How to make colonists spread out attacks?

[Baccy Zute]

Every time I defend I can only set my colonists to attack one person. Do I actually have to click every colonist and tell them to attack a certain person and move to certain places or is there a setting to spread out attacks?

[Monoxide]

Pawns will automatically attack enemies within range - you dont have to tell them to. Telling them to only forces them to get into range and attack a specific enemy.

There is no setting I am aware of to force random shooting. However, I would say focusing a single (or only a few) enemies would be better over all. The reason would be that raids will flee after a certain number of downed enemies. If you are only looking to protect yourself, get someone down, move to the next, get them down, then eventually they will just flee.

[TwoTonGamer]

Ranged will attack closest enemy by themselves. This may not be desirable, so you can select a colonist or a group of colonists and right click a target as needed.

Melee will defend in place by default when drafted. You can select a single colonist or group of melee colonist and right click a target. Friendly fire is dangerous so do not have your ranged firing from the same direction your melee is charging from. You WILL, eventually, hit your own people if you are shooting through them from more than a tile away.

You will need to tell them individually or as a group where exactly to go. Use cover! Be very mindful of friendly fire and make sure your ranged has a clear shot away from your melee.

Believe me, you will need this kind of direct control over your drafted colonists in battle. Combat is dangerous and you will need to micromanage it.

If you don't feel like micro'ing a raid, save the game and come back to it later. (Bad things happen to me when I am impatient/lazy with a battle.)

BTW, shield belts are super useful for melee colonists if you ever have a chance to get them.

[M.K.]

Originally posted by TwoTonGamer:

Ranged will attack closest enemy by themselves.

Mostly, yes.
I think its actually more like they will attack the enemy that is easiest to hit, but with a bit of tendency to stick with one target once they have engaged it.

Realistically.... yes, I micromanage my fights completely. Its just SO important to direct your firepower appropriately, avoid friendly fire, take out the doomsday-rocket-toting pirate *before* you attack the closer club-wielding caveman, etc...

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Lexicon Devil:

...or is there a setting to spread out attacks?

The Chaingun used to have a sort of "Area Denial" attack - "Attack Area." But, that's really kind of what it does natively, anyway, with a "Forced Miss" ratio. And, the exploit was that with its Forced Miss radius, it was much better at hitting targets if the pawn wasn't actually aiming at them... Selecting that Attack Area/whatever made the Chaingun so very overpowered that it got a late nerf. Still great for unskilled pawns 'cause aiming the thing is sort of a secondary option. :)

You've got to micromanage combat if you want the best results. Or, you can elect to skip combat "micromanagement" altogether and just go with the very unmicromanagement tactics intrinsic to the Antigrain Warhead... One-stop-shopping for magic "Go Away" 'splosions.

Grenades are nice for spreading out attacks, if you're really looking to cover a decent amount of area. IEDs, for very specific spots.

[Lurlex]

To get at the absolute heart of your question, I think it's important to at least point this out, so it's understood -- micromanagement is an inseparable part of Rimworld combat, if you want to do it optimally, and you're dealing with a force that's even a remote challenge for you. You can choose not to do it, but I think you're almost always going to be losing something in terms of efficiency if you make that choice. The only situation in which this is not the case is one in which you are far stronger and more powerful than the opponent.

To that end, the best players almost always micromanage when it comes to fighting something that can give them pause -- at least to some degree. You don't necessarily have to increment battles second by second in excruciating detail, but you're always going to sacrifice SOME bit of efficiency if you opt not to do it at all. It's the absolute best way to play. I don't think there's *ANY* changing that. It's okay not to like that element in the game, but it is what it is. You don't have to do it, but it *IS* part of the core experience.

Now, sure, there are best practices that can help minimize the need. There may be some mods that make your pawns act a little more intelligently -- I don't think you're ever going to ELIMINATE it as a variable, though.

That said, you shouldn't feel like you have to give individualized orders to every single pawn one by one ... there's times when you want to do that, say when kiting an enemy and moving a pawn back to a safer distance, but you can select multiple pawns at once and give an attack order if it comes down to it. If have you six defenders, try selecting three and focus firing on one enemy, then selecting the other three and focus firing on the other.

My absolute best suggestion for making it less important is the standard advice of overwhelmingly strong defenses ... say, a great killbox design, or at least carefully selecting the ground on which you fight (say, making sure to build some cover before activating a psychic/poison ship). If you have overwhelming power, you can wipe many forces out quickly enough that micromanagement never becomes necessary.