This happened recently in a Deneb Border Battle, and due to weird npc logic regarding Tridents as the Number 1 priority target, the Serco warships self-sabotaged themselves.

So the situation was that both sides somehow came very close to each other, and it turned into a close-quarters melee between a Serco HAC and Teradon, against an Itan HAC and Teradon (all within 500 metres of each other). Both Teradons were attacking the other HAC (as is the logic), and the Itan Teradon was deshielded, while the Serco Teradon was shielded.

Then you would expect Serco to win the battle, but no. Suddenly an Itan Trident spawned 3000-4000 metres away, and the Serco Teradon abandoned the fight to go after the Trident (as is the logic), leaving the Serco HAC to fight the Itan HAC and Teradon alone and ended up being deshielded. Mind you, the Itan Teradon was below 50% health, and the Itan HAC was very close to being deshielded, around 40% and decreasing.

I personally don't know why Teradons see Tridents as the most important target, but it doesn't make any sense.

You can change the priority targeting to something like this (not sure if it's feasible):
1. Deshielded HAC
2. Deshielded Constellation
3. Deshielded Teradon
4. Deshielded Trident
5. Shielded Trident
6. Shielded Teradon
7. Shielded Constellation
8. Shielded HAC

+1 I was trying to find the old threads that suggested this, but didn't see them. i'll update later.

I think in one of the previous suggestions someone suggested the potential to "command" of the fleet, and pick priority targets. But having some sort of improved default targeting list that doesn't prioritize the tridents going boom would be an improvement for Deneb battles.

I have, on more than 100 occasions, witnessed a Teradon being close to deshielding a HAC, and then when the last shot would have deshielded the HAC, the Teradon switches to a trident.

At a minimum, if the Teradon senses a target being close to losing shields, the Teradon should stick with it(the ship it's currently trying to deshield) before switching.

I'll have to dig into this. It probably doesn't target "Tridents" specifically, although it may seem that way. There's a good chance there's a numerical threat value that adds up somewhere, and that causes it to break off. But, agreed, the default behaviours on a lot of this stuff is pretty.. poor. It's frustrating for me when I run cap battles, and that's even with more direct control of ship targeting.

As for player-related commands and selecting targets manually (someone should raise that thread separately) that's also possible now. Although then you'll get into people playing as fake-Serco and doing the targeting badly, or whatever..

Speaking of things to raise in other threads

To solve (or at least make it more pointless) that last problem Add rank badges (nation military specific) for people that play Deneb, kinda like the pirate or hive kill badges but the higher up you go (and means your participating on that side) gives you more commands on the npc caps

So while yes someone could rank all the way to admiral in a fake alt just to "get them" but they gotta put a lot of effort into that side before that's possible

I think command level as a method to control deneb ought to be its own suggestion, and also reference Incarnate's thread as linked in the dev vision thread, which can be found here: https://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/23550

I've both seen and been told that the target priority generally jumps to the newest capship arrival in the sector (or for player capships this also applies to changing control via docking a fighter and taking control of your cap). Youll see this behaviour with the SQueens in the levi sector or the unrat connie on saturday. Organized groups will tell the other capship pilots to stay in thier caps once the primary pilot establishes aggro so it doesnt choose a different target and stays in place.

In levi sector the queens will shift targets as a new capship arrives or players dock/take command when bombing.

I imagine the same mechanic is being applied to the deneb skirms also.

No one is making targeting mechanics that say "attack the newest ship".

We made systems that broke down the number of current ships into an array of targets in a blackboard, and then we distribute the available opponents across that array.

So, yes, when new ships come in, the blackboard changes and so do the allocated targets. It re-balances the distribution of combatants.

But that's not the same thing as "it targets the newest ship". Correlation is not causation. The fact that it's the "newest" or "a trident" is unlikely to even be a factor.

Anyway.. we'll have to look into this. Obviously there's room for improvement here, but I don't know exactly what that will be.

I don't have visibility on the causeation.I can only comment on the correlation, which is why I referred to it from an experience/observation standpoint. :)