enemy fighters /fac problem

[sneer (OP)]

2 merchant FT went into homeworld of semi friendly race only to find they are under attack of another npr
they seem to be small and equipped in some short range weapon
merchants are generally dead but....
enemy cant get firing position ( seems like they have initiative problem and run ahead of merchant and land out of their weapon range )
I get kept to 60 sec turn with my merchant slowboating to nearest JP
how to break this circle ? merchant are ...unimportant

[Alfapiomega]

merchant are ...unimportant

How do you sleep at night??!!

But seriously - probably easiest way would be to SM them into oblivion.

[sneer (OP)]

how can I do it ?
spacemaster on and what next ?

[Erik L]

If they are under your direct control, just make them stop. The bogies will catch them and pop them.

[sneer (OP)]

I have no direct control over merchant belonging to my shipping lines ....
at least I did not notice...

[sneer (OP)]

I will greatly appreciate any idea ....

[Bremen]

If you get the designer mode password from Steve, it will enable you to access all races (including Civs) in spacemaster mode, which would let you delete either the merchants or the pursuing craft. Other than that I can't really think of an option.

[sneer (OP)]

If my memory work correct I found on this forum Steve does not throw his designer pass easily

this is relatively young game (2060) so I may go with new one

for sure self destruct button for merchants would be a great addition to the game just in such case

[Alfapiomega]

If my memory work correct I found on this forum Steve does not throw his designer pass easily

this is relatively young game (2060) so I may go with new one

for sure self destruct button for merchants would be a great addition to the game just in such case

I do not use SM mode but I think there should be something there to help you...

[sloanjh]

Have you tried doing some 5 second increments?

If that doesn't work, there's a trick where you can coopt civie freighters into your fleet (where you can delete them) by using a tug - you should be able to search the forum for it.  To get the tug, design one, go into SM mode, then create one in Fast OOB mode.  You can then put a waypoint at the location of the civie you want to get rid of and change the location of the TG containing the tug by using SM mode.

John

PS - btw, the designer password wouldn't help, since civies are not another race.  Editting the DB is a bad idea too - in addition to removing the ship from the DB you would need to remove all records (e.g. the civie TG) that refer to it.  If you messed up, you'd end up with a corrupt DB.  This is why Steve is conservative in giving out the DB PW - he doesn't was spurious bug reports from people who've messed up their DB without realizing it.

[sneer (OP)]

I did try 5sec intervals but it did not work as well
self destruct button to merchants would be great ....

[Starmantle]

This miiiight work:

1.  Enter SM Mode
2.  Go to Fast OOB
3. Find the merchant ship you think is under attack.  This might involve a process of elimination
4.  Then either:
Add one or more warships to that task group that can detect and destroy the enemy
Or maybe add an extremely slow ship.  I'm not sure how the Civ AI will handle it, but it might slow down the other ships in the task force.

I'm also not sure if those warships will be under your control or not.