Enemy AI retreat

[Wowzery]

Been playing several games now, one thing which is getting quite constant is the enemy retreating the moment their ship is damaged.  Really noticeable in the custom battle.

I'm spending most of my time in battles chasing an enemy ship, and if I don't have the speed its pretty much over.

[AML]

Yeah doesn't seem to take much either, I've had ships turn and run while still at over 90% structure. I understand trying to preserve a damaged ship while in a campaign but I think its way too flighty atm.

In the meantime I've been putting some more emphasis on my forward firepower...

[RUSS663]

My experience in the custom battles is that the first few damaged ships might loop around and bring up the rear.  I haven't had many actually try to totally disengage from the battle.

[Right]

It only seems like they retreat. They go away for making a better formation/engament which is what logically should be done by both sides.

It is just that it feels like a long time to happen since we don't want to wait 2 out of 3 battle hours just to get back to square one.

I like that the AI takes his time, I would suggest that the developers would give a faster game options when that happens.

Speed is a stat as all others that should be considered, true that sometimes you just get a bad luck with engine damage but it just add realisem to the game which in my eyes is a good thing.

One thing I did noticed is that the AI is working on very specific engament rules and that something I think could get more love from the developers, both in these accasions and for a more interesting gameplay.

[7thGalaxy]

To be honest this is pretty much what happened in real battles isn't it? There's way too much investment in a capital ship to risk it, so unless forced it's better to retreat and regroup and look for decisive advantage. 

If a ship took 10% structural damage irl it would be retreating sharpish.  

If anything there should be lower win criteria than destroy all enemy ships. Hopefully the campaign will bring this out.