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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?  (Read 11644 times)

NinjaPirate

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I'm finally getting into bigger fleet battles and I'm trying to figure out a solid command strategy.  Lately I've been issuing the following commands:
1-Full assault
2-Eliminate (on whatever ship is the greatest threat)
3-Repeat step 2

Also how do you issue individual orders to fighters? I used to always use them to capture objective points. 

Fleet Composition: 
1x Eagle Cruiser - Mora (sp?) Carrier - 3x Drover Carriers - 1x Mule Freighter - 1x Salvage rig - 1x Prometheus Fuel Tanker

Here is an example of my current strategy:
https://youtu.be/DDSpjOD7Vbw
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Gothars

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2017, 05:28:34 AM »

The fist rule of giving commands in Starsector is: don't.
At least not when you're not trying to archive something very specific. In normal combat, the AI is competent to make its own decisions. Sure, you can use the "eliminate" command just to choose your next target, but your fleet will choose a target anyway. Your ships will take more risks when you put aggressive orders on them ("eliminate" or "full assault"), so this is safe only as long as you have superior strength anyway. Then it can end battles a little quicker.

In a pitched battle, use eliminate only to take out specific threats, for example a carrier or missile ship that you can't properly defend against.

If there's some really scary ship facing you that you can't take out with "eliminate", it might be best to issue an "avoid" oder on it, so you take out all escorts first so your entire fleet can focus on it.


On your side, it might be worth it to issue some escort orders. For example, I like a purpose build PD frigate to escort my flag ship. That way, when I overload, it will keep me (more or less) safe from the inevitable missile barrage the enemy will send my way.
Same is true for other valuable ships, especially when they have little PD themselves.

You can't command fighters directly anymore, just the carriers.



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borgrel

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2017, 05:58:43 AM »

one or 2 capture commands (if the points are close enough together for 2)
an eliminate on any carrier that strays tooo far from support (grrr, hate)

and retreats once ppt wears out
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NinjaPirate

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2017, 06:15:57 AM »

So you're saying just leave well enough alone?  That jives with my experiences so far. 
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Gothars

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2017, 06:42:59 AM »

jives with my experiences 

I'm not sure what that means.
But yeah, the command system is build to let you pilot your flag ship without worrying too much about what else happens. Otherwise you'd have to play an action game and a strategy game at the same time, which would be a bit much.
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Philder

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #5 on: May 01, 2017, 08:06:08 AM »

I'll usually have most ships escort on me or another big steady ship, and then have all the harassers escorting one harasser. That way you end up with a big ball of death sticking together, with a ball of annoying doing it's thing off to the side. This gives us the constant advantage of numbers as we'll always stick together while the enemy AI will spread itself thin. I prefer having the main fleet escort me so that I can control where we're generally engaging on, allowing me some measure of control to take advantage of tactical situations. It also allows my fleet to stay close enough to me that I can pay attention to my fleet and assist if needed.

Tactical situations may include initially engaging on the far left or right wings of the enemies front line, giving us numbers superiority, or moving away from the bigger, slower enemy ships and pulling the faster frigates and destroyers with us, or moving to flank the enemy that is facing the harassment fleet, or even stretching the main fleet's engagement line into an arc to partially surround the enemy fleet, giving us better fire concentration, angles at unprotected rears, and giving us the advantage of spreading out and not getting into each others way.

Sometimes I'll continuously rotate around the enemy fleet to keep them from surrounding us in case they have a cloud of frigates that might gang up on any of our ships fighting on the sides. This often leads to us spiraling into a half-circle around the enemy fleet, and by the time we get to the crunchy cruiser center, we've eliminated all the smaller targets and have heavily flanked the enemy cruiser(s) and can easily tear it apart from the rear while still spiraling away from the dangerous business end. I usually have some kind of EMP weapon just for this, so I can disable the engines.
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Thaago

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2017, 08:12:21 AM »

I give a fair number of commands, but the real trick is knowing when to cancel them.

Pre battle:

A few capture commands. If I see an enemy deathball approaching that point, I cancel the command and go for a different one.

A few escort commands. This depends if I have point defense frigates in my fleet. With fighters being so powerful, I actually am using both an Omen and a PD graviton wolf. They get attached to my 2 Hammerheads. My Enforcer takes care of itself with flak.

I don't put an escort on myself because I'm flying a phase ship and will get the poor escort frigate completely murdered.

Mid Battle:

Eliminate on an enemy who I can see are in a bad tactical spot/overextended - I assign the specific ships nearby I want going after it. Sometimes the enemy manages to retreat behind their lines and then I cancel the order. This is important, as allied ships will go for the kill to the point of taking heavy damage.

Possibly an avoid command on an enemy cruiser/capital if I feel that it has too much flanking support for me to be able to gank it.

If my ships are getting swarmed: A defend order somewhere in the middle of the action. This pulls in wayward ships and lets them cover each other. Cancel once your ships are in proximity, as once the enemy swarm gets there you don't want your ships holding ground for no reason.

If the enemy fleet is split, I will use an assault/defend/engage/eliminate commands to focus on whichever half is farther away from their slow ships.
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StarGibbon

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #7 on: May 01, 2017, 09:40:07 AM »

If I'm servery outgunned, I'll fight a defensive battle at a "defend" point that occupies two nav beacon points so I can easily defend them, and keep my smaller ships from getting separated from the pack and picked off.

Sometimes Ill assign support ships an escort.

Sometimes Ill assign a priority target.

The biggest danger during battles is having your fleet pulled apart and separated, so any commands I order are generally to keep that from happening.
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Schwartz

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #8 on: May 01, 2017, 10:04:53 AM »

Usually when I see a situation arise that the AI can't handle. Like avoiding a capital ship, or dealing with a small flanking maneuver by rushing it. I also set capture orders on one or two points, but this has become less important now even with the fleet buff skills. When terribly outmatched, assaulting and holding a point can work.

Escorts aren't that great, by the way. That order severely limits the movement of the escorting ship, which means there's a much higher chance it'll die.
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Igncom1

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #9 on: May 01, 2017, 10:10:08 AM »

I usually give the order to capture the points if I have a good frigate escort to at least have my frigate fleet duel the enemy frigates for the majority of the battle.

The destroyers, cruisers and capitals will often close into the centre, with some of the cruisers and destroyers breaking off to fight on the flanks.

As the battle goes on I might order escorts if I feel a cruiser or capital is at risk but it isn't often necessary to do so. If a ship has done something silly I will order them to retreat with an escort, often helping them to escape from flanking enemy frigates that often harass my carriers.

Later on it might become necessary to order a engagement or even an elimination on a larger target if it not receiving the attention I believe it deserves. I've never ordered forces to a particular point on the map before, as I feel it better to keep thing moving and mobile.
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intrinsic_parity

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #10 on: May 01, 2017, 10:13:29 AM »

I give capture commands at the start just to get nav buoys. I tend to order my largest AI ships to eliminate the enemies largest threat. My goal is just to keep the correct friendly ships in the area of the corresponding enemies so my smaller ships don't get caught out by bigger enemies. I've found that the AI is better about going after elimination targets in this patch, it's been very effective. I never give escort commands anymore. It almost always causes ships to stay in combat and help when they need to back off. Small ships will get killed trying to tank shots from larger ships. The AI is fairly competent at staying safe, escort orders are not worth at all, unless the two ships are very similar in speed and defensive capabilities and you just want them to stick together. If I want my fleet to stick together, I will just issue an assault order, that works very well at keeping the fleet grouped tightly.
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StarGibbon

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #11 on: May 01, 2017, 10:22:15 AM »

.
Escorts aren't that great, by the way. That order severely limits the movement of the escorting ship, which means there's a much higher chance it'll die.

Limiting the movement is the point. I use it to keep two weaker ships tethered together so they dont get isolated.  I dont use an escort order with fast assault frigates, that would defeat their purpose, but I dont usually deploy fast, fragile attack frigates during a defensive battle.  It's for slow moving tanky ships or point defense ships.

I know Alex doesnt want too much micro on the Fleet screen, but I do really wish it was possible to specify exactly which ship is to escort which. That would let me deploy a mix of multi purpose ships and put them in their assigned purpose, rather than hoping the AI makes the right decision.
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Thaago

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #12 on: May 01, 2017, 10:26:11 AM »

.
Escorts aren't that great, by the way. That order severely limits the movement of the escorting ship, which means there's a much higher chance it'll die.

Limiting the movement is the point. I use it to keep two weaker ships tethered together so they dont get isolated.  I dont use an escort order with fast assault frigates, that would defeat their purpose, but I dont usually deploy fast, fragile attack frigates during a defensive battle.  It's for slow moving tanky ships or point defense ships.

I know Alex doesnt want too much micro on the Fleet screen, but I do really wish it was possible to specify exactly which ship is to escort which. That would let me deploy a mix of multi purpose ships and put them in their assigned purpose, rather than hoping the AI makes the right decision.

You actually can do this - if you select the ship you want as the escort, then right click on the target allied ship, it sets the escort command with that ship. Of course if the escort is blown up, another light ship will attempt to fulfill the escort command which you may not want.
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StarGibbon

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #13 on: May 01, 2017, 10:31:05 AM »

.
Escorts aren't that great, by the way. That order severely limits the movement of the escorting ship, which means there's a much higher chance it'll die.

Limiting the movement is the point. I use it to keep two weaker ships tethered together so they dont get isolated.  I dont use an escort order with fast assault frigates, that would defeat their purpose, but I dont usually deploy fast, fragile attack frigates during a defensive battle.  It's for slow moving tanky ships or point defense ships.

I know Alex doesnt want too much micro on the Fleet screen, but I do really wish it was possible to specify exactly which ship is to escort which. That would let me deploy a mix of multi purpose ships and put them in their assigned purpose, rather than hoping the AI makes the right decision.

You actually can do this - if you select the ship you want as the escort, then right click on the target allied ship, it sets the escort command with that ship. Of course if the escort is blown up, another light ship will attempt to fulfill the escort command which you may not want.

Thanks for the Tip!
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Soychi

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Re: What commands do you guys issue during larger fleet battles?
« Reply #14 on: May 01, 2017, 11:29:13 AM »

I assign one of my combat ships, preferable something that can disengage well, an eliminate order on something juicy, then assign my carriers to escort that ship. They then move like a hot knife through butter as I update the combat ships eliminate orders. This works best on something somewhat meaty and slow, but not Capital or heavy cruiser level.
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