Form up

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Wed Oct 14, 2015 2:22 am

Can someone clear up how Form up works for me?
Since there's almost no one online these days I can't quite get it straight.

Is the ship that is Formed on you supposed to be able to follow you across multiple Jump Gates or only for one Jump?
If multiple Jump gates then what does it depends upon not to lose the player Formed on you?
I was in a Shrike and he was in a Legacy so I set my max speed to 1800 or so to accomadate the slower legacy but kept losing him after the 1st Jump to the starting Gate.

Post by **Marvin** » Wed Oct 14, 2015 6:38 am

They won't follow you into a war zone. But otherwise, when going from one star system to another, you usually need to wait around for a couple minutes.

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Wed Oct 14, 2015 9:16 pm

From post: 181246, Topic: tid=12124, author=Marvin wrote:They won't follow you into a war zone. But otherwise, when going from one star system to another, you usually need to wait around for a couple minutes.

The idea was to go from Talison (not TC) to Sapphire.
When I jumped to the Talison-Fauston Gate he followed me (judging my my hagin him targeted and watching his speed when I jumped).
I thought I saw him (on Target) jump also when I went thru the above mentioned gate - but when I arrived in Fauston he did not arrive and I was there minutes waiting.
At 1st I thought he did something which aborted it - but we tried a couple of times.
Again, he was in a Legacy and I in a Shrike but I set my max spped to about 1800 when he should have been able to do on a legacy with a Richton 5 engine.
Beats me unless my slow connection has something to do with it.
It's not the 1st tie I've had problems taking someone thru gates.

Post by **Marvin** » Wed Oct 14, 2015 10:32 pm

You did this in MP? I thought you could only hire an AI crew when in SP.

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 1:27 am

From post: 181257, Topic: tid=12124, author=Marvin wrote:You did this in MP? I thought you could only hire an AI crew when in SP.

It wasn't an AI - it was another player.

Sinbad · Post by **Sinbad** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 2:22 am

Going through jump gates generally shouldn't result in breaking formation between player ships. But perhaps it's possible to lose the formation if your ship accelerates a lot quicker than the other ship. You were in a military frame and he was in a civ frame, so that could have been the case. Just speculating.

Post by **Marvin** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 3:47 am

Actually, jump gates will disconnect a formation of players. You usually form up for long distance trips using your hyper-drive. And, to that end, there is a trick: lead must set his energy to cycle the slowest, he must have a jump-drive of a lesser or equal class ... and, after every jump, he needs to keep an eye on those formed up behind him to make sure nobody locks on to the wrong ship.

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 11:06 pm

From post: 181261, Topic: tid=12124, author=Marvin wrote:Actually, jump gates will disconnect a formation of players. You usually form up for long distance trips using your hyper-drive. And, to that end, there is a trick: lead must set his energy to cycle the slowest, he must have a jump-drive of a lesser or equal class ... and, after every jump, he needs to keep an eye on those formed up behind him to make sure nobody locks on to the wrong ship.

Energy may be part of it then - I keep my energy on +1 all the time.

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 7:20 am

Yup. The last guy in line needs to charge up before he can make the next jump.

Sinbad · Post by **Sinbad** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 1:39 pm

I seem to remember once going through a jump gate successfully in formation with another player. Or maybe that's a false memory... I'm getting old

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 4:30 pm

From post: 181293, Topic: tid=12124, author=MCCON wrote:I seem to remember once going through a jump gate successfully in formation with another player.

Try it. It might work. But, if you're the lead, make sure you hang around the gate until the rest of the formation shows up.

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 11:41 pm

From post: 181289, Topic: tid=12124, author=Marvin wrote:Yup. The last guy in line needs to charge up before he can make the next jump.

But if you are making a short jump to the initial Gate and he makes that jump and then you glide into the gate and make that jump but he doesn't the how do you overcome that? Lower your Energy? As I said I normally keep mine at -1S/1W so mush i set mine to something like 2s/-2W (if I'm in a mil frame and he's in a largeish civvie frame)??

That would a bit of a nuisance if there's lots of hostiles around.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 4:55 am

You just explained why formation flying through a jump-gate is a difficult maneuver at best. It's usually better to form up after everyone has passed through the gate. If all ships are of the same clan, you can locate each other using the Nav map.