Fleets don't "Load" right.

[Slick]

This may be a little nit-picky, but if you give your fleet orders to Load xxx (where xxx may be any of the cargo units or population), it will correctly move to the location, but then load the cargo/population into any available storage; seemingly starting with the first allowable ship in the fleet then moving downward.

It is frustrating to have your carriers load troops, your tranports load fighters or your population go everywhere. In simulaneous games, it makes you waste a turn to resort your cargo before battle.

The workaround I use is to break up the fleet as necessary to give the carriers orders to load fighters, and so forth. But once again, in simulaneous games, you waste a turn resassembling your fleet (if you need your fleet to operate under its fleet orders, or for supply purposes) before battle. This makes the capturing multiple planets in 1 turn by "capture planet, load troops, capture planet, load troops, etc." unusable unless the only cargo ships in the fleet are troop transports.

Also, if I have any spaceyard components in my fleet and the fleet is stationary for a turn, I usually build "one turn's worth" of fighters, troops, or whatever I need. But again, these are usually not placed on the right ships.

Call me weird, but I usually fleet at least 1 "auxiliary" ship in larger fleets on which I load anti-cloak sensors, long range scanners, extra supply or whatever the fleet needs, then fill the rest of the room with cargo containers to hold misc. cargo. These guys always seem to load cargo before the dedicated ships like carriers or troop transports. ARGGGGH!

Are ships automatically fleeted in a certain order? like in order of when they got built or something like that? Can this be changed?

Anyone got a way around this problem?

Slick.

[geoschmo]

I think it is done alphabetically by ship name (not design class name). I had the same problem once, but I got it to work the way I wanted by renaming the troop transport so they had a name that came before the carriers in an alhpabetical list. Of course it may have just been a fluke.

Geoschmo

[Slick]

Alphabetically?!?! I can't believe it. That was just too hard for me to figure out with my 2 living brain cells left. Thanks.

Still, if I order "load fighters, load troops" and your carrier named AARDVARK still has room after loading fighters, it may then proceed to load troops before your troop transport named BRUNO. Correct?

Slick.

[ January 02, 2003, 15:53: Message edited by: Slick ]

[geoschmo]

I don't know. I never gave my fleet multiple pickup orders like that. I was just trying to get it to pick up the troops and put them in the right ship so I had the transport named before the carriers. The fighters are recovered automatically as long as the carriers aren't shot out from under them.

Geoschmo

[ January 02, 2003, 16:17: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Fyron]

It is also likely to be done by the order the ships were built. The order of ships in a formation is determined by when they were built, not name. So, cargo loading could be the same way.

[tbontob]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
It is also likely to be done by the order the ships were built. The order of ships in a formation is determined by when they were built, not name. So, cargo loading could be the same way.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanx Fyron http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I always wondered how the order of ships in a fleet was determined!

[geoschmo]

I guess I was imaginging I got it switched by renaming the ship. I can't do it now when I try. Wierd.

[Cirvol]

another thing that really sux...

if you have 2 ships, (in a simul game), and they are only 'crossing' each other paths and you want to load cargo from one to the other, it does not work

IE, ship a is empty, ship b is full of troops, they move at the same speed, 5 hexes away from their start point, and end up in the same hex, ship a's "load troops" command will not work

i double check the movement logs and the ships were in the same hex, and troops (or population) was not transferred.

is this one known?

when's the next gold patch coming out, there seems to be quite a few problems still http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[geoschmo]

How is this a bug? I don't even understand how you would give this order. The ship you are giving the load order to would have to be given a target. But the ship that has the cargo you want to load wont be where it was when you gave the other ship the order. See I am agetting confused just talking about it. It's no wonder it doesn't work. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Geoschmo

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
The fighters are recovered automatically as long as the carriers aren't shot out from under them.

Geoschmo<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That may be the solution ... anything can load cargo. But only carriers can recover fighters launched by a planet, and troops would only be on a planet.

Sooo...launch the fighters and give the carrier a recover order. Heck, send the fighters to the nearest warp point and have the carrier rendezvous there.

[ January 03, 2003, 19:58: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[Cirvol]

all you need is one loaded item on your ship that wants load orders ... try it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

there is no target for load orders given in an empty space hex

when i review the orders for the loading ship, it says move to this coordinate, load troops, move to this coordinate

load orders should not be ambiguous if at the time of the execution of the order there is only one possible place to load from in that hex... (imho at least;p)

anyway, it would be nice if that was fixed too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Gryphin]

Posted by Cirvol, "if you have 2 ships, (in a simul game), and they are only 'crossing' each other paths and you want to load cargo from one to the other, it does not work
"
That would be a neat feature to have.
For now I'd call this a limitation. Maybe someday we will be able to "Script" ship orders and do those things.

[ January 03, 2003, 19:17: Message edited by: Gryphin ]

[capnq]

I think this ought to work if the receiving ship doesn't move. If you give a Drop Cargo order, and there is more than one potential place to put things in the target sector, you get a menu asking where to drop them.