Who else misses patrol routes?

[oddgit]

I was cursing my ineffective patrols earlier today and remembered back fondly on patrol routes from earlier games. This came up as i was sending some patrol corvettes after some HKH and SCA pirates in my sector that were harassing my ships. the 3 main patrols were just sort of hanging out at the edge of the map with nothing around them. hah
I always wished patrols would react based on your fire orders to any ship that is in the local hex, not just in their range. If you have satellite and or ship coverage, the things that are meant to seek and destroy bad actors in your sectors should head after them as soon as they pop up on the ship list of the sector.

[chew-ie]

I always use repeat orders with (attackAllEnemies, collectLoot) waypoints. Works best with fast wolf packs (e.g. 6-10 Prometheus or Katanas) or fast destroyer groups (Battlesnakes).

[oddgit]

I always use repeat orders with (attackAllEnemies, collectLoot) waypoints. Works best with fast wolf packs (e.g. 6-10 Prometheus or Katanas) or fast destroyer groups (Battlesnakes).

I never thought to use repeat last order to create patrols. Very cool idea thanks!

[adeine]

(Battlesnakes).

Haha, I love it

[LameFox]

This is partly why I suggested an "attack move" order a while back. Would be much nicer for setting up repeat order patrols than the AOE attack command that either can miss things which approach after it triggers, or slows things way down by having to overlap like mad.

The funny thing is, if you set a ship to 'patrol' in a distant sector, I have found it behaves like that on its way there. It's flying there normally, using travel drive, but will stop to engage hostiles it sees as if it were already patrolling. So why there isn't one I don't really know.

[oddgit]

This is partly why I suggested an "attack move" order a while back. Would be much nicer for setting up repeat order patrols than the AOE attack command that either can miss things which approach after it triggers, or slows things way down by having to overlap like mad.

The funny thing is, if you set a ship to 'patrol' in a distant sector, I have found it behaves like that on its way there. It's flying there normally, using travel drive, but will stop to engage hostiles it sees as if it were already patrolling. So why there isn't one I don't really know.

I noticed patrol ships swooping in on their way to sectors as well. It would be a nice addon, like only 3 star pilots could do a multi sector route, but a two star could fly along a set path in one sector.

[rusky]

The default patrol script should just be smarter though, and a bit more configurable.

First of, your ships on the patrol command should be able to spot any hostile ships in radar range of any of your other assets.
Currently, the biggest issue with the patrol command is that they only react to things in their radar range (40km).

If I have a bunch of adv sats covering a sector, I would expect them to be able to see exactly what I see when I look at the map and I don't think that's at all unreasonable.

Secondly, it would be nice to get some additional configuration options like:

- patrol from point A to point B (which can be in different sectors)
- number of jumps to respond to (if a hostile is spotted nearby, via other assets as described above)
- maximum ship size /class to engage (keep your M ships from attacking a xenon K/I etc)
- maybe scan suspicious ships (% chance based on pilot skill of uncovering pirate "plunderer" type, hidden ships)

There is a modded script that accomplishes some of these aspects, but it does have some issues, and it would be really nice for the stock patrol command to actually be useful.

[blacksilverfox]

The default patrol script should just be smarter though, and a bit more configurable.

First of, your ships on the patrol command should be able to spot any hostile ships in radar range of any of your other assets.
Currently, the biggest issue with the patrol command is that they only react to things in their radar range (40km).

If I have a bunch of adv sats covering a sector, I would expect them to be able to see exactly what I see when I look at the map and I don't think that's at all unreasonable.

Secondly, it would be nice to get some additional configuration options like:

- number of jumps to respond to (if a hostile is spotted nearby, via other assets as described above)
- maximum ship size /class to engage (keep your M ships from attacking a xenon K/I etc)

A number of jumps to patrol would make sense and fit with other actions (Like trading) that uses multiple sectors
i would also suggest an option to make the patroler prioritize assisting ships that are under attack in their current sectors (as this is generaly the main goal of deploying patrol ships in your mining sectors)

[oddgit]

The default patrol script should just be smarter though, and a bit more configurable.

First of, your ships on the patrol command should be able to spot any hostile ships in radar range of any of your other assets.
Currently, the biggest issue with the patrol command is that they only react to things in their radar range (40km).

If I have a bunch of adv sats covering a sector, I would expect them to be able to see exactly what I see when I look at the map and I don't think that's at all unreasonable.

Secondly, it would be nice to get some additional configuration options like:

- patrol from point A to point B (which can be in different sectors)
- number of jumps to respond to (if a hostile is spotted nearby, via other assets as described above)
- maximum ship size /class to engage (keep your M ships from attacking a xenon K/I etc)
- maybe scan suspicious ships (% chance based on pilot skill of uncovering pirate "plunderer" type, hidden ships)

There is a modded script that accomplishes some of these aspects, but it does have some issues, and it would be really nice for the stock patrol command to actually be useful.

I agree 100%

Its frustrating to watch KHK ships harass my mining ships, granted they are all L ships now, so they dont do much other than slow them down. My sector has full satellite coverage and 4 roaming patrols of corvettes, and they just ignore my ships under attack or hostiles causing problems with shipping traffic. instead i have to type KHK in the search box and send my patrols off after them.

[zakaluka]

I was experimenting with patrol commands for my mining operation in second contact VII

There's a hive outpost spawned, I have it spotted and revealed with an advanced satellite. I've got 3 patrols of 6 novas all on patrol orders.

Imagine how this goes - first, they don't respond to kha'ak wings teleporting in to my miners, I have to intervene manually. Okay.

But here's the real problem. Between spawns, they sometimes fly into the kha'ak base and get killed.

So here's my addition - I need the ability to set a location to avoid. Exclude targets within xx km of the selected object or coordinates. Or maybe, I should be able to set an anchor coordinate and a radius, to define the patrol area.