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[LarvaLounge]

I've read the blog posts about Fleet Encounter Mechanics but I can't find any information about what factors allow the player's fleet to disengage without a fight or not from enemy fleets that bump into me.

I'm playing with the Exerelin Mod, but I don't think that effects the engagement mechanics any.

Tonight, for the first time, a scary looking enemy fleet bumped into me and I was not able to disengage and get away cleanly (with the usual CR hit).  I lost most of my fleet.  It was a fun battle and I have the cash to replace everything, but I want to understand why this happened.  Does it have to do with my fleet size?  I had recently added a second Apogee.  Or was it because some of my ships were not combat ready due to a previous battle?  Is it random?  I've been playing hit-and-run for a while now, always able to choose my battles.  My fleet burns at 9 and I had never been unable to simply disengage whenever an enemy fleet looked like they had me outgunned, until now. 

I just want to understand the mechanics better, so it doesn't happen needlessly in the future.

[Gothars]

If your fleet has more than 80 deployment points, it is too large to escape. Your only survival option if you can't win the fight is to deploy the ships you need least and let them be destroyed, until you have less than 80DP. Then you order a full retreat, and in the next dialog you can choose to disengage.

At least that's how it should work, have not yet tested this.

[Thaago]

Huh... I haven't run into that but that seems... unsatisfying as a mechanic. The best way to get away is to send a few ships to be sacrificed? I mean it makes some sense sort of, but I would prefer the 'escape' scenario to be the way to use ships as a distraction.

[LarvaLounge]

Thanks Gothars, I think that explains it.  I had also picked up some extra Hyperions I didn't really need... Only since I've started engaging in larger battles did I notice how crazy high their deployment cost is.

[Gothars]

Huh... I haven't run into that but that seems... unsatisfying as a mechanic. The best way to get away is to send a few ships to be sacrificed? I mean it makes some sense sort of, but I would prefer the 'escape' scenario to be the way to use ships as a distraction.

Well, it is not really the point of the mechanic to sacrifice ships, that's more a tricky way to circumvent it.

I'm actually not completely sure what the point of the 80DP limit is, though. That you can't escape with more than 100DP makes sense, because escape scenarios deploy everything at once, and deploying more than 100DP  at once can run you into performance issues (or so the assumption has to be).
I guess if the break would be at 100DP, that would open up ways to abuse the escape scenario. You could deploy your whole 100DP fleet at once, and the enemy had no way to deploy more than you and use his numbers advantage. If you can deploy 80DP at max and the enemy 100DP, there's less opportunity for the "split and destroy"-tactics that escape scenarios enable.

Thanks Gothars, I think that explains it.  I had also picked up some extra Hyperions I didn't really need... Only since I've started engaging in larger battles did I notice how crazy high their deployment cost is.

 

[Thaago]

Hmmm, well I've noticed that the deployment limit is still dependent on the relative sizes of fleets (when I fight the SDF with a small fleet I get less deployment points). Is the lower bound 80? I've def got that before.

[Alex]

Hmmm, well I've noticed that the deployment limit is still dependent on the relative sizes of fleets (when I fight the SDF with a small fleet I get less deployment points). Is the lower bound 80? I've def got that before.

The lower bound is 40% of the battlesize. Which is also why that's the upper limit for deployment when being pursued; to make sure you don't get to even up the odds just because you're running away.