength will be based on 18 turrets. it is better to do this than calculate raider strength based on 20 turrets, which doesn't take into account turret placement)

-using colony "worth" (total worth of items built or collected within the home zone and stockpiles) rather than colony age in raider spawn calculation, means that players can play at their own pace without worrying about a doomsday clock hanging over their heads.

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-anyways, colony "worth" should also affect the population cap to balance out the increase of raider spawns, so the end game doesn't become a slow death sentence and the player can keep their preferred game pace.

-the player should balance out the risk of increasing raider strength to the possibility of gaining new recruits with a higher pop cap. so it becomes a rewards vs risks issue.

strategies and tactics often goes hand-in-hand with each other (strategies often involve logistics, killzone layout, recruitment screening, back-up plans, etc.. while tactics usually involve choosing the right equipment for the situation, character placement, knowing when to retreat and when to hold your ground, etc.)

so yea, reiterating what others said.. strategy involves the preps you do to win all of the upcoming battles, while tactics involve the on-the-spot thinking of how to win a single fight with what you currently have.

the addition of factions on alpha3, means the colony is often at war against 1-2 hostile factions. while the other non-hostile factions can be bribed into neutrality. nevertheless, "war" is expected especially for the tougher storyteller AIs.

Or the ever-popular "Tips and Tricks"

yea, simple is better.

plus it can also involve survival tips (for the phoebians) completely unrelated to fighting. 

Currently the storyteller estimates strength based on this core formula:

ColonistCount + 0.4*TurretCount

So if you lost a colonist, and build two more turrets, the AI will regard you as weaker than if nothing had happened.

Note that strength isn't translated directly into raider composition. Other factors are applied, including random variance and colony age, differently per storyteller.

thanks for the info tynan. 

anyways, what are the different formulas per storyteller?

ie : cassandra classic compared to tough cleopatra, how is colony age and colony strength used differently to spawn raiders between the two? the descriptions in the AI selection menu could use more details available to the player. ie :

-what's the average pop cap for each storyteller AI. (this is important in figuring out who to recruit and who to sell to slave ships, instead of waiting for months for a new captured raider or slave ships that never arrive anymore due to pop cap)
-what's the ratio of colony strength & age compared to raider spawn strength. (this is important to know to help the players pace their defense based on colony age)
-what's the frequency of bane vs boon events (ie: resource drops, psycho animals, solar flares etc..) for each AI
-and so on and so forth.

things like : "cassandra classic's less forgiving cousin" isn't very informative. 
there should be an option to scroll down and see further details so people can figure out what storyteller AI is better suited to them, rather than having to guess.

ditto.

apart from survival, the other half of the game involves combat strategies..  so yea, agreed.

Giblet cages should give raiders the fear debuff too.

Seconded!

In fact I think that should be one of their main uses. They can make small groups of raiders take a look, go "Um, yeah... to hell with this" and call off their attacks early.

I believe they already do affect raiders, but the effect is too small and the raiders rarely spend enough time for it to reach "eff this I'm going home" levels.

they mostly affect visitors from other colonies going all crazy with the gibbet cages or piles of dead bodies after hanging out for some time in the middle of a killzone.

afterwards they start attacking anything they see. colonists, squirrels, boomrats, etc.. haha.

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edit :

-btw, is there a hotkey for saving camera locations that i missed or something? (ie : press shift+1 to save camera location 1, then press ctrl+1 to go to camera location 1)

-thrown weapons should have a minimum distance throw. (ie : if the target is within 3 tiles close to the character, that character will not use it's grenade or molotov)

-avoid friendly fire. accidental friendly fire still occurs whenever friendlies cross AFTER the trigger is pulled. but colonists shouldn't fire when line-of-sight is obscured by fellow colonists.