Teleporting engineers and movement

[mmoroz]

Not sure what's going on exactly, but try to create a control group with a bunch of military ships and some Mark II engineers (those are the teleporting ones, I believe). When I tell the group to go somewhere inside the planet map at the same speed (hold G), the engineers seem to behave weird. They jump to the last point, then sometimes jump back to get closer to the other ships, etc.

I'd expect them to stay next to all other ships all the time. I don't mind if it means they teleport every second just a bit further, or if they have a special move without teleporting for such cases - but I sure don't expect them to arrive ahead of the group and die.

[x4000]

Welcome to the forums!

This would be the expected behavior for any teleporting ships, actually -- teleporting ships arrive at their destination, whatever that is, instantly.  If you want engineers that follow along as part of your main fleet, you don't want teleporters unless your fleet itself is also teleporting.  That's the one bad thing about using teleporting engineers.

On the plus side, there are regular mark I engineers, or mobile repair stations, which would act just as you would want.  If you're set on using teleporting engineers, then I would leave them behind in reserve, and then move them forward to repair only once the coast is clear.  Engineers are not particularly effective in the thick of battle, anyway, because they can't repair anything that has been shot within the last 3 seconds.

Hope that helps!  Others might weigh in with how they use these, too.

[CogDissident]

When I use teleporting engineers, I use them to support my starships. If any starship comes under a bit-too-heavy fire, I'll pull it back and put 5 engy-2s on it.

If my fleet ever gets too hurt, I'll have it fly out of range of enemy guns, then bring in the engineers to fix them up. Then put the engineers some place out of the way, i find just normal-rightclicking on an outer-edge of a system means that they won't wander away and won't get targeted , or at least if they do then the AI will have to spend a really long time getting to them.