FLeet Size

[Dereck]

Is there a maximum number of ships that can be put into a fleet?

Thanks

[SirHoraceHarkness]

I've had fleets with 500+ ships so probably no. However once you start getting upwards of 100+ lag starts to show up especially if you have fighters.

[Aeson]

Not that I'm aware of.

However, be advised that there are practical considerations which can limit the size of a fleet. For instance, only 24 full icons and a further 8 half icons will fit into the panel in the lower left corner of the screen (maybe more if the panel is enlarged), which means that it can be difficult to get an idea of overall fleet status for very large fleets. You also have potential issues with refueling very large fleets, as a fleet will try to find a location which has at least as much available fuel as the fleet has total fuel capacity and go there to refuel. Large fleets can also create local fuel crises if they reserve or take all of the locally-available fuel, and may further contribute to those crises by tying up the docking bays for a while, which prevents other ships from making deliveries. If you want to detach pieces of a large fleet to go do other things, you have to issue individual orders and will need to be careful not to issue the fleet a new order until the detached elements have finished their assignments unless you remove the detached ships from the fleet. Lots of ships in one location can cause slowdowns, especially if the main screen is focused on that location (this is most frequently an issue with large groups of large carriers, though it can happen with other ship types as well).

There's also the question of how much you're gaining by using, say, one fleet of 40 ships instead of 4 fleets of 10 ships or some other combination like that, and whether or not that gain is worth the added hassle of dealing with the larger fleet. With 4 fleets of 10 ships, you can still have 40 ships in one place if you feel the need, and it's easier to detach ships for other tasks or spread the force out to hit multiple targets simultaneously, though the cost of the increased flexibility is that the admiral bonuses will affect fewer ships than would have been the case with a single large fleet and that you need to issue more orders.

[SirHoraceHarkness]

Yep, there is the logistics side to think about as overly large fleets can certainly tie up fueling and retrofitting etc. This is why energy collectors are the very first tech I research as it more or less removes fuel use from the equation for bases and parked fleets along with the first few levels of manufacturing to get the build speed bonus and the bakaras shipyards. Also my overly large fleets are typically assembled from other fleets as I refuel and refit them then send them to an assembly point near the target so I bypass most of the cons of running them anyways. DW has lots of handy automation and it's very welcome and useful but a personal touch of manually controlling things during key points of the game will go a long way to an efficient and quick win.