How-To Fleet Posture

[scotten_usa]

Great post, very helpful.  So far, this seems to do a good job keeping the pirate riffraff out of my territory.

[onomastikon]

Thanks to your wonderful posts and helpful replies, I am having more success with this fleet posturing thing.

Three things still, however, cause me confusion, pain, and suffering. Or at least confusion. Perhaps I may ask about them here?

Thing 1: I set one of my defense fleets to defend --> home base & nearby systems. I hit "automate". Everything is fine. I can see its nice blue circle. I have this fleet, like most of my more important ones, hotkeyed. I often cycle through the hotkeys to check up on things. At least twice, I caught this fleet flying WAY out of its blue-circle range ... to refuel. In doing so, it exhausts its fuel supply. Both in going whereever it is going to, and trying to get back. Although there is a spaceport on its home base it is supposed to defend and is unable to do so because it is far out of range. It is only this one fleet. Any tips?

Thing 2: I notice during actions such as these (or more meaningful actions, such as when the fleet goes somewhere to kill something it should) that the blue circle remains where it was. That is, even when my fleet flies to the other side of the galaxy and is gone for 10 years, the blue circle indicating its radius remains. I am pretty sure this is also the case if the fleet is disbanded or killed. I have, in any case, currently 2 blue circles in my territory with NO fleets in them, and I have no idea which fleets should be in them or even ever were in them. The blue circles give me the mistaken impression that this area of my empire is nicely defended, when in fact there is nothing there. Is it cause I's black?

Thing 3: On individual ships, I see the order to "flee" enemies. I do not see this on fleets. (I once bit off more than I could chew when I went after the Phantom pirates, and wanted to run away and fight again another day, but could not figure out how.) Clicking a bit of space further off to recharge shields and go back in did not work, the fleet always immediately re-engaged the target station. Am I blind?

Thank you greatly.

[Gelatinous Cube]

Thing 1: I set one of my defense fleets to defend --> home base & nearby systems. I hit "automate". Everything is fine. I can see its nice blue circle. I have this fleet, like most of my more important ones, hotkeyed. I often cycle through the hotkeys to check up on things. At least twice, I caught this fleet flying WAY out of its blue-circle range ... to refuel. In doing so, it exhausts its fuel supply. Both in going whereever it is going to, and trying to get back. Although there is a spaceport on its home base it is supposed to defend and is unable to do so because it is far out of range. It is only this one fleet. Any tips?

This is a logistics problem, I think. It needed to refuel, and the nearest place was just way too far away. The only way to avoid this would be to ensure that you have a good supply of fuel. I tend to base my defenses around sources of Caslon and/or Hydrogen. I also do my best to control as much Caslon and Hydrogen as I possibly can--it is well worth starting wars over. If the price gets driven up, and you're the only one with a reasonable supply, that's just money in your pocket.

Thing 2: I notice during actions such as these (or more meaningful actions, such as when the fleet goes somewhere to kill something it should) that the blue circle remains where it was. That is, even when my fleet flies to the other side of the galaxy and is gone for 10 years, the blue circle indicating its radius remains. I am pretty sure this is also the case if the fleet is disbanded or killed. I have, in any case, currently 2 blue circles in my territory with NO fleets in them, and I have no idea which fleets should be in them or even ever were in them. The blue circles give me the mistaken impression that this area of my empire is nicely defended, when in fact there is nothing there. Is it cause I's black?

Pretty sure that's working as designed. The way I use it is like this: If I need to use a fleet that's postured, I turn off auto and go do whatever with it. When I'm done, I flip auto back on and it will resume its duties. The circle is just a visual reminder that you have a fleet assigned to that space--personally I think adding an on-screen indicator to each of the circles that tells you what fleet is responsible for that space and how far away it is would be ideal.

Thing 3: On individual ships, I see the order to "flee" enemies. I do not see this on fleets. (I once bit off more than I could chew when I went after the Phantom pirates, and wanted to run away and fight again another day, but could not figure out how.) Clicking a bit of space further off to recharge shields and go back in did not work, the fleet always immediately re-engaged the target station. Am I blind?

I think the option is called "Escape." When you have a fleet selected, there should be a quick-button for it in the button bar below the context box. I tend to do most of my fleetly button-pushing with those buttons.

[onomastikon]

Thanks so much for that quick and helpful reply.
- Is there a way to get rid of that blue circle then if my fleet has since moved, disbanded, or been destroyed? I'm pretty sure I have some blue circles that I don't want anymore; the fleets have moved on to better things, apparently, or been destroyed. I wouldn't even know how to fill them now; I suppose I could build new ships, figure out what the centre of the circle is (not always easy), and assign -- but I'm afraid I will get yet another, almost perfectly overlapping circle, and not re-fill the old one. Ideally, I would like to cancel that circle. Do you know how?
- If you look at the third screenshot on your first post, you can see 8 buttons on the bottom. I think those are stop, refuel, load troops, set home base, set attack target, attack/defense toggle, set range, automate toggle. I cannot find a button for "escape" or flee like I can on the individual ships. Me blind?

[Gelatinous Cube]

ORIGINAL: onomastikon

Thanks so much for that quick and helpful reply.
- Is there a way to get rid of that blue circle then if my fleet has since moved, disbanded, or been destroyed? I'm pretty sure I have some blue circles that I don't want anymore; the fleets have moved on to better things, apparently, or been destroyed. I wouldn't even know how to fill them now; I suppose I could build new ships, figure out what the centre of the circle is (not always easy), and assign -- but I'm afraid I will get yet another, almost perfectly overlapping circle, and not re-fill the old one. Ideally, I would like to cancel that circle. Do you know how?
- If you look at the third screenshot on your first post, you can see 8 buttons on the bottom. I think those are stop, refuel, load troops, set home base, set attack target, attack/defense toggle, set range, automate toggle. I cannot find a button for "escape" or flee like I can on the individual ships. Me blind?

1. The circle won't be there if the fleet is dead. The only sure way to check is kind of roundabout: look at what the circle is based around, and then go into your fleets list and look for the fleet that's based there. Seems convoluted, but it doesn't take too long.

2. You're right. It's a right-click option. I have no idea why I thought it was a button in the context bar. I can't remember if its a regular right-click option for fleets or if you have to press ctrl+right click to get the expanded menu.

Been a few weeks since I played--suffering from some serious burnout, lol. After the patch gets released I'll likely go on a GPA-damaging binge and post my findings on the new features (as well as update my AAR).

[Quellar]

Thank you! [&o]

I was nearly at to point to say to myself, that DW is great for me in the beginning, but is just to difficult in mid-to-late game, because war becomes unavoidable. All the time the attack pop ups and no idea what my advisors suggest. "Attack 13th fleet? well if you say so... go for it..." - Sometimes I lost a colony but had plenty of warships - alas they were on the other side of the galaxy, or in a major attack fleet. I had no idea how to do something useful with fleets.

Then I read this - and finally everything makes sense!

First of all I deleted all AI created fleets (and switched AI fleet creation off), then I put all ships in these new fleets, some for defense, some for attack, although at the moment the attack fleets are at defense also, just with a bigger radius. Finally I created 3 troop fleets with "defend only homebase", which will change to "attack target" with only one click!

Another very important aspect of the knowledge provided in this thread is, that now I know how many ships I need to have! *I thought* I was building like hell, never sure, if it's sufficent or to much. Now I know - it wasn't nearly enough. [:D] No suprise now, that I've never had a tax problem...

I'm far from being a warlord, but at least I have now the basics to play this game without avoiding war at all cost. Thanks!

[Kayoz]

Gelatinous -

Can you please comment on this thread?

If you do not have ANY automation on - for ships, or the fleet - what effect does fleet posture have on fleet reactions? Do/should they stick to the posture-assigned system? Will they chase fleeing ships out of the system, or return to said system once the intruders have left the system?

[stryc]

New player here. Loving the game so far. Steep learning curve but I'm getting there!

After reading through all posts in this thread I find that sometimes fleet postures don't seem to be sticky. For example, I set a fleet posture to 'Defend (homebase) > Sector' but usually within minutes the AI has changed this to 'Attack > Anywhere' and the homebase has been changed. I didn't think that automation was supposed to be able to change Fleet Posture. This doesn't happen with every fleet but it does happen with some, and when it starts to happen with that fleet it keeps happening which essentially means that fleet will never obey a defensive fleet posture order, unless I go fully manual but that defeats the point of having a Fleet Posture. Clearly I'm doing something wrong but I don't know what.

[Zangi]

Was going to ask the same question myself, but... I would figure the Automated Fleet Posture changes have to do with either the Automated Fleet Formation or the Automated Attacking...

Who knows which of the automated settings effect the Fleet Posture?

Also: Fleeing, fleet caution may be set too high... or the enemy fleet is just simply going to be rolling over your fleet/defenses, so the ships run away from the impending doom, making the situation worse... but, the fleet is preserved...

[jpinard]

How do I force a single military Frigate to patrol and engage any baddies in a "solar system" instead of just "one planet"? I can't seem to find the option when I bring up the right click menu (when I had the Frigate selected). Thanks!!!

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: jpinard

How do I force a single military Frigate to patrol and engage any baddies in a "solar system" instead of just "one planet"? I can't seem to find the option when I bring up the right click menu (when I had the Frigate selected). Thanks!!!

Select the solar system's Star instead of one of the planets JP, then set the ship's engagement
stance to 'Engage System Targets'. Should do the trick for you! [:)]

[Bleek]

Have I missed where Defence/Attack is defined?

What's the difference between defence and attack, surely if you have defend sector and attack sector it works the same in that if an enemy enters the sector your ships attack to defend the sector - in other words attacking to defend.

Confused. [&:]

[Bentley264]

As I understand it, defend is better if you want your fleet to target attacking fleets or pirates.  Attack is more to attack pirate bases or enemy bases, althought to be honest, I do this manually.  So, in my case, defend is probably a better posture.
 
 

[Bleek]

Well I set defence, system, auto and all my fleets just sit there and don't defend nearby stations or planets in the same system.

I get the overlays but they appear to do bugger all! [&:]

To be honest this is the first time I've tried to use postures.

[jpinard]

I'm trying to replicate what you're doing but am having an issue with "set home base". I like to play with fewer colonies enabled, so I can't seem to make fleets to protect my mining operations. Are you supposed to be able to set a defensible area around other things besides colonized planets?

I should note, what I'm trying to accomplish is protection against pirate attacks. I hate having to rebuild mining stations and also don't like paying off pirates. So I've been trying to devise a way in which a ship can support a mining station and also refuel itself.

[Bentley264]

It may not be the best thing to do, but I add 4 to 6 fighter bays to my mining/research/resort bases.  They upgrade naturally, and it is fun to watch the pirates get nailed.
 
I also just build a fair number of escorts and frigate bays with fighter bays and leave them on automatic.  They patrol/escort automatically and are fast responders.
 
I put at least 1 troop compartment on all the ships that I intend to add to fleets.  That way I can sort through them quickly.  Hit F11, select troop carriers.
 

[Bingeling]

I find defense fleets (sector range) quite lousy at responding to pirate attacks. There are limits to how long I am willing to wait before sending them manually. It mostly feels like the benefit is that they find their way home after doing the mission (if on auto). Also the circles is a nice overview of coverage.

Is there any trick to making them more efficient? Pirates are a nuisance. I have scanners in the gas clouds around me, and can basically go in an eternal rotation killing new bases...

[necaradan666]

Damn, took me a while to remember where to find this thread. I knew there was a way to get big red n blue circles.

[Crumplecorn]

Since this thread has been necro'd anyway, I'll ask this here:

I've been having amazing trouble getting the postures to do anything useful. In particular, I want to send my fleets to attack an area of enemy space, so I don't have to send them to every individual system manually when things need to be blown up. I give the fleet a home base, an attack target, the attack posture, the 'sector' range, automate them (but with Fleet Formation automation off) and wait. Every time the fleet attacks the specific attack target, and once everything there is dead, it removes the attack target and returns to base, effectively disabling my attack order. If I leave them automated, they will eventually choose another attack target themselves (keeping the 'sector' range), and once again kill that one specific target and then remove the attack target.

Basically they seem to be acting as if Fleet Formation is on automatic, but it isn't. What am I doing wrong?


There's also other issues, such as fleets doing nothing when in defensive posture, and fleets choosing to refuel really far away, even if they are already on their way to a nearer fuel point, but they aren't as important.

[Plant]

The Fleet Formation automation only deals with the creation of fleets.

You've left your fleets on automated, so that is why they are acting automated.

It sounds like they are doing exactly what you want them to do in this circumstance, I don't understand.