Assigning FACs to PDCs

[Paul M (OP)]

The NCN is currently training up their first FAC squadron (and yes the next update is entering the writing process) but I'm running into two issues.

1.  The first is in the Navy Organization tab...I have the PDC Forth Dublin as part of the Ground Bases: Earth Branch, but no way can I assign to that PDC a specific squadron of FACs.  Or at least no way I can sort out.  I have the FAC squadron assigned to the Branch "Ground Bases: Earth" to which the base "Fort Dublin" belongs...what do I do to make it a sub branch below the base?

2.  Is there some way to order the FAC Squadron to land on the base and for the Base to become the squadrons mothership?  I don't think I see the order in the orders list, as the FACs aren't in the list of fighter squadrons.

I know that somewhere or another there was a description of doing something similar to what I want with survey ships, but I can't recall if the survey ships were fighters or FACs.

Any help is appreciated as I'd like to get this sorted out before I have carriers... 

As an aside from playing last night:  the NCN is astoundingly impresses with the latest Tracker Sensor Array....51 m detection range for a Wolver sized vessel...they are no longer blind bats.

[Rich.h]

I could be not fully understanding the question but here goes an attempt at an answer for you.

1.First off you need to keep using the "add" button in the naval tab to get the tree down to the required position for you squadron etc. One thing to note is that including your main HQ you can have a maximum of 6 branches in your naval tree. From there first rename one of these new branches to be your main base in my own games I often use "spacedock/drydock". Then add a new branch under this and assign the TG that contains your FAC wing using the "add TG" button in both of these cases. That pretty much sorts out your naval organising so you can quickly select, launch and name a TG with around 2-3 mouse clicks from now on.

2. In the main movement order tab of the TG screen first ensure you have the TG checkbox ticked, then with your FAC wing TG select the TG that contains your PDC base, for the move order choose "land on + assign", finally pick the correct base you want as the mothership and "add move". The wing will then happily move to the base location, land and from there on store it as their assigned homebase. In future you can just use the "land on assigned" command instead.

[DIT_grue]

Also, you can do cut+paste etc on branches of the org chart, which might save you a little effort (though I couldn't explain exactly how off the top of my head).

[Paul M (OP)]

Thanks.  I'll give this a try over and see if I come up with other questions or can formulate my first question more clearly.

Cut and paste didn't work at all or else I was doing something seriously wrong.

[DIT_grue]

Sorry, what I meant is that one set of the buttons on the window is for that sort of manipulation - the Stored Branch List. Did Steve do a walkthrough tutorial of the Naval Organisation tab when he added it, or am I confusing something else in my (spotty) memory?

[Rich.h]

To use the stored branch section just make use of the "add" button just above the stored branch section. Once the branch has been added to there you can make use of the "move stored" button to physically move a branch (including I believe all it's sub branches) to appear under a branch you have highlighted. Or you can make use of the "copy stored" if for example you wanted an exact duplicate of a branch (and sub). again appearing under a branch head highlighted.

Also two buttons "land ship" & "land branch" can help reduce clicks. These will make a selected ship/branch land on their assigned carrier that is in the same location as them. I haven't tested it myself but think it should work in the following way.

1. You move a TG to the carrier location (this TG contains many ships/branches)
2. You use the land button to cause a number of ships/branches to land on their assigned carrier.
3. The TG looses the ships that have landed, but still exists with any remaining ships and can carry on with other orders.

[Paul M (OP)]

Ok...my internet woes caused me to loose my first attempt at a reply.

1.  I have edited my naval organization.  It is impossible to add a branch to a ship or base it seems so I have made:  Near Earth Defences >> Ground Bases >> FAC Support Bases and assigned the 2 Fort Dublin class bases to it.
2.  To the Sub Branch FAC Support Bases I (via move branch) added: 1st Squadron >> 1 Flight 1st Squadron + 2 Flight 1st Squadron
3.  The command land on mothership (+assign) worked for the two FAC flights, unfortunately that looses the 1 Flight 1st Squadron taskgroup.  But they have the right base as their mothership (based on the individual ship details)
4.  I used split to create 2 new groups of FACs to allow them to train but this isn't satisfactory...I may have to land and then use "create task group (branch only)" button to recreate the FAC groups, only I'm utterly unsure how that reacts if the FACs are landed...so may need to launch them.

I think things work better for fighters but the FACs certainly seem to have a few teething issues....  Landing is the easy bit though I can give them a command to land from the orders menu...launching once landed is the part that is unclear.  Mainly because there are lots of pinnaces docked and I don't want to have to re-land a dozen pinnaces just cause I launched 3 FACs.

[Rich.h]

There are three buttons that will fix your problem, "ship only", "branch only" and "branch+sub". These work like the main window "detach" button, they split off any ships located in that group into a new TG and assign the TG a name identical to the ship/branch name. In addition they act as a launch control for docked vessels of any size.

So you have a group of "1st fleet" inside this you have "fighters" and inside that "wing 1" & "wing 2". If you work from a position of all ships are currently docked on their respective carriers, then you can do the following with any of those three buttons.

1. Select a specific ship that is within any of the branch tree and hit "ship only", it forms it's own new TG taking the ship name, and if required also launches from a carrier.
2. Select a branch within the tree, let's use "wing 2" and hit the "branch only" button. All craft inside that branch form a new TG named "wing 2" and they also launch from their carrier.
3. Select a branch in the tree and hit the "branch+sub" button. All craft in that branch and any that are directly under it form a new TG, any ships in the selected branch will launch from a carrier, but  if any of the sub branches happen to be docked at a ship in the selected branch they will remain docked (I haven't yet tested this sub docking part yet to be 100%).

[Vandermeer]

On this same sub-forum there is Carrier Operations Tutorial, which explains how these buttons in the task force window work for you in detail, and how to set up wings etc. .


Here is one example for a large carrier of one game:

Off-Topic: show

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As you can see, the bombers and fighters are separated into groups of "Squadrons", "Formations", and the whole "Wing". There are 80 fighters and 80 bombers on board, so every squadron holds 20, the formation 40, and of course 80 for the whole wing.
Depending on how many you would want to start, you can now just click on the name and use "branch only" to start for example fighter squadron 3. If you want to launch a bigger force of 40 or 80, in this setup it is still just two clicks, as you just select the higher team name, - let's say "Bomber Formation Beta" -, and then "branch + subs", which will group all lower hierarchy craft under that name in a new TG.

You can see in the picture that I have made an even higher group ("Crafts") to draw a line around all parasite craft at once. This is helpful to setup, as it enables you to easily re-establish mothership assignment should that get messed up. It is also helpful sometimes in case you use hangar PDC.
You can also see that the carrier itself stands above all these. Technically it needn't to be there if you don't use hangar PDC, but it looks nice for overview for sure.
Then there are some singular crafts that don't get another group, because they are supposed to start alone and without formation anyway. Though they crown the Task group above anyway, in some cases it is very useful to add them here for oversight, so you can easily start them there without having to search their name in the big window above.

[Paul M (OP)]

Ah so the universe (or in this case database) doesn't explode when I click "make branch" with docked parasites!  As this is the case then yes the situation is resolved.  It does look like I need to make an additional level in the organizational chart for each of the Dublin U1 class bases. 

Possibly adding to the tool tip that it launches docked ships/fighters would be a good idea, I use that button a lot but not with parasites.

Thanks Guys.  Vandermeer, I vaguely recalled that you had an example posted somewhere but could not recall where.