Survey standing order distance modifiable?

[ryuga81 (OP)]

So I have this huge system with an asteroid field spanning over 300b km, and I have specifically designed a long-range geosurvey class that can cover about 250b km and operate for 4-5 years (to be augmented with tankers).

The problem is, those asteroids are easily 10-20b km apart from each other, and conditional orders won't pick them up ("unable to carry out Survey nearest body"). There are some 160 asteroids and I don't want to plot a 160 point route manually, do I have any options here? Can I modify the max distance for a particular fleet?

Thanks.

[Garfunkel]

Manual only, buddy.

[skoormit]

There are some 160 asteroids and I don't want to plot a 160 point route manually, do I have any options here? Can I modify the max distance for a particular fleet?

Unfortunately the max distance is hard-coded.
You could create these orders by editing the database.
You'd still have to decide what order to go in.
The only way it would be faster to do it this way is if you already know your way around SQL statements--in particular, using a text editor (or Excel) to make a long script to insert 160 rows into a table.

Actually, here's an idea:
There's a standing order "Move to Closest Rendezvous Point."
You could create a trail of these points on the map, and use this as your secondary standing order.
So the ship would try to survey the nearest body, but if none is close enough, it will travel to the closest rendezvous point.
Creating a trail of perhaps a few hundred rendezvous points is probably less onerous than creating 160 "survey asteroid x" orders manually (which requires you to transcribe the precise order of asteroids). Each point is just two clicks (once on the button, once on the location), and you don't have to be too precise with them. If each asteroid gap can be bridged with just one point, this might actually be super easy.

[Garfunkel]

Just give order to survey whatever is the closes un-surveyed asteroid when the game interrupts with the "default order impossible" thing. Probably easier for his mouse hand to do once every now and then, rather than put down all the commands in one go.

[Migi]

There's a standing order "Move to Closest Rendezvous Point."
You could create a trail of these points on the map, and use this as your secondary standing order.
So the ship would try to survey the nearest body, but if none is close enough, it will travel to the closest rendezvous point.
Creating a trail of perhaps a few hundred rendezvous points is probably less onerous than creating 160 "survey asteroid x" orders manually (which requires you to transcribe the precise order of asteroids). Each point is just two clicks (once on the button, once on the location), and you don't have to be too precise with them. If each asteroid gap can be bridged with just one point, this might actually be super easy.

That's cleverer than what I was thinking, but depending on the number of asteroids might still involve a fair amount of manual work.

Essentially, surveying asteroids takes almost no time, 99% of the time involved is travelling.
So you can 'simulate' the survey by doing a road trip around the outer reaches of the system, using a few (8 would probably be fine) waypoints rather than visiting each body.
The survey ship travels does the road trip and at the end, you enable SM mode and go to the system window, use the button to survey all the bodies.
You can use a fleet message as a reminder.

Using SM mode is not cheating, it's just there to help you resolve game issues.

[skoormit]

There's a standing order "Move to Closest Rendezvous Point."
You could create a trail of these points on the map, and use this as your secondary standing order.
So the ship would try to survey the nearest body, but if none is close enough, it will travel to the closest rendezvous point.
Creating a trail of perhaps a few hundred rendezvous points is probably less onerous than creating 160 "survey asteroid x" orders manually (which requires you to transcribe the precise order of asteroids). Each point is just two clicks (once on the button, once on the location), and you don't have to be too precise with them. If each asteroid gap can be bridged with just one point, this might actually be super easy.

That's cleverer than what I was thinking, but depending on the number of asteroids might still involve a fair amount of manual work.

Essentially, surveying asteroids takes almost no time, 99% of the time involved is travelling.
So you can 'simulate' the survey by doing a road trip around the outer reaches of the system, using a few (8 would probably be fine) waypoints rather than visiting each body.
The survey ship travels does the road trip and at the end, you enable SM mode and go to the system window, use the button to survey all the bodies.
You can use a fleet message as a reminder.

Using SM mode is not cheating, it's just there to help you resolve game issues.

That's actually a much, much better plan.
I'm a big fan of using SM to circumvent UI hassles when they have practically no impact on actual gameplay.