What does the "Sentry" order do?

[dumbluck]

I can't figure anything out about it? What difference does it make if you put it on sentry or just leave it sit there??? Why is it that sometimes I can put a ship on sentry, and sometimes I cannot?

I hate to be asking a newbie ? like this, but I'm stumped here...

[Phoenix-D]

Sentry is mostly used to give ships an order so they don't show up as "no orders" in the ship list. Makes it easier to know who you've delt with and who you haven't.

What it does is has your ships sit there until an enemy ship enters the system. At that point the Sentry order is cleared.

Phoenix-D

[HEMAN]

My first impression trying sentry was ,i thought my ship would sit there until an enemy ship enters the system. At that point the Sentry order would automaticaly intercept and attack. Although i agree with dumbluck reason on this, i would like it changed. Besides the word sentry is to patroll and engage isnt it?. Any ideas about this guys? to send to mm?.

[This message has been edited by HEMAN (edited 15 September 2001).]

[tesco samoa]

I kind of like the way it is now. Would you want the computer to send your fleet of 4 ships against a fleet of 30 ships.

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L? GdX $ Fr C++ SdT T+ Sf* Tcp+ A M++ MpTM ROTS Pw+ Fq+ Nd Rp++ G+

[capnq]

quote:

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What it does is has your ships sit there until an enemy ship enters the system. At that point the Sentry order is cleared.

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There are two toggles in (F11) Status/Empire Options that control this; you can set it to never clear orders, only clear on contact with enemies, or clear on any contact.

quote:

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Besides the word sentry is to patroll and engage isnt it?.

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No, "sentry" only means "guard"; it also tends to imply staying at a fixed post, not patrolling.


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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[Phoenix-D]

That toggle is for ships entering a system; it doesn't apply to the Sentry order.

Phoenix-D

[Suicide Junkie]

AFAIK, the sentry order will cause the ship(s) to be skipped when you press "next ship" / "Next fleet"

So, if those ships will be on a long-term warppoint guard, or something, you give them the sentry order.

Then when flipping through your ships you only see the active ones.

[Will]

Sentry orders should stay in affect until a ship's supplies get into the "yellow", then they should clear. Useful to put ships on Sentry, then give a Resupply/Return order, then set orders to repeat. That way you don't have to worry about your warp guards if you keep two fleets there with this setup (so when one resupplies, the other is still there), unless of course they are destroyed by an enemy fleet .

As was already said, this is useful for such things as your warp guard ships/fleets so they won't come up as you go through your order-less ships/fleets.

As for Patrol and Intercept orders... Patrol can be accomplished by queueing up multiple move to orders, then setting orders to repeat. Intercept... I don't know how to, there might be some really clever way that you can do it, but I doubt it. Might be a good idea to suggest to MM, but it would only be useful for Simultaneous turns, and would be greatly flawed unless there's some more AI work (wouldn't want your 20 ship fleet going after the decoy escort while the enemy 20 ship fleet slips in the back door).

[tesco samoa]

The old game Stars was really good for ship movement, queing and orders. For Patrol you could set your ship to intersept at different distances away from the patrol. Ignore classes of ships etc...

Really good. Could script alot of stuff. You could even built ships and they would automaticly go and join patrols if you wanted.

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L? GdX $ Fr C++ SdT T+ Sf* Tcp+ A M++ MpTM ROTS Pw+ Fq+ Nd Rp++ G+

[HEMAN]

tesco samoa, your so right about STARS, I enjoy a game with patroll with ranges too.Especially when you have a lot of ships you need patroll intercept. Without patroll it will give a big headach if player must move every other ship of hundreads to thousands if multiple enemys would jump multiple systems or in surprize systems belonging to me. Would be helpful in se4 too even fighters on patroll.