Dyson gatlings acting odd?

[ewokonfire]

So I've liberated the Dyson Sphere in my current game, but I've noticed the gatling behavior is very odd, and not useful.  The sphere world is adjacent to one of mine, and they're just flying over to the wormhole between theirs and mine, and...repeatedly flying through it.  There's ~80 of them by now, and I haven't seen them do anything since I freed the planet.  Is this a bug?  Save attached, sphere is on Evaw (South-West of the galaxy).

[Timerlane]

AFAIK, if the player has planets very close to the DS, the Gatlings focus almost exclusively on filling those planets with patrolling ships. They only seem to go on the attack if there are no nearby friendly planets, or if there's a massive Threat buildup near one of friendly planets they're patrolling.

It might be that the Gatlings do that if there's only one friendly planet to run through, as they think there's nowhere else to go. Presumably, if an AI wave decides to attack that planet, they'll 'wake up' and help defend, only to return to endlessly patrolling the wormhole, once the coast is clear.

If you take another planet nearby, they might start behaving more normally.

[zoutzakje]

yeah dyson gatlings are more effective if you have a continuous empire. If you have single planets scattered all over the place, they kind of lose their value.

[Pumpkin]

Yep, this is a totally normal behavior for Dyson Gatlings.

I ran some tests and edited the wiki's page, here.

Friendly gatlings roam the accessible non-AI space and hunt down AI units. This means friendly gatlings will patrol on all Human and neutral planets accessible from the Sphere without crossing AI territory. If all planets adjacent to the Sphere's one are controlled by the AI, friendly gatlings will invade them. If there is only one Human or neutral planet adjacent, gatlings will patrol between these two planets by going back and forth through the wormhole linking them. It is advised to connect the Sphere's planet to the players' empire.

If AI Threat is consequent on an AI planet next to a planet accessible to gatlings, they may venture into AI territory and engage the Threat Fleet.

Would it have answered your question if you have found it on the wiki?

[ewokonfire]

I must confess, I didn't actually check the wiki, as the current behavior is so strange that I'd assumed that it must be a bug.  Ah well.  IMO, Dyson Gatlings (and quite possibly Human Resistance as well) are crying out for a menu of options the same as Roaming Enclaves get (which I always enable everything on, as I like having them clear AI planets).

[Pumpkin]

I must confess, I didn't actually check the wiki, as the current behavior is so strange that I'd assumed that it must be a bug.  Ah well.  IMO, Dyson Gatlings (and quite possibly Human Resistance as well) are crying out for a menu of options the same as Roaming Enclaves get (which I always enable everything on, as I like having them clear AI planets).

Sure. Maybe something like on/off "allowed to attack with Humans" and "allowed to attack on their own", with "defend Human territory" being a default, unmodifiable behavior, and one for each allies.

* Allow Friendly Dyson Gatling to assist Human attacks
* Allow Friendly Dyson Gatling to attack independently
* Allow Resistance Fighters to assist Human attacks
* Allow Resistance Fighters to attack independently

Maybe same thing for zombies, but I would be totally okay with "they're zombies, you can't give them orders". But there are the rally posts. Are DGatlings and RFighters influenced by interplanetary rally post redirections? I'll test that one day if nobody does before.