Auto Join Fleets?

from Sins Forums
So I'm a little confused on how fleets work.

I turn auto join fleets on, but some units just refuse to join the fleet. Mostly my seige frigs won't join my main combat fleet.

It says they will intelligently join an appropriate fleet. Can somebody give me some details about how the ship chooses a fleet to join? This way I can better predict their behavior and plan appropriately.


Also, is there a way to make ships manually join fleets? What i'm doing right now to force my siege frigs into my main combat fleet is reselecting the entire fleet and recreating it. The problem with this 1) it's a pain, but 2) it cancells my rally points.

So:
1) When auto-join fleets is enabled, how does it choose which fleet to join or to not join a fleet at all?
2) And how can I make ships join fleets manually?
3) How close to the fleet does this have to be for auto-join to activate?
4) If there is a more appropriate fleet nearby, will a ship leave its current fleet to join the better one?


Thanks.

17,350 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Don't worry, I still don't seem to understand it either :NOTSURE:
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
1) Not a clue, I think based on experance it will join the first/biggest fleet in the system and this isn't dependant on distance. I tried placing the fleet I wanted them to join right next the factory and it would still join the defensive fleet instead.
2) The only way I have found is to reform the fleet. Clicking on ships to move to a fleet doesn't make them join only go the location the fleet is at.
3) Anywhere in the current system.
4) Not as far as I know.

The only way I have managed to make auto join work is to move the fleet I want to get the ships into another system. Then move ships which are not part of a fleet into that system. Eventually the ships you just moved will form up with the new fleet on their own. This is the only reliable way I have managed to add ships to fleets without recreating them manually.

I'd like to be able to rename my fleets and choose their icons and more importantly make the computer always choose capital ships over frigates for flagship status.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
the flagship is the unit you have subselected when you create the fleet... all you have to do is Tab until the unit you want for the flagship is subselected.



By "system" do you mean "grav well?"
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Ah right I thought it was that, but I still couldn't get it to work sometimes. Oh and yes I mean grav well.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I've got a post up about the problems and benefits of the current fleet implementation.

WWW Link

I've already mentioned this problem in it, but the more people we have thinking on fixes, the better.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Why not just bring back the old control group display in empire view?
However you put it, its always easier to just press ctrl+1, and then press 1 anytime you want to select that combat force, than to sit and fool around with fleets :P
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Auto joining fleets is... annoying... I had no idea it was in the game, and I kept wondering where the hell the ships I just made vanished... And it makes new fleet designations a needless micro pain.
How exactly do I turn it off completely and forever?
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
It would be great to name fleets - not only to add a 'personal touch' option but they could then add an option to frigate / capital ship factories where you auto-assign them to each fleet by name. Would give so much more control while still maintaining the concept of not having to manually add every ship to a fleet.

Even if the default names were just Fleet-1 etc. for those who don't like to name anything. But being able to actually designate where the ships auto-assign to after they are built would be a happy medium of an option.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Also, if we could set rally points on fleets instead of a specific ship in the fleet. that would be great
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
I think we need a bit more fleet controls. Optional of course, but something like where if you have a fleet at a planet with a factory, you can click on the tactics/fleet management and order ships from those factories to go into the fleet directly. This way, you have more control over what goes into your fleet.

The whole fleet mechanic is one of the defining features of Sins and was the sort of thing I was hoping Homeworld would have had.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
I cant make autojoin work. The only way to make ships join fleets is to put a rally point on the flagship from the frigate factory, but you cant rightclick and point at the flagship when a ship is already created, kinda annoying. Groups are good for bunching up all your ships but right now it seems the ctrl+n way is easier.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Also, if we could set rally points on fleets instead of a specific ship in the fleet. that would be great

End of quote


Set the rally point to the fleet button on the empire tree, and the ship will join that fleet in particular.

I agree the implementation could be better.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
I wish we could get an official response about how auto-join works.

A ship with auto-join enabled will join a fleet if...

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
Set the rally point to the fleet button on the empire tree, and the ship will join that fleet in particular.

I agree the implementation could be better.
End of quote
I posted this in the other thread on fleets but that is only sort of true. It will FIND that fleet in particular however it will autojoin fleets within the system based on some other criteria. I have a frigate factory for each fleet usually with the idea that I will build frigates for a particular fleet but if two fleets occupy the same system then they will usually join the wrong fleet.