how to stop ships from running away

[tokche]

how do i stop a pointdefense ship from running away in strat combat?

[Phoenix-D]

Add a regular weapon.

[mlmbd]

I don't think there is away to stop them running. After all they are defensive.

mlmbd http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

[Suicide Junkie]

Add...
A...
Regular...
Weapon.

That makes them attack ships, and they will move up into range with the rest of your fleet.

[Fyron]

Point Defense Cannons are not considered to be weapons by the AI. A ship with only them and no normal weapons is considered as unarmed as a non-combat support ship.

[Taera]

correction: a ship with PDC normally does not have targets. If it does not have targets it runs to the corner. when missiles pop up they are instantly destroyed by other PDc (if any) and thus the ship stays in the corner. So, it is a good idea to put some APB on your pdc ships.

[DavidG]

Couldn't you also put the ship in a fleet? Could work untill the ship gets refitted with a regular weapon.

[Phoenix-D]

"Couldn't you also put the ship in a fleet? Could work untill the ship gets refitted with a regular weapon."

Ships without anything to do will ALWAYS run away unless you tell them to ram.

PD-only ships will run until missiles are fired, then come closer, then run when the missiles go away.

Boarding-only ships will run if the enemy has shields.

Troop transports will run if there are weapons platforms on the surface AND there are friendly armed ships.

They will also break formation to do that..

Phoenix-D

[Pax]

There is one sure-fire way to keep a ship from running, nomatter what.

Don't install engines. If it can't move, it can't run away.

...

Of course, this defeats most purposes for which ships are BUILT, but .... that's beside the point.

LOL.

[Gryphin]

If you are desparate you could get them to stay up front by giving them RAM orders. I can think of one drawback.

[Matryx]

Hmmm. Thought - Point defense sats in the cargo hold http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Enemy launches missiles -> *bam* much more PD for your space.

Disadvantage is of course in the loading / unloading of said devices, but some might consider it worth it.

[Phoenix-D]

"Disadvantage is of course in the loading / unloading of said devices, but some might consider it worth it."

It won't work in strategic, and IIRC sats can't be recovered in Tactical. Then again I've never tried..

Phoenix-D

[capnq]

IIRC sats can't be recovered in Tactical. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">They can't; neither can fighters. But if the ship that launched them survives the battle, it automatically recovers them when you leave the Tactical screen. (It was a pleasant surprise the first time I saw it happen; I expected the sats to be left deployed in the sector.)

[Matryx]

I actually meant the bother of unloading them in combat, then reloading them after.
I didn't realise they were automatically collected again.
Now, if you could just get the ships carrying them to stay put...