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[Hatter]

Glad to see that the pile up behind the station is being fixed. Two defend orders on either side is what I use to defend stations and it works fine. This looks like it will solve all of my problems with station combat.

Defend point group orders for >3 ships either cause useless piles that are just a hindrance for the player (now two instead of one) if they are out of engagement reach, or cause chaotic fleet spreading if the enemy gets within engagement range.
This is aggravated by AI flaws like the initial falling back bug that is initiated with the first enemy contact.

So the planned change is generally going to worsen congestion. And since I suspect that the positions will still be in conservative rear positions, they still won't get involved into the engagement plenty of times.

The only genuine solution would be:

• Allied frigates should be deployed in flanking positions like in attacks against retreating fleets.
• Allied non-frigate ships should be deployed in the front left/right position of the station, with a long overdue and countlessly often requested implementation of an "approach and hold in formation" command (simplest solution would be a line-up perpendicular to the center north vector).
• The representation of battle progression for the elapsed time till player intervention should involve allied ships.

I haven't had any problem with congestion around defend point orders, and I've had my entire fleet assigned to a defend point. They don't really congest around the point, they just spread out.

I think the new defend positions will work fine, but the point is moot as we haven't even seen how exactly it will be implemented, much less had the changes released.

I do not understand what you're talking about when you say 'representation of battle progression for the elapsed time till (sic) player intervention should involve allied ships.' Aren't the allied ships either there at the start or not?

[sqrt(-1)]

Glad to see that the pile up behind the station is being fixed. Two defend orders on either side is what I use to defend stations and it works fine. This looks like it will solve all of my problems with station combat.

I haven't had any problem with congestion around defend point orders, and I've had my entire fleet assigned to a defend point. They don't really congest around the point, they just spread out.

If you look closely, you will notice that you contradict yourself with the first sentence.
Any fleet that has no enemy within gun range does lump up badly at the defense point. Check OP's screenshot in one of his later posts.
 

I think the new defend positions will work fine, but the point is moot as we haven't even seen how exactly it will be implemented, much less had the changes released.

It is clear how this is going to play out.
As long as those allied ships at those defense points do not have enemy ships within engagement range, they are two tightly packed lumbs who will block the players intents while being in a poor starting formation to engage the approaching enemy.
Since they are now going to be closer to the ideal defense position for the player (next to the station, as many people here have stated they usually place their fleets and as Alex has indicated for the allied fleets), this is going to be worsened.

This could be resolved with ideal results with the first two points I am suggesting.

I do not understand what you're talking about when you say 'representation of battle progression for the elapsed time till (sic) player intervention should involve allied ships.' Aren't the allied ships either there at the start or not?

It means that when a battle has been long going in absentia of the player, the allied ships should be in gun range of the enemy when the player is joining.
This would be more believable and would avoid the issue further.

[Hiruma Kai]

I'd be interested in hearing how you would want an approach and hold formation command to play out in practice.

Would this be hold in formation until first contact with the enemy?  Or maintain after contact?  How would you see reinforcements interacting with such an order?  Would this be the equivalent of a line of move orders horizontally across, even with the station, one for each ship?

I admit, it's probably a better situation than a single defense point behind the station, halfway to the edge, and only a few escort ships moving outwards to the sides.  On the other hand, two defend orders, assuming they are far enough forward, is moving in that direction, although using current command logic.

The thing about formation commands is I'm not sure how rigid of a relative positioning people envision for them?  If they're not rigid, then they are likely similar to a defend, move, or escort commands, perhaps with more space between ships?.  If they are rigid, that makes it easier to pick off ships on the side of the formation by a player if that side ship can't withdraw.  There's possibly some middle ground, but even in that case I always wonder how one indicates the direction the formation should be and how that interacts with the positions of enemy ships relative to the formation.  Do ships simply turn in place, or do they swing around forcing ships to wheel around the center?

[sqrt(-1)]

Hiruma Kai, it would be just as if each ship had its own defense position.
In difficult battles, I am doing this manually to greatly improve the efficiency of my fleet, but it is so terribly cumbersome.

[Thaago]

While we are talking about stations, I do have a request of my own: would it be possible to have the AI no longer target structural spars? It seems that right now they do so preferentially (at least on midline stations) which leads to the AI blasting away at an inert armor module instead of the thing shooting at it.