How to have fighters on a non-carrier undock for battles?

[Necris]

I have fleets with corvettes and frigates. On Cobras I want to have fighters that undock for battle and then dock afterwards. I'm finding this verry tricky to set up and have been unsuccessfull so far.
Searching google, steam and egosoft forums for hours. There are lots of answers but none that really works, I think the confusion comes from Carrier vs Non-Carrier behaviours with fighters and how that ties into Subordinate Control.

Game details:

• Unmodded game

• DLCs: Split vendetta

• Base game version: 7.6

Fleet details:

Code: Select all

Fleet 1
	Nemesis Vanguard
		Alpha Group				2 INTERCEPTION
			Cobra			
				Alpha Group		2 ATTACK
					Balaur
					Balaur
			Cobra
				Alpha Group		2 ATTACK
					Balaur
					Balaur

I am aware of the following control mechanichs:

• Default behaviour of Nemesis (not relevant)

• Default behaviour of Cobras
  • I have tested several, listed as INTERCEPTION above

• Subordinate Control for Cobras under Loadout
  • This can be Docked or Launched

• Default behaviour of fighter groups
  • I have tested several, listed as ATTACK above

• Orders for fighters
  • like "Dock and Wait"

I simply can not get this working. I can have them always docked, or always launched.
Having them set to Docked seems like they wont ever undock. Therefore I thought I was meant to set them as Launched, and then give the fighers a "Dock and Wait"-order with the ATTACK or INTERCEPT behaviour, but that does not work either.
What should I do?

[blackphoenixx]

There is no confusion, really.
Non-carriers never dock their subordinates unless you order them to or while they're traveling long-distance, in which case they won't launch them automatically no matter what their orders are. Otherwise they keep them deployed.

If you want fighters that stay docked between engagements but still attack automatically you need a carrier. There is no workaround to that afaik.

[flywlyx]

It is not possible with vanilla without a carrier; there’s a mod called Reactive Docking that offers the functionality you’re looking for.
And Egosoft should really consider adding this feature to the vanilla.

[Tamina]

It is not possible with vanilla without a carrier; there’s a mod called Reactive Docking that offers the functionality you’re looking for.
And Egosoft should really consider adding this feature to the vanilla.

Everything said so far is correct. Works as intended, sadly.

I sure wish that we could change the behaviour of all ships (including carriers) to either Stay-Launched, Reactive-Launched, Reactive-Docked, Stay-Docked

[Falcrack]

Everything said so far is correct. Works as intended, sadly.

I sure wish that we could change the behaviour of all ships (including carriers) to either Stay-Launched, Reactive-Launched, Reactive-Docked, Stay-Docked

Amen brother. I really want a "stay launched" option, so that fighters around a carrier on intercept will not have to go through the whole docking/undocking procedure, which wastes time and gets them killed because they join the fight one by one.

[blackphoenixx]

Everything said so far is correct. Works as intended, sadly.

I sure wish that we could change the behaviour of all ships (including carriers) to either Stay-Launched, Reactive-Launched, Reactive-Docked, Stay-Docked

Amen brother. I really want a "stay launched" option, so that fighters around a carrier on intercept will not have to go through the whole docking/undocking procedure, which wastes time and gets them killed because they join the fight one by one.

Position defence is pretty much the "stay launched" option for carriers. I'm not sure why we'd need another

[Falcrack]

Everything said so far is correct. Works as intended, sadly.

I sure wish that we could change the behaviour of all ships (including carriers) to either Stay-Launched, Reactive-Launched, Reactive-Docked, Stay-Docked

Amen brother. I really want a "stay launched" option, so that fighters around a carrier on intercept will not have to go through the whole docking/undocking procedure, which wastes time and gets them killed because they join the fight one by one.

Position defence is pretty much the "stay launched" option for carriers. I'm not sure why we'd need another

Nope. Because "position defense" cannot discriminate between attacking S/M and L/XL like the intercept and bombard commands can. And position defense does not automatically move along with the carrier.

[blackphoenixx]

Amen brother. I really want a "stay launched" option, so that fighters around a carrier on intercept will not have to go through the whole docking/undocking procedure, which wastes time and gets them killed because they join the fight one by one.

Position defence is pretty much the "stay launched" option for carriers. I'm not sure why we'd need another

Nope. Because "position defense" cannot discriminate between attacking S/M and L/XL like the intercept and bombard commands can. And position defense does not automatically move along with the carrier.

The first isn't really an issue if you just assign the interceptors to a ship on position defence instead of the carrier directly. You'll want to do that anyway to circumvent the halved engagement range of PD. They'll still go to repair/rearm normally.
Even gets you 80km intercept range (or up to 96 with scope/shroud mods) if you use a Sapporo as the PD leader.

Fair enough on the second. Tbh i'm not moving my carriers often enough for it to really be an issue to me but YMMV.