Auto Convoy - to be, or not to be?

[mussey]

Just a quick survey about using or not using 'Auto Convoy'. Does anyone use it? Is it reliable? If so, how much of my shipping should be tied up to it (as the Allies)? When I once played the original WiTP, I discarded it in favor of human convoy's. I thought that too many ships were just sitting in SF port taking liberty.

My thoughts were to try Auto to supply only my major Pacific bases like Pearl, Noumea, Brisbane, etc., and then to use these points as major supply dumps for human-controlled TF's for the other bases.

There's so much to do that anything to take some tasks off my hands would be worth a try.

[dr.hal]

Almost never.... I guess I'm a control freak....

[n01487477]

Michael did some work on this iirc for the last official patch. It is acceptable to use for backwater bases but as most ppl will tell you - it is not to be trusted with anything valuable! Seeings as CS convoys are point-to-point reliable modes of transportation - I see no need for auto-convoys.

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: mussey

Just a quick survey about using or not using 'Auto Convoy'. Does anyone use it? Is it reliable? If so, how much of my shipping should be tied up to it (as the Allies)? When I once played the original WiTP, I discarded it in favor of human convoy's. I thought that too many ships were just sitting in SF port taking liberty.

My thoughts were to try Auto to supply only my major Pacific bases like Pearl, Noumea, Brisbane, etc., and then to use these points as major supply dumps for human-controlled TF's for the other bases.

There's so much to do that anything to take some tasks off my hands would be worth a try.

Never. Use CS instead.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Chris H

ORIGINAL: mussey

Just a quick survey about using or not using 'Auto Convoy'. Does anyone use it? Is it reliable? If so, how much of my shipping should be tied up to it (as the Allies)? When I once played the original WiTP, I discarded it in favor of human convoy's. I thought that too many ships were just sitting in SF port taking liberty.

My thoughts were to try Auto to supply only my major Pacific bases like Pearl, Noumea, Brisbane, etc., and then to use these points as major supply dumps for human-controlled TF's for the other bases.

There's so much to do that anything to take some tasks off my hands would be worth a try.

Never. Use CS instead.

I use auto-convoy extensively. They work fine if used as intended. CS has its own downside, especially severe over-supply and spoilage losses unless they are hyper-managed every turn with much clicking. The auto-convoy system has demand safeguards built in so you don't find Island X with 500,000 supply rotting on the beach.

But that's probably just me and my go-against-the-grain personality around here. [:)]

[catwhoorg]

I haven't used autoconvoy yet.

I mainly manual control my convoys, though some repetitive 'milk runs' are on CS.
(eg. East US to Capetown or Adaban to Karachi).

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: catwhoorg

I haven't used autoconvoy yet.

I mainly manual control my convoys, though some repetitive 'milk runs' are on CS.
(eg. East US to Capetown or Adaban to Karachi).

I use some CS, but for big-base stocking runs, such as EC to CT, I manage manually. Very often I want to pull the ships off re-stocking at the CT end for on-map temporary duty. I hate to find my whole xAK inventory has spun around and dove back into the transit channel just when I need them.

But resupplying Annette Island? Really the whole Yukon coast? Not worth hand-managing. They are what auto-convoy was built to do.

[Jorge_Stanbury]

As Japan, I think it would be possible to do auto-convoys for the small islands close to HI; anything else is way too far away to supply from Osaka efficiently

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

As Japan, I think it would be possible to do auto-convoys for the small islands close to HI; anything else is way too far away to supply from Osaka efficiently

I don't know what you mean by efficiently. Safely maybe, but auto-convoy is much more efficient than CS. Auto-convoy only sends the demand quantities toted up from the LCUs in the target base.

[Jorge_Stanbury]

I only use CS for resources/ oil/ fuel centers to either HI or "major port"

For supply: I have all the small garrisons in the "far away" regions of the empire manually taken care; usually getting it from a major base (Lae from Rabaul, Tarawa from Kwajalein, etc).
as far as when to do it; I wait until I get a "yellow alert" or when the tracker asks for supply.


But I agree, you cannot do "CS" to just bring supply to small islands...

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

I only use CS for resources/ oil/ fuel centers to either HI or "major port"

For supply: I have all the small garrisons in the "far away" regions of the empire manually taken care; usually getting it from a major base (Lae from Rabaul, Tarawa from Kwajalein, etc).
as far as when to do it; I wait until I get a "yellow alert" or when the tracker asks for supply.


But I agree, you cannot do "CS" to just bring supply to small islands...

Oh, I understand what you meant now. Fuel. Time. Sure, those things.

As the Allies I can auto-convoy Darwin from Colombo in the late war when it's "safe." But I wouldn't. It's dumb. There are closer primary supply producers like Sydney.

I just want to constantly tell newbies, who ask this quesiton about every sixty days for years now, that YES auto-convoy works, and NO you aren't stupid if you choose to use it. It has valid uses. It's one of the few ways the code provides for labor saving in an otherwise overwhelmingly manual interface. But if you don't like it that's fine. I just don't like folks saying or implying it doesn't work. It works great.

[Hotschi]

What is "CS"?

I never used the Auto Convoy, always do it manually no matter how small the base - I want to control the ships myself.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Hotschi

What is "CS"?

I think it stands for Continuous Supply, but I could be wrong. In the top center of every TF screen there's a yellow line. Human Control (I think; I don't have the game open) is the default and is self-ex. CS is the middle setting. Click this and the TF will change to Cruise speed and do what it is ordered to do until you tell it to stop, or it needs repairs after certain thresholds, or it has no fuel. The third one is Computer control, which I never use i AE, but did all the time in WITP. If you have auto-sub ops enabled you'll see this.

[Numdydar]

I always use AC as Japan. I find it much easier to use now that it actually works lol. I was one of the people that assisted Michael in helping him track down the many bugs that esisted prior to the last patch [:)]. I totally agree AC was totally FURBR prior to that. Now it actually works really well. Which is good news for those that play against the Japanese AI.

Plus I can control where the ACs go by just turning off bases to accept ACs individually. This helps the ACs not to run into trouble as the pesky Allies advance [:)]. I tend to put all 12kt or slower ships into the AC system and use the rest as either CSs or contraol myself. Makes the game more fun for me anyway [:)]

I also use CS a lot too. mainly between major bases, like Sinapore and Japan. But CSs are only really useful if are loaded in both directions. So supplies to Sinapore and Resources/Fuel back is always a good use for them. Same is true for Ports in China too. If used only in one direction, they work best on short trips like Sappo to Japan or Korea to Japan. this way the deadhead return does not have such an impact as it would on a long haul trip.

I hope this all helps [:)]

[mussey]

I think I'll give Auto Convoy a try and see what happens, since I'm experimenting with just about everything anyways. I guess I need to see what the relationship is/interactions are between the Auto and my Human convoys and to try not to duplicate/redundant supply runs to the various bases.

So tell me if this makes sense. I'll use Auto for my main (Allied) bases;
- Pacific: PH, Suva, Sydney/Brisbane (keeping it simple)

And then run Human supply from these main stockpiled bases to everything else?

My goal is to Automate something to alleviate some tasks off me hands....

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: mussey

I think I'll give Auto Convoy a try and see what happens, since I'm experimenting with just about everything anyways. I guess I need to see what the relationship is/interactions are between the Auto and my Human convoys and to try not to duplicate/redundant supply runs to the various bases.

So tell me if this makes sense. I'll use Auto for my main (Allied) bases;
- Pacific: PH, Suva, Sydney/Brisbane (keeping it simple)

And then run Human supply from these main stockpiled bases to everything else?

My goal is to Automate something to alleviate some tasks off me hands....

I wouldn't use auto-convoy for bases with very high volume flows through them, such as Sydney. The mechanism for determining base demand is (used to be at least) just a summing of the supply demanded by the resident LCUs. Auto-convoy doesn't build supply dumps. It's for everyday needs.

Also, auto-convoy tends to be straight-line routing. If you need to dogleg around known Japanese air bases, like maybe Tarawa or Canton or Baker islands, you should manually manage or use CS with waypoints.

[tigercub]

I use CS only....manualy the rest!

Tigercub

[mussey]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: mussey

I think I'll give Auto Convoy a try and see what happens, since I'm experimenting with just about everything anyways. I guess I need to see what the relationship is/interactions are between the Auto and my Human convoys and to try not to duplicate/redundant supply runs to the various bases.

So tell me if this makes sense. I'll use Auto for my main (Allied) bases;
- Pacific: PH, Suva, Sydney/Brisbane (keeping it simple)

And then run Human supply from these main stockpiled bases to everything else?

My goal is to Automate something to alleviate some tasks off me hands....

I wouldn't use auto-convoy for bases with very high volume flows through them, such as Sydney. The mechanism for determining base demand is (used to be at least) just a summing of the supply demanded by the resident LCUs. Auto-convoy doesn't build supply dumps. It's for everyday needs.

Also, auto-convoy tends to be straight-line routing. If you need to dogleg around known Japanese air bases, like maybe Tarawa or Canton or Baker islands, you should manually manage or use CS with waypoints.

I think I get you, use it not for the major supply bases but for the smaller ones. Thanks for a quick reply.

[slane_slith]

Heres a trick i use.

1. If the outlying island has resources or supply set that as your home port.
2. Set the destination.
3. Turn on Do not refuel.
4. Set a waypoint for the destination, turn on minimum refuel

Now your TF will haul your resources out without having to haul something back and you don't have to move fuel to the home port because it will refuel while at the destination