Combat and bombing planet

[thecyclemania]

During one of my recent game, I was involved in a battle (against the AI) where my fleet is attacking another fleet and some weapon platforms on a planet.

After a couple of turns where I manually controlled my fleet, I decided to let the computer do the rest of the battle.
So I turn the "auto" option on.
So the only thing I had to do was to click "end turn". After 10 minutes, I was really bored so I decided to toggle "auto run until the end of battle" (or something similar). Basically the computer was controlling my fleet until the end of the battle, and I can only watch.
Watch I did, but to my horror, after the WP were destroyed, my ships continued to fire on the planet until all population and structure were annihilated.
Is there an option in auto-combat (or even strategic combat) to turn on so your fleet won't destroy the colony, just the defenses.

This could be usefull, since my troop transports are within range to invade the planet after all the defenses are gone...

Thanks for any help

- thecyclemania

[Jubala]

Yeah, I want this too. If you bring along troop transports in the first assault and put fleet strategy to capture planet it will usually bomb away the defenses and the transport will move in and drop troops. But with no troops there they'll just bLast away until combat ends or planet is dead. I want to tell them to bLast the defenses then stop and just blockade until troops arrive.

[Puke]

In the strategy settings, (the detailed ones under the empire-view that let you customize your own strategy definitions) there is an option for not attacking certain types (unarmed units, bases, planets, whatever).

I am going to try out creating a strategy that prohibits attacking planets and see how it works. I dont want my fleet to be mauled by planetary defenses and not fight back, so I dont know if "dont attack a planet" includes the UNITS on the planet.. we shal see.. I will also try sticking in a little missile boat with a "fry the planet" order that will hopefully have enough firepower to kill any weap platforms but not be strong enough to wax the civies.

anyone else try playing arround with those settings?