Kepp Your Distance...

[LizardSF (OP)]

I am 99.99% sure there's an easy way to do this..

Once I make contact with an enemy fleet, I usually want to try to stay at optimal range while moving at top speed. How do are these orders issued? I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the "protected task force" stuff on the orders page. I basically want to "orbit" my target at a steady distance. Obviously, if the target has a higher speed than me, it will approach me over time, but I'd like to be able to keep moving back as long as possible, hopefully long enough to destroy them. (I'm fighting an NPR that has small, 11000 KMS ships with meson guns, and usually attacks with 50 or 60 of them. My 2000 kms frigates can destroy or cripple one per salvo of missile, but I run out of missiles long before they run out of ships, and once they close, I'm toast. (I would be building a larger fleet of custom ships, but I'm in a crippling duranium shortage that's making it hard to build anything, even mining ships to get more duranium....)

[Erik L]

I am 99.99% sure there's an easy way to do this..

Once I make contact with an enemy fleet, I usually want to try to stay at optimal range while moving at top speed. How do are these orders issued? I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the "protected task force" stuff on the orders page. I basically want to "orbit" my target at a steady distance. Obviously, if the target has a higher speed than me, it will approach me over time, but I'd like to be able to keep moving back as long as possible, hopefully long enough to destroy them. (I'm fighting an NPR that has small, 11000 KMS ships with meson guns, and usually attacks with 50 or 60 of them. My 2000 kms frigates can destroy or cripple one per salvo of missile, but I run out of missiles long before they run out of ships, and once they close, I'm toast. (I would be building a larger fleet of custom ships, but I'm in a crippling duranium shortage that's making it hard to build anything, even mining ships to get more duranium....)

Use "Follow at xxx distance" order for your fleet.

[Vanigo]

I've never been able to quite get that to work. The enemy ship always moves after mine, no matter what I set my fleet's initiative to, so the range is off by five seconds of movement. Even if it's a ship from one of the races with no officers, and therefore can't possibly have an initiative of over 100.

[Hawkeye]

As far as I know, precursers (and probably other special races) have a fixed initative of 250.

[Brian Neumann]

When you notice that the enemy seems to move after you do, adjust the follow distance to allow for the 5 seconds of movement.  You may still end up to close if they turn, but normally it will work to keep the range where you want it, if you have the speed advantage.

Brian

[hubgbf]

I got the same problem, but I was following a planet, and it didn't work. Due to the planet orbiting movement, it comes closer and closer and fire at my ships, I was obliged to manually create a waypoint at the right place.

I've set the follow order at 17500 mkm, and I cancel the order after several time increment when I was at 15000 mkm and detect ennemy incomming fire. I was sending wave of missiles after wave, waiting 40 minutes to see the effect before affecting targets for the next round.

I didn't know the orbiting speed, but I did not think she can move 2.000.000 km in less than an hour, isn't it? In addition my fleet was not showing any visible movement trace.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

planets do their rotation on the construction tick. It's possible for them to go pretty far.   It's just unlikely that the construction tick will happen on a combat tick. 

[blue emu]

I didn't know the orbiting speed, but I did not think she can move 2.000.000 km in less than an hour, isn't it?

That's about 12 times as fast as Mercury moves... so it's entirely possible, for an inner planet.

[Person012345]

As the deadly shoe says, planets move per 5 days. So that "1 hour" movement is probably 5 days worth of movement for the planet.