Getting ships to stay put (Full Version)

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BTAxis -> Getting ships to stay put (6/4/2013 8:14:18 PM)

Hello Forum,

I'm a new DW player, and I've run into an annoying problem. I found a rival empire right on my doorstep right after starting a new game, and they declared war on me instantly. After some fighting back and forth I managed to capture a baby colony in their home system. I sent my main combat force there to guard it against counter invasions.

So here's the trouble: my fleet is constantly running off on its own. When I tell it to stop, the ships will immediately decide they are going to attack the research stations around the enemy homeworld. Doing this is certain death as there are three defense stations in orbit there, but I can't get them to not attack! I've tried setting the fleet stance to defensive and target only, I've tried disabling the attacks of opportunity check box in the empire policies screen, I've tried setting the fleet's engagement stance to fight only when attacked (the ships change this setting back on their own too). Nothing helps. What am I doing wrong? Why do my ships insist on throwing themselves at the meat grinder?

I'm playing on Shadows, version 1.9.0.4.



invaderzim -> RE: Getting ships to stay put (6/4/2013 8:32:50 PM)

Hey, I had problems with this when I first started playing too. Hit escape, go to Empire Settings and adjust the Default Engagement Stances.

"Other" also applies to capturing ships or bases, so I like to set this to engage when attacked so my fleet doesn't blow up a ship I want to board.



BTAxis -> RE: Getting ships to stay put (6/4/2013 8:57:04 PM)

Ah, thanks, that did the trick. There's still a lot I don't know about this game.



Speeder -> RE: Getting ships to stay put (6/6/2013 6:10:34 PM)

I this should be fixed urgently, there is lots of posts about that, and changing that setting is... contrived.

And makes the game harder (in the sense that when you have a large empire you DO want automatic ships, only do not want they killing themselves or ignoring manual orders)



invaderzim -> RE: Getting ships to stay put (6/6/2013 6:48:45 PM)

At the very least, there should be at least two more options, so: Patrol, Escort, Escort, Other, Move To and Idle.

When attacking a starport with a missiles, I often want my fleet to move in one direction while shooting at targets within range instead of waiting to be attacked to return fire. I use the Other setting for this because any other setting causes my ships to move towards the starport which is very bad.

However Other also covers idle ships. I want ships that are idle near a starport or colony to actively chase down and shoot bad guys who arrive in their system instead of chilling at the starport while they my mining bases are captured.



MarQan -> RE: Getting ships to stay put (6/16/2013 7:21:45 PM)

Is there a way to turn off automatic refueling?
At some cases - especially pre-warp - ships with low, or no fuel might be better off orbiting a planet, than heading to a refuel point, so when the two planetary objects get closer, they could refuel much faster.
Same at higher tech-lvl when ships should wait for a Resupply ship rather than warp through 5 sectors with no fuel.

Edit: ships with more reactors, no fuel, and energy collectors are also doomed.



invaderzim -> RE: Getting ships to stay put (6/16/2013 7:56:26 PM)

quote:

Is there a way to turn off automatic refueling?


I don't think so. But it would be nice if your ships would wait around for a gas mining station or resupply ship instead of running back to home base to refuel. An option to turn off auto-repair would also be nice since it's annoying when one damaged component causes a cruiser to run home during an important battle.

There is a slider for refueling in Empire Options, but I don't think it works. In any case, it is designed to adjust refueling for all your ships, which is much too broad.



Chris21wen -> RE: Getting ships to stay put (6/16/2013 10:25:57 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: MarQan

Is there a way to turn off automatic refueling?
At some cases - especially pre-warp - ships with low, or no fuel might be better off orbiting a planet, than heading to a refuel point, so when the two planetary objects get closer, they could refuel much faster.
Same at higher tech-lvl when ships should wait for a Resupply ship rather than warp through 5 sectors with no fuel.

Edit: ships with more reactors, no fuel, and energy collectors are also doomed.


Turning the ships to manual works for me.



paShadoWn -> RE: Getting ships to stay put (6/16/2013 10:37:12 PM)

Theres a circle arrow on ship info panel, try clicking it. Btw theres a trick if you dont know: you manually order ship then automate it. It carries your order first then goes to his auto tasks.



Jim D Burns -> RE: Getting ships to stay put (6/17/2013 4:11:18 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: BTAxis
So here's the trouble: my fleet is constantly running off on its own.



Besides the global settings already mentioned in thread, there is also the fleet posture settings at the bottom of the fleet window. Knowing how to use these can make managing a large empire significantly easier. Setting home system or target as a defensive mission will usually keep your fleet on station except when it needs to refuel. But once fueled it should return to its assigned target so that's just a temporary hiccup in coverage.

Here's a thread covering the fleet orders buttons:

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2973167


Jim



Shark7 -> RE: Getting ships to stay put (6/17/2013 5:41:53 PM)

Another thing or two to consider. Fleets you want to control need to be left off of automatic control, the AI will send it halfway across the galaxy if you aren't paying attention.

The fleet stance and reaction ranges are very useful. If you want a fleet to stand guard at a planet, you need to assign that planet as its home base, and set your range to the lowest (current planet), not even system. You can go a step farther by setting the fleet into a defensive stance, but I prefer to leave mine aggressive so they engage enemy ships before they get too close to the planet.



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