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Question about the 'Starship Menu'

Is it just me or has anyone else had trouble with the 'Starship Menu' that is suppose to come up when you right click on a allied ship? I have gotten it to come up a few times but 90% of the time it doesn't, is there some mode I have to be in for it to come up? I like the idea of this menu, give a command/order and use the curser to link the ship your giving the command to the one it is to act on.

Anyone have any ideas?

Have a Good New Year Folks

Is the ship you are clicking on under your command? If it isn't, the menu doesn't appear because you can't order the ship to do anything.

V/R

There is a caveat to this though...
 
Depending on the angle that a ship is viewed from the orbit cam (F3) can have an effect on whether or not you can give a command to a ship that truely falls under your chain of command. Sometimes the status bars above a ship, (the shield status shown in white and the hull in green), don't display correctly over a ship. Zooming in or out can cause the ship and status lines to separate, at that point the ability to send a command is lost. Even a slight variations can cause this to happen. I often find I have to change the angle or zoom level to get this command function to work properly.
 
I recall this being an issue in 4.5 that has seemed to have carried over to 5.
 
I guess in short the best way to know if you can command a ship might be to check the 'FORCES' tab for your ship and see where you fall in the chain of command. For example, in a CVN group the carrier is the commanding ship. If you are in command of the carrier, everyone below you should accept commands from you. This should include any CAs or DESRONs. Fighter and attack squadrons also have CAGs.
 
If you don't like where you are in the food chain then get rank and take command.  Once you get there you can redirect the whole battle from the 'MAP' screen during the briefing at the start of a mission.
 
hope this proves helpful...