1.08 bugs.

[Shadowstar]

Yes, I didn't really need a carrier in the battle so I assumed I'd just use the fighters for air support on the planet. I put a few extras in with the troops and sent the ship off to do its work. The troop transport arrived after the main fleet had already gone in the turn before and took out all the defenses. One reason I did this was to keep the troop transport out of harm's way. It's probably best I did that too, because otherwise the transport would have bee-lined for the planet while my guys were fighting off the defensive ships. When it did arrive, that's exactly what it did, bee-lined for the planet, but by then it had a clear path and reached the planet with no trouble. It turned and flew away after reaching the planet (that's where it dropped the troops I presume) and the planet report then showed my forces occupying the planet.

I would have expected the planet to go to my control at that phase, but there was no ground combat and the planet remained in enemy hands. I've gone ahead and glassed it now and will just land a colony on it next turn. My main reason for attacking this AI was that his homeworld was about 3 sectors away from the warp point into my home system and his ships keep blockading my other warp points. The sooner I get rid of him, the more territory I will have to myself.

[Raapys]

No, if you do it in tactical combat you'll get a message as soon as the ship reaches the planet that your troops have been deployed and that ground combat will start *next* turn.

At any rate, the presence of the fighters is the only explanation I can see as to why it might get 'bugged'. But then again, I'm not really sure how one is supposed to use fighters in ground combat; if they're just supposed to be in the same hex, or if they're supposed to be part of the cargo drop like yours.

[Shadowstar]

I'm using simultaneous movement, everything is handled by the AI. I prefer that because I will be adapting my Starscape mod from SE4 to SE5 and running PBEM games with it, once the game has been patched a bit more. Anyway, playing simultaneous mode helps me get used to the quirks of the AI system and I can learn how to handle strategies and such.

However, as with any AI, it is potentially buggy. I don't get any messages in combat replays, but I'm used to combat from SE4, and there were no messages there either. If fighters are buggering up the ground combat, then I won't use them from now on, but I've read several posts here from people who have used fighters in ground combat and figured I could use them in a "multi-role" sort of way. Just cuz I don't have any carriers, doesn't mean I can't use em in ground combat, or so I thought... Mostly I just wanted to see how fighters play in ground combat, so in some ways it was also an experiment.

[Phoenix-D]

They work in ground combat, so that's not the bug.

I have no idea why they "turned" on you, but there IS a problem where if the enemy has mines on a planet, you can't take it over (need to kill all enemy units, and mines are invisible..)

[Raapys]

So fighters are supposed to be 'deployed' on the planet?

[Phoenix-D]

They work like troops, except during the actual combat they fly instead of..whatever the hell SE5 troops do.

[Shadowstar]

I've gone back to a saved game I made the turn that I drop the troops and am going to try doing different things with them.

I have a hunch that the bug is related to the fact that there is absolutely no resisting force on the planet. The troops can land without causing a ground combat because there's nothing to fight them. There isn't even a weapon platform on the planet. I suspect that SE5 isn't giving me control because no combat is occuring, in other words it's only coded to give control if a combat occurs and I win it. It wasn't programmed for this occurance.

That said, there SHOULD be resistance. Even if the computer player won't build any troops to protect the people, there should be militias.

Something is odd here.