Noob question - Carriers and Engagement Ranges

from Sins Forums

I have trouble keeping my carriers alive in big battles.  If I don't actively queue up a big circle for them to move in or something, they'll all head straight to the nearest enemy starbase and try to order takeout.  I usually put them in a fleet with a carrier cap, but he's the stupidest one of them all.

If I set my carriers to hold position, will their strikecraft engage enemies throughout the gravity well?  Can you set the engagement ranges separately for the carriers and their strikecraft?  What I would really like is an "avoid all contact" Tactics setting where the carrier actively moves as far away from anything that can shoot as possible and outright runs away from pursuers.  The strikecraft, however, would need to be mixing it up all over the grav well.

Any tips on preventing carriers from moving right next to incredibly powerful short-ranged units without my constant supervision would be greatly appreciated.

strategy
5,540 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Strike craft can engage anything in a gravity well, and the best way to manage carriers is to either send them in a circle or disable auto-attack on the carrier capital ship by right clicking on it.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Zeta1127, reply 1
Strike craft can engage anything in a gravity well, and the best way to manage carriers is to either send them in a circle or disable auto-attack on the carrier capital ship by right clicking on it.
End of Zeta1127's quote

I'll clarify this very good point by noting that what Zeta is saying is to right-click the attack icon, thus disabling auto-attack.

I'll also note that it's actually a really bad idea to do this with a Carrier Capital, because then they will not shoot at anything that comes within range of their weapons.

A much better way to go about this is to instead go under the Fleet control, and at the far left is the engagement range button; click it until it says "hold position".

Voila. You now have ships that will sit still unless you tell them to move, and if anything happens to come in range, the will blast it, but they won't move off to pursue.

This is also useful because even if you disable auto-attack for a carrier capital, some abilities will probably make it move around and chase things.

Which is bad.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

stop putting your carriers into fleets.

dont dont move from thier jump in point unless your 1. doing something silly 2. tell them too.

those 2 things may or may not be the same thing.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

My point is, you have to make them hold position, otherwise, they will put themselves in harms way.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Hold Position is much much better then disable auto attack. I guess there may be a few cases when disable auto attack would be better but i never disable it.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

What would really help is an option sub-menu that lets you toggle whether auto-join-fleet is 'on' or 'off' by default for each ship type. Just click carriers to 'off' and they'll never join a fleet unless you tell them to do so specifically. 

 

Carriers tend to fare the best when they just chill at the edge of a gravity well, or even beyond it, so that they can jump away at a moment's notice, and also forces the enemy to zip out across a lot of dead space.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Just make carriers their own fleet and move as you wish.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

When you put units into a fleet together, it means you want them to stay close together at all times.  If you want some of the units to go and fight a starbase, the others will move with them and stay nearby.  As others have mentioned, the problem is simply that you shouldn't be keeping your carriers in fleets with other units.

Strike craft move and fight independently of the carrier, so hold ground stance on the carrier will not impact the strike craft (though you can select the strike craft and change their stance).  When jumping into a gravity well with a starbase, I strongly advise setting all units to "hold ground" stance.  Staying away from those installations is prudent.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

having a button for disable all contact would eliminate the need for micro.  Just simply use the hold position command or muster up the 3 seconds it takes to queue a circle for them around the gravity well.