Captain's Orders

sythsillis · Post by **sythsillis** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 11:09 pm

I have the military rank of Captain and during a 5 way point search and destroy contract, I tried to give an order to the naval ships in the vicinity. To my surprise, I received an affirmation in the text! The navy ships seemed to respond to the order. Could one of the veterans clear this up for me? I thought I needed to be an Admiral for this to work.

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 2:37 am

From post: 179768, Topic: tid=12043, author=sythsillis wrote:I have the military rank of Captain and during a 5 way point search and destroy contract, I tried to give an order to the naval ships in the vicinity. To my surprise, I received an affirmation in the text! The navy ships seemed to respond to the order. Could one of the veterans clear this up for me? I thought I needed to be an Admiral for this to work.

Hmmm, I'm Fleet Admiral and I've yet to get it to work.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 5:12 am

Where were you ... inside a war zone?

Post by **DaveK** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:23 am

I thought that at some time it changed to captain or above - but I might be getting it mixed with the release of all the mil frames!

sythsillis · Post by **sythsillis** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:39 am

The Captain's Orders took place in the Cerulean War Zone while I was taking down a capital ship. It seemed to work again when I tried it in Talison (not the war zone).

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 3:43 pm

Okay, I'll need to test it with a non-Admiral profile. Thanks.

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 4:24 pm

And when I tried it was in Talison Conflict.

While we are on the subject - Are you supposed to be able to command AI at any time or only during a Contract?
And do uou have to Target each one or just broadcast like you do in SP when you hire Wingmen?

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 9:30 pm

Well, I tried both in Talison and Talison Conflict, using an Admiral profile (I never got to the point of using anything else). I tried in both SP and MP. I accepted a 5-way contract (SP) then a 3-way contract (MP), broadcasting first to all ships and then to individual ships. I ordered them to form up ... because they were already engaged in combat with the Vonari (without me giving any orders). Not a single ship responded ... they all continued to battle the enemy (doing a good job, too).

Then again, maybe Dave hit on the answer. He wrote something about military ships. I was flying my Mammoth.

[Edited on 8-17-2015 by Marvin]

sythsillis · Post by **sythsillis** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:13 pm

Perhaps Vice or See Jay can clear this up for us.

Post by **Vice** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:37 pm

Sure, this excerpt from the instructions included with the game discusses the option basics:

Another way you can use nearby allies is to issue attack orders in war zones. When you accept a mission in a war zone, other military spacecraft will meet you at the waypoint to assist you. If your rank is high enough, the other ships will likely follow your orders. In multiplayer, you must also be the flight leader for the mission to issue orders. The player who is the flight leader in the sector is usually the highest on the player list, other players will see a '=' flash next to the flight leader's name while the flight leader themself will see a '-' next to their name.

In summary, you must be in a military conflict zone, on a military combat contract, generally achieve a rank of at least Commodore, be flight lead if in multiplayer, then issue the desired order. Formation orders may not necessarily be followed even if these conditions apply if a particular ship is heavily engaged in combat already and can't practically escape to form up. Focus on combat orders instead.

sythsillis · Post by **sythsillis** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 12:04 am

Thanks, Vice. It clears things up nicely. I must have been in the Talison War Zone the second time I used Captain's Orders and thinking I was in Talison proper. My combat ship is an Avenger.

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 12:11 am

The AI must really know me by now. They defend me during a WZ contract without my even asking. During the first two waypoints of a 3-waypoint contract, I just sat back and watched. I would've done the same during the third waypoint ... except the friendlies all died (leaving me as cleanup batter). Funny thing, though ... in SP I started out in Talison and got the same gung-ho support.