To answer the questions you asked in your previous post, I did 2 series of tests. While doing the first, I realized that the policy settings weren’t what they were supposed to be: the policies for the fleets were all set to “Automated”. I always play with those settings at “Manual”. But given the many tests I did in the last few days, I probably changed those at one point and forgot to put them on manual. And these settings (Fleets policy on Automated) resulted in weird things happening in that first series of tests.
So, for the 2nd series, I’ve set those fleet policies to “Manual”. And the results were more “normal”, and, in my opinion, point toward a problem that is related to what happens (or doesn't) when a fleet is created. And if I’m correct in my suspicion, it shouldn’t be too hard to fix.
As a result of the tests, I now have a new save, created immediately after 2nd Fleet was created, and before it was automated, and before the PR503 system was queued in Dangerous Locations. So you should be able to reproduce exactly what I did.
Saved game:
First: a question
But before I get to the tests and their results, I have a question: why did you ask if there were any friendly stations at the location? Because, based on what I know of the game, I don’t see how that could be relevant. But if it is, I’d like to know why, because it will add to my understanding of how the game works.
Now to the tests and their results
In the relevant test, this is what I did:
- Loaded an autosave in which I was about to start creating 2nd Fleet
- I created 2nd Fleet (acquired the ships from Haakonish lost fleet); the fleet was left on manual while it was being created; at that point, PR503 appeared in Dangerous Locations but wasn’t queued for investigation
- I created a save at this point: 2758.11.14 (see saved game above); so by loading it, you should be able to reproduce the steps below
- I then automated 2nd Fleet (attack role); at this point, 2nd Fleet’s engagement range is 167M on the map, and it includes the PR503 system
- To prevent any changes in the fleet composition by the automation, which might interfere in the fleet being assigned a mission, I changed some settings in its template (“Attack Fleet - Escorts”, assigned by the game). I disabled the “Trim Excess Ships” and “Auto-Upgrade Obsolete Specific Designs” (“Ship Role Up/Downgrade” was already disabled).
- I then queued PR503 in Dangerous Locations, and unpaused the game
- 2nd Fleet then went to the Merta spaceport, even though it didn’t need any repairs or fuel (the Merta Spaceport was assigned as 2nd Fleet home base by the game, not by me).
- Once 2nd Fleet reached the Merta Spaceport, and its mission became “No mission”, then the Advisor suggested sending it to investigate PR503
My interpretation of the results
With the fleet policies set properly (for how I play), once 2nd Fleet reached Merta, the game behaved as expected.
But, it didn’t before that (ie: when the fleet was initially created).
Clearly, once 2nd Fleet reached its destination (Merta spaceport), an internal check was made somewhere in the code as to what mission could be assigned to the fleet, and dangerous locations were included among those possible missions.
But when 2nd Fleet was created, the mission that was assigned to it was to go to its home base, despite not needing fuel nor repairs. I don’t know if this was the result of a default mission automatically assigned to a fleet right after its creation, or the results of an actual check of possible missions. But in any case, it didn’t include a mission to investigate the PR503 dangerous location, which it should have, given the fleet readiness and proximity to that location.
So, if I’m right, then the code change required to correct the problem would be in what’s executed right after a fleet has been created.
