Am I the only one who doesn't use the fleets mechanic?

from Sins Forums

In the past when I was trying to organize multiple fleets it quickly became a disorganized mess due to all ships being on auto-join by default for some reason. Instead, I use control groups, which works out much better, especially due to the much appreciated feature of ships being able to belong to more than one control group. 

Engagement range? Still got it, arguably better since I can control the engagement range of individual groups instead of the entire fleet. Fleet cohesion? The only time I've ever seen that useful was trying to navigate past dense minefields and even then that's not too hard.

I'm just wondering if I'm missing some big advantage to creating and using fleets or if it really is too much trouble than it's worth.

21,500 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

I'll make fleets sometimes if I'm playing Advent and want to keep the ships near Guardians.  Otherwise I don't like making fleets.  I think the ships move in funny ways and I absolutely do not want a capital ship to be part of a fleet.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Fleets are good for people who don't like to micromanage as much, and there are a fair number of those. In that regard they function pretty well, they keep ships together and they keep ship control simpler. Give an attack order to a fleet and the combat ships will go attack, but the support ships will stay support, etc. 

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

I dont use fleets either.  I would if it were not for the redicuous autojoin feature.  Ships that come out of the shipyard start with this turned on, and often join the wrong fleet.  If you have one massive fleet, its not an issue, but if you want a carrier group and a close combat group... newly built carriers will deside that the close combat group needs more carriers... >_<

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 2
Fleets are good for people who don't like to micromanage as much, and there are a fair number of those. In that regard they function pretty well, they keep ships together and they keep ship control simpler. Give an attack order to a fleet and the combat ships will go attack, but the support ships will stay support, etc. 
End of Annatar11's quote

I guess that's the sticking point for me-- the micromanagement. Normally I have 1-4-7 be entire fleets, 2-5-8 be offensive support cruisers, and 3-6-9 be defensive support/carriers with 0 reserved for super weapons and alt-click ship types on the empire tree for any other micro (like LRFs on LFs/support or flak on bombers).

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

I will typically use Fleets now-a-days only for close in flak support of either a capital or other succeptable targets. I used to use fleets exclusively when I first started but ships on the outer periphery of the fleet range would often break off attack and try to reorganize themselves in the fleet and would be destroyed. I quit using them not long after I started playing.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

I can't play without fleet on

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

I really wish they worked right. the auto-join, as mentioned, is annoying and makes you constantly fight to keep it in order.

The other day, though, I went looking for the formation button. I was sure there used to be one! oh! Its only for fleets? *sigh*

yeah, I'd like to use it to keep my guardians a certain distance from each other, and I'd probably do something similar with flak. Theres a bunch of other little things I would use it for, but to put it honestly: ignoring the fleets option just eliminates alot of annoyances

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

I don't use fleets either.  If you look at replays from "skilled" games, relatively few veterans do.  Once you start doing anything remotely advanced, they start to get in the way a lot of the time.