Control group question

[jeisler]

Sorry if this is a trivial thing that can be found, but I couldn't find a definitive answer in my search of the wiki, and the forum is giving me issues and I can't search reliably due to having to web proxy in.


I've recently started playing again, and something that's bugging me, and I feel like you SHOULD be able to do this, but it's maddening that I can't --  I want to simply have newly built ships assigned to control groups.

Yes, you can put a constructor in the control group and have your new fighters & fleet ships assigned automatically, which is almost perfect, but a big one that's driving me nuts is that I want to have my Mobile Space Docks produce ships assigned to a control group, but I *don't* want the docks in that group, because I don't want to move them around with the fleet.

I want my MSDs to be control group 5, but all ships they build be control group 1.      That would make me very happy.

Someone please tell me this is possible, because I'm going nuts not being able to do it.

[Pumpkin]

Unfortunately, I think it's impossible. As you know, a ship has the control group of its creating ship, but there is no way (AFAIK) to make a group create ships of another group.

The "remove from selection" control (I don't remember the exact key combination) may be helpful in your case: select MSDs + ships with the control group, then remove the MSDs from selection with... maybe shift+ctrl+right clic on the MSD's icon.

Hope that help, at least a little.

[Kahuna]

As a workaround maybe you could assign the MSDs to control group 5 when you're done building the ships. Then add them to control group 1 when you want to build ships again.

[jeisler]

I was afraid there was no easy way ..


Essentially what I like doing is, for example, to have a little herd of fleet ships as my control group #1, and I will often put some of the "special" fighter type ships with them (electric bombers, medic frigates, spire railclusters, that sort of stuff) but those light ships tend to get whacked frequently during combat, much more so than the fleet ships.

So what I'd like is to have MSDs build replacement ships during the fight  (I usually bring a few MSDs into a planet attack, and just park them near the wormhole once I murder any tachyon posts)  - and I want those replacements to be in control group 1, so they just get grabbed into any new orders I issue without having to tediously select them and add them.    Putting the MSDs in group 1 doesn't work because then they'll move around with my fleet, so they can't repair and will just get gradually beaten up and killed.


Could this be a feature request? 

Change things so all constructors - space docks, MSDs, etc, have an option for the control group their produced units go into, rather than having their the units get assigned to the constructor's control group?    There'd be no loss of functionality and no invasive UI requirements.

Right now if I decide I want another space dock in my "1" group, I have to consolidate & select all of the control group units, then grab all the constructors together and control-group them again.     

With selectable output groups, I could just build a new constructor and pick "1" on it, and it'll just work automagically.

[Pumpkin]

Could this be a feature request? 

Of course, it can! We've got the chance of having a wonderful user-listening staff. Thought they're quite busy on their next title, these days, so it won't be for tomorrow, but asking is always possible. I don't know if it would be that easy to code (maybe yes, but I can't tell). Do you know Mantis and the way Arcen uses to request features and report bugs?