Fleet Movement Anomalies

[splatthecat]

I was in transit while on a multiple jump trip (about 750km) to visit another player when I dropped out of FTL and did my usual check what was nearby and discovered several overheating Isanths.

It was so random I stopped and managed to rescue about 3 or 4 of them. I wasn't alone on the server but the only other player online was many systems away and like me, usually keeps themselves to themselves. There was a pirate beta station about two sectors away so maybe a pirate v trade guild fight?

Anyway, not wanting to miss out on the wrecked ships if possible I created a fleet and sent them back to my base with the intention of sorting them out on my return.

It worked! I payed my friends station a visit and returned home and sorted out the wrecks. So far so good.

I did the same after taking out a pirate station and sent wrecked ships and turrets back home to sort out at my leisure. Again, all so well and good.

Anyway, last night I wanted to send a small cargo ship the 750km to my friends station. I loaded it up, undocked it and sent it on its way. A little while later I was checking the galaxy map when I noticed the cargo ship a few sectors away. It should have been several systems away by then so I went to investigate.

As soon as I entered the sector in which it was and picked it up on the HUD, it carried on its journey. Once it disappeared from view I went back to base.

A while later I checked and it had moved a couple of sectors. Again, I flew out to investigate. Again it flew off. I left it a while and checked, 2 or 3 sectors and it had stalled again.

I tried sending it home and the same thing happened. Eventually I flew out in a small shuttle, docked to it and manually flew it home.

After docking it to my station I left it a while and tried again. The only thing I did differently was to undock it before assigning it to a fleet and ordering it to move. It did the journey with no problem.

So, has anyone else found random overheating ships on their travels? And, has anyone had any issues with fleet movement orders?

Additionally, the normal route between mine and my friends stations take you directly through a sun and past at least one Alpha station but this doesn't seem to matter.

 

[Reilly Reese]

I've found that if a sector unloads before a wreck can disintegrate it will freeze the overheat in the past.

 

[Tomssuli]

If it counts as an anomaly, I'm getting the two ships with same uid -crash when being on a sector and calling a fleet there with the fleet commands... as the fleet gets loaded, game crashes. And only server restart helps.

EDIT:

Now when I said it, I also got it working (at least this once) when leaving the server for long enough to unload the fleet... But I think it didn't wotk earlier.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I haven't done any in depth testing but I'll list the weird fleet behaviors I've noticed so far.

- Fleets apparently don't need any thrust to move to another sector.
- I often have to issue an order several times for them to carry it out.
- They have a tendency to stop and spin in place if they touch anything.
- They rarely, if ever follow formation orders if not in the same sector. You have to go find them then reissue the order.
- They have ZERO collision avoidance ability. Keep them away from planets (gravity) and stars (toasty).

Nevertheless, they seem to fight well. I can't wait until Schine improves their programming so even better tactics are possible..

 

[Madman198237]

They'll follow the flagship if you pilot it, right?

Seems like it'd be most useful to use them as a sort of squadron, with a player at the lead. This'll help avoiding things like toasted ships and immobilized hunks of useless metal. Also, if you have collision damage....and drop a supercarrier on a planet....Well, good luck. You're gonna need it.

 

[splatthecat]

Yes, I have sent simple ship cores about by accident but obviously they are self propelling.

One wrecked Isanth had no thrusters left and couldn't move unaided. Adding to the fleet it did turn and start moving very very slowly. I added a couple of thrusters and it made the journey home.

I have sent a fleet into a sun on purpose...nothing!

If a fleet is neutral, pirates seem to ignore them.

Fleets don't travel at maximum speed, even if all ships are the same. I would guess they travel at about 65-75% of top speed. I sent some 600m/s fighters to attack a station and left a few minutes later in a non-jump capable ship with a top speed of 475m/s and beat them to it!

The groundwork is definitely there with fleets. I just can't wait for more refinements and bug fixes.

 

[Madman198237]

Hmmm...solar damage must depend on a loaded sector...interesting.

 

[Reilly Reese]

Hmmm...solar damage must depend on a loaded sector...interesting.

Given the lack of sensible path finding I suggest you pipe down and just refer to it as a feature.

 

[Madman198237]

Oh no, I'm just considering the possibilities... spawn an armored station in the CENTER OF A STAR, have an invincible homebase somewhere else, leave the star's sector unloaded...

 

[StarWars1981]

One problem: You have to GET THERE.
Also ... do you really WANT to be there? Have THAT be your homebase, and just hunker down inside the walls with jump-capable ships. Power drive, detach, jump before you take too much damage. Unless, of course, you can actually BE shielded by the super armorblock station you've got.

 

[splatthecat]

Ha ha!!! With a thread on the woes of building a station in an asteroid elsewhere in the forum and now talk of bases built in the middle of a sun! People will be trying to spawn stations in hyperspace or orbiting a wormhole.

Maybe the lack of pirate damage is the same as the lack of sun damage? I have sat in a ship being piloted by the fleet move command and been shot at and nearly fried, so it is a distinct possibility.

 

[Reilly Reese]

Ha ha!!! With a thread on the woes of building a station in an asteroid elsewhere in the forum and now talk of bases built in the middle of a sun! People will be trying to spawn stations in hyperspace or orbiting a wormhole.

Maybe the lack of pirate damage is the same as the lack of sun damage? I have sat in a ship being piloted by the fleet move command and been shot at and nearly fried, so it is a distinct possibility.

But you CAN stick a station in a wormhole sector without any issues.

 

[splatthecat]

But you CAN stick a station in a wormhole sector without any issues.

Never tried it! I hate the wormhole sectors. My first station was in an adjacent system and I was on the edge of the system, the number of times I ended up sucked into the wormhole in my under powered, non-jump enabled starter ship. Most annoying!

 

[Dr. Whammy]

This is just the amateur astronomer in me but... personally I'd stay as far away from black holes/worm holes as I can... They'll kill you in astronaut mode and pull adrift ships in.

 

[Reilly Reese]

This is just the amateur astronomer in me but... personally I'd stay as far away from black holes/worm holes as I can... They'll kill you in astronaut mode and pull adrift ships in.

Which makes them so good for defense. Attackers have to maintain some form of momentum to avoid being pulled out.

 

[kiddan]

Did your little cargo ship still have the food laying out on the table when you checked last?
Aye, must be a Flying Dutchman!

 

[StarWars1981]

Clearly, everything depends on loaded sectors.
Clearly, you people have far too much time to experiment on this game.
Clearly, I want to join you.
Clearly, dangit, I'm out of things to go on with.
Fleets are glitchy. You can sit in one and get piloted more erratically than a caffeinated ADHD kid dodging heatseeker swarms while shooting missiles with onboard cannon and trying to defend with AMS turrets ... or you can just take control and lose the rest of the fleet some sectors back when they glitch and ram into each other, causing a large roadblock - in the middle of -space- where there is so little -space- to move around in. All those fleets need is just a little more dang -space- between them and that idiot flying the next one over, then it'd all be fine and dandy in outer -space-.
I'm annoying!

 

[splatthecat]

Yeah, sometimes there just isn't enough space!

Someone on my server the other night deployed a fleet to attack a pirate station....I drop out of jump doing about 100m/s slap bang in between them! I have the station behind me and a neutral fleet in front.

I am frantically trying to recharge my jump drive when I notice the tell tale sign of multiple missile launches from the fleet including swarms of heat seekers. A couple of the targeted missiles wizz past my ship within metres and then the heat seekers got closer....

The jump drive kicked in and as I accelerated I passed through the attacking fleet!

Note to self, when travelling in a ship with a cloaking device make sure you reactivate it BEFORE jumping!

 

[Reilly Reese]

Yeah, sometimes there just isn't enough space!

Someone on my server the other night deployed a fleet to attack a pirate station....I drop out of jump doing about 100m/s slap bang in between them! I have the station behind me and a neutral fleet in front.

I am frantically trying to recharge my jump drive when I notice the tell tale sign of multiple missile launches from the fleet including swarms of heat seekers. A couple of the targeted missiles wizz past my ship within metres and then the heat seekers got closer....

The jump drive kicked in and as I accelerated I passed through the attacking fleet!

Note to self, when travelling in a ship with a cloaking device make sure you reactivate it BEFORE jumping!

Mate if your cloaker can't perm cloak then your doing it wrong.

 

[splatthecat]

Mate if your cloaker can't perm cloak then your doing it wrong.

Oh trust me it can. On that occasion I had simply forgotten to activate it, my bad. The only other time I suffered was when there was a lag spike and the radar jammer and cloaker decided to drop out.