4.0b Bugs

[alanwebber]

A combat transit bug.  I attempted to give a taskgroup of 4 ships all of which had jump engines at "combat transit" order.  The game complained that the number of ships was in  excess of the squadron limit, and didn't allow the transit, I know this command worked with a taskgroup of 3 of this type of ship.  I have 1st gen jump engine tech (50K, and 3 ships).  Thinking about it now it makes even less sense as 1+3 should be acceptable even with this technology?  Or does the 3 ship squadron include the jump ship?

The number of ships specified for a jump engine includes the jump ship

Steve

Ok then it still is a bug since the 4 ships each had active jump engines so the fact there was 4 of them (and 1 higher then the squadron limit) was not relevant as they each self jumped.

Paul

Have you checked the individual ship screens to check whether the jump drives are still active. There are occasions where these are set to off?

Alan

[Hawkeye]

AFAIK, the command is assumed to take a single jumpship and form a "Jumpgroup" according to the max. allowed number of ships, which will then perform the combat jump.

Apparently, aurora gets confused or something (I might rememer this wrong is also an option) because all ships have jumpdrives.

Personally, as I don´t like the program to decide, which ships will go in in the first wave, I usually divide the fleet by hand (say, I have 3 JS wich can take two additional ships each, I will form 3 groups of 3 ships each) and order those groups to perform a combat jump.

[Paul M]

I will double check everything on the next probe at the moment the task forces are all dispersed doing grav surveys.  But in principle all ships should have had their jump drives active, as I didn't turn any off.

[Father Tim]

If you select combat transit for a fleet, Aurora attempts to jump that entire fleet as one squadron (and since you had four ships and only Max Squaron Size of 3, Aurora threw an error).  If you want your four ships to jump individually, you need to divide them into subfleets.  'Combat Transit' requires the player to assign each jump squadron (subfleet) by hand, and then order all those fleets to jump.

[Paul M]

Tried it again and it gives the same error: that there are too many ships in the task group for the squadron size.  The problem remains that all ships had working jump engines so squardon size is irrelevant as each ship jumps itself anyway.  I see no reason I should have to destroy my squardon structure to do a combat jump when there are enough jump engines available.  In principle I will just change things next time and give them a divide order before the jump rather than afters but still.

only if ships_in_squardon > ships_in_squadron_with_working_jump_engines*max_squadron_size should there be an error message otherwise the combat jump should work.

[SteveAlt]

A combat transit bug.  I attempted to give a taskgroup of 4 ships all of which had jump engines at "combat transit" order.  The game complained that the number of ships was in  excess of the squadron limit, and didn't allow the transit, I know this command worked with a taskgroup of 3 of this type of ship.  I have 1st gen jump engine tech (50K, and 3 ships).  Thinking about it now it makes even less sense as 1+3 should be acceptable even with this technology?  Or does the 3 ship squadron include the jump ship?

The number of ships specified for a jump engine includes the jump ship

Ok then it still is a bug since the 4 ships each had active jump engines so the fa
ct there was 4 of them (and 1 higher then the squadron limit) was not relevant as they each self jumped.

No, it's still not a bug

The whole point of the jump squadron concept is that different squadrons will arrive in different locations. If you had a fleet of 12 ships, including 4 jump ships that each had a 3-ship limit that isn't a valid squadron. You need to split them into four group of three and when they combat transit, they will arrive in four different places depending on the distance parameter of the jump engine. The concept is for the attackers to come through separated. if they could come through in one large group, there would be little point in ever researching the max squadron size as it is only ever needed for combat transits. The point of that tech is to allow greater concentration of attacking force or fewer jump ships.

Of course, if you don't like the jump squadron concept, you could just use the normal transit as that allows unlimited numbers of ships for just one jump ship.

Steve

[Paul M]

Ah a light begins to dawn.  Ok, sorry Steve, but without any documentation what exactly a "combat transit" does as opposed to a regular one was by no means clear.  I use combat transits when probing unexplored jump points.  I also didn't realize the squadron would show up as a group in the 50K sphere.  I thought all ships were randomized anyway.

[sloanjh]

I just had a 1-ship fleet get killed by an NPR.  In the update it got killed, I had the F12 window open with that fleet selected. I got a "No Record of task group in cboFleets_Click" error and the fleet didn't go away.  I had to refresh the F12 screen (be re-selected my empire) to get rid of the fleet in the pull-down list.

John

[sloanjh]

Ummmm I think officers need a POW/MIA status.  The commander of my ship that just got blown away apparently got picked up by the aliens.  He seems to have magically teleported back to my empire and taken command of another ship on the very next econ update  Note that I have "assign to any location" checked.

I retired him out as captured to fix it, but at some point I assume you'll want to track PoW with the potential for repatriation.  Another thorny issue - what to do about "missing and presumed lost" commanders in terms of seniority.  From the point of view of the home empire (in terms of promotion slots) PoW should probably be taken out of the list (probably when they're captured, to avoid complexity with rescues from lifepods); they could then be put back into the list (leading to a temporary imbalance) if they're repatriated.

John

[Father Tim]

I think captured or missing officers should be treated just the same for seniority purposes.  If you want to retire them that's fine, but I'm unaware of any military service that suspends seniority for captured officers.  Quite a few notable people have been promoted while POWs.

[sloanjh]

I think captured or missing officers should be treated just the same for seniority purposes.  If you want to retire them that's fine, but I'm unaware of any military service that suspends seniority for captured officers.  Quite a few notable people have been promoted while POWs.

They would be (treated the same for seniority purposes) - that's why I suggested that when they get repatriated they go back into the officer pool, presumably with their time-in-grade bonus intact.

I'm actually trying to emulate a "Missing, presumed lost" state, where you have no contact with the alien race and so you don't know that they're PoWs.

The difference between Aurora and the real world is that there are a fixed number of higher rank slots in Aurora which, as Steve said long ago, are not intended to represent the entire officer pool, just the "exceptional" officers (hence no officers with negative stats).  The idea is, from the point of view of game mechanics, to move captured (or missing) officers out of exceptional status and into the regular officer pool.  If the officers in question are repatriated, then they go back into the exceptional pool as before.

For known POWs (i.e. some level of diplomacy/communications has been opened with the capturing race) I could go either way; I'm inclined to leave them out of the exceptional pool (because they are not candidates for non-PoW command slots) but I could see leaving them in as well for the reasons you mention.

John

[Paul M]

There is a mismatch between text and reality in the tech list.  In ship construction the tech name says 560 while the description says 520 build points per year.

[Andrew]

In a system I have no ship in, and in fact have never had a ship in I am able to see Life pods from an unknown ship which at least suggests NPR's are shooting at  each other

[Erik L (OP)]

In a system I have no ship in, and in fact have never had a ship in I am able to see Life pods from an unknown ship which at least suggests NPR's are shooting at  each other

They are supposed to.

The initial AI NPR will explore, and possibly activate other NPRs and Precursors.

I'd go get the life pods and see if you get any intel off them  

[Andrew]

In a system I have no ship in, and in fact have never had a ship in I am able to see Life pods from an unknown ship which at least suggests NPR's are shooting at  each other

They are supposed to.

The initial AI NPR will explore, and possibly activate other NPRs and Precursors.

I'd go get the life pods and see if you get any intel off them  

The fact that two NPR's are fighting is clearly not a bug. The fact that I can detect Life pds across interstellar distances is. I have no ship in the system to detect them but they show up on my map