Just in case one of the developers looks at this thread....
Yes, I know I'm whining, but this is so freakin annoying and I'd like to hear from one of the devs about it. You guys are very responsive to your users and I love that. I'd like to have a response about this, even if it disagrees with me. I've worked with and for other software companies and I've never seen anyone redesign their software so quickly and frequently in response to user feedback. I very much appreciate the effort that you obviously have put into this game, and the betas that have followed the initial release.
And I'm trying to be nice, so if I sound sarcastic, it isn't intentional.
The autofocus "feature" is the single most annoying thing about this game. I can work around bugs, either by saving frequently or other means. I can't do anything whatsoever about the autofocus except grit my teeth and accept that I have no choice but to deal with it. Autofocusing of ships makes the game more unplayable than any bug I've ever seen in this game. I wasn't kidding about the "ENTER, G, G, G, G, G" thing.
Example:
I move warships forward ahead of my transports. I see an enemy and decide they need to be attacked. In between the time I selected a warship unit and the time I gave the order to attack, the game has removed focus from the ship I selected and put it on a transport. I build these transports to be fast, so they end up going all the way forward and launching a suicidal attack, entirely by accident. Two expensive transports, three escort fighters and four billion troops gone, because of a "feature".
Example:
I'm trying to move a dozen or more fleets toward an enemy, in a precise order. Fleet 1 moves and runs out of movement points. I reach for Fleet 2 to give it an order, but before I get to it, Fleet 57 - on the other side of the galaxy - is selected, so I have to put it on guard and go back to Fleet 2. BUT ..... When I do that, Fleet 107 becomes selected .......... You do see where I'm going, yes? I entirely lose track of what I was trying to do, simply because the view keeps whipping back and forth from one end of the map to the other.
No one likes forum posts that read like novels, so I won't post the many, many, many other examples of actual things that have happened to me. Of course, if you want, I'll be happy to do so.
On the other side of the coin, I cannot think of a single, conceivable circumstance under which it becomes useful - in any way - for the game to pick a ship completely at random, jerk the view to that location on the map, then do it again. and again. and again. I can't even imagine what could possibly be happening in the game where that is at all useful.
When I select a ship, that generally means I want that ship selected. When I put a certain part of the map into view, that generally means I want to look at that part of the map. It is incorrect for the game to select a different ship and to move the map away from the location where I put it.
I'm sure someone, somehow, thought that randomnly selecting ships and jerking the view from one end to the other would be useful, but I think that person was incorrect. I think most people would agree. Maybe take a poll?
My suggestion, if this is to be corrected at all, is that it selects that ship ONLY when it is put on sentry or guard duty and it spots someone. Otherwise, I would prefer to play the game, not fight with it. The game is playing for the AI civs - it doesn't need to try and play my game as well.
