Fleet Management & Retrofit

[Tarnish]

V 1.9.5.5
Sorry if this has been brought up, but searching did not locate an answer for me.

My Fleets do not resume ordered duties after Retrofit. Been manually re-ordering and it's a pain. For instance, I have individual fleets assigned to specific colonies as homeworlds, set stance to defend, defend "xxx" only, and patrol "xxx". Then research suggests Retrofit ships/stations. Selecting yes, and ships fly to nearest yard for refitting, but when retrofit is complete, each Fleet Orders are set to None, and Fleets do not return to homeplanet to continue defense. It's repetitive to have to reissue orders to 20+ Fleets after every retrofit.

Am I missing something? Shouldn't Fleets return to set duties following upgrades?

Thanks in advance!

edit: oh and I have no mods loaded. Running vanilla with latest patch applied as seen above.

[Retreat1970]

As long as the fleet is postured correctly and set to automate they go back. I haven't encounted your problem. I set a home base, defend posture, range of defence I want, then automate.

[Tarnish]

Thanks, Hadn't selected automate. Expected that setting automate enabled AI to override my selection. Figured I was missing something. Awesome news!! Gonna try right now. Thanks Retreat.

[Tarnish]

Been testing, and I am still experiencing the same issue with automation turned on.
1. I select the Fleet, right click on the planet I want to patrol and set Mission to Patrol Planet xxx
2. Set Home World to that same planet
3. Set Posture to Defend
4. Set Range to Defend Planet xxx Only
5. Turn Automation on. (icon circle with line through it is displayed)

Then the Fleet travels to planet xxx and patrols like it should.
But when retrofit all ships/stations option Yes is later selected, Fleets fly to the nearest Space Port, retrofitting complets, and the Fleet Mission changes to (no mission), the automation is set to off. The Fleets do not return to duty, and don't even return to Home World. That leaves various planets undefended until manually fixed.

It's way too much work, and Not At All Fun to have to constantly reset Fleet Missions so they will patrol the same planets again, after every single retrofit.

Frustrating!, but I'm hopeful for a solution. ComeOn Somebody.

Been having a blast, but this is very close to a game breaker for me. Fleet Management feels less like fun, and more like a job.

[Efaferal]

Tarnish,

Try this :
1. I select the Fleet, right click on the planet I want to patrol and set Mission to Patrol Planet xxx
2. Set Home World to that same planet
3. Set Posture to Defend
4. Set Range to Defend Planet xxx Only
5. Turn Automation on. (icon circle with line through it is displayed)

6. Send fleet to retrofit.
7. IMMEDIATELY click automate back on ( before they go to no mission status ).

Once you issue a fleet command the AI has know way of knowing that you aren't taking over all fleet duties, but if you immediately reactivate the automation when issuing a command I find it usually goes back to doing what I want.

The key to automation and fleet management is to remember that every time you click a command to the fleet the AI gives up control, so you have to finish your command sequence by clicking the AI button to turn automation back on.

BTW if you set a fleet to Defend - Planet and set a home planet there is no need to 'Patrol'. The AI should park the fleet at it's assignment and go to 'no mission' status to save fuel, although sometimes my fleets patrol when there is an enemy in the same system. It will immediately fire up the engines if an enemy is spotted trying to attack it or the planet.

[Retreat1970]

1. I select the Fleet, right click on the planet I want to patrol and set Mission to Patrol Planet xxx

Don't have to do this. Fleets go to their home base and park you don't need to patrol it. Eliminate this step then see if it works.

[Tarnish]

@Efaferal & Retreat

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll give it a try right away. Really hoping for success.