Orders - Patrol, escort, etc

[Fideach]

Had a question about orders. If we give an order to a ship to patrol, or escort a ship, and leave automation off. Will it still go repair and refuel itself on it's own?

I know for most of the time, if I give an order movement to an explorer to check out a site, and put it back on automation after doing so. It will follow through with the move, then explore.
But turning automation back on ships you order to escort or patrol, seems to always end up with them doing something else in the long run.

[madflava13]

If you order it to do something specific (escort, patrol) and leave automation off, it will refuel as necessary, then go back to whatever you ordered it to do - it will continue to do so until you give it new orders or it's destroyed.

[Fideach]

Okay, thanks!

[Eystein_hansen]

I wish there was a "guard" command instead of patrol (maybe there is?) because I dont want to waist using fuel when my spaceports needs to only refuel what is really needed to be refueled. Simply said its not an efficient way to run an empire to waist fuel when its not needed. I want to park a small escort fleet next to each mine and not move from it.

[Fideach]

Lol, I can agree with that. In fact, my escort class is usually named "Guard".

[Malevolence]

Asked many times for a "Loiter" mission.

[adamsolo]

ORIGINAL: Eystein

I wish there was a "guard" command instead of patrol (maybe there is?) because I dont want to waist using fuel when my spaceports needs to only refuel what is really needed to be refueled. Simply said its not an efficient way to run an empire to waist fuel when its not needed. I want to park a small escort fleet next to each mine and not move from it.

I'm not 100% sure, I had to check, but if you send a ship to a mining station, or a planet, it will sit there imobile without using fuel. And it will still defend it. Am I wrong?

[Sithuk]

Is there any way to retrofit our ships manually assigned to patrol missions? I like to assign a destroyer to each mine to combat the pirates. I could go through each one and click retrofit, then queue next mission as patrol. Going through each ship manually like this can take a long time.

Is there a better way?

[Malevolence]

ORIGINAL: Sithuk

Is there any way to retrofit our ships manually assigned to patrol missions? I like to assign a destroyer to each mine to combat the pirates. I could go through each one and click retrofit, then queue next mission as patrol. Going through each ship manually like this can take a long time.

Is there a better way?

I'm not sure I completely understand the situation, but you can order multiple ships to retrofit in the Ship screen. You can sort by ships not assigned to fleets, or by destroyer for example to help multi-select only the ships you want to order retrofit.

If you want them to go back to their original mission, then I suggest putting them each into fleets and then setting the "Based At". On automation, they will return to their based at location (colony) after completing the retrofit.

Finally, you could also give the mining station the same weapons and defenses as a destroyer... and skip the part entirely where you assign a single ship. Unfortunately, we can't upgrade stations yet.

[Bingeling]

ORIGINAL: adamsolo

ORIGINAL: Eystein

I wish there was a "guard" command instead of patrol (maybe there is?) because I dont want to waist using fuel when my spaceports needs to only refuel what is really needed to be refueled. Simply said its not an efficient way to run an empire to waist fuel when its not needed. I want to park a small escort fleet next to each mine and not move from it.

I'm not 100% sure, I had to check, but if you send a ship to a mining station, or a planet, it will sit there imobile without using fuel. And it will still defend it. Am I wrong?

That works. Almost.

But if the ship attacks and enemy that jumps away, it will follow, and not go back. And it will be registered as "idle" while sitting there.

And if you are unlucky it will miss out on the gravity of the object and end up on a different spot in the system, which may be fatal for the mine it guards in the early game.

[Sithuk]

Malevolence: Thanks for the fleet tip. I'll try to base my fleets at the mining and gas stations as I think you are suggesting.

ORIGINAL: Malevolence

ORIGINAL: Sithuk

Is there any way to retrofit our ships manually assigned to patrol missions? I like to assign a destroyer to each mine to combat the pirates. I could go through each one and click retrofit, then queue next mission as patrol. Going through each ship manually like this can take a long time.

Is there a better way?

I'm not sure I completely understand the situation, but you can order multiple ships to retrofit in the Ship screen. You can sort by ships not assigned to fleets, or by destroyer for example to help multi-select only the ships you want to order retrofit.

If you want them to go back to their original mission, then I suggest putting them each into fleets and then setting the "Based At". On automation, they will return to their based at location (colony) after completing the retrofit.

Finally, you could also give the mining station the same weapons and defenses as a destroyer... and skip the part entirely where you assign a single ship. Unfortunately, we can't upgrade stations yet.