Ships description during battle decisions?

[Smiling_Spectre]

Now and again I see the same: my ships against enemies with choice: attack, retreat, do nothing.

Problem is, both sides haven't any description. Only ship types.

It mostly works for the enemies (even if I am not totally convinced that I cannot see what exact enemies I am facing), but for me it's absolutely misleading.

Bulk of my fleet consist of:

1. Laser scouts, specialized to harass bigger ships and destroy missiles and fighters (basically, it's my replacement of fighters that are heavily underpowered still, as for me).
2. Torpedo scouts that can destroy smaller ships with it's torpedoes, but totally useless otherwise.
3. Dummy scouts that used for, well, scouting, and haven't anything, except big drive.

4. Laser support ships that accompanies bigger ships and specialized on shield destruction.
5. Invaders that have only troops.
6. Colonizers.

7. One type of cruiser and mothership.

And what can I see in the most of my battles? "You have 8 scouts and 9 small ships, do you want to attack?" Come on, it can be as formidable attack laser fleet that will destroy almost anything, as useless colonizers+invaders that convoyed to the invaded system! How can I say for sure?!

Can you add proper description for the each of my types (i.e. "3 laser scouts+5 torpedo scouts" instead "8 scouts")? I can live with generic enemy description - even if same detailed description could be useful too.

[Zaimat]

Good suggestions which I agree would be nice to have for more auto-resolve decisions.
UI wise it's not so simple in tooltips due to there can be many types of ships.

What I have done for now is list non-combatants separately on their own line, shown for both sides. This should help to some degree make more informed decisions.

[Smiling_Spectre]

Good suggestions which I agree would be nice to have for more auto-resolve decisions.
UI wise it's not so simple in tooltips due to there can be many types of ships.

Umm... It's 16+planet+station, right?

Is it too much for tooltip? 18 strings (at max!) instead current 6?
Well, I have in mind my 1000-pixel screen... Yes, *sigh* it could be too much for some resolutions... But still try to consider it, please?

What I have done for now is list non-combatants separately on their own line, shown for both sides. This should help to some degree make more informed decisions.

Yes, this could be most elegant solution, if not counting named one (but at the limit it will be 10 strings+some divider... Is it much better than 18?

Thank you anyway!

[Zaimat]

Umm... It's 16+planet+station, right?

There can be unlimited number of ship designs. The 16 designs are just the blueprints you can have at any one time.

Therein lies the difficulty, there is no easy way to count design types as each ship can be it's own design.

[Smiling_Spectre]

Umm... It's 16+planet+station, right?

There can be unlimited number of ship designs. The 16 designs are just the blueprints you can have at any one time.

Therein lies the difficulty, there is no easy way to count design types as each ship can be it's own design.

Oh, but I think about two possible shortcuts.

1. Crude, but accurate: you are describing not ships, but placeholders. "5 type-1 cruisers and 2 type-2 scouts". Technically it's right, even if there are totally different ships inside.
2. Still crude, inaccurate, but more elegant: replace type with the current ship design name. Then it will be "5 Destroyers IV and 2 Laser scouts" from the previous example.

Of course, it's not ideal. But much better than current situation. Also, there is one potential problem, with unarmed ships. But, I hope, it can be resolved with your idea above: if you'll put it into different - one - category. "also 7 civilian ships".

Hmm, still one problem, with transports... That can be mixed ships, actually... Ah, well, I believe, "ideal" solution will count soldiers only. I.e. it must be "also 7 civilian ships and 30 000 soldiers". Perfect!

[Tetron]

As a possible solution you could include the fleets total battle power similar to how it is listed in the fleets list. Each fleets battle power (or at least yours) is displayed, or visible as a mouse over. This does not require accurate ship description but might help in giving an idea of the relative strengths. If this is insufficient information perhaps an expandable menu that lists the weapons the fleet has, for instance a sample could be 12xlaser, 5xtorpedo, etc.

[Zaimat]

The fleet battle strength is already on display in the center bar albeit visually color coded and there is a tooltip (chance for victory.. when you hover over)

Would the numerical value of the fleet strength for each side still be desirable? If so I could look into adding it as it should be quick to do.