A few questions and a suggestion

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

Hey all

I've built up a couple of squadrons of combat vessels based around one jump ship, two missile cruisers and one AM missile ship.  I'd like all three squadrons to fight as one once they have made a jump, is there a way to combine these squadron into a single task group once in a system and then dropping them into their small task groups for jumping without having to constantly move them in and out of TGs?

Fighters look to be a relatively high tech level weapon platform based on the amount of development to just get fighter engines and then small enough tech for the rest of the components to make them usual.  Do most people used them as a later tech item or am I missing something in how fast you can make them effective?

I've build a number of prefab PDCs to ship offworld.  In my first attempt to get them assembled it seems that I now need further minerals to do it, this seems to defeat the point of the prefab?

Finally, as a suggestion for one of you veterans, I found getting into the likes of Dwarf Fortress was made hugely easier when a couple of people did some let's play tutorials on you tube.  I would think an equivalent series for Aurora would be great as having someone chat through what they are doing and why whilst watching helps picking up games like these hugely more easy.

Cheers

[Adamfostas]

On (1), I'm uncertain what you mean.  Why would you need the ships to split into individual task forces to jump, when there's enough capacity in the fleet to do so joined together? Regardless, you can achieve the affect you want by setting some of the squadrons to protect a main squadron on the special orders tab, assuming they're all in the same place, and then click 'Save Escorts' at the bottom of the TF screen.  'Assemble' and 'Deploy Escorts' can then be used to detach and reattach the escorting squadrons at will.

On (2), you'll need to ask around - I never bother with fighters, as the AI doesn't seem to. 

On (3), I presume this is a design decision, but I would agree that it is rather annoying.  It's just another layer of micromanagement, when you could just abstract away the required minerals as being in a box made as part of the prefab.

On (4), a Let's Play has started on the Something Awful forums at hxxp: forums. somethingawful. com/showthread. php?threadid=3389215, although it's not very far along yet.  You'll need to register to see it, though. 

[Steve Walmsley]

There is also an entertaining lets play at http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=181780

Steve

[Hawkeye]

That´s what the "join" command (TG window) is for. I usually would have all three squadron in one TG, then I split two squadrons (again TG window, 2nd tab "special orders", select the ships of a squadron and hit "split TG")
Select the main TG again and do the same for the second squadron.

If the main TG was named, Battlefleet, for example, you will now have
Battlefleet
Battlefleet #2
and Battlefleet #3

After transiting, give Battlefleet #2 and #3 the command to joint Battlefleet.


The splitting off can be easier, if you have organized your TG on the "Naval Organisation" tab (same window)
Select the Squadron and hit "Branch Only" (or "Branch+sub", depending on your organisation)


Fighters:
I don´t think of them as a very early tech, but they aren´t a late game tech either. Personally, I usually go for it between development of Ion-engines and Magneto-Plasma drives (this varies a bit, of course)
It helps that I go for launcher size reduction 25% anyway pretty early, so box launchers are only one tech-level away.

Prefab PDCs. Yes, you need a little minerals, I usually put a couple hundred of all minerals in the cargo hold along with the PDC parts.