Fleet Finished It's Mission?

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Fleet Finished It's Mission? - 6/6/2014 6:36:40 PM

Lucian

Posts: 279
Joined: 12/1/2012
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When a ship on manual finishes its mission a window pops up telling me so. However when a fleet on manual finishes a mission there seems to be no way (that I can find) of alerting the player. The result is that fleets with no mission often sit around until I notice them, which might take a while.

Is this a bug? Is there a way of setting a finish message for a fleet that I'm unaware of? Seems like a strange thing for the designer to just forget since fleets are so important. I must be missing something.

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RE: Fleet Finished It's Mission? - 6/6/2014 8:59:57 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

That a ship has finished its mission is important. Ships have low visibility. Fleets have high visibility unless in a system with other fleets. The "finished" mission message is nice when I build ships non-automated, and use for instance automated constructors. And when I sometimes interfere and give manual orders to otherwise automated ships.

For fleets, I either have them sitting around as small system defense units, or they are major players. There are not that many major players and I have reasonably good control of where they are. I have never missed "fleet has completed its mission", since my fleets usually have no mission. For instance, in a war with another empire, I may have 7 big fleets. 4-5 of them defends important colonies judged to be "at danger" of attack. 2-3 are used as offensive tools. Add maybe a few smaller fleets that run around busting mines, and it is about 5 units to keep track of, plus a troop transport fleet. I manage that just fine.

Keeping track of the important fleets, is also easy because I bind them to the number letters, so checking their whereabouts is easily done.

I have also read this forum on and off for years, and never seen anyone miss it. That may be why it is not included. People don't feel they need it, the developer included :)

(in reply to Lucian)

Post #: 2

RE: Fleet Finished It's Mission? - 6/6/2014 9:22:30 PM

Lucian

Posts: 279
Joined: 12/1/2012
Status: offline

Ahh so the "fleet finished" message simply doesn't exist, I'm not missing it. Thanks for clarifying that, I wasn't certain.

quote:

I have also read this forum on and off for years, and never seen anyone miss it. That may be why it is not included. People don't feel they need it, the developer included :)

Seriously? There's like ten million things happening simultaneously in this game and for me at least its very easy to forget about a manual fleet while dealing with the huge onslaught of other things. I usually control 6 to 8 manual fleets and always seem to be involved with something else when a manual fleet reaches its destination, finishes refueling, finishes loading troops or whatever. It would have been nice to have a message for a fleet finishing its mission same as for single ships.

Maybe once I gain more experience with the game it will be less of an issue.

< Message edited by Lucian -- 6/7/2014 8:26:59 AM >

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 3

RE: Fleet Finished It's Mission? - 6/7/2014 6:05:13 AM

Hannable

Posts: 93
Joined: 11/4/2013
Status: offline

I don't think it's an issue of not knowing where your fleets are.

The reason why having a "fleet has completed its mission" messages would be nice is so we know when a fleet has finished refueling and repairing. I know exactly where my fleets are refueling and repairing, but it's a pain to have to keep navigating back to them to make sure they're not sitting idle - especially when there's a war on and I need that fleet to plug a hole.

Knowing that I'll receive a logistics report when a fleet is finished gives me the confidence to move away from that area of the map and not have to keep checking the fleet's progress ... is it refueling? Is it done yet? Did the base run out of fuel? Did I even click the right order? etc. etc.

(in reply to Lucian)

Post #: 4

RE: Fleet Finished It's Mission? - 6/7/2014 7:13:34 AM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
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You have that left menu, though. If you can organize your main fleets to be at the top (not sure as I don't use it), you should have a quick overview.

I usually don't actively use that many fleets at once, and with them bound to the number keys, switching between them to check on their status is really not much work at all. But everyone plays the game in a different way. As long as it is configurable, I would not mind there being a message, though.

(in reply to Hannable)

Post #: 5

RE: Fleet Finished It's Mission? - 6/7/2014 1:13:40 PM

Lucian

Posts: 279
Joined: 12/1/2012
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bingeling
I usually don't actively use that many fleets at once, and with them bound to the number keys, switching between them to check on their status is really not much work at all.

I field more manual fleets and therefore find it a bit more work, but however much work it is, its unnecessary work. The game should be telling you when your manual fleets become idle so you don't have to waste time and divert attention from more important matters by constantly checking if they have finished refueling, repairing, arriving or loading troops.

For a heavily automated game like this it would seem to be a pretty basic feature which is missing.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 6

RE: Fleet Finished It's Mission? - 6/7/2014 3:00:16 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lucian

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bingeling
I usually don't actively use that many fleets at once, and with them bound to the number keys, switching between them to check on their status is really not much work at all.

I field more manual fleets and therefore find it a bit more work, but however much work it is, its unnecessary work. The game should be telling you when your manual fleets become idle so you don't have to waste time and divert attention from more important matters by constantly checking if they have finished refueling, repairing, arriving or loading troops.

For a heavily automated game like this it would seem to be a pretty basic feature which is missing.

I never automate any fleet. But I often send them places to stay there (they go there for a reason), and I do NOT want a message about them reaching their destination. If it is time critical I either sit there waiting for them, or queue the next mission.

More optional alerts never hurt, but I would rather have some extra filters on the current ones, than have new alerts added. For instance "don't notify me of attacks on this mine, and on civilians in general".

(in reply to Lucian)

Post #: 7

RE: Fleet Finished It's Mission? - 6/7/2014 5:31:49 PM

Hannable

Posts: 93
Joined: 11/4/2013
Status: offline

I don't automate my fleets, either, but in large games with huge, sprawling empires, it's nice to know what's going on in places you can't see.

Computer AIs have always had one huge advantage over players - it can attack simultaneously in many different places at once whereas the human can only focus on one battle at a time. Having a toggle-able warning that a fleet is now idle (finished refueling and repairing) would be nice. I like order confirmations - that way I don't have to micromanage to ensure that the units are doing what I want them to do. When I send a fleet to patrol a system, it's nice to know when its done. I agree that the message should be able to be turned off.

As for filters, it would be nice to separate treaty suggestions from the constant, never-ending suggestion to stop paying pirates protection money. Also to separate base and facility suggestions from ship building suggestions.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 8

RE: Fleet Finished It's Mission? - 6/7/2014 8:28:05 PM

Lucian

Posts: 279
Joined: 12/1/2012
Status: offline

quote:

I never automate any fleet. But I often send them places to stay there (they go there for a reason), and I do NOT want a message about them reaching their destination.

Well nobody is remotely suggesting that the "Fleet finished" message be mandatory. Like all other messages in the game it should be optional. But it should also be available for the people who wish to use it since I can see it saving a lot of time with flicking back and forth to check whether a fleet has finished refueling or loading troops or whatever.

I would think that most of the coding is already in place too since the functionality already exists for individual ships.

< Message edited by Lucian -- 6/7/2014 9:31:37 PM >

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 9