Ship roles

[Nade]

I was wondering what the ai exactly does when set to auto on different ship roles,

Right now my only military ship type are destroyers and every mining station seems to get 1 Destroyer patrolling while resort bases get 3. My Large space port is swarmed with like 20 tough...

My first colony however seems to be left alone completely which is bad. I built a starbase for medical/recreation facilities but so far no destroyers are showing up.

So i am assuming bigger ship roles like cruisers or capitals will actually move to colonies to defend them. I tried the galactopedia but the information on that topic is rather vague.

Does anybody know where i can read up what the different ship roles exactly do when controlled by the ai?

cheers

[RemoteLeg]

Try setting them to "defensive posture" then set their home base location to be wherever you want them to patrol.

It's explained pretty clearly in my video #17. Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs9H2DL ... ex=21&t=1s

[Retreat1970]

In all my years of playing I don't think it makes a difference. Ships on auto will do whatever no matter what size. I've seen carriers escort a mining ship. It's really up to you how to use the ships. For example: I leave Escorts and Destroyers on auto to roam around (anti-pirate), and I put all other classes into fleets guarding stuff or staging for war.

[RemoteLeg]

It helps if you drop their area of operation down to just the solar system. That stops them roaming too far.
Also, they need refueling and repair facilities at home so they never have to leave.