Issue with carrier-borne fighter squadrons

[Milk Mind]

I just got my first destroyer, with 40 internal docking space for small ships. I tried organizing them in the following fashion but couldn't figure it out. Please tell me if there is a way to do this or if it is a planned feature.
I tried to have my fighters group into 4-unit squadrons that would launch and land together on command, but after making a squadron and commanding the leader to dock, the others do not follow, and must also be commanded to dock. This also breaks apart the squadron. Is there any way I can at least maintain squadrons through docking and launching so they form up as, and can be commanded as, squadrons when I launch all of my fighters?

[graphicboy]

I just got my first destroyer, with 40 internal docking space for small ships. I tried organizing them in the following fashion but couldn't figure it out. Please tell me if there is a way to do this or if it is a planned feature.
I tried to have my fighters group into 4-unit squadrons that would launch and land together on command, but after making a squadron and commanding the leader to dock, the others do not follow, and must also be commanded to dock. This also breaks apart the squadron. Is there any way I can at least maintain squadrons through docking and launching so they form up as, and can be commanded as, squadrons when I launch all of my fighters?

I haven't figured out a good pattern for any of the carrier play, other than don't bother with sub-wings, and plan to "delete all commands and wait" a lot as you shuffle people around.

I *did* however do the following with some success:
- set all of your fighters to defend your ship.
- tell all of your fighters to dock.
- go get attacked.

If you do it right, they'll all undock, go fight, and re-dock afterward. I've only seen it happen once, but (discounting the weird ass flight pathing to/from their docks that beats up their shields) it was pretty cool.

Definitely needs a lot of work though. I re-assigned all fighters to a station rather than selling them and will try again some day.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

I just got my first destroyer, with 40 internal docking space for small ships. I tried organizing them in the following fashion but couldn't figure it out. Please tell me if there is a way to do this or if it is a planned feature.
I tried to have my fighters group into 4-unit squadrons that would launch and land together on command, but after making a squadron and commanding the leader to dock, the others do not follow, and must also be commanded to dock. This also breaks apart the squadron. Is there any way I can at least maintain squadrons through docking and launching so they form up as, and can be commanded as, squadrons when I launch all of my fighters?

A destroyer is not a proper carrier really, not in the combat sense of the term. The Odysseus/Behemoth/Phoenix can carry ships but they are not really designed to operate squadrons off. The Zeus/Collosus/Condor are the best options for operating fighter wings from due to the internal S-sized ship launch tube capability.

As for organisation and control of fighter wings, you are on the same track as me (I believe there are no [better] alternative options) - the key problem is how subordinate AI is handled, it still needs work.

[GCU Grey Area]

I just got my first destroyer, with 40 internal docking space for small ships. I tried organizing them in the following fashion but couldn't figure it out. Please tell me if there is a way to do this or if it is a planned feature.
I tried to have my fighters group into 4-unit squadrons that would launch and land together on command, but after making a squadron and commanding the leader to dock, the others do not follow, and must also be commanded to dock. This also breaks apart the squadron. Is there any way I can at least maintain squadrons through docking and launching so they form up as, and can be commanded as, squadrons when I launch all of my fighters?

I find it's easier not using a squadron structure for fighters & instead just shift-select them in groups from the ship list to give them orders. It's not that much more complicated to manage them that way than giving orders to a wing leader & has the advantage of more flexibility - i.e. can select the precise number of ships for each task, rather than only in multiples of 4 (to use your example).

Have also become rather fond of the 'Dock & Wait' behaviour for automating the return of fighters to their carrier when the battle is over. Also makes it easy to extract damaged fighters from the battlefield - 'remove all orders' command deletes any current orders, so the fighter switches to it's default behaviour & automatically returns to it's carrier. Furthermore, not sure a ship can have both D&W behaviour & be the subordinate of another vessel &, if I have to choose between them, much prefer D&W - it's just so convenient for fighter management.

I also agree with Roger with respect to the advantages of using carriers for transporting fighters - the speed of fighter deployment from carriers is remarkably swift (& painfully slow from any of the alternatives, including destroyers). If you want all your fighters to launch at effectively the same time there really is no substitute.

[Sir Warwick]

I wouldnt botehr with them at all. By all means try them out, experience their utter uselessness and stupidity for yourself, have a laugh at it and move on.

It can sometimes work OK when a carrier and a handful of fighters and bombers is all you need for a task and you dont mind waiting potentially a long time for this little combined force to take down somethign that doesnt really shoot back much.

For larger scale hostile sector invasions vs xenon, I really suggest just stick to hoards of destroyers and corvettes and be prepared to micro them intensely and above all do not use wings once the real fight starts as it seems to just result in order that conflict with what you actually want, or at least you will loose all your wings and organisation the moment you have to use remove all order and wait for the first time - ie a few seconds after first enemy contact. Tedious annoying, frustrating etc... but it is what it is. Pretend you are playing the first ever retro RTS type game on a green screen display from 30 years+ ago - that is pretty much what map view ends up as.