Mercenary Games' FleetCOMM: Operation Vigrior, a tactical strategy shooter coming to PC, Mac and Linux, will have a tactical maneuver generator, which is a system that allows players to create formations for their ships and recall them later with hotkeys.
The video above shows how players can swiftly change the formations of their ships mid-battle to give themselves the tactical advantage. Speaking to Polygon, developer Slade Villena said he created the generator for his game so that players who aren't necessarily good at micro-clicking can still take part in strategic ship battles.
"I just wanted a level playing field," he said. "Basically, professional real-time strategy players are really fast with their micro-clicking ability. They're able to position their units really fast on the screen. Part of our project was to replicate that behavior, store it in a machine form and recall all those maneuvers.
"We're trying to automate what RTS players do. So now you don't have to train for months on end to get that twitch muscle memory. This game is not about twitch. This is about planning and strategizing and seeing it on screen."
In FleetCOMM, players will be able to play around with ship formations at their own pace, edit their maneuvers and then save the ones that they believe will be the most effective in certain battles. Once the player's ships are out in space, they can recall those maneuvers with the click of a button. This allows the player to focus on what strategy they're using instead of worrying about whether they can click fast enough to get their ships into formation.
"You can make some really complex moves in this game," Villena said. "I don't even think pro RTS players can do something this fast."
