How often do escorts get destroyed?

[MeniliteZ]

Should I not get too fond of my escort ships?

I tend to reload if one gets destroyed, especially one of my favorites. But is that going to happen a lot as I get into the battle missions?

[noctilucus]

That's a broad question, a lot depends on which type of escort ships you use (the tougher they are, the higher their chances of survival - but also more costly if one gets destroyed)

There are a few tough battles in the various story lines where it's quite common to lose a few escort ships and occasionally bad luck with larger pirate fleets can also cause this. But I'm talking only a few times along the whole timeline and I'm definitely not the most seasoned fighter in the game.

If this is happening regularly, consider using tougher escorts, a larger fleet, more anti-missile equipment - or stronger weapons so you bring down the enemy before they can finish your ships.

In battles where you're fighting alongside AI allies, you can also group your fleet, fly outside of the battle center and pick off enemy ships 1 at a time while you let the AI fleet take more of the enemy's fire.

[MeniliteZ]

Thank you!

Originally posted by noctilucus:

There are a few tough battles in the various story lines where it's quite common to lose a few escort ships and occasionally bad luck with larger pirate fleets can also cause this. But I'm talking only a few times along the whole timeline and I'm definitely not the most seasoned fighter in the game.

Good to know its only a few times! I just got a mission to take out a Bactrian and I fear for my escorts. Maybe I can get some others along that I haven't put so much money and care into.

[Sky Wizard]

That mission is an excellent opportunity to acquire one of those ships for yourself. As long as you ok flying a virtually unarmed ship with a high crew count Star queen.

[MeniliteZ]

Originally posted by Sky Wizard:

That mission is an excellent opportunity to acquire one of those ships for yourself. As long as you ok flying a virtually unarmed ship with a high crew count Star queen.

Hm, the mission text says to destroy it because they don't want others to have it. Sounds like capturing it would be against the point of the mission. But I could try.

Would that change what the people say to me when I complete the mission I wonder?

Also I do already have a ship of that type, but its a Centipede would that work?

EDIT: It did work!

[noctilucus]

For completeness: capturing is considered the same as destroying, meaning that whoever has the ship now can no longer use it. The same applies for example to marauders, if you take on missions to destroy those fleets you can just as well capture them and keep them or sell them for maximum profit.

[DroopingPuppy]

If you are on the early games, make sure to sell every single warships below medium warships class, especially for quicksilver - it dies so fast. If it is the strongest then you have to keep it until you have more durable ships.

Ultimately, you need to get about hundreds of bactrians and deep rivers. At this level no pirates will scare you. But you will need a long run to complete such a fleet.

Note that you can hold some ships on a system, after then you can call them to come to you by order to hold then either cancel it, order to follow someone or get to the specific place on your system. If you have weak ships, it is very helpful to keep them alive and don't let them to be killed during the initial engagement, especially for the captured ships.

[MeniliteZ]

Order to follow someone? How do I do that?

Get to a specific place in a system? Do you mean gather around my flagship? If not, I have no idea how to do that either.

[DroopingPuppy]

Originally posted by MeniliteZ:

Order to follow someone? How do I do that?

Select the escorts then right click the friendly ship, whatever it's your escort or friendly NPC ships.

Originally posted by MeniliteZ:

Get to a specific place in a system? Do you mean gather around my flagship? If not, I have no idea how to do that either.

Select the escorts then right click the space on your system, then the escorts are get to there(if they are not on the same system right now, they are jump to that system THEN move to there).

[noctilucus]

Originally posted by DroopingPuppy:

Originally posted by MeniliteZ:

Order to follow someone? How do I do that?

Select the escorts then right click the friendly ship, whatever it's your escort or friendly NPC ships.

Originally posted by MeniliteZ:

Get to a specific place in a system? Do you mean gather around my flagship? If not, I have no idea how to do that either.

Select the escorts then right click the space on your system, then the escorts are get to there(if they are not on the same system right now, they are jump to that system THEN move to there).

Thanks, I didn't even know that was possible!

[DroopingPuppy]

Note that, if you order to get to a specific place while you select multiple ships, it seems that their final destination is determined by the position among the selected ships from the point you have clicked when you order this, rather than all the ships are head to the very same pixel you have clicked. So if you select some ships that have very far distance with each others, their supposed destination could be very different with what you actually intended.

The good side of this is, indeed, if you did make a formation, select them all then order them to move to there, they will retain the formation.

Also, if you order them to get to the specific place, after they are get to the destinations they are hold the position as if you order them to hold position. That's reasonable, though, for if they are move around by the previous order after you order them to move to somewhere you can't use it properly.

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And, although it's obvious, follow the order doesn't apply to the ship itself if you select multiple ships. For example if you select 12 leviathans and order them to follow a leviathan among you have selected, the other 11 leviathans are follow the ships but the clicked ship is not considered to be receive any orders at all.

[MeniliteZ]

Thanks for all the info! I had no idea about these!

I tried the clicking in a system and its working great! I can send my lower-fuel escorts ahead so they don't slow me down refueling! When I don't expect battle, anyway.