9 replies to this topic

[Octus Imperium]

Now that we have 16 turns experience, the Octus Imperium is starting to see the ballooning of standing orders! Soon to build AP 4 to 8 EXPL ships, each fleet will do AP*EXPL and AP*OC orders each turn. For AP 8, that 16 standing orders per fleet.

So how many standing orders are some of you using every turn? Anyone over 250? I can see these mushrooming, and be thankful for them!

Just curious...

Octus Imperium

[cestvel]

I am using convoy routes for that.
Like:

EXPL
EXPL
OC

Cestvel

[WKE235]

About 60 transfer, XEXPL, and some other orders defined. I'll probably be defining a few convoy routes for my runabouts to go pick up finds at the exploration sites. That should push it up to around 100 if the total orders in the convoy count.

[Krelnett_of_Kraan]

Yes, we're quite enjoying our Bumble class freighter. No jump, just 84 mkII fusions and a bunch of cargo space to pick up EXPL finds and carry them home

[hobknob]

I see no reason to XOC after every Explore and I use 10 AP explorers. Just one OC order in there some where does it fine. The only reason I could see for an OC after every explore is if your fleet dsign only has 20K or so cargo space. If that is the case you should increase your cargo space. If you only had to set up the standing orders once you might be ok, but planets get explored out and you will be moving fleets around fairly often. Just for comparison, my 10 AP fleets generally expect to get about 50% success rate on average so I have enough cargo to collect stuff from about 4 successful explorations. So far I have not lost anything from these fleets and they only offload once a turn.

With the advent of convoy routes my standing orders are limited to xship, xexpl, xoc, xlc ( for the refueling fleet) and xdip. That's it, everything else is convoy routes.

[Octus Imperium]

Interesting insights. Given the difficulty (read order consumption) of changing convy routes, my build up has been towards XEXPLR and XOC, with the occassional new XSHIP. Comments have triggered an increase in explorer cargo capacity to decrease number of standing orders. Long turn results, while enjoyable, can result in missed or deemphasized turn results when time is limited.

Sure wish my exploration orders had a 50% return rate. Perhaps those Type B Universal Translator Devices will increase the hit rate significantly.

Appreciate the insights!

Octus Imperium

[hobknob]

The true advantage to convoy routes is that you can set up a sequence of events that may require 20+ orders to create and then use it forever with as many fleets as you want. Changing them is a bit of a pain, but should be minimized by careful set up in the first place. Now with the global exclusions in place you shouldn't have to ever change a mining convoy route except for location. Use the Load All command or put in very large numbers and they will work fine. Convoy routes for movement are another issue since you won't always have the same destination, but I have found it very uselful to have a convoy route going out to a central system some 6-8 warps away and ending at a planet. This makes it easy to send all of those ships toward the frontier. You can always move something manually anywhere along the route as needed and if you end at a planet you won't have the problem with fleets continuing to warp back and forth if you can't reassign them. This is a particular help if you are forced to skip a turn as your fleets in the pipeline will continue to move forward.

It would be real nice if you could RN ships out of a fleet as well as RN ships into a fleet running the convoy route.

[Lord Xaar]

hobknob, on May 15 2004, 08:30 AM, said:

but I have found it very uselful to have a convoy route going out to a central system some 6-8 warps away and ending at a planet.  This makes it easy to send all of those ships toward the frontier.  You can always move something manually anywhere along the route as needed and if you end at a planet you won't have the problem with fleets continuing to warp back and forth if you can't reassign them.  This is a particular help if you are forced to skip a turn as your fleets in the pipeline will continue to move forward.

Ending at a Planet? Why hadn't I thought of that... Would solve some issues I've had with that pesky warping back problem.

Quote

It would be real nice if you could RN ships out of a fleet as well as RN ships into a fleet running the convoy route.

Now that is a good idea. :lol:

-LX

[Sha'thar of the Gosht Kohr]

The Gosht Kohr are creating a convoy route with the soul purpose of maintaining System Beacons throughout the empire. With all the jumps involved, it's relatively easy to create a route which replaces beacons as they wear out.

-Sha'thar

[WKE235]

Well, you can RN ships into and out of a fleet on a cargo route. You just can't do it within the Convoy order. Convoy fleets are simply fleets that move at the end of your turn. If you have another fleet sitting where the convoy fleet happens to be (or move one there during your turn) you can RN ships (and cargo and fuel) back and forth. Of course the convoy fleet might end up with fewer of 0 AP for their moves later in the turn.

Heck, you can order the convoy fleet to do other things as well, like any fleet. This allows for some interesting flexibility.