Autolaunch satellites?

Tarm · #1 October 5th, 2001, 07:58 PM

It cant be that simple!!
Youre pulling my leg.
Right?

Cant believe I didnt even LOOK at the minister.
Probably because I've hated to use ministers in all the other games with them that I've tried.

Sigh........

Shyrka · #2 October 5th, 2001, 10:27 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Aub:
I know that bothered me too for a while - I was always forgetting to launch satellites. Then, I discovered that the Satellite/Mine minister does a great job here!

Simply turn the Sat/Mine minister on, and then put all new planets under minister control. The satellites will be launched for you. Since other miniters are not on, the AI will not interfere with other things like facilities and construction.

(So far I have not found any problems with turning the minister control on for planets. There ARE however bugs associated with doing that for fleets. E.g. the "attack" order stops working in sim. games if you turn any ministers on for a fleet.)

Aub

Hello

This idea is good, but i think it has a problem. Turning minister on for the planets makes all active ministers "work" in the planet. This can include ministers that you do not want to be active in that planet, such as the "Facility construction" minister.
You only want to launch the units automatically, just as the "Launch units remotely" order for the ships.

I had this problem too. I constructed a space station with a space yard component and several sat launch bays. I put it to build sats in repeat build mode. When the log noticed me that the station couldnt finish the sats because there was no cargo space available, then i "went" to the station and launched the sats manually. I tried activating the launch minister, but it doesnt work. The sats werent launched.

I think that its necessary some kind of order for auto launch sats/fghtrs/mines when present. It would be very useful, and a quite elegant solution for this problem

Aub · #3 October 5th, 2001, 10:48 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Shyrka:
Hello

This idea is good, but i think it has a problem. Turning minister on for the planets makes all active ministers "work" in the planet. This can include ministers that you do not want to be active in that planet, such as the "Facility construction" minister.

If you don't what the "Facility construction" minister, then why activate it at all? I never do. I agree that the ministers lack granularity though, you cannot select the active menisters for each planet separately.

quote:
...
I had this problem too. I constructed a space station with a space yard component and several sat launch bays. I put it to build sats in repeat build mode. When the log noticed me that the station couldnt finish the sats because there was no cargo space available, then i "went" to the station and launched the sats manually. I tried activating the launch minister, but it doesnt work. The sats werent launched. [/b]

You have to turn the minister on AND put the planet/station under minister control. There is a setting that allows you to have ALL new planets to be put under minister control automatically. But I usually turn the minister on the moment I start building satellites. Saves me from launching them every turn. So far, it worked every time

Aub

Baron Munchausen · #4 October 6th, 2001, 04:29 PM

quote:
Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
Either autolaunch, or treat empty space like a cargo base in orbit:
IE, Any units that can't be held by the planet or cargo vehicles in orbit, gets launched automatically.

I've requested this many times. It seems simple enough to add. It would be especially helpful for the AI, you know. If you setup the build queue to include both WPs and Satellites it tends to build the WPs and then keeps queuing sats that cannot be built due to lack of cargo space. This screws up the whole defense plan.

Aub · #5 November 28th, 2001, 09:31 PM

An idea: can one mod satellites so that they are actually huge fighters without engines?

To be more precise: we remove current satellite hulls and replce them with huge fighter hulls that cannot have engines. These hulls should look like old satellites (use the right .bmp) and be available through the satellite tech.

One problem is they will use fighter bays instead of satellite bays, but we can make a Version of Fighter Bay I as a generic "Launch Bay" and make it available in the Satellite tech as well.

We'd also need to make all ship components mountable on these new satellites (i.e. fighters - but they'd take too much space to put on regular fighters tho) and change satellite mounts.

What does it solve:

- planets will launch satellites in combat! Here's your "autolaunch" function - you will never forget to launch sats again.

- Sats will be launched in Groups, thus covering the space around a planet more evenly. If you have lots of them sitting on a planet, by the time the enemy ships some into range you will have a good defense from all sides (I have to test it...)

How does it sound?

Puke · #6 November 28th, 2001, 10:15 PM

that sounds like the best idea i have heard in a while. it should also solve the problem where people wanted to make 'killer sats' with combat movement but no real movement. Last i checked, combat movement was not working for sats (though i hear it is now working for bases). this should let them use it.

the only problems that i can see are in ship to ship combat. the autolaunch would not work quite right here, as they would be launced at the start and then the ships would advance in front of them (in the case of people using sats for combat bouies in the early game [bonus points to anyone who can come up with a link to the original thread discussing that concept.. should be about twelve months old]). in the case of sat layers carying non-combat sats that want to evade combat, the ships would drop the sats at their starting position and then run for the corners. sure they would get them back at the end of combat, but the sats would not be protected during the fight.

does anyone know how to deploy sats or fighters in small Groups OUTSIDE of combat, though? this method seems to require them to be stored in cargo until combat starts, thus limiting the number that you can use. also, it bunches them up, like you said.

Suicide Junkie · #7 November 29th, 2001, 02:37 AM

quote:
- planets will launch satellites in combat! Here's your "autolaunch" function - you will never forget to launch sats again.

- Sats will be launched in Groups, thus covering the space around a planet more evenly. If you have lots of them sitting on a planet, by the time the enemy ships some into range you will have a good defense from all sides (I have to test it...)

Actually, you've misunderstood my original intention with the "auto-launch".

What I want is to be able to set repeat build on a tiny planet, and not have to tell it to launch all its sats every turn. As it is now, the cargo space on the planet is filled up on the first turn, and if I forget to launch, the next turn's production is wasted.
I want to leave the planet be, and then come by two years later with a sat transport and pick up the 50 sats in orbit.
Doing the launching manually is micromanagement hell.

quote:
does anyone know how to deploy sats or fighters in small Groups OUTSIDE of combat, though? this method seems to require them to be stored in cargo until combat starts, thus limiting the number that you can use. also, it bunches them up, like you said.

Only fighters can be launched in small Groups, and it takes many turns.

1) Launch a small group of fighters.
2) Move them away on the next turn (when they get their MP. Repeat from step 1.
3) Order all the fighter Groups back to the planet, and make a fleet out of the Groups if you want.