Re: Autolaunch satellites?
 

that sounds like the best idea i have heard in a while. it should also solve the problem where people wanted to make 'killer sats' with combat movement but no real movement. Last i checked, combat movement was not working for sats (though i hear it is now working for bases). this should let them use it.

the only problems that i can see are in ship to ship combat. the autolaunch would not work quite right here, as they would be launced at the start and then the ships would advance in front of them (in the case of people using sats for combat bouies in the early game [bonus points to anyone who can come up with a link to the original thread discussing that concept.. should be about twelve months old]). in the case of sat layers carying non-combat sats that want to evade combat, the ships would drop the sats at their starting position and then run for the corners. sure they would get them back at the end of combat, but the sats would not be protected during the fight.

does anyone know how to deploy sats or fighters in small Groups OUTSIDE of combat, though? this method seems to require them to be stored in cargo until combat starts, thus limiting the number that you can use. also, it bunches them up, like you said.

Re: Autolaunch satellites?
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>- planets will launch satellites in combat! Here's your "autolaunch" function - you will never forget to launch sats again.

- Sats will be launched in Groups, thus covering the space around a planet more evenly. If you have lots of them sitting on a planet, by the time the enemy ships some into range you will have a good defense from all sides (I have to test it...)<hr></blockquote>Actually, you've misunderstood my original intention with the "auto-launch".

What I want is to be able to set repeat build on a tiny planet, and not have to tell it to launch all its sats every turn. As it is now, the cargo space on the planet is filled up on the first turn, and if I forget to launch, the next turn's production is wasted.
I want to leave the planet be, and then come by two years later with a sat transport and pick up the 50 sats in orbit.
Doing the launching manually is micromanagement hell.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>does anyone know how to deploy sats or fighters in small Groups OUTSIDE of combat, though? this method seems to require them to be stored in cargo until combat starts, thus limiting the number that you can use. also, it bunches them up, like you said.<hr></blockquote>Only fighters can be launched in small Groups, and it takes many turns.

1) Launch a small group of fighters.
2) Move them away on the next turn (when they get their MP. Repeat from step 1.
3) Order all the fighter Groups back to the planet, and make a fleet out of the Groups if you want.

Re: Autolaunch satellites?
 

Great idea for the satalites auto-launch. I think what SJ was talking about for auto-launch (a pain in the *** when you have ot do this a lot, when defending early on) would work great but needs to be hard coded. WHile your at it the combat could be hard coded in as well. I hope MM continues ot update the original SE4 a little after GOLD or even before as there are still a ton of features i would like to see, but then i guess ill have to go get GOLD. Drones ahhh. Sugarbowl and Kirkwood, ahhhhhhhhhhh OT, sorry.

Re: Autolaunch satellites?
 

Auto-launch units is definitely a must-have. I use sats in all planets & wormholes, and i´m tired of launching them manually. Sometimes i change my plans due to this.