Read by Council Fleets should Align to Flagship like astronauts

[Kingofanime]

I've noticed that when flying a flagship around, fleet members can sometimes have trouble keeping up. I propose that when giving a fleet formation order all ships align to the flagship just like an astronaut aligns to the interior of the ship.

This would make it EXTREMELY easy for them to maintain formation, by not using any thrust or movement at all. They will still be able to be bumped out of position if something rammed them. But will attempt to move back into position, all while still aligned, then will turn off thrusters when in position.

To prevent exploits in ship speed with this, simply slow down the max speed and max turning of the flagship to the slowest aligned ship in your fleet formation. Also you could possibly slow down the turning of the flagship slightly, based on the total number of ships in the fleet formation, to account for ships on the far edges of your fleet moving faster when you turn, when using large formations.

There you go, I just made reliable fleet formation movement.

 

[WitherFireGaming]

This is a much-needed idea. My only thought is that they should still consume an appropriate amount of energy and thrust corresponding to the flagship, so it isn't a "free ride."

 

[Kingofanime]

I suppose you could make all fleet ships consume thrust energy whenever the flagship consumes thrust energy. And if they run out of energy for some reason, maybe they will unalign from the flagship. After un-aligning they will try to catch up and go back into their formation position. Maybe they shouldn't be allowed to re-align to the flagship when it' moving.

 

[Ithirahad]

This sounds like a good idea. There should also be a way to voluntarily align with a ship, too; would make landing shuttles on moving ships a lot easier.