This has prolly been suggested, maybe even partially implemented, I have not reached playing with combat slaves in C2 yet

However, was thinking about the slaves I play with in C1, and they attack the same way every time. Would be cool if you can change the way a slave attacks using something like a formations command.

i.e. your faster, short weapon slaves can attack the same way they do now in SS1. but maybe you can setup a different type of slave with high range, and change it to a "seige" formation, so it floats next to you, targets the enemy, and fires like a drone would, braking to stay close.

I'm sure there's a number of different attack formations, but I can't think of many useful ones at the moment.

I've always wished I could get slaves that behaved more like mobile drones, and the "stay close" command never seemed to do the trick

Such behavior would probably make them WAY overpowered, which is probably why I always wanted it.

The stay close/far and those would be really nice to have working "right". I don't think actually formation style flight will be practical, most people are using only 2 slaves anyways. So mixing stuff like distance from you, or distance allowed from you (not a hard set distance they have an area of operation) and what they are aggressive too and targeting could probably get you all you need.

Definitely right. Only thing formation flying would do would allow you to use slaves as defenses a little better, but i think just a configurable operation area would suit the bill really well. After all, SS is more of an arcade shooter than a RTS tactical space sim.

* I think an option for the slaves to remain stationary would be pretty functional as well. Sometimes slaves are just more accurate in certain scenarios, and i think you should be able to make your slaves fill that role.

Hmm so the three sort of settings I'm getting from this that are needed is position relative to you/stop or guard, the distance they will stray from that position and what they will attack.

1. Stop, Guard Location, Stay Close, Stay Far, Stay Midish

2. Very Close (stopped), Close, Mid, Far

3. Nothing, Defensive, Aggressive, My Target/Their Own

May be a bit complex to set that up on the fly, what do you guys think?

i do want to add an rts control panel to ss2 (attack, move, stop, holdposition etc), but there is a lot of things higher priority right now.

It would essentially replace some toggle in the x menu with rts orders (xmenu only work with the targeted sob which is quite annoying when you want to switch all your slaves to fight enemy for instance, rts panel would only work with your rts selection)

A simple request is please allow to highlight, (control + left click), the options we want, especially if there are more than one required, (like in c1; attack my target; stay close;fight enemy. Three commands per slave x 7 slaves, = horrid experience), and an option to "apply to all combat slaves" would be brilliant.

thats not possible with the target option dialog, due to the way its built.

The rts command panel on the other hand, wont disapear until you want it to, so youll be able to press the fight enemy hold position etc, without having to reopen the panel everytimes. it will also apply to all rts selected units

so basicly, for 7 slaves, you drag a rectangle around those slaves to select them, or double click one to select them all, then press whatever option you want in the panel, and it will apply to all your slaves.

Keep in mind, this is a feature i want to add, but its not in yet, and most likely wont be for a few weeks/month