How Many Fleets Allowed In Custom Game?

[Omnius]

I'm wondering how many fleets are allowed in a custom game with a large 15 x 15 sector universe with 1,400 stars? Right now I can only make 30 fleets, rather early in the game with just about 150 military ships. In an earlier preset game about the Shaktur Dominion late in the game with more than 2,000 ships I had 100 fleets.


I went back to start a new game but didn't see any place to set how many fleets are allowed in the game. That first game I had the AI controlling everything, now I'm controlling everything and am hoping I can have 100 fleets as well as the number of ships increase like in my first game. I've looked over the options and can't see anywhere where I can increase or decrease the number of fleets I'm playing with.


I hope someone can give me some ideas as to how the number of fleets allowed in a game is controlled. I sure hope I can increase that number since I'm playing on manual control.

[Retreat1970]

The number of fleets is up to you. It is not an in game setting.

[Uncle Lumpy]

The only constraint I'm aware of on the number of fleets is the ability of your empire to be able to afford to build and maintain them. Of course,there's also the question of anyone's ability to effectively manage too many fleets. [:)]

[Hattori Hanzo]

Omnius, why exactly do you say "Right now I can only make 30 fleets".. ????? [&:]

what's happen if you try to form the 31st Fleet ?

[Omnius]

Hattori Hanzo,
When I try to create the 31st fleet by Ctrl-right-clicking on the map I no longer get the option for creating a "New Fleet", I only can attach a ship to an existing one. In my first game that was the Shakturi Dominion story I had 100 fleets for over 2,000 ships but could no longer make new fleets. The list ran the full length of the screen from top to bottom and included top and bottom selection stripes to allow us to page up and down the list. I no longer get the New Fleet option. Same with my current custom game where I have 30 fleets for about 160+ ships. I can join existing fleets but the option to create a New Fleet is missing.


I've looked all over the editor and options trying to find anything that controls the number of fleets we can have in a game. Since this is my first custom game I was worried I made a wrong selection upon setting up the game but see that wasn't the case when I tried setting up another to test that theory. I'm wondering if the number of fleets allowed per game is tied to the number of military ships we have on the map? I'm now hoping that as I increase the number of ships by many hundreds that I'll see an increase in new fleets I can build.


I'm enjoying the game, much better than Armada 2526, now hoping to figure out how to increase my fleet numbers as I play a custom game.

[Aeson]

Try going into the Ships and Bases list, selecting the ships you want to put into a fleet, and adding them to a fleet using the 'new fleet' option in the drop-down menu next to the 'View Fleet' and above the 'Scrap' buttons.

As to the question of whether the number of fleets you are permitted to have concurrently is tied to the number of ships on the map, I do not believe that there is any limit short of the number of ships you have, as I was able to put all 111 of my ships in a current game into 111 single-ship fleets using the method described above for creating fleets. More likely, the 'Join fleet' submenu in the context-sensitive right-click menu simply does not handle very large numbers of fleets very well and the 'new fleet' option is lost when it gets pushed too far along in the menu.

[SirHoraceHarkness]

That's odd. I've played this game for a looong time and never ran into an issue where I couldn't make a new fleet when needed no matter the settings. Running any mods?

edit; Yeah try the ships and bases menu. That's where I make all my fleets.

[Aeson]

ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness

Yeah try the ships and bases menu. That's where I make all my fleets.

Same.

That's odd. I've played this game for a looong time and never ran into an issue where I couldn't make a new fleet when needed no matter the settings. Running any mods?

I don't think it's a mod issue; I'm not running any, but after I assigned my 111 ships to 107 single-ship and two two-ship fleets I checked the right-click menu and couldn't see a 'new fleet' option in the 'Join fleet' submenu to use to split up the ships of the two fleets I'd overlooked, so instead I had each fleet's extra ship leave the fleet and then went back into the Ships and Bases menu to assign the last two ships to their own fleets, mostly because it'd be easier to find the ships that needed to be reassigned that way.

[Omnius]

Aeson,

Eureka! That was the way I wasn't trying. I guess there's a limit to doing it the way I was doing it with the Ctrl-right click popup list on the map. That was an easy way to create new fleets and truly makes my day! Of course as the number of ships increases finding particular ships becomes a tad more tedious but as long as I can create more fleets I'll be happy. Thanks for pointing me in the correct direction!

[Omnius]

SirHoraceHarkness,
Yep the ships and bases menu does allow me to create more new fleets. I'm not running any mods yet. Evidently the Ctrl-right click popup menu on the map has its limitations. Thanks for helping!

[Omnius]

Aeson,
Eureka! The ships and bases menu does the trick of adding more fleets beyond the 30 that can be done using the Ctrl-right click popup menu on the map method. Thanks for helping me out!

[Hattori Hanzo]

one Galactic Fleet Strike for Aeson.. !!!!! [8D]

[Aeson]

ORIGINAL: Omnius

Aeson,

Eureka! That was the way I wasn't trying. I guess there's a limit to doing it the way I was doing it with the Ctrl-right click popup list on the map. That was an easy way to create new fleets and truly makes my day! Of course as the number of ships increases finding particular ships becomes a tad more tedious but as long as I can create more fleets I'll be happy. Thanks for pointing me in the correct direction!

If you are not already aware, you can filter the Ships and Bases list using the drop-down menu at the top right of the window, and you can reorder the list by clicking on one of the column headers. Filtering for 'Military Ships' and ordering the list by 'Fleet' can be particularly useful, as it makes it relatively easy to find all warships not currently assigned to a fleet, but you can also do it by location.

Also, in the default sort order, new construction is grouped together at the bottom of the list, and will be orange in color if not yet complete. If I recall correctly, you can restore the default sort order by clicking on the far-left column header twice and then flipping between list filters or closing and re-opening the Ships and Bases list.

[RogerBacon]

Omnius, when you are done with vanilla be sure to check out my mod. I have a lot of commands for fleets. One I use often to reinforce my fleets is the $add command. If a fleet has lost ships but I need it to remain in the fight and reinforce it I can use #add condor=5 , for example, and it will find the five nearest "condor" class ships that are not damaged and not low-fuel and add them to the fleet. Be sure to check it out if you still have fleet issues.

[Omnius]

Aeson,I was basically using the ships and bases screen for keeping track of colony ships. I do use the military ships filter but wish in DW2 they break that down to each military ship type. I've got new construction dialed in, I keep track of it from the ships screen to the left. I'm learning quite a bit about how to make stuff work in this fine space game. Now I'm trying to figure out how I play the Shakturi Dominion in a custom game with those rules turned on, I'm hoping I can do the trick in the game editor.

[Omnius]

RogerBacon,
Your Bacon mod does look intriguing but I'm trying to master the base game before venturing into mods. I like the Star Wars one and am eyeing the Star Trek and Babylon 5 ones. I think the Star Wars one looks best since the modder is trying to make a story to play. I hope the Babylon 5 one will be made to work with custom games.

Was it your mod that I saw modified the number of fighters in carriers? I definitely didn't like that since there should be more fighters than bombers. Check the real world aircraft carrier loadouts, there are about twice as many fighters as bombers because fighters serve a dual role, as escorts for bombers and to defend the carrier. I hope you didn't change the default loadout, just gave us the opportunity to change it if we want since having 50% fighters and 50% bombers is really not a smart split.

That add ship command looks useful, I assume the ships that routine chooses won't already be in fleets.

[Aeson]

Check the real world aircraft carrier loadouts, there are about twice as many fighters as bombers

Not necessarily; it varies by period. US and Japanese carriers in the early part of the Second World War, for example, tended to have two to three times as many bombers as fighters. As the war progressed, carrier air groups tended to become more fighter-heavy, though.

Also, within the game, fighters don't really prioritize the destruction of enemy fighters and bombers, so it's not clear that going fighter-heavy is actually particularly beneficial for carrier-vs-carrier engagements within the game.

[SirHoraceHarkness]

ORIGINAL: Omnius

RogerBacon,
Your Bacon mod does look intriguing but I'm trying to master the base game before venturing into mods.

The bacon mod is a bit much to chew on if you are still trying to get used to the core game. However there is a mod which keeps the game more or less vanilla but improves on many aspects like ai usage of ships and other mechanics to give a more consistent and immersive game experience since the stock ai even on the hard difficulties can be gamed fairly easy once you figure out their quirks. It's the ai improvement 1.05 mod from icemania and also adds in some new races to play and fight against. I highly recommend it and can be found in the modding section.

[Omnius]

Aeson,
The navies learned through experience that more fighters were better for carrier air groups. I figured that the AI wouldn't be realistically prioritized as to fighter vs fighter and bomber routines, that would be a nifty trick.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Omnius

Aeson,
The navies learned through experience that more fighters were better for carrier air groups. I figured that the AI wouldn't be realistically prioritized as to fighter vs fighter and bomber routines, that would be a nifty trick.

Which makes sense. When you send out the bombers to attack the enemy, they'll need to be escorted but you also have to keep some fighters at home to protect the carrier. Honestly you need 2 fighters for every 1 bomber.

But since DW fighters don't really work that way...

Maybe for DW2.