Confused about targeting priority

from GalCiv2 Forums

I just bought the game from GOG, which included both DLC and the Community Update. I'm confused about how ships in a fleet are picked for priority targeting. From what I've been able to find, it's supposed to pick a target according to Total Attack / (Total Defense + HP), but that's not what's happening at all.

I'm trying to create a support ship (as Terran) that's mainly just the support modules (Tulon Fleet Attack + Fleet Warp Bubbles), but it keeps getting put at the top of the targeting list, even if it has zero weapons. I've tried a Huge hull alongside very heavily armed regular battleships, a battleship hull and a cargo hull.

Putting the "command" ship at the top doesn't make any sense in any of those cases, because the regular battleships far outclassed it in firepower, but here I am. Any ideas what's going on? Is the game engine getting confused and counting the Tulon module as a weapon?

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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I guess this forum died at some point. Anyway, I figured it out. The game engine is designed to prioritize ships with fleet attack modules, which seemed counter-intuitive at first. I get it now though, it lets me build insane tank ships.

 

Fill a battleship or dreadnought hull with defenses, put on a Tulon module so the AI is obligated to target only that one ship, fleet it up with battleships designed for all-out attack and see how flawed this mechanic is as you chew through everything the AI civs can possibly throw at it without taking hardly any damage. Even better, now one ship with massive weapons can destroy multiple ships in a single round.

 

Back when the game was first released years ago, I just built starbases and drew the enemy toward them to exploit their insane sense of "all starbases must die" priorities. Now I exploit this instead.