New Carrier orders for v5.30

[SteveAlt (OP)]

There will be a couple of new orders involving landing parasites on carriers in v5.30. At the moment the you can choose the 'Land on Mothership' order when the destination is a fleet. The fighter or FAC will move to the fleet and then land on whichever ship is its currently assigned mothership. For clarification, the description of that order will change to 'Land on Assigned Mothership'.

The first new order is 'Land on Specified Mothership (No Assign)', which can only be chosen when the destination is a fleet. This pops up the extra order box (the one used for ground units or teams) where you can select a specific mothership within the destination fleet on which to land, rather than the assigned mothership. This doesn't change the mothership assignment though, so you can send a fighter to land on a different carrier, perhaps for refuelling, but still use the 'Land on Assigned Mothership' order when it returns home again.

The second new order is  'Land on Specified Mothership (+ Assign)'. This works in the same way as above except that in addition to landing on a mothership, the parasite's permanent assignment is also set to that same ship. This creates an easy way to transfer fighters or FACs between carriers, or to send newly built fighters to their first carrier.

Steve

[waresky]

Ah awesome,u help a lot with those features.

Ty v much on advance,Steve...

[martinuzz]

Yes, very nice. Eagerly awaiting 5.30

[Steve Walmsley]

You can also scrap fighters in v5.30. It is done from the stockpile tab in the same way as missiles but the actual scrapping uses the same mechanics as ships.

Steve

[Charlie Beeler]

You can also scrap fighters in v5.30. It is done from the stockpile tab in the same way as missiles but the actual scrapping uses the same mechanics as ships.

Steve

Excellent!!  This will be a significant help to those of us that play with a large fighter force.

How about refits?  Armor repair? 

Yes yes,  the howling masses are never satisfied.   

[Steve Walmsley]

I have added armour repair for ships/FAC/fighters in hangar bays for v5.30. Armour repair will be automatic and happen at the same time as regular damage control.

Each HS of armour damage will be treated as a separate item and the cost in maintenance supplies will be equal to double the unit armour cost. Note that each box on the armour display is not a HS but is equal to HS / Armour Strength. So for Duranium Armour each armour box is 1/5th of a HS. For Composite Armour, each armour box is 1/8th of a HS. Successful damage control will therefore generate a number of armour repair points equal to one HS of whatever armour is on the ship. Those repair points will be applied one layer at a time with priority given to the deepest penetration if there are insufficient points for an entire layer. For example, assume a ship has composite armour and damage to six armour columns of 1/2/4/5/3/1. Successful repair will create eight armour repair points. For the first layer every column will be repaired, using six points in total. The damage will now be 0/1/3/4/2/0. For the second layer only two points are available so they will be applied to the 3 and the 4, leaving the armour damage as 0/1/2/3/2/0.

As with normal damage control, the repair chance will be based on cost and the damage control rating of the parasite or the mothership (whichever is higher). The maintenance supplies will be drawn from the mothership if the parasite has insufficient supplies of its own. As well as being used for fighters and FAC, this will allow the creation of true repair ships with huge hangar bays that could repair all the damage to a warship out on the frontier. I'll add a flag to disable automated armour repair of parasites for those situations where maintenance supplies are scarce.

Steve

[Beersatron]

I have added armour repair for ships/FAC/fighters in hangar bays for v5.30. Armour repair will be automatic and happen at the same time as regular damage control.

Each HS of armour damage will be treated as a separate item and the cost in maintenance supplies will be equal to double the unit armour cost. Note that each box on the armour display is not a HS but is equal to HS / Armour Strength. So for Duranium Armour each armour box is 1/5th of a HS. For Composite Armour, each armour box is 1/8th of a HS. Successful damage control will therefore generate a number of armour repair points equal to one HS of whatever armour is on the ship. Those repair points will be applied one layer at a time with priority given to the deepest penetration if there are insufficient points for an entire layer. For example, assume a ship has composite armour and damage to six armour columns of 1/2/4/5/3/1. Successful repair will create eight armour repair points. For the first layer the first run through every column will be repaired, using six points in total. The damage will now be 0/1/3/4/2/0. For the second layer only two point are available so they will be applied to the 3 and the 4, leaving the armour damage as 0/1/2/3/2/0.

As with normal damage control, the repair chance will be based on cost and the damage control rating of the parasite or the mothership (whichever is higher). The maintenance supplies will be drawn from the mothership if the parasite has insufficient supplies of its own. As well as being used for fighters and FAC, this will allow the creation of true repair ships with huge hangar bays that could repair all the damage to a warship out on the frontier. I'll add a flag to disable automated armour repair of parasites for those situations where maintenance supplies are scarce.

Steve

*faints*

[Charlie Beeler]

Wow!!  That's better than I'd hoped for!  Thank You.

[UnLimiTeD]

Proper Epic.

[On_Target]

You can also scrap fighters in v5.30. It is done from the stockpile tab in the same way as missiles but the actual scrapping uses the same mechanics as ships.

Steve

YESSS.  You're the best, Steve.

I have added armour repair for ships/FAC/fighters in hangar bays for v5.30. Armour repair will be automatic and happen at the same time as regular damage control.

Each HS of armour damage will be treated as a separate item and the cost in maintenance supplies will be equal to double the unit armour cost. Note that each box on the armour display is not a HS but is equal to HS / Armour Strength. So for Duranium Armour each armour box is 1/5th of a HS. For Composite Armour, each armour box is 1/8th of a HS. Successful damage control will therefore generate a number of armour repair points equal to one HS of whatever armour is on the ship. Those repair points will be applied one layer at a time with priority given to the deepest penetration if there are insufficient points for an entire layer. For example, assume a ship has composite armour and damage to six armour columns of 1/2/4/5/3/1. Successful repair will create eight armour repair points. For the first layer every column will be repaired, using six points in total. The damage will now be 0/1/3/4/2/0. For the second layer only two points are available so they will be applied to the 3 and the 4, leaving the armour damage as 0/1/2/3/2/0.

As with normal damage control, the repair chance will be based on cost and the damage control rating of the parasite or the mothership (whichever is higher). The maintenance supplies will be drawn from the mothership if the parasite has insufficient supplies of its own. As well as being used for fighters and FAC, this will allow the creation of true repair ships with huge hangar bays that could repair all the damage to a warship out on the frontier. I'll add a flag to disable automated armour repair of parasites for those situations where maintenance supplies are scarce.

Steve

Just when I thought it couldn't get better, it does.

[Steve Walmsley]

As this seems to be becoming the thread for v5.30 changes, here is another one. I have added four new orders relating to Tractor Beams: Tractor Specified Ship, Tractor Specified Shipyard, Release Tractored Ships, Release Tractored Shipyards.

The first order allows you to select a ship from the fleet that is the destination of your order and the second allows you to select a shipyard from a population that is the destination of your order. In both cases, when the order is executed the target ship/shipyard becomes part of the fleet containing the Tug. It is just the same as using the Link button on the Ship window. If your fleet contains multiple tugs, you can create multiple orders for ships/shipyards and they will be assigned automatically to Tugs with available tractors within the fleet. For example, this will allow you to create a fleet of three Tugs and send them to pick up three fuel harvesting bases.

The Release Tractored Shipyards order is only possible when you select a population as the destination of the Tug fleet. This works just like the break link button on the ship window and the Shipyard(s) will be automatically attached to the shipyards for that population. Releasing ships from Tractor Beams can be done at any acceptable destination for a fleet and will result in a new fleet being created, in the same way as detaching tankers or supply ships.

Using tractors has been a micromanagement issue for a long time so I hope this will finally make it easier to utilise tugs on a wider scale.

Steve

[Yonder]

I hope that this is an acceptable necro.

In addition to repairing armor for ships in hangar bays, do the motherships also have the ability to roll back maintenance clocks? Or does that only happen at Maintenance facilities on planets?

[Charlie Beeler]

I hope that this is an acceptable necro.

In addition to repairing armor for ships in hangar bays, do the motherships also have the ability to roll back maintenance clocks? Or does that only happen at Maintenance facilities on planets?

This can only be done by a maintenance facility.  Leave the fighters in the hanger with the carrier is overhauled.

[voknaar]

this will allow the creation of true repair ships with huge hangar bays that could repair all the damage to a warship out on the frontier. I'll add a flag to disable automated armour repair of parasites for those situations where maintenance supplies are scarce.

Steve

Wait so does this mean if you build a carrier with large enough hanger space to fit your battle ships it could then repair its armor/damage in the field? Or is it only for fighters and FAC?

[Ziusudra]

I have added armour repair for ships/FAC/fighters in hangar bays for v5.30. ...

As well as being used for fighters and FAC, this will allow the creation of true repair ships with huge hangar bays that could repair all the damage to a warship ...

Steve

It seems to clear to me that any ship that will fit can be repaired. Assuming you have the maintenance supplies.