System Wide Launch or Auto-Launch ???

Jimmy Wishbone · #1 July 5th, 2002, 03:01 PM

Looking for a bit of help -
Checking the threads, there does not appear to be any way to autolaunch fighters or sats upon production. Is there any mod that can take care of this, or alternatively a command to launch all units from all planets in a system? If not, should I drop this in as a feature request?

Thanks

Suicide Junkie · #2 July 5th, 2002, 03:21 PM

A good way to manage this is to have a transport with repeat orders pick up the units and deliver them to front line planets of cargo bases. Or, use the transports to move all the units to one central location for convenience.

If you're trying to build up a defense, its a different story from just needing the cargo space to build more.

An Auto-Launch toggle button would be a very nice feature. I reccommend you send it in.

geoschmo · #3 July 5th, 2002, 03:44 PM

Sats at least can be auto luanched very easily by just turning on the global sattelite minister and the specific minister for that planet. Then they will launch any available sats the turn after they are built. All you have to do is set up the build queues.

Unfortunatly this does not work for mines I know. I don't know about fighters. Never tried it for them. Not sure if there is even a fighter minister.

Geoschmo

Gandalph · #4 July 5th, 2002, 05:32 PM

The satellite minister may still keep some of the sat's on the planet depending on the "Percentage of total satellites to keep as planetary cargo" setting in the race_AI_settings.txt file, so if you want all sat's in space, set the value to 0.

geoschmo · #5 July 5th, 2002, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalph:
The satellite minister may still keep some of the sat's on the planet depending on the "Percentage of total satellites to keep as planetary cargo" setting in the race_AI_settings.txt file, so if you want all sat's in space, set the value to 0.

Hmmm, interesting. I had forgotten about that setting. I don't think it's working that way. It's set to 40 by default for all the AI, and in every game I have used this minister in it's launched all the sats.

Geoschmo

Baron Munchausen · #6 July 5th, 2002, 06:20 PM

Wow, I wish my ministers worked like yours. I nearly always find satellites just sitting in the cargo of AI owned plants when attack. It's a waste and an annoyance. I wonder what other AiI or game settings might affect how the satellite minster behaves?

geoschmo · #7 July 5th, 2002, 06:41 PM

I don't know. I have never really tried to make it work one way or the other for an AI player. I am just selectively using the mines/sattelite minister to control the launching of sats and take a little of the micromanagment out. It works quite well actually. I wish it worked for mines as well but it doesn't.

Perhaps it's beccuase I am so selective. Maybe the problem with the AI is that somehow they competing minsters are contradicting each others orders? I don't really know.

As far as I know the ministers are the same as AI control are they not? That's what I have always been told anyway, and I have never seen anything except possibly this point to contradict that.

The other possibility is as I said maybe it has something to do with rounding. I tend to go for missle sats so they are more expensive and I can't build as many per turn. I will try some experiments with cheaper sats and try to get mroe built per turn and see if some get left in cargo.

Geoschmo

Gandalph · #8 July 5th, 2002, 07:07 PM

I actually tested the "Percentage of total satellites to keep as planetary cargo" line with my Corrian race and found with the default 40, sat's were being left in cargo, and when set to 0, they were not.

And I agree, I wish we had this line for mines as well. The AI needs mines in cargo for warp point defense, but also needs them in orbit for planetary defense.

[ July 05, 2002, 18:09: Message edited by: Gandalph ]

geoschmo · #9 July 5th, 2002, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalph:
I actually tested the "Percentage of total satellites to keep as planetary cargo" line with my Corrian race and found with the default 40, sat's were being left in cargo, and when set to 0, they were not.

Ok, so that tells us it's doing something. But now to figure out why the discrepancy between that and what I am seeing when using the sat minister to launch sats. I went back and checked my most recent game where I used this minister and it left no sats in any planet's cargo.

Geo

Jimmy Wishbone · #10 July 6th, 2002, 12:34 AM

Thanks for the info!

I'm using the transport routing for delivery of fighters to the front lines. I'll try the ministers for launching auto-launching fighters for the static defense areas and let you all know how it goes.
Thanks again!