Can't launch attack

[The Duke]

My cousins and I were playing Last night, and I was the first to encounter an alien race. The Xi'Chung eventually declared war on me, and so I attempted to attack: his colonies and his ships. But, my ships NEVER MOVED! At one point there was a destroyer right in front of two of my ships, and nothing. I give the command, I check the "eyeball", it says it is seeking the designatated target, but never moves. This has happened again tonight, repeatedly: against planets, colony ships and war ships. Am I doing something wrong, is there a glitch in my program or what? Because it is bad enough that I'm am weay less than thrilled with how the computer handles 'strategic combat' but this is not just ridiculous, it is unplayable. I hope someone has a reasonable solution, cuz at this point, I'm through with SEIV Gold net game. Solo still great fun though. Guess I may have to wait for MOO3 for some more good 'controlled combat'. Last enjoyable game was Imperium Galactica II, but the AI was sooooooo bad after the first fleet encounter.

[PvK]

If this is a simultaneous mode game, attacks and movement are handled between turns, so you just have to wait.

It it's turn-based, then I can only think there is another reason for your ships waiting to carry out the order, such as your empire being set to have ships not enter known minefields, and the enemy ships are in one, or your ships are unable to move any farther this turn, or something.

As for strategic combat, if you experiment with fleet strategy settings in the simulator, you will find that it is possible to specify strategies that will behave in several different ways.

PvK

[capnq]

quote:

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If this is a simultaneous mode game, attacks and movement are handled between turns, so you just have to wait.

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To clarify, you have to hit (F12) End Turn. In simultaneous games, you can see the ships move with the Movement Replay buttons (they look like CD player buttons), but they tend to be a bit quirky.

All games have a Combat Replay available from the battle report in the (F10) Log.

If you and your cousin can play on the same computer, you can also play hotseat multiplayer sequential games, which behave almost exactly like solo games.

[ 05 May 2002: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Suicide Junkie]

Also: even if you have the option set, you won't see the blue path line when giving an order to attack. (unlike with a move order) This would be because the path to take is unknown, since the enemy may move as your ships chase it down.

[Gil Hamilton]

I had a fleet not attack once, as well. Still had movement left. As it was to be the opening salvo in a campaign to finally get rid of those pesky guys, I was a little curious.
I immediately sent a declare war message on the neutrals (we had a trade agreement at the time). Next turn, my fleet moved in a mopped up on 'em! Maybe you can't just start shooting when you have a treaty with them...

[dumbluck]

Correct. Any treaty above non-intercoarse means that you can't fire on them, they can't fire on you. This applies to units, as well (ie, mines). No more treaty, no more limitations on targets.