Escorts stay in formation

[Sabaithal]

Ok, how do I do this? Because I've been trying for 3 DAYS.

Defend and interceptions both seem to do the exact same thing: Escorts either lag way behind, or they rush toward the destination leaving the ship they are supposed to be protecting behind.

Alternate commands don't seem to have any effect.

I see the AI fleets doing this ALL THE TIME so there has to be a way.

[grapplehoeker]

Experiment with different wing formations. I find line abreast, triangle and reverse triangle to be effective.
Also use wing combinations. Meaning wing within wings, so that they cover each other.
However, always bear in mind the travel speed variations of different ships. So, ideally, set the ship to be defended as one with the slowest travel speed of the wing. That way, they will all keep together en route to the destination.
The only exception is in the event that there's a threat, but by ensuring that all of the wing ships are relatively local you should be able to engage as a wing, rather than your on point ships flying too far ahead as you describe.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Experiment with different wing formations. I find line abreast, triangle and reverse triangle to be effective.
Also use wing combinations. Meaning wing within wings, so that they cover each other.
However, always bear in mind the travel speed variations of different ships. So, ideally, set the ship to be defended as one with the slowest travel speed of the wing. That way, they will all keep together en route to the destination.
The only exception is in the event that there's a threat, but by ensuring that all of the wing ships are relatively local you should be able to engage as a wing, rather than your on point ships flying too far ahead as you describe.

I'm just trying to get 2 interceptors to defend a M-transport ship while its getting cargo I need. That's it.

Tried triangle, and the ships did not stay together, as well as several others.

[Sabaithal]

Ok, I just noticed that two escorts in circle formation with their escortee were staying together, but they entered the zone while I was present nearby.

As soon as they got far enough away, they broke out of formation again and went ahead on their own.

[Warlock Raccoon]

I've learned that how you form a wing is important. I do not know how you are doing this, so I can not pin down the issue on that front. Telling a ship to follow another ship and opening coms with them to tell them to "join my squad" won't actually make it a proper squad, so they won't do formations and will typically lag behind. I had to figure out how to do this myself.

In order to get formations to work, I learned that I had to form the squad in a specific way. You have to shift-left click or shift-drag left click to make a box to select all the ships you want in a squad. Then right click the ship you want to be the wing lead. Then you need to move down to the "Assign Roll for" clicking either "Attack" "Defense" or "Interception" and select which group from "Alpha" to "Kappa"

Some things to note though
-A formation moves at the wing lead's speed, meaning ships slower than the wing lead will still be left behind.
-Capital ships don't join formations well as non-wing leads. Sometimes they follow and sometimes they don't, even if they're put in a wing the proper way. I've yet to figure out how to fix this.

[Sabaithal]

Ok then, to be more specific.
- 2 elite vanguard interceptors
- 1 transport needing an escort

I click on both interceptors, right click the transport, and assign them to the 'defence' role. Then I go to the transport behavior and assign it to circle formation.

The interceptors either run on ahead, or lag behind. Its not terribly consistent, unless I am within range. Then they follow their escort no problem.

[grapplehoeker]

In your situation, I wouldn't bother escorting a transporter.
Set the global order to evade when attacked/accosted by pirates and you may also add an inform me.
An M transporter that runs for it immediately that an S class pirate hails it and orders it to drop its cargo will make a clean getaway 95% of the time.
If the pirates are using M or L class ships, they may have more trouble and in that case, you might consider re-routing their trade route. Alternatively, when pirates get that strong, I usually send in my task force to clean the whole sector out ;)

[Warlock Raccoon]

Try right clicking the transport and then move down to orders to set formation, and then try setting formation that way.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

In your situation, I wouldn't bother escorting a transporter.
Set the global order to evade when attacked/accosted by pirates and you may also add an inform me.
An M transporter that runs for it immediately that an S class pirate hails it and orders it to drop its cargo will make a clean getaway 95% of the time.
If the pirates are using M or L class ships, they may have more trouble and in that case, you might consider re-routing their trade route. Alternatively, when pirates get that strong, I usually send in my task force to clean the whole sector out ;)

Yeah, probably going to forego using the escorts on my next run for those ships.

I started using them once one of my transports was taken out by a pirate ship. But the ship in question was a destroyer. Which I had to use my own destroyer to neutralize. That was an exercise in frustration. Mine clearly had the firepower, but was maneuvering around the target in the most braindead way possible, ensuring that it could not maintain a constant barrage.