Easy way to manage large groups of docked fighters?

[IConquer]

I have a large group of solanos (say 20) that I want to have docked in a group of caravels (20 total at 4 per caraval makes 5), is there an easy way to be able to tell them all to jump in, undock, and go nuts?

[heratik]

CODEA if you want to go modified

or

give each set of four distinct orders, i.e.:

One set to 'Attack enemies'

another set to 'Attack target of...' the one set to 'attack enemies'

The other two set to 'Protect...' one of the two above each

Rinse and repeat for each set of four, then put the caravels in a wing.

When you order the caravels to jump into hostile space, the lead solano in each Caravel will hop out and start attacking, the second one will hop out and attack it's target and the other two will attack anything that targets the one it is set to protect.

This also means that the groups of four will travel and fight in a group, rather than flying off on their own and getting overwhelmed

[Infekted]

Really you want to avoid splitting them up so small like that. Whilst I realise price is probably a constraint, it'd be better to put them all in one wing, and carry them around in a panther or something. Or at the least have like 14 in an Elephant?
Generally with fleet ops the mantra is keep it simple. Very high on the practical applications of this is one carrier per wing of fighters.
The problem with attack target of, with fighters at least, is when a leader dies it can all get messy fast. You can use the broadcast to all ships docked/in sector command too. Attack target and return home being good ones. But also have issues.

[heratik]

The issue with one big wing with no specific orders is that if you engage multiple enemies, they just tend to all fly off on their own and get roasted, or you have to micromanage their attack orders which can become tiresome if you are trying to engage in a ship off your own.

I know what you mean about the leader getting killed and the 'wing' goes to crap, but that's why I always make my wing leaders Falcon S, Eclipses or any of the other 'tougher' fighters.

I have fairly thoroughly tested my method and found the attrition rates far more favourable than a large wing taking mass orders when faced with multiple opponents. Even better than CODEA too, if only I could get the fighters to use CODEAs deployment/retreat method without the CODEA fight mechanics.

I do agree though that having them all held in one larger carrier rather then a bunch of TMs is much more elegant, but the poster may not have the funds for a larger carrier yet...

And if he did I would have suggested larger 'wing' sizes, 6 minimum usually.

[Infekted]

To be honest I have found the reverse, in that numbers tell. I would rather send those 20 solanos at specific targets in turn than try to get them to manually multi engage.

A wing of fighters can own down more or less anything really quickly given sufficient numbers. The quicker they die, the less firing back time.

I think that if the player can't afford better than TM carriers they cannot really afford the losses that they will incur from trying to do fleet combat.
The Elephant tho is a pretty decent poor mans carrier. More shields than a TM, more hurt power with EBCs or heavier things in OOS. And importantly a lot more docking slots. Chuck in a load of fighter drones. Insta fleet Liberal use of drones will massively enhance the survival rate of your fighters.

CODEA ofc handles things much better. It handles a lot of things much better, from kitting and supply right on up. But that's a different topic ;p

[brucewarren]

I sort of have to go with this.

Carriers are expensive right enough, but so is a big wing of fighters. What with all the guns and everything it could well be more than the carrier, especially if you have to keep buying replacements.

Edit: probably not too bad with the Solanos, but if those were Novas they'd be over 2 million credits a ship, not counting the 8xEBC/HEPTS

TMs are useful ships, but I wouldn't want to use them as substitutes for a carrier. If nothing else they are much more vulnerable. Carriers would at least have decent shields to keep the little guys safe when not in action.

[AgamemnonArgon]

Having built up my small Fleet of Elephants, I have eight or ten Solanos on each.
Their orders are Protect ship.

These fighters will auto launch and recover once the alert sounds.

I don't really plan to micromanage any more than that.

With Fleet Frigates, or Star Carriers, I use Protect ship.

It does well enough.

Losses for fighters are inevitable, but to win all the time would not be fun.

Taking on Pirates - that is fun....

[IConquer]

Money is no issue for me; what IS an issue is what I have available to me. I've been playing with the limitation that all combat ships are either captured, received as a gift (the aamon prototype and the centaur from the AP missions, for example), or produced at my shipyard. Blueprints have the same limitation in that I can only reverse engineer captured/gifted ships.

Because of this, my heavy fighter composition is currently made up of aamon prototypes, my mass produced fighters are solanos, and the way I cart the solanos around are with caravels. I have a large number of nemesis corvettes and one extra carrack that I'm using while the other one reverse engineers.

It's actually a quite enjoyable limitation. Otherwise I could just buy a huge army of destroyers with the 500 mil sitting in my pocket and make it back in a day or two.

[brucewarren]

Oh well, in that case the solution is simple. Accidently forget to return a cobra /kraken etc. and then go panther boarding.

Or failing that just take the nemesis out on a "training exercise" for the men and pick up an elephant or two.

[DiArmada]

it would be nice if wings had the "return home" command.
in that case it should be possible to give each Solano a homebase on a Caraval.
unfortunately it's not the case.

[BankruptAssasin]

I think you can still homebase them anyway, i know i have had a wing homebased to a ship, there is no return home but when you click on dock at, it's homebase is the first on the list, i think thats the case, can't really remember.

[Infekted]

Well you could forget wings, homebase them to the caravels then issue orders to them using the broadcast to all M3/4/5s in the sector or docked.

Return home is one of those commands, however I've found trying to handle your fighters in this way quickly becomes a pain.