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[Warnoise]

I am currently at a stage in the game where I always fight.

What I noticed during fights is how the enemy ships are so well coordinated and how they retreat fast when their flux is high.

I tried so many things but I couldn't manage to make my ships move the way I want. I set for example my legion to protect my onslaught, when fight begins I find my onslaught standing back while my legion is fighting an army alone.

So how do you guys handle the AI to make it effective?

For example you want to flank, or maybe you want them to stay close together, etc..

[Arcagnello]

While in combat, press TAB and it will open up the tactical view.

Set combat carriers to escort your brawlers so that they're always close by, also make sure to press C over most if not all of the capture points on the map.  Your fleet will automatically distribute itself to balance the enemy presence contesting each and every point. You should also press S over the bigger ships to have them ignore capture points and go "Search and Destroy" to only focus on killing enemy ships and avoid having an onslaught chasing a pirate salvage rig around the map capturing points.

Alternatively, press D on a spot on the map to have ships that are not on Search And Destroy to defend that position and not advance over a certain point, the fleet will also balance it's between defend points based on the enemy presence.

Lastly, you can also apply command actions over enemy ships. Press S over an enemy to order your fighter craft in your fleet to prioritize it (very useful against phase ships), press V on a target for your fleet to stay out of the enemy ship's weapon range. You can right click on said "avoid" ship with one of your ships to engage it regardless of the order.

You can also target an enemy ship with a kill order while one or multiple of your units are selected for them to aggressively attack it. Just be careful of this command since said ship will litterally ignore all other enemies.

I hope this was useful!

[pairedeciseaux]

For example you want to flank, or maybe you want them to stay close together, etc..

Generally speaking the game is not designed to let the player micro-manage its ships, so the idea is to let the AI run the show for most operations.

What you can control before starting a battle: proper ship outfit, officers&skills, which ships you bring into a battle.

What you can have an influence on during a battle: own ships positioning on the battle map, set/unset target priorities, avoid order.

IMO, the most effective flanking mechanism is in the player controlled ship movements and positioning, as a distraction and/or damage dealer, provided the ship has appropriate mobility.

Alternatively, press D on a spot on the map to have ships that are not on Search And Destroy to defend that position and not advance over a certain point, the fleet will also balance it's between defend points based on the enemy presence.

Indeed!

In my experience, using 1 or 2 defend position orders is really effective to have own ships stay close together and thus support each other. 1 or 2 depending on fleet size. Appropriate distance when using 2. Basically this is your "Reform the line!" command. At some point you may want to cancel one or more orders to regroup your ships on a single position or free them altogether. The way I play the defend position order is probably the most important command / tip to "manage" AI ships.

[SafariJohn]

Assigning fighter strikes to vulnerable targets can drastically improve the effectiveness of your bombers.

I also sometimes use the escort command. Some ships are good at escorting and some really benefit from having a buddy covering their rear.

Make sure to maximize your command points by giving multiple orders without closing/unpausing the tactical screen.

Eliminate orders can also be really effective. In addition to taking down vulnerable ships, you can assign tough ships an eliminate order to make them push into the enemy fleet.

[Warnoise]

Thank you go ya for the tips.

My biggest problems are ships aggressivity.

For example there is something that the enemy AI drone shepherd does which I couldn't reproduce.
It stays on the edge of the map and fire long range missiles from there without engaging. I wanted to do that with my missile destroyers. But the always end up engaging with their non missile weapons.

Also, is it possible to set waypoints for ships to follow to reach a certain destination? Like some sort of queue movement orders until reach final destination

[Modo44]

If you put offensive guns on a carrier, it will move in to use them. If you give it all PD, it should stay away, and only send its fighters most of the time. (This breaks if it has an Aggressive/Reckless captain, and in some modded cases where ships have incorrect tags.)

There is no waypoint queue per se, but you can set multiple waypoints/orders, and delete the ones your ships reach/fulfill. (Unlike adding orders, deleting them does not cost Command Points.)

Ship behaviour depends a lot on the specific refit, weapon grouping, and the aggression level of the captains. It is generally recommended to use the simulator (press N on the refit screen) to see how a specific refit will get uses. If you go to the Doctrine & blueprints screen (hit D, then 4), you will see an "Aggression" slider in the lower left corner. That setting influences all your ships without captains.

[Akogishi]

Wow, this is all really useful information. Thanks!