Wingman?

[floppo]

I'm playing X3R and I'm currently doing the Bala Gi missions. I now have a spare nova, which I'd like to use as a wingman. I notice that there is a wingman command, in the combat commands, but I'm unsure what it actually does. So far, the only way I've managed to have the nova follow me, is to use the follow command.

Also, concerning the setup groups command, I understand that you're supposed to use it on the ship you wich to be the leader of the group. Will the rest of the group be chosen at random among your owned ships, or is it possible to assign the ships you want to be in the group?

[bladedranger]

I would get fight command software for your Nova then set the Nova to protect you in which case it will fight if your in trouble.

Wingman setting never does anything for me either

I never used the group command as i found it too much hassle maybe someone else will help you out with the group command...NO not you SOMEONE ELSE but if yo do set it up on your ship it will give you options of what other ships to assign to the group e.g carriers alone, corvettes alone, corvettes and carriers, fighters or all ships in sector if i remember correctly

[jlehtone]

The "Wingman Yes/No" is a mere broadcast filter. After Navigation/Combat/Trade/Special/Piracy/General there is "Broadcast". And that lists some groups. Wingmen is one of them. Selecting that offers list of commands to broadcast. Not very impressive, but can be useful. (Most useful might be to tell one docked fighter within Carrier to broadcast all docked fighters to attack something; they all launch with that single command.)

But there are two keyboard shortcuts too. First sends "Protect me" and second "Attack my target" to all wingmen. These can be dangerous, because the command is really issued to all. For example, you are in Thynn's Abyss, one wingman is in Black Hole Sun, and you press the hotkey. The ship will fly to you to do the job you did told. And you can imagine what happens to ships that fly from BHS to Abyss ...

I never use "Wingmen".


The Group Management System from Bonuspack is a beauty. Its readme and thread in X3R S&M Forum try to tell that when you issue "Setup Group", you are asked for ship type filter. In addition, you are asked for number of followers. However, all ships following the "leader" at that moment do become group members regardless of that numeric input. But in any case only ships within same sector (or station/carrier) are considered.

[floppo]

Alright, thanks for the answers. Is there any way to make a ship following you (or set to "protect me"), to jump when you jump, though? I assumed they did that automatically, until I got a message saying that my nova was destroyed in a khaak sector, that I had bypassed by jumping.

What if there aren't enough ships in the sector/carrier to fill the group? Will ships be added later when they enter the sector/carrier, or are ships only added when a group is created?

[bladedranger]

in Terran conflict followers can be set to auto jump but in reunion if both ships have jump drives and energy cells then select your ship go to broadcast to all ships in this sector in the command menu then select the ship class that covers all ships you want to jump then select the normal command of navigation, jump to sector

i havent played Reunion in a year so i may be wrong have a look and see though

EDIT as for the group question ships have to be in sector to be added if not tell the ship you want to add to get in the sector and manually add to the group.....it wont auto add ships when they arrive in sector. which is why its best to get them all there in one go if possible

[yourpowersareweakoldman]

Wingmen are highly useful, giving the Protect Me/Attack My Target commands at the right time can help you keep the ships in your wing well coordinated and alive. Lots of people will tell you to forgo wingmen, don't listen to them. Wingmen can be controlled very effectively with a little practice.

Also, concerning the setup groups command, I understand that you're supposed to use it on the ship you wich to be the leader of the group. Will the rest of the group be chosen at random among your owned ships, or is it possible to assign the ships you want to be in the group?

You have to assign each ship to the group, it doesn't do anything like that automatically.

Alright, thanks for the answers. Is there any way to make a ship following you (or set to "protect me"), to jump when you jump, though? I assumed they did that automatically, until I got a message saying that my nova was destroyed in a khaak sector, that I had bypassed by jumping.

They will only follow you if you "order" yourself to jump, and if they have a jump engine and the required fuel. They will not jump with you if you use the keyboard shortcut or menu jump selection.

You have to hit Shift-C to bring up the self command. Then you order yourself to jump to the sector.

Do not hit SETA to speed up your jump like you can normally, because it won't work... If you hit SETA after giving yourself the Order, the 10 Second Jump Spool Up will still take 10 seconds in SETA, which translates to up to 100 Seconds. Your wingmen will still jump in "Fast Forward." So they will often jump to the location, and turn around and fly through the gate, or some odd direction in the sector to get to you until you jump... This can be inconvenient.

[bladedranger]

Do not hit SETA to speed up your jump like you can normally, because it won't work... If you hit SETA after giving yourself the Order, the 10 Second Jump Spool Up will still take 10 seconds in SETA, which translates to up to 100 Seconds. Your wingmen will still jump in "Fast Forward." So they will often jump to the location, and turn around and fly through the gate, or some odd direction in the sector to get to you until you jump... This can be inconvenient.

isnt that only in terran conflict with auto jump enabled though that the SETA-jump countdown dont sync? i never saw that in reunion

[yourpowersareweakoldman]

isnt that only in terran conflict with auto jump enabled though that the SETA-jump countdown dont sync? i never saw that in reunion

Only happens in Reunion when you go through the command menu to give yourself the order. If you use some other method for triggering the jump, then you can compress time and it works. As far as I know it only happens on the ship you're flying too.

However, the last time I tried it may have been before it was fixed in a patch, I will test it next time I play and let you know.

[bladedranger]

Only happens in Reunion when you go through the command menu to give yourself the order. If you use some other method for triggering the jump, then you can compress time and it works. As far as I know it only happens on the ship you're flying too.

However, the last time I tried it may have been before it was fixed in a patch, I will test it next time I play and let you know.

oh fair enough then again TC was the 1st game i ever used jumpdrive outside of the navigation menu on the main toolbar

[jlehtone]

Wingmen are highly useful, giving the Protect Me/Attack My Target commands at the right time can help you keep the ships in your wing well coordinated and alive. Lots of people will tell you to forgo wingmen, don't listen to them. Wingmen can be controlled very effectively with a little practice.

Ships can be controlled very effectively with a little practice.

Anything that escorts you (Follow, Protect, and Attack My all do escort someone), whether they have the "Wingman" flag set or not, have the problem that they are supposed to follow a madman. The AI that can barely follow a very predictably behaving AI ship has no chance whatsoever to stay "on wing" of erratic human pilot.

The human pilot on the other hand should be able to keep the six of AI ship(s) clean, while the AI distracts the NPC AI. And you still have control over the AI.

The fact that I don't use "wingmen" does not mean that I fly alone.