Explorers/Constructors on manual

[Bingeling]

Am I missing something.

Starting, and I want to be on manual. No auto ships...

I can order explorers to explore system, and explore sector. Which they seem to do fine apart from forgetting to check up on scenery like ruins and ships. This is in itself silly.

It is fine until they find wildlife, which explorers tend to do. Default design tactic is to flee on sighting enemy ships. Being eaten alive is fine though. Flee on attacked is an option though, maybe I should try that.

It is the same with constructors, they move in and find wildlife (long range exploration...). They happily get eaten while they aim for their target.

Is basic survival instincts part of the automation package?

Any tip on doing these two tasks on manual and survive and be reasonably effective?

[Data]

instinct part of automation? [:)]
the solution is the one you dread, micromanaging at the most micro level

[Bingeling]

Well, I can micro manage a fleet attacking a powerful space port, to have it blast one defensive base at once... I can NOT micromanage 5-10 explorers jumping around systems to make them stay clear of critters. Also, giving instructions to scout one system at a time, and order them to ruins seems a bit exhaustive too. Queuing a few system explorations is tolerable, though...

So explorers are not managable on manual, and they are not exhaustive on auto. Great. Maybe one can do auto first, and order them manually to explore sectors later. Maybe they are bright enough to look at non-explored planets.

The explorers/construction ships under attack felt strange though. I did not get attack warning even if critters were clearly on track. Could this be related to the new beta patch?

[Data]

I don't think so, it may be the old command stickines problem. I've tested several combinations of auto / manual / queue commands for the explorers and have found none to work as intended.
For example, queue a few missions for one of your explorers and check what happens after it's first refualing after you issued the commands. I noticed it forgets about them.
In the case of attacks the behavior is more erratic, sometimes they react in time and sometimes they don't; have not found why they do that.

[Merker]

Indeed, I have always found explorers on manual to be troublesome, rarely doing what they're told. Seems it's the same for ROTS. The explore sector command doesn't seem to work at all, the ships just go follow a random moon or something similar until they're out of fuel. The AI does a good job when not at war though...

I have not had many problems with them getting munched on though, they generally flee in time. Might be ROTS related...

[unclean]

I haven't had time to play recently, but that doesn't sound right at all. Used to be if explorers or construction ships jumped into a system with hostiles they'd immediately try to get out of there, only time they'd get eaten really is if they had an unlucky jump or didn't have enough thrusters to maneuver quickly enough. Do colony ships still flee on sight or does it seem bugged all around?

Explorers have always been a little weird like that though, it would be nice if you could give automated ones the preference of thoroughly exploring planets or exploring new systems instead of running around all haphazardly.

[Bingeling]

I did not get far enough in the game to colonize anything. Starting with WoodMan's settings does that to you. 8 explorers exploring systems for a good while. No pirates found, and no potential colonies... Still early days, though.

I have not played loads of games, and usually my explorers have been on auto with the odd detour for locations revealed by pirates.

But sure, the odd explorer have died. Land in a Kaltor swarm, and it is toast. They are shot up by military ships.

But honestly, how often do you lose construction ships to wildlife? Yesterday I queued them by exploration view or by selecting "queue to build here" when having planets selected. I am pretty sure one of those was eaten by some wildlife with no sign of running away.

Thing is "pretty sure". I have not tested properly. And tonight Dragon Age 2 unlocks...