Questions about (1) fleet battles (2) keyboard shortcuts

[generik]

Hi -- bought the game off ebay about a month ago and I am flying without a manual. I THINK I've figured out how to do most of the things you need to do but I still am a little lost on a few things...

 

1. Can you retreat from a space battle once it is initiated... if so, how?

2. In a battle, can you maneuver your ships to certain locations on the map or are you restricted to ordering them tactical maneuver commands (right hook, left hook, etc). If you can move them to locations, how do you do it?

 

I also know in the past that people have asked for the keyboard shortcuts for this game and been branded pirates... hopefully you guys will be kind enough to give me the benefit of the doubt here. If there are a LOT of keyboard shortcuts and it's a pain to type them all in, if you could just give me any shortcuts that help you locate idle personnel/ships/resources that would be a big help.

 

Thanks!

[PHSYCOBOB]

 

1. Can you retreat from a space battle once it is initiated... if so, how?

2. In a battle, can you maneuver your ships to certain locations on the map or are you restricted to ordering them tactical maneuver commands (right hook, left hook, etc). If you can move them to locations, how do you do it?

 

Thanks!

 

1. Hit the retreat button. =o) Yes, your ship has to get back to your warp-in point, and have hyperdrive engines still online, you can only choose to retreat your entire fleet, not just a single ship. Any ship on the battlefield w/o warp engines in tact will be scuttled. (and any imperial fighters unable to dock)

 

2. Turn on your nav points on the tactical display, you can send individual or grouped ships to these locations.

[generik]

*Edit* (found the retreat button)

 

Can you be more specific about how to send ships to the nav points? I can bring the nav points up but I don't know what to do next.

 

I feel pretty foolish asking questions that I'm sure have pretty obvious answers but for the life of me I can't figure this space tactical thing out.

[Evaders99]

I believe you just right click on the nav points to tell the ships to move to them. (Could be wrong.. haven't played the tactical side in a while)

[Jahled]

I believe you just right click on the nav points to tell the ships to move to them. (Could be wrong.. haven't played the tactical side in a while)

 

^This is how it is. When you've got larger fleets facing each over it's also a very good way of deploying fighter groups, especially when you got a mixed make up, and want to lash out some punishment on a retreating enemy fleet (once they've figured it's time to leave).

 

Example: The AI always deploys it's fighters against the most hazardous you've got first, so if you've got TIE fighters, interceptors, and defenders, it will go for for Defenders first on account of the harm they can do to it's capital ships. It will attack your least threatening fighters last, with it's laser cannons as well. But not in passing. If you simply tell your basic TIE fighters to move to the other end of the screen they will generally run the gauntlet of laser fire whilst getting there, plotting their route at an arc to a fixed point at the opposite end of the tactical battle will mean they will get there out of the range of laser fire, from fighters or capital ships. This also means rather than let a battle swing by the outcome of how many fighters are present, Capital ships should get to engage one another because the AI will calculate it's chance of victory based upon the numbers of opposing fighters with actual hostile battle orders, not simple deployment.

 

And when it's realized it's folly, remember those basic TIEs? Waiting to unleash some hell.

 

Works for me anyhows!

[DarthTofu]

The buttons for nax points are on the side bar. There are four of them, and you have to press them before they will appear on the screen. They're somewhere in the middle area of the interface.

 

To utalize them select a fleet group, capital ship, and/or squadron and right click on the marker where you want to send them. It should change color as they start to move there.

[Verdex]

As to the keyboard shortcuts: The CD (at least my German edition) contains the readme.txt-file which gives you all the shortcuts

[DarthTex]

2. In a battle, can you maneuver your ships to certain locations on the map or are you restricted to ordering them tactical maneuver commands (right hook, left hook, etc). If you can move them to locations, how do you do it?

I believe if you hold the key while "right clicking" your nav points, this will create a "trail" the ship/fleet/fighter(s) will follow. But, just one word of warning when using the nav points: according to the manual, ships enroute using the nav points won't fire on enemy ships until they complete their maneuvers! So, don't make them sitting ducks

[Jahled]

As to the keyboard shortcuts: The CD (at least my German edition) contains the readme.txt-file which gives you all the shortcuts

 

All Hail Empress Diane!

[generik]

This has been a huge help. Thanks.