Bug in Fleet Stategic Combat

[mbosveld]

If you have ships in the fleet that do not have offensive weapons, and if one of them is made the formation leader in strategic combat the whole fleet will not attack. I have not been able to set the formation leader unless I use tactical combat. Is there a way to set the formation leader in strategic combat, or can strategic combat automaticly pick ships in orcer based on their offensive power?

Help.

[Rover]

my first question is. is your command ship a cruiser and if so, is it an attack or defense ship. Many times when you design a ship it may have, "don't get hurt" as its default strategy. if so you need to set it to a different strategy type.

I do this with carriers so they are part of the fleet in tactical combat so when I am using auto mode they don't just break formation, launch fighters and run for it. I like my carriers up close and personal so I can launch my fighters close to the enemy.

I have had similar problems with strategic combat as well. Some times the same thing happens to me.

I have look at the formation text in the data file and I think once you understand how a position in a formation is set up you can name a certain type of ship to that position. There is a "type" for each of the position in the formation. Haven't try it yet because it seems like a lot of work. But I will try it soon and see if it is what I think it is.

[This message has been edited by Rover (edited 16 November 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Rover (edited 16 November 2000).]

[mbosveld]

All the ships were DN's. I like to build WMG heavy DN's for offense, 1 DN for opening warp points, 1 for closing warp points, and a fleet support DN that consists of LOTS of repair bays.

The problem occurs when the repair ship becomes the formation leader. This is because the repair design only has PDC's and does not have any offensive weaponry.

I have been setting the strategic behavior by the design type. The Attck DN's get "Optimal Range", and the three support ships get don't get hurt.

[This message has been edited by mbosveld (edited 16 November 2000).]

[Jochen Schmidt]

Sorry,

but what is "DN", "WMG"?

Opening and closing warppoints?

Don´t get me wrong - i really don´t know how to translate this. I´m still playing the Demo, perhaps i missed something - especially with opening and closing warppoints.

Any answer would be kind.

Greetings from Germany

Jochen

[mbosveld]

DN = Dreadnaught
WMG = Wave Motion Gun

Using stellar manipulation you can open and close warp points. So I open a warp point, warp and then close it, when I have defeated that system I close its warp point on exit to keep the enemy for re-establishing a foot hold.

[This message has been edited by mbosveld (edited 16 November 2000).]

[Jochen Schmidt]

Great!!! - simply great!!!!

Thank you very much for explaining me this.

I´m looking forward to get the fullVersion. (´hope it will arrive before the weekend- sigh!).

Greetings


Jochen

[Seawolf]

Bog that must be a big maintiance cost for that kind of fleet

------------------
Seawolf on the prowl

[mbosveld]

Maintenance Cost is relative to the size and development level of the empire. I normally stay on the defensive until I get high enough tech to change the atmopsphere of planets and build high level resource extractors. Then I build 3-5 fleets as described and literially wipe the map.

[Rover]

Mbosveld,
I was wondering if you can be more specific about when you use Strategic Combat and if you only do it.... like aganist planets or what. What are the Components on your DN'S besides a repair bay on your Command Ship. I've been running some simulators with a command ship with only a repair Bay and point defense. I also use task specific ships i.e. escort ships (Destroyer) with nothing but Point defense cannons on them. I attacked a planet with fighters on it, only. The first thing that happen was the command ship, with only repair bay,and PDC's ran for it. And second when all fighters were destroyed, my escort ships also ran for the edge of the map. The remaining ships attacked the planet. I know why the escorts left. There were no more targets that it could deal with, so they left the battle. I think why the command ship left, was because It really had no way to fight in combat and probably by default It left the battle as well.

Now, like you, I have had my entire fleet move towards The map edge. But I have only seen this happen when fighting aganist planets with no defense. That doesn't mean It doesn't happen in other ways. That is why I had to ask, what other ways you conduct Strategic Combat. If it's bug I don't think I can do much about it. But if it has to do
with what components are on ships in relationship TO..... than It might be easier to figure out whats going on. I'm sure we are not the only ones having this problem.

Finally I went into the formation texts file today and you can set design types to position in the formation. But it won't change what is happening with your command ship as long as it remains unarmed. My command ship continue to run for the edge. Also when setting a type of design to a position in a formation, It is best that you be specific about your designs. i.e. Attack Ship, Command, Attack Ship, Missle Or what ever. When you begin to assign design types to position in a formation you probably want specific designs to fill those slots.

O.k. Rover



[This message has been edited by Rover (edited 17 November 2000).]

[Lerchey]

Some of the responses here seem a little confused. Let me restate the problem:

If a ship with a non-offensive combat strategy is (arbitrarily) assigned as the group leader and the fleet is sent into strategic combat ALL ships act on the leader's orders, and thus, the ships that should be offensive, are NOT.

I have some ideas about this, which I have not quite finished fleshing out yet. As soon as I do (most likely this weekend) I'll be sending the suggestion into malfador.

That said, here is the solution that I've been using.

I tend to build mixed fleets including combat ships, repair ships, and supply ships. Before I launch the fleet into battle, I remove the non-combat ships from it. At that point, since all that are in the fleet are combat ships, my fleet acts aggressively, as I would expect... UNLESS the leader is a point defense ship (shielded with only PDCs), in which case, the spin around doing little of anything uless the enemy has seekers or fighters.

Hope that helps,

John