problems with space combat in pbw games

[Ragnarok-X]

Hey everyone,

i recently had my first combat in a pbw game. I had 7 ships in a fleet, using short range attack order and seeking after a enemy corvette which was escorted by a frigate and a colonyship.
So i download the newest turn and take a look at tha replay:
My entire fleet was attacking the single corvette, damaged it to about 50% when it started running away. Now my ENTIRE fleet started to seek the fleeing ship in the replay while ignoring the frigate. The hostile frigate was firing each turn while my ships did NOTHING except following the fleeing corvette. In the end i wont, but received much damage, just because most of the turns my ships didnt used their guns because of their follow-action.
What the FK went wrong here ? I feel really pissed

[Enigma]

I have had something similar happen to me. I am still new but you may want to look at your strategy settings, and look at the targeting priorities. Perhaps if you changed to go after the strongest first it would have taken off after the Frigate, instead of tailing after the damaged corvette.

I wish someone would post some tips on optimal strategy settings for Gun ships, standoff missile ships, fighters, and escorts (point-defenese). I have looked at the strategy mod and copied some of their settings into my PBW games, but have not had enough battles to see if they did any good.

[spoon]

For the shooting strategies (Max Range, Short Range, Optimal Range, Point Blank) I usually set my targeting priority to the following:

Nearest, Has Weapons, Most Damaged, Strongest

It may not be the best strategy in all instances, but my ships usually don't end up doing anything suicidal...

[Gandalph]

It can also be important to check the "fire til all weapons gone" box. With this checked, your ships will pick a new target after the weapons capability of their current target is gone (i.e. target ship is now running away).

[PvK]

Yes, the firing orders would explain that. "Has Weapons" is a good one to include in first or second place, though that can also backfire if the enemy switches to using unarmed ram ships! So "Closest" is another good one to put first or second, usually. The defaults tend to be things like "Most Damaged" and "Strongest", which can lead to some retarded behaviour.

Another thing to consider is setting ships to NOT target seekers. PD will still fire at seekers with this turned off, but with it turned on, ships will actually move towards seekers - this can spell doom for a fleet that is trying to blockade a planet with a lot of seeking weapons, for example.

PvK

[Ragnarok-X]

Thanks a bunch for the hints, i hope my next battle will be better