Matrix Games Forums

Once again I've had the pleasure of watching one of my transport TFs bolt for home before unloading was completed, and I'm starting to get the impression it's all the result of ships within the TF taking damage.

According to the manual, a ship which is part of a transport TF, and in the process of unloading, will not be split away from the TF if it gets damaged from enemy action. However, if the damage is severe enough, the auto retire feature kicks in and what happens is the entire TF ends up retiring. At least thats my take on it.

A few have suggested to disable the retirement allowed feature. My question is why should I have to do that? Why can't heavily damaged transports split off on their own, and leave the TF's mission intact? Why should the TF, having completed it's unloading mission, have to wait around until I give them the order to retire.

What I have done is split the damaged ships off into a seperate TF.

I do the same. I always take a look at my transport TFs after an enemy attack. More often than not, sending it out as a new TF allows me to save a transport that is almost always lost the next turn.

But why is it coded that way? Why not automatically split the ship away from the TF? What is the reason for keeping a transport TF intact?

I know there are work arounds for this problem, but why do we need one at all? In every other instance a heavily damaged ship is automatically split off and sent home, while the TF is left to proceed with the mission. Why should unloading be any different?

I think we are confusing two different issues here.

Ships break off from a TF when they become too slow to keep up with it. This happens to Transport TFs, but only when they are at sea. I think this is just a convenience so that you don't end up with four or five TFs in a port unloading separately as ships become damaged.

TF retirement is different. When retirement is allowed for a Transport TF, the TF Commander will break off his mission FOR THE ENTIRE TF when he feels the TF is in unacceptable jeopardy. You can effect this somewhat by trying to pick an aggressive commander for the TF who will hopefully stay put longer. However, the only way to guarantee that the TF stays at all costs is to turn off Retirement Allowed. That's why it exists: to allow control of the TF behavior.

In summary, the TF is not withdrawing becasue of the damage itself (ie, lost ship performance), but rather the fact that as more damage is inflicted, the TF Commander determines that the TF is at unacceptably high risk, and it is time to leave.

I think this is historical behavior, as well. As far as I am aware (and I could be wrong, I'm not an expert) when Transports decided to pull out of a hot landing, the whole TF left. The commander did not send them out in small groups as they became damaged or unloaded. If you want to do so, you can, but the AI will not do it for you.