Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

I seem to be having a problem with the game, and I don't know if it is a bug or just me.
I had two fleets, one of 70 fighters and one of several lt. Cruisers. I wanted to destroy the ships guarding a planet the turn before my ground forces arrived. So I created a strategy "Ignore Planet". I sent the fighters in the first wave. They made straight for the planet and bombed it (as well as taking out one ship on the way), then I moved the cruisers in, and then everyone seemed to ignore the planet. (but the situation was different)

The strategy was "Maximum range, Drop Troops (if any)", Has weapons, Nearest, Largest, Most Damaged. I turned on Use type and placed planet at the bottom of the list, I checked don't fire on planets (as well as bases/ships w/o weapons), unselected planets from break formation. The fleet was set to this as well as the fighter default strategy. (I put in drop troops, as I wanted to use it for the fleet with the troop transport as well)

With all this the planet was only 19% damaged http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif The fighters actually moved though the defender's formation to go to the planet (i.e. the enemy ships were encountered half-way and a running battle was fought moving to the planet)
What did I do wrong??

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

Your ships were likely trying to kill any weapon platforms the planet had. Also, telling them to break formation will cancel any fleet orders you give them, and they'll revert to their class orders.

Phoenix-D

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I know they do this on Capture Planet orders and can acidentally kill the planet but if you have a fleet strategy where ships are specifically told not to attack a planet will they still attack the WP's??

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

I think they will. The Planet checkbox likely refers to the planet itself..so without weapon platforms they will ignore the planet, but the weapon platforms draw them in. Just like the way the capture planet order works differently if you have a mixed force of transports and warships than just transports.

Phoenix-D

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think that might be it. I have a saved Version of the game at that point, and there are 7 WP with missiles. However the fighters leave behind a nearby BC and CA with lots of weapons at the half-way point to go after the planet. (The near parameter should have kicked in)
As well they obviously keep attacking the planet after the WP are gone (and the ships are near-by attacking) as the population drops from 4000 to 3344, the 53 fighters who are left at the end can only do 1060 max points of damage a round (106 pop) so there has to be at least 4 rounds of firing after the WP are gone.
This would explain why when the second fleet arrives they seem to ignore the planet correctly.

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

Also, your ships & units won't switch targets very often. Try setting the damage % per planet way down to 10% or so, and the fighters should start reevaluating their targetting choices earlier.

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I just tried that and it didn't work. However I noticed that the secondary move was actually point-blank (not drop troops which it was originally, and intended to be.) If anyone is interested in taking a look, I have the save (default 1.78 Gold rules) on my web page Here
Just take the fleet labelled "Problem fleet" in the Xira system and attack the adjacent planet at 3,11.

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

Have you tried making "Drop Troops (if carrying)" the primary strategy, rather than secondary?

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This didn't Help, same effect. I chose Drop Troops Primary, and Max weapons seconday. The fighters fight though the defending fleet and attack the planet.

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

I think the problem is probably the "break formation" settings. If your "Ignore Planet" strategy has fighters or ships break formation, then they will use the strategy listed in their design.

"Don't Fire On Planets" does work and does include the weapon platforms, if any (i.e., if they are obeying that tactic, they won't fire at planets at all, even if they have WP's). Only the "Drop Troops" tactic cares if there are weapon platforms (if you have ships and they have WP's, your ships will try to kill the WP's before dropping troops).

PvK

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No. That should not be the problem the only ones checked for break formation were: Carrier, Colony, Satelite and transport. (Besides the strategy in their design was set to the same as the fleet).
I am beginning to believe (after trying some more examples) that it might be a bug with fighter Groups...

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

I noticed a similar issue in one of my PBW games. I had a mixed ship and fighter fleet set to my blockade strategy (max range, max range, everything stays in formation, use types, do not fire on planets) and the fighter Groups went ahead and glassed the planet.

No enemy ships around the planet, 1 WP on the planet surface.

edit: included planet desc.

[ December 05, 2002, 21:32: Message edited by: Hank ]

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Were the fighters part of the fleet?

Does the fighter unit strategy tell them to fire on planets, or not?

PvK

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

Are you saying that launched fighters are automatically "Break formation"? Do you have to include fighters in your fleet to get them to follow the fleet strategy?

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes the fighter Groups were in the fleet.

The fighter unit strat does let them fire on planets. The fleet strat does not however and I set all types to not break formation. The fighters should have stayed in formation with the rest of the fleet and not gone off to glass the planet.

At least that is what I suspected. I dunno.. Doesnt that sound right? Or am I missing something... Running a blockade has proven to be quite difficult for me. My captains must have very itchy trigger fingers. Or perhaps they all want to be Captn Kirk pounding the command chair boldly ordering his crew to, "FIRE!"

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Did the fighters destroy all the planet's Weapon Platforms? The cruisers might then no longer see the planet as Has Weapons.

Re: Attacking Planets (or trying not to)
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That is exactly what I meant by the situation was different. - No WP when the ships came in.

There wouldn't be a complaint if they took out the weapon platforms and then stopped, without damaging the population (or whatever small percent would be damaged due to excess damage when the Last WP was destroyed), but they don't they continue to attack.

You can check out the scenario yourself by dowloading the file (location in earlier post). However it seems that only fighters are affected by this bug on further testing. (Even if the fighters broke formation as suggested earlier - I have the fighters with the same orders as the fleet).