'Escort' order and/or FRD with a range

[Nibelung44]

Hi,

I'm looking for a certain behaviour I can't seem to emulate, despite it being existing in many RTS (I know that AIW is not typical RTS but still).

Either an escort/guard command, i.e you tell a group of ship to guard another one, and they don't stray far from it. Would be handy to define several groups of ships as the guard to some turrets etc.

Alternatively or in addition, having FRD but not beyond a certain range, i.e I would like fighters to FRD but not beyond the fire range of turrets. I don't want them to roam everywhere.

[Arkillion]

Sadly there is no such things as you describe, the closest thing you could go is the group move but not really usefull in your situation.
But feel free to make a suggestion post or put it on mantis!

[Martyn van Buren]

Attack-move is pretty good for guarding turrets, isn't it?  It wouldn't work for keeping the ships with something mobile but I usually use that for guarding command posts in dangerous places and things like that.

[LordSloth]

I might be able to provide some alternate solutions/workarounds for specific situations outside the control scheme. Not a replacement for what you ask for, but possibly something that would alleviate the need.

Why and where are you wanting the guard command? In AI controlled systems, a beachhead, an escort mission where interception is required, defense against warps, warp counter attacks, minor factions, cross-planet attacks?

[TechSY730]

There is an "FRD limited to 80000 range" control option.

It isn't very flexible as you can't change that range, but it is at least something.

[Nibelung44]

Mainly for defence, units should guard turrets or force fields, i.e act within a certain range of a (mostly) immobile object.

How can I determine what 80.000 range represents on the planetary map? Do we have a tool to determine the distance between two points?

[Aeson]

Get a bunch of ships (best would be missile frigates or fortresses, in my opinion) and press 'z' with them selected. That will display the weapon ranges for those ships. If I recall correctly, fortresses have a weapon range of about 30,000, so 80,000 distance units would be represented approximately by the longest line distance across the firing ranges of two fortresses, each of which is just inside the range of the other.

[Nibelung44]

well yes, I figured this hack, but this is not super practical shall I say!