Transports reacting to enemy

[Fred98]

My opinion is that the most irritating thing in UV is when transports refuse to complete their mission.

My view is that a transport must be protected by surface fleets or by aircraft. If they are not then they deserve to be sunk. If a player is concerned he can always change their destination.

It is a great drudge when, every turn I have to check every task force to check its current destination. If any have reacted to enemy then they will have changed their destination to "home".

To confuse matters, any convoys that have completed their mission will already be on their way home. So instead of having 3 convoys bound for Brisbane I find I have 6.

But which of these are returning home and which have reacted to enemy? To find out I have to actually check each convoy separately.

In WITP, I will not have 6 but have 26 convoys sailing the oceans and I don't want to check each convoy every turn. Please arrange it so the transports attempt to complete their mission.

[Grotius]

Hmm, if you set Transport TFs on "Patrol/Do Not Retire," they don't abandon their mission, do they? They don't for me, anyway.

[gus]

Originally posted by Grotius
Hmm, if you set Transport TFs on "Patrol/Do Not Retire," they don't abandon their mission, do they? They don't for me, anyway.

Hi Grotius,

What you say is true enough, however I think what Joe 98 was alluding to was that he wanted a different default behavior for a transport TF set to "retirement allowed" other than return to home port upon encountering a potential threat. One possibility is that said TF would retire to a safe "standoff" distance from the threat and each turn thereafter attempt to reach its destination. If the threat moves closer the TF retires to a new standoff position, if the threat remains on station then the TF will maintain position and retire upon reaching Bingo fuel, if the threat moves away the TF attempts to reach its original destination.

The TF list screen could indicate which TF's are currently in a standoff position so the user could more easily track units in this state.

Then again maybe Joe 98 didn't know about "patrol/do not retire"

Gus

[pasternakski]

I don't have any problems with the current "patrol - retirement allowed" dynamic, but I do wish that transport TFs would not run like pigs from a gun (see how they fly? I'm crying) when there is an enemy air combat TF, very often undetected by search, within a couple of thousand miles. The advantage to sending transport TFs in with "retirement allowed" is that they automatically begin unloading troops and cargo at the destination as soon as they arrive. Transport TFs on "patrol" have to be ordered to unload in your next orders phase, thus wasting valuable time. Man, they should not be such naughty girls and let their knickers down ...

[Fred98]

I set everything to “Patrol do not retire”.

I had never considered that enemy air power could cause transports to retire but this must be the reason.

The idea of “retire to a safe distance” is good but probably a nightmare for programmers.

Paternaski’s point:
…… “sending transport TFs in with ‘retirement allowed’ is that they automatically begin unloading troops and cargo at the destination as soon as they arrive. Transport TFs on ‘patrol’ have to be ordered to unload in your next orders phase, thus wasting valuable time”

…is very scary. I had no idea about this. The plan is to automate as much as possible. This needs to be changed because this game is soooo big that this issue could spoil it.

[Grotius]

Also, Transport TFs arrive at night if set to Retirement Allowed, and by day otherwise. I've always wished I could have a third option: Patrol/Do Not Retire, but arrive by night!

Same with mine-layers and sweepers. Why is day/night tied to lay/sweep? Shouldn't time of day be independent of the type of mission? I wonder if Matrix would consider adding a separate day/night button for TFs, like aircraft have.