That was a quick response.
Surprised you remember me, it's been a few years - I've recently dove back into the game after seeing Ssethtzeentach video and the excellent progress that'd be been towards the game.
I suppose I'll elaborate some more on a few of the gripes/ issues/annoyances I've had with stations.
I'll expand upon the Escort behaviour problems I have experienced.
In the game, the player will currently often want to engage massive fleets attacking the players planets personally, as the stations in battle end up being vastly more powerful than they are for auto resolving a fight. When the player then joins the battle to assist the station, the logical thing you'd want to do is support the station, and escorting the station appears to be the most logical way to do this - surely your ships will protect the flanks of the station and/or try and assist the front of the station as well? This isn't really what ends up happening.
As you can see, my ships are set to escort the station, and it's under attack from a huge enemy force, and yet my frigates are content to sit behind the station without trying to help in any way at all, despite the huge frontal attack. Having to place a defend order, instead of an escort order, for ships to defend the station ends up being counter intuitive for people,
Also of note in that screenshot is the station is using ion beams and phase lances for the mediums, despite the fact they're not prioritised in my doctrine, with the only prioritised mediums being Harpoon MRMs, the Pulse Laser and the Heavy Blaster. The missile slots mentioned in the beginning post are also empty.
Here's a closeup showing this in more detail. I have slightly modified the station with the weapon mount type fix and Fighter Chassis hullmod, but no other modifications.
I also observed the fighter module for the entire battle, and took the liberty of taking some screenshots of situations where using fighter recall seems self explanatory but for some reason it refuses to do so.
Spoiler
These are just 2 of the many situations during the battle in which the Recall Device should have been used - the AI only used it once during the entire battle against 14 capital ships.
Overall the AI regarding using the Recall Device is way to frugal, refusing to use it if even one fighter gets overloaded and doesn't use it's payload, and the other 7 bombers successfully did so. This often results in most if not all of the fighters getting shot down trying to return.
Finally, something that I forgot to bring up in the initial post is the Star Fortress frigate drone system. Simply put, they're awful. Due to the AI's tenancy to massively assault from the front, and the fact that they follow a strict path they can't deviate or retreat from, means they'll rotate right into this huge ball of enemies and instantly die without achieving anything. The High Tech Star Fortresses drones are the only exception to this, as they have Flux Shunt and Fortress Shields, making them incredibly tanky, but even their incredibly durability often isn't enough and they perish. If they manage to survive going through the enemy force, they'll then be completely useless until they rotate back around, seeing as they rotate too far out to be able to provide any PD support against missiles or fighters that might be attacking the back of the station.
Allowing the Drones to be able to have some level of free roam and intelligence might actually allow them to have some kind of effect on the battlefield, instead of their current situation where they provide little more than a few seconds of distraction.
