Is it possible to make ships in a fleet stay near each other?

[LameFox]

I don't care what formation they fly in, I just want that when I set something to 'defend' another ship, it will at least remain nearby—at a range where its weapons can actually be used in defence of that ship. I don't want it faffing about 15km away where it can be singled out and killed without defending anything. Can this be done? I'm not even talking about travel drive or anything, these ships are defending a destroyer which is itself protecting a small radius of space.

[Imperial Good]

In 4.10 there is a bug with fleet formations causing subordinates to not remain in formation. It seems 4.20 will fix this, with subordinates generally keeping near their leader.

[LameFox]

In 4.10 there is a bug with fleet formations causing subordinates to not remain in formation. It seems 4.20 will fix this, with subordinates generally keeping near their leader.

I'm actually in the beta and it doesn't seem to help much. I got some Jians to escort the destroyer because I wanted them to aid it against fighters. When I stop the destroyer they arrive in a formation, but while it's moving they roam around more, and when in combat I have seen them chase enemies quite far away that were definitely no threat to the subject of their defend order. They were actually going into travel drive to chase them off. I don't want them out there. It kind of makes me wish there was a distance setting. I did observe that eventually they decide something is too far away and give up, but it's a lot further out than I'd like.

On a tangential note, I can't choose some formations: if it has a zero star requirement, it cannot be selected. Maybe I'm doing that wrong, or it's just bugged?

[mr.WHO]

In 4.10 there is a bug with fleet formations causing subordinates to not remain in formation. It seems 4.20 will fix this, with subordinates generally keeping near their leader.

What about fleet patrolling or/and using travel engine?
My fleets often are spread across entire sector when using travel drive

[jasonbarron]

In 4.10 there is a bug with fleet formations causing subordinates to not remain in formation. It seems 4.20 will fix this, with subordinates generally keeping near their leader.

What about fleet patrolling or/and using travel engine?
My fleets often are spread across entire sector when using travel drive

I'm just dipping my toes into ship boarding and waiting for my damn military transport to slowly arrive with the Marines after I've disabled the target vessel's turrets, engines and some hull is far and away the hardest part of the process so far

[flywlyx]

In 4.10 there is a bug with fleet formations causing subordinates to not remain in formation. It seems 4.20 will fix this, with subordinates generally keeping near their leader.

It is actually getting worse now, in 4.1 it is rare, but now nothing is left.
No matter how high the pilots' levels are, they won't stay in formation.

[Xkuka]

I'm just dipping my toes into ship boarding and waiting for my damn military transport to slowly arrive with the Marines after I've disabled the target vessel's turrets, engines and some hull is far and away the hardest part of the process so far

Uh that can be a painfull experience. I gave it up using smaller but faster ships for the marines because i hate the micro managing of large numbers of marines, but any lager ship that is able to carry amounts of troops are not able to drop them off properly. Not even a relatively fast Rattlesnake is doing it, its going along with the target quite quickly but then does not drop the marines. If i teleport in and take control in that same second marines drop off... I assume the drop off range is just not set up properly for bigger ships, they try to get closer than they can...


Concerning close formations, there is no sufficient way to make complex formations working closely right now. Be it by the lack of options or the failing of existing options. Inside of a fleet it can work, if the player is not piloting the leader ship, but that isnt the use case you were looking for. Makes me nostalgic again, in X3 any ship that was followed by another ship could not exceed the max speed of the following ship, and chains of ships of different formations were actually working quite well. I dont know what in the dev chambers at Egosoft is being discussed in that regards, it would be awesome to learn about that. I have the impression combat focused gameplay is not the priority.

I mean it is almost gamebraking across the game. Take the Xenon as example, i have never seen a Xenon fleet engaging in a closed formation. They are always "dripping" into the AO, surely if enough, eventually the big ships and the small ships come together at times, but only if there is not enough resistance anyways... It gets worse if you fight against them actively, they lose any coherence and new build ships going to attack immediately which leads to the impression there is not resistance in the first place.

[Imperial Good]

It is actually getting worse now, in 4.1 it is rare, but now nothing is left.

4.10 they never remained in formation. As soon as their leader stopped moving, all subordinates would stop moving and park where they were, even if across the sector such as due to a long distance move order. In 4.20 they will at least, eventually, arrive near the leader and enter a formation of sorts. My gate defence fleets seem pretty good at remaining in formation, with all 8 following Syns keeping roughly up with the leading Syn (which is faster than them) and in a formation of sorts.

The shown screenshot looks like the ships are in formation? Need more context to explain what is wrong with it.

[flywlyx]

4.10 they never remained in formation. As soon as their leader stopped moving, all subordinates would stop moving and park where they were, even if across the sector such as due to a long distance move order. In 4.20 they will at least, eventually, arrive near the leader and enter a formation of sorts. My gate defence fleets seem pretty good at remaining in formation, with all 8 following Syns keeping roughly up with the leading Syn (which is faster than them) and in a formation of sorts.

The shown screenshot looks like the ships are in formation? Need more context to explain what is wrong with it.

This is what ships in formation should look like and this is taken from 4.1.
Such formation doesn't exist in 4.2 anymore, and what you described is exactly what happened in 4.1, they kept moving after the leader stopped, while in 4.2, this chance is much lower. Even you switch them between different roles, they won't arrive the correct position.