Understanding formations......

[marklaverty]

Hi,

I'm trying to use the formation commands and to be honest I'm struggling

I had hoped you could set up a formation of a few ships and have them fly round in a propper formation (looks like theres some predefined ones in there eg line, X, delta etc)

Can't make it work though.

I can use the 'get formation followers' command to issue commands to the 'following' ships in the formation. But thats not what I want.

I want to create a propper formation of ships that fly around in a propper formation (eg. line, X, delta etc.)

Any help would be much appreciated

[moggy2]

use the command follow or protect and they will fly in formation, no scripting needed.

My fleets fly in formation, and don't normally have a problem.

It doesn't always work to well, possibly because the follow and protect commands don't set the correct distance to follow at for some ships, so the collision detection kicks in before it gets into position.

You could try writing custom follow scripts setting the correct distance to follow at.

[marklaverty]

It doesn't always work to well, possibly because the follow and protect commands don't set the correct distance to follow at for some ships, so the collision detection kicks in before it gets into position.

That's the exact problem I've got I've got a 'multiple fighter patrol script' and it's very important the the fighters stay tightly together when OOS. (In sector it works beutifully, OOS they get seperated)

If they don't, when they engage enemy ships the leader tends to engage first and get blown away before the wingmen even arrive, especialy when dealing with Khaak clusters.

I've tried the 'follow' command and the 'protect' command to keep the wingmen with the leader. I was hoping this formation thing would overcome the problem

Do you (or anyone??) know what arguments you can specify with the 'follow' or 'protect' commands, or how you set the 'safe distance' so they don't seperate OOS????

[moggy2]

OOS I don't know.

I've been working on trade convoys and having exactly the same problem.

I check that the leader does reduce speed properly by having a dolphin follow a maxed octopus. They did stay within a couple of km of each other, so it's not the speed that's the problem.

My guess is there's 2 possibilities. 1 it's caused by a difference in acceleration, or 2 the follow distances aren't calculated properly OOS

in XT it worked fine, I used to use 4 piranha each protected by 4 octopus and they would all arrive at the target at the same time. Doesn't work so well now.