Ships on intercept charging stations

[Boronenkumpel]

Hi all,

i have an issue with the Intercept command, and i am not sure whether it is my understanding or the command itself.
I have several destroyers with corvettes for escort. Since they are supposed to defend their assigned destroyers from fighters, i set them them to Intercept,
thinking that this would prevent them from attacking capital ships and stations. However, they keep attacking any stations the lead ship is fighting.
I tried setting them to "Defend" instead lead to the same behaviour.
In both cases the smaller ships held back for a while before kicking in the after burners and going full on ramming speed on the station.
Any tips?

If this is intended behaviour (i have found conflicting information on that), is there a away to achieve a more "combat air patrol" like behaviour of the subordinates, i.e. only attacking S/M sized ships?
They set up for exactly that, and they last all of five seconds in range of a Xenon defence station, they have absolutely no business charging one head on.

Thanks in advance

[LameFox]

Ships on Intercept should only attack S and M craft within some range (40km?) of the thing they are escorting AFAIK. However, stations do launch drones, which perhaps count as S ships...

[jlehtone]

stations do launch drones, which perhaps count as S ships...

Drones are valid targets for intercept. When a Shipyard unleashes all its drones on you, you do want your interceptors to take a piece of that action.

However, acting near a station has the side-effect that you are within range of station's turrets. You will be hit by station's turrets.
What does a ship do when it is shot at? What does a military ship do?
A traditional reaction is to interrupt current task and kill the new threat.
If the reaction of interceptors is to kill the station, then that is what they do.

NPC Pirate that does attack a freighter does not seem to interrupt (easily).

[Boronenkumpel]

After some more testing, it seems only the lead ships escorts have this suicidal tendency.
The other destroyers escorts neatly fall into formation and only react when their ward is attacked, irrespective of whether they are set to defence or interception.
Watching the lead ships escorts shows that once they run out of S/M target near their lead ship, they are sent to attack defence drones that are currently launching or got stuck inside the station.
All of them respond to hits from anti-cap turrets by attacking those turrets head on (with the obvious and inevitable result).
The lead ships also seems to include the escorts (either on "Defend" or "Intercept") in its "Coordinate Attack" order, as it's escorts will go after the stations turrets whenever there are no S/M targets in the vicinity,
even without receiving a single hit from the station beforehand

stations do launch drones, which perhaps count as S ships...

What does a ship do when it is shot at? What does a military ship do?
A traditional reaction is to interrupt current task and kill the new threat.
If the reaction of interceptors is to kill the station, then that is what they do.

NPC Pirate that does attack a freighter does not seem to interrupt (easily).

Well, a real military vessel is not going to blindly charge an enemy it is utterly incapable of defeating, unless there is something to be gained from it.

There must be some way to keep these escorts from suiciding, but i can't seem to find it

[LameFox]

Coordinate attack does seem to include every subordinate ship. I use it only with groups of destroyers because when I tried it with a full fleet I had the carrier and fighters and everything becoming part of this sphere around the station, and most of those are useless there.

[jlehtone]

Well, a real military vessel is not going to blindly charge an enemy it is utterly incapable of defeating, unless there is something to be gained from it.

Yes, the "real" should not.

However, these "game" ships have one main purpose: to die. The economy rolls on the need to replace the dead. Not dying means (economic) death.


"Squadron leader, there is an Asgard on my six. Should I break and attack?"
"Negative, small ships do not attack large targets."
zzap