How to retreat?

[nuclearslurpee]

Your argument about splitting your forces is good though, except if my fleets are slower and the enemy decides to fight rather than retreat I'm screwed anyways and if my fleets are faster or the enemy does retreat I don't need my forces splitted at all.

It has more to to with limiting your losses during that first 10-30 second period before your weapons come online. If your fleet jumps in rather near the edge of enemy weapons range and flees in opposite directions for 30 seconds, the enemy fleet can't chase all of your subfleets and has to pick probably one or two to follow. Even if your fleet is slower, this means some or even most of your ships open the range while one subfleet gets chased down. If your ships are faster, this still matters just because opening the range isn't instant - if you have faster ships but jump in at 400,000 km where your enemies have 500,000 km range on their lasers, you've got to open 100,000 km of range in <30 sec which requires a speed advantage in excess of 3000 km/s.

A successful JP assault against an enemy at even tech is either going to be about overwhelming them with massive numerical superiority (certainly possible against NPRs that don't defend well) or else accepting a small fraction of losses in order to get your forces in-system to inflict a large total loss on the enemy. Of course there are other tactics to minimize those losses but you're still accepting that someone is going to get shot at really hard for 30 seconds before you kill everything else in the system as retribution.

[TheTalkingMeowth]

I keep thinking that building ginormous commercial engined battering rams might be a decent idea. Give them a ludicrous amount of armor and box launchers, basically no engine. Standard transit a pile of them in. Eat death for a while. Then blow everything straight to hell.

Ships are expensive, lack strategic mobility, and will take losses. But you don't need to research and build military jump drives, which are obscenely expensive. I wonder if the math works out?

I also wonder about parasite transit rules. If a carrier transits, do its fighters suffer jump shock?

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

but you're still accepting that someone is going to get shot at really hard for 30 seconds before you kill everything else in the system as retribution.

And that's something I've definitely accept if it means not having to bother with so much clicking and dragging.

[tornakrelic]

How do you tweak jp loop generation? That would be the easiest solution and I would love it.

Although Stormtrooper's point on AI ability (or lack there of) to handle multiple fronts is very true and something I had not thought of until he mentioned it. Having the ability to tweak loop generation for multiplayer games only would solve the problem I was having earlier though. Is that an option in new game creation?

Edit: Nuclearslurpee's point, my bad.

[captainwolfer]

but you're still accepting that someone is going to get shot at really hard for 30 seconds before you kill everything else in the system as retribution.

And that's something I've definitely accept if it means not having to bother with so much clicking and dragging.

Keep in mind that a squadron jump takes 10-30 seconds to recover from, but a normal standard transit or using a jump gate takes 120 to 180 seconds to recover from

How do you tweak jp loop generation? That would be the easiest solution and I would love it.

Although Stormtrooper's point on AI ability (or lack there of) to handle multiple fronts is very true and something I had not thought of until he mentioned it. Having the ability to tweak loop generation for multiplayer games only would solve the problem I was having earlier though. Is that an option in new game creation?

Edit: Nuclearslurpee's point, my bad.

I think to increase JP loop generation, you need to increase the "Local System Generation Chance" and possibly decrease "Local System Generation Spread". I am not certain about this though.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I would probably most happy if Steve incorporated his Aurora 2 ideas into Aurora C# at some point, that would be awesome... 

[papent]

Something that would aid retreating and raiding likewise would be making squadron transit distance apply to departure and arrival systems.

Example 1: your group of 3 stealth raiders have Max Squadron Jump Radius - 250k and use a squadron transit order the ships will transit at 250k km distance away from the jump point and arrive 250k km distance away from the jump point potential avoiding pickets on both side of the jump point.

Example 2: your fleet is retreating from enemy reinforcements after a minor fleet battle you have Max Squadron Jump Radius - 500k transit and enough jump ships for your force while the enemy does not, your battered force transition to the next system 500k km away from the jump point and arrive 500k km away for a total of 1 million KM and potential prepping an ambush of your pursers or regrouping with reinforcements.