I have a problem with fleets since the new patch 1.03...

Ships ungrouping from the fleet.

from Sins Forums
I just got around to updating my game yesterday and put in some good time conquering worlds while chewing bubble gum and taking names.  Everything was going over perfectly fine, worlds were being taken, my allies ripping me off with their mission requests, and the pirates tasting swift punishment at the hands of my fleets.  I had three main fleets all quite large filled with several capital ships per fleet followed by a good assortment of frigates.  As the game has been nearing the end, as go through the HUGE MAP, taking over the rest of the systems, I began to notice my fleets will sometimes decide to split up and while some will be left with in the original fleet the rest will break off and no longer belong to any fleet.  This seems to only be fixed by breaking up my remaining fleet and re-creating it.  Has anybody else ran into this problem since the update?  Maybe I have been accidently hitting a hot-key which will kick some units out of the fleet.  Other then that I have not a clue... I just wanted to know if anybody else has possibly been experiencing something similar to what I have been.  The problem isn't severe and I don't really care that much, just the fact that it can sometimes be very inconvenient when I want my fleet to immidately move to another planet.
technical
4,694 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
I've noticed it. Earlier today I Alt-Tabbed out, only to come back to find an entire fleet no longer bound, and half of a second fleet not being selected.

Not sure if there's a pattern to it yet.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I had to stop using the fleet option. I could not stand ships just joing fleets without my intervention. I would have my fleet ready to jump away from my planet, but i would be building more units to defend that world, and as they are built they join the fleet and start jumping away. It is just too much mirco work. They should make it tied to the CTRL+number system or something.

And if you try to have fleets cross with ships that are not in a fleet, good luck, they will probably get sucked in and you wont notice.
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Are you actively fleeting these groups of ships, or letting auto-fleet do it's thing? If ships autofleet their way into a fleet, I've noticed sometimes they will wander. But if you select ships and fleet them "F, F", they have always stayed together for me. I'm pretty sure the problem lay with Auto-Fleet'd ships that auto-joined a fleet.

Also, if your agression range is set to Gravity Well, they will go all the hell over the place within a planetary system. Local Area keeps them on a short leash, Hold Position keeps them from breaking formation... which is my favorite command. Only thing is, that means you gotta manually move the flagship closer for your short range escorts to get in range.

Also, you only need issue move/attack commands to the Flagship. Fleeted vessels will follow it, and will attack whatever is in their agression range that is most suitable for their damage type (if the Flagship's target is less than ideal). Group or singular commands override fleet commands.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
They should make it tied to the CTRL+number system or something.And if you try to have fleets cross with ships that are not in a fleet, good luck, they will probably get sucked in and you wont notice.
End of quote


They do. Turn off the auto-join fleet option and you can Drag+Select ships and keybind them. I use Ctrl1 and Ctrl2 all the time.

Even with them bound, though, I still have "ship amnesia".
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Well, maybe you more game savvy players can fill me in on some better controls. I like to have my Capital Ships, usually the battleship class, be my Commander of the fleet. So I usually create the fleet with him and let all the others auto join up to the fleet. I do that mainly because I don't want a damn frigate to be the leader of my whole fleet, and I haven't figured out how else to make sure that my Capital Ship ends up being the Commander every time. I use my CTRL-# groups for units that are not important enough, like colony ships, and scout ships. I guess I could still use those for my fleets but I really do like the fleet ability, just wish it always worked right and the way I want it to. Thanks for the info so far though, glad to know I am not the only one recently who has started to see this type of stuff.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Holydiver, - Sub-select the ship in your selection group that you want to become the leader of the fleet you're about to create. When you have multiple ships selected the sub-selected ship is indicated by a white background square on the empire tree. Move the selection forward through the group with the TAB key, and backward with SHIFT-TAB. Just highlight your preferred capship, (if its not already) and when you hit the create fleet button that ship will be the leader. If you mess up and end up with a cobalt as leader, its a simple matter of selecting the fleet again, sub-selecting the appropriate ship, and hitting 'create fleet' again.

And to the TC, my fleets have amnesia in 1.02, so its not an exclusive 1.03 bug. In 1.02 my ships wander - and occasionally break up randomly. Moments of confusion follow as I try to sort who belongs to who. It helps I tend to build frigate and cruiser groups in consistent numbers across all my fleets, so I can quickly see who's missing a part of their assailant group, or who's dropped their sentinels. Doesn't happen very often though.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks Szoreny, I didn't know it was so easy to change whose leader of the fleet. I have recently noticed some other things with my fleets. While I get a mixed fleet of all types of frigates and cruisers following my capital ships, they all behave the way they should for the most part when it comes to battle, except recently when I was playing as TEC. The repair ship, can't remember its name, and I think it was called the Cielo Cruiser like to jump away from the current battle and then jump back to the battle at random times. Basically, I designate some targets for my ships to start to wipe out and they all go on the offensive and take care of business, but those support ships just like to leave and come back even though I have yet to give the fleet any sort of order for a jump to a new system. It's weird but then again, nothing too major to really piss me off.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
My Hoshikos show some pretty weird behaviors as well. I find they're more likely to behave if they're grouped into a fleet of their own, jumped in at the same time as your attack fleet, and then told to follow whatever ship or ship type you want them to stay close to.

This makes it easy to redirect them as well if someone out of their range needs some quick healing.

Ctrl-# groups work just as well for that kind of thing, but I like having my support ships pinned to the tree.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
I feel the same way about having my ships in the tree, seeing that I don't focus a lot on my planets as much as I pay attention to my fleets and the conditions they are in.