[HELP] fleet control - Improvements coming in 3.00.

[Anubitus]

Nothing seems to supersede the "I'm going to attack that thing, even if it's in the enemy sector 2 jump gates over, until I inevitably get blown up AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME BITCH" mentality that my captains seem to share.

Exacly this, it is taking the fun out of using a fleet in combat.

[Anubitus]

I have a Behemoth patrolling a sector, it has 10 Nova's as its subordinates. First time i added them as subordinates they got the command "Protect Ship" with the Behemoth as the subject to protect. In this mode, they just fly around randomly behind the target trying to stay close to the target. Having the Behemoth flying a bit away from them, only to fly to it when it gets too far away, to wait again so it get a headstart again, to fly after it. This pattern continues. This command does not follow any formation settings what so ever. Its just a pile of fighters following the protected target.

There is also another command, its called "Escort Ship", this command does however use the formation settings. To get the fighters into this command however, i had to find a workaround, because the standard command is always "Protect Ship". To get them to the "Escort Ship" command, i had to change the commander, in this case i used one of the escort fighters as the commander. The other escorts get the command "Escort Ship" and start following the target in formation. I then just simply change the commander again and the command stays "Escort Ship". I then do the same to the last escort fighter seperately and then they all are into escorting mode, flying in formation to the Behemoth.

My question is: would it be possible to please either replace "Protect Ship" with the "Escort Ship" as the default command they enter when they get assigned or make "Protect Ship" similar to "Escort Ship", especially make it use the formation settings.

Another thing i noticed, when the commander, in this case the Behemoth, has to fly to another sector for some reason, it docks all of its subordinates. This is good ofcourse, but when it arrives at the new location, the escorts do not get launched again. They are stuck in the "Dock and Wait" command. Even when the Behemoth gets attacked, it does not lauch any escort ships. I have to manually remove this command from every escort ship after wich they lauch and resume the escorting.

[Anubitus]

Almost a year later and the fleet control is still somewhat messy. A carrier fleet with subordinates with orders to fly to another sector sends its subordinates to the destination. Sometimes a few of them escort the carrier, but mostly they just get to the destination as fast as they can, all at their own top speed. If you have fighters along with M-class ships as subordinates then the fastest fighters will arrive first, followed by the heavier fighters and then the M-class ships, and lastly the carrier. Should there be enemies at the target location, the fleet arrives so devided they are easy pickings. by the time the carrier arrives there are no subbordinates left.

When controlling fleets, you have to use work around after work around after work around and if you get lucky, maybe you have a shot... It is so frustrating... Why dont most of the subbordinates just dock at the carrier? Have a few out escorting the carrier and maybe send a scout to the target location? Fleets are just not (very) usefull at this point. I love playing this game, it has a lot of realy fun gameplay but i always end up quitting the game time and time again each time i reach the point where i start using fleets… I realy want to play the game, i love the X series and i love egosoft but it is so hard to love playing X4.

EDIT: i am sorry if i sound a bit harsh or something, its just frustrating to command fleets this way. Think of it this way, i rant because i care about this game and developer very much. If i didnt care, i would just move on...

[j.harshaw]

A carrier fleet with subordinates with orders to fly to another sector sends its subordinates to the destination.

They will coordinate their movements and stick together better when moving between sectors in 3.0. Still requires more testing before it's ready for public so didn't include it in 2.60, but it's in the works.

[Falcrack]

Almost a year later and the fleet control is still somewhat messy. A carrier fleet with subordinates with orders to fly to another sector sends its subordinates to the destination. Sometimes a few of them escort the carrier, but mostly they just get to the destination as fast as they can, all at their own top speed. If you have fighters along with M-class ships as subordinates then the fastest fighters will arrive first, followed by the heavier fighters and then the M-class ships, and lastly the carrier. Should there be enemies at the target location, the fleet arrives so devided they are easy pickings. by the time the carrier arrives there are no subbordinates left.

When controlling fleets, you have to use work around after work around after work around and if you get lucky, maybe you have a shot... It is so frustrating... Why dont most of the subbordinates just dock at the carrier? Have a few out escorting the carrier and maybe send a scout to the target location? Fleets are just not (very) usefull at this point. I love playing this game, it has a lot of realy fun gameplay but i always end up quitting the game time and time again each time i reach the point where i start using fleets… I realy want to play the game, i love the X series and i love egosoft but it is so hard to love playing X4.

EDIT: i am sorry if i sound a bit harsh or something, its just frustrating to command fleets this way. Think of it this way, i rant because i care about this game and developer very much. If i didnt care, i would just move on...

I notice that when there are wings of fighters assigned as subordinates to a carrier, onlt the wing leader will dock when recalled. The subordinates of the wing leader will follow, but will not dock unless you manually order them to. I hope this is something that is being worked on for 3.0. I notice when the wing leader is docking, I check his command in the advanced behaviors tab, and I see a box checked "subordinates dock". The box is selected, which I assume would mean that the wings subordinates will dock along with the wing leader, but such does not seem to be the case currently.

[Anubitus]

A carrier fleet with subordinates with orders to fly to another sector sends its subordinates to the destination.

They will coordinate their movements and stick together better when moving between sectors in 3.0. Still requires more testing before it's ready for public so didn't include it in 2.60, but it's in the works.

Thank you for taking the time to answer. I am very happy the problem is known and a solution is in the works.

[j.harshaw]

I notice that when there are wings of fighters assigned as subordinates to a carrier, onlt the wing leader will dock when recalled. The subordinates of the wing leader will follow, but will not dock unless you manually order them to. I hope this is something that is being worked on for 3.0. I notice when the wing leader is docking, I check his command in the advanced behaviors tab, and I see a box checked "subordinates dock". The box is selected, which I assume would mean that the wings subordinates will dock along with the wing leader, but such does not seem to be the case currently.

Sorry, i missed this. Yes, this works in 3.0 as well. Works when you order the carrier to Recall Subordinates as well.

[Falcrack]

I notice that when there are wings of fighters assigned as subordinates to a carrier, onlt the wing leader will dock when recalled. The subordinates of the wing leader will follow, but will not dock unless you manually order them to. I hope this is something that is being worked on for 3.0. I notice when the wing leader is docking, I check his command in the advanced behaviors tab, and I see a box checked "subordinates dock". The box is selected, which I assume would mean that the wings subordinates will dock along with the wing leader, but such does not seem to be the case currently.

Sorry, i missed this. Yes, this works in 3.0 as well. Works when you order the carrier to Recall Subordinates as well.

Nice!

[Warnoise]

There is a problem that is still in 2.6 where carrier subordinates (fighters) will get stuck in "waiting for dock" forever after being dispatched. This causes 2 issues:

>When there is an enemy nearby, the carrier will only dispatch the ships that are "ready" while the stuck ships wont move.
>The ships that are stuck in "waiting for dock" won't react even when the carrier is under attack. Sometimes they don't even react when they are attacked.

All this happened in-sector.

[j.harshaw]

There is a problem that is still in 2.6 where carrier subordinates (fighters) will get stuck in "waiting for dock" forever after being dispatched. This causes 2 issues:

>When there is an enemy nearby, the carrier will only dispatch the ships that are "ready" while the stuck ships wont move.
>The ships that are stuck in "waiting for dock" won't react even when the carrier is under attack. Sometimes they don't even react when they are attacked.

All this happened in-sector.

Saw this reported in the beta. Thanks for the reminder. Added to my list to suggest, but can't promise action yet.

[Anubitus]

The fleet gameplay has been improved a lot with the 3.00 version, and i mean a LOT. I am enjoying it very much. We are slowly but surely getting there. Thank you very much Ego for keep working on it.

A observation i made while fighting with a carrier + fighter wings is if you have multiple attack orders for the carrier it tends to give the fighters the order to dock at the carrier inbetween attack orders. This wouldnt be a problem but the carrier itself keeps on moving towards the second target whitout giving the fighters the chance to land. The fighters on the other hand are locked into docking (the docking order is labeled as "critical") wich means that they have to dock before getting new orders to attack new targets. This creates problems when they come under attack as they dont break off the docking order and start shooting back at the enemy and get destroyed whitout even defending themselves. One of two things needs to happen in this situation. Either the carrier needs to stop moving so the fighters can land or the fighters need to break off their docking order and start attacking the enemies, especially when either they are the carrier are under attack.

It would also be handy if we could adjust settings for fighters and other craft to dissengage and retreat/flee the battle should certain conditions apply to them, like having low shield, hull or when they run out of missiles.

Thanks again for listening to our concerns, you guys are great.