can waypoints from construction sites be automated?

[Silent Sorrow]

What I mean is, I've got X planet producing ships. But the planet is way in the interior and I need to get its ships to the front lines. However, the ships don't have quantum reactor tech so they'll run out of fuel before they get to the front line.

So I want to be able to set produced ships to move from the original planet, stop at a planet(s) with a resupply depot and THEN continue on to the front-line planet where I actually want the ship to be based--all automatically so I don't have to micromanage everything.

In single player is there any way to do this?

[geoschmo]

No, the best you can do is way point them to the resupply depot and then when they get there, or are enroute, click them and give them additional orders to move to the second way point.

You may be able to find a planet on the path that you can build a resupply faciliity.

There is also a little thing you can do with specifying minefields to get ships to reroute so they pass over a resupply planet. Although this only works to a point. You can't get them to go way out of their normal path. Only a square or two if the alignment is right.

Geoschmo

[Suicide Junkie]

IMO, your staging grounds should always have resupply facilities of some sort.

Have your ships move to the resupply depot at the frontier, and then move them out from there.

If your trip to the frontier is more than 2 or 3 systems, it is highly likely you will have a planet close enough to the default path that you can redirect ships with minefield tags.

code:

---

@ = warppoint (destination and/or source of ships)

o = planet (with resupply depot)

. = empty space

x = minefield tag

-|\/ = path of ships



.@....

..\...

..xO..

..x|\.

..x||.

....@.

---

[Silent Sorrow]

Hmm, I was afraid of that. As for the minefield thing, that's too much trouble, especially since I couldn't be sure the ships would go the right way. And since I play very large galaxies, the logistics of this boggle the mind.

I'll have to stick to having intermediate waypoints. My problem is once the fleets get very large and I'm controlling dozens of planets, I often forget which ships I meant to send where and or forget to reroute ships and discover small fleets of ships sitting unassigned at rear-area bases.

Originally posted by geoschmo:
No, the best you can do is way point them to the resupply depot and then when they get there, or are enroute, click them and give them additional orders to move to the second way point.

You may be able to find a planet on the path that you can build a resupply faciliity.

There is also a little thing you can do with specifying minefields to get ships to reroute so they pass over a resupply planet. Although this only works to a point. You can't get them to go way out of their normal path. Only a square or two if the alignment is right.

Geoschmo

[Loser]

Ah the joys of micromanagement.

One trick, which might not work well in human games, is to make multiple classes of the same ship design. Name the whole classes after specific needs as you need them: Western Front, Cryok IV, Not That Jerk Again, whatever will pique your memory.

Then, when the ships materialize, at least you'll know where you meant them to go.

That and checking F6 every turn. Sort the table by Movement Points and you'll see who is lolly-gagging around every turn. Then you can do something about them.

I don't remember the keystroke, but there was a hot key in Age of Kings that would jump your attention to the next idle peasant. A friend of mine used to use that key in combination with the Delete key quite frequently. No mercy for slackers!

[Ares]

Originally posted by Loser:
Ah the joys of micromanagement.

One trick, which might not work well in human games, is to make multiple classes of the same ship design. Name the whole classes after specific needs as you need them: Western Front, Cryok IV, Not That Jerk Again, whatever will pique your memory.

Alternately, if you can remember where they go once they come out of the drydocks, you could just rename the individual ships, This would prove more useful in multiplay.