Fleet orders vs ship orders

[Phoenix-D]

According to the manual..

"Formation
Types the break formation These selections determine whether these types of vehicles will break formation when they are in combat. By default, all vehicles that are in a fleet will be part of that fleet's formation when combat begins. However, some vehicles you do not want to stay in formation while the rest of the group engages the enemy. "

Phoenix-D

[Dubious]

Agree that it COULD be interpreted either way. However, the AI_Strategies file includes "don't fire on" settings as well as "break" settings and "type priorities" for the same types. This leads me to conclude the proper interpretation is "targets".

Regardless of our interpretations, we need some testing to confirm.


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"All sources are dubious until their reliabilty has been repeatedly proven. Even then their information should be independently verified." - The unwritten "spooks handbook"

[Dubious]

Pheonix-D: Just one of the areas of the documentation which has some unfortunate wording.

I read this as "these types [of targets] cause [the ships the settings are defined for] to break [out of] formation". The bit about part of the fleet departing formation while the other continues increases my [new] feeling the entire fleet can break formation under fleet settings while specific ship settings can cause them to break formation if their specific conditions say so. Identical settings would cause this to not be obvious, but a complementary set should clarify.


[This message has been edited by Dubious (edited 28 June 2001).]

[Phoenix-D]

Reading it like that doesn't make sense, read the rest of it.

"By default, all vehicles that are in a fleet will be part of that fleet's formation when combat begins. However, some vehicles you do not want to stay in formation while the rest of the group engages the enemy."

That does NOT seem like the entire fleet is breaking formation.

OK, I just did some testing.
Fleet set to: optimum weapons range, default units break away. 4 combat escorts, 1 colony ship. Result? Colony ship breaks formation and runs.

Switched optimum weapons range to all units STAY in formation. Result? Colony ship breaks formation and runs (ookay then)

Phoenix-D

[Phoenix-D]

OK, I've done the following now:
(all tests: Side 1, Fleet of 5 Meson escorts, 1 colony ship)

First set: colony ship unarmed. No matter WHAT I select- ships do/don't break, colony ships do/don't break, and no matter the target, the colony ship runs to the upper corner. In fact, any ship without a weapon breaks formation regardless.

EDIT: A ship WITH a weapon will break formation. I haven't bee able to get anything out of this in the sim so far though, other than these two.

Phoenix-D

[This message has been edited by Phoenix-D (edited 28 June 2001).]

[Dragonlord]

quote:

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Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
[b]
EDIT: A ship WITH a weapon will break formation. I haven't bee able to get anything out of this in the sim so far though, other than these two.

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Ok now you got me even more confused. What exactly are you trying to prove or discover with the test?

Also, ships with no direct fire or missiles will ALways break formation, in my experience. I had to put one beam on my PD ships to keep them in line, else they'd run to the corner.

Lets try to summarize what we learned so far:
Fleet strategy setting determines inital deployment (e.g. arrowhead) and whether the attack ships will even head for the enemy or not. Non-combat support ships wil always leave formation in the first round of combat and try to hide.

The main question still is: at what stage will the various attack ships use:
A) the fleets attack strategy (e.g Max Weapons range)
B) Their own ship type's Primary strategy, set up under ship designs
C) Their own ship type's Secondary strategy, set up under ship designs

AFAIK you can not give an individual ship a strategy different from the one you designed for that ship type.