Changes to Standing and Conditional Orders
For v2.6, you can set unlimited Standing and Conditional Orders for each fleet. They will be checked in order of priority.
To facilitate this change, the UI of the Standing Orders tab on the Fleet Organization window has been changed. This new UI should make visualizing the order lists easier and creates the necessary space to add new order types and conditions.
To set a standing order, select one from the Tree view and click Add Standing. It will be added as the lowest priority standing order. To set a conditional order, select a standing order from the Tree view, plus a Condition from the list, and click Add Conditional. It will be added as the lowest priority conditional order. Some orders are conditional-only and cannot be using for standing orders. They have their own section on the treeview.
Both standing and conditional orders can be deleted or moved up and down their respective priority lists by the buttons on the bottom right.
In addition, checking of standing and conditional orders will occur for increments longer than one minute, rather than increments longer than one hour.
Standing & Conditional Order Templates
You can create templates for the new unlimited standing and conditional orders.
Clicking Create Template will save all the standing and conditional orders for the current fleet and pops up a dialogue box for you to enter a name. The saved templates are displayed beneath the condition options.
Selecting a different fleet and clicking Load Template will replace the standing and conditional orders of that fleet with those in the template. There is a warning popup if the fleet already has either standing or conditional orders.
Fleet Waypoints
A Fleet Waypoint is a new waypoint type that is associated with a specific fleet. A fleet can only have one Fleet Waypoint and if a new one is created, the one old disappears. The Fleet Waypoint will also disappear at the point of arrival, if the associated fleet uses a movement order with that waypoint as the destination.
A Fleet Waypoint can be created in several ways.
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There is a new Create Fleet Waypoint movement order, that will create the waypoint at the selected destination.
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On the military tab of the Tactical window, selecting a fleet and clicking ‘Create Fleet WP’ will create a Fleet Waypoint for that fleet at the fleet’s current location.
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On the same military tab of the Tactical Window, ‘Set Fleet WP’ functions in the same way as Normal WP on the waypoints tab. The cursor changes to a cross and clicking on the map will create a Fleet Waypoint at the clicked location.
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There is also a ‘Create Fleet WP’ on the Movement Orders tab of the Fleet Window, although this doesn’t immediately update the tactical map.
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There is a checkbox called ‘Set FWP’ next to the Add Condition button (see screenshot below). If this is checked when a Condition is created, that condition will be flagged to create a Fleet Waypoint at the fleet’s current location when triggered.
“MV: Fleet Waypoint” is a new standing or conditional order that will cause the fleet to move to its associated ‘Fleet Waypoint’.
This new functionality provides a number of different options for fleet orders. For example, the fleet in the screenshot below has “MV: Fleet Waypoint” as its first standing order. Most of the time this will not trigger as no Fleet Waypoint will exist. If however, the fleet triggers the Refuel conditional order, that order will generate a Fleet Waypoint. Once the refuel order is completed, the first standing order will be checked and the Fleet will return to the location at which the conditional order was triggered. On arrival, the fleet waypoint will be removed.
Alternatively, a fleet with survey standing orders could add “MV: Fleet Waypoint” standing order after the survey orders, then use a movement order to drop a fleet waypoint at its entry location. Once there are no remaining survey targets, it will move to the fleet waypoint.
The “MV: Fleet Waypoint” standing orders works for multi-system journeys. If a Fleet Waypoint is created on a system body, or by a fleet in orbit of a system body, it will move with that body.
Replenish At Colony Standing Orders
The new “LG: Replenish at Colony” standing order will trigger a refuel and resupply from colony order, followed by a load ordnance order. The order will check for colonies with fuel, refuelling capability, supplies and supply capability. It will not check for for the presence of ordnance when the orders are issued, although the ordnance will be loaded if available.
The “LG Replenish Overhaul” order replaces the previous “Refuel, Resupply and Overhaul” order. It will trigger a refuel and resupply from colony order, followed by a load ordnance order, followed by an overhaul order. The order will check for colonies with fuel, refuelling capability, supplies, supply capability and maintenance capability. It will not check for the presence of ordnance when the orders are issued, although the ordnance will be loaded if available.
Replenish from Ship Standing Order
The new “LG: Refuel from Tanker” standing/conditional order will trigger a ‘refuel from stationary tanker’, if one is available. The order will check for the nearest tanker with fuel, refuelling capability and no movement orders. This will work across multiple systems.
The “LG Replenish from Ship” standing/conditional order will trigger a ‘refuel from stationary tanker’ order, followed by a resupply from stationary supply ship order’, if a suitable fleet is available. The order will check for a fleet with no movement orders that has both a tanker with fuel and refuelling capability, plus a supply ship with supplies and a cargo shuttle bay. This can be the same ship for both cases. This will work across multiple systems.
Standing Orders for Detachments
I’ve added three checkboxes under the standing and conditional orders list. These checkboxes will retain their state after the game is shut down and restarted.
When using the Detach button on the Naval Organization window, or the Divide Fleet order, the standing orders of the parent fleet will be copied to the newly created detached fleet if the ‘Copy Standing on Detach’ checkbox is ticked. The conditional orders of the parent fleet will be copied to the newly created detached fleet if the ‘Copy Conditional on Detach’ checkbox is ticked.
This applies to detachments of individual ships, sub-fleets and squadrons directly from the Treeview, plus ships selected from the ship list tab associated with fleet, sub-fleets and squadrons. However, fleets created from a Squadron, or from ships selected from the ship list tab when a Squadron is selected, will only have the orders copied if the ‘Include Squadron’ checkbox is checked.
Ignore Standing and Conditional Orders
I’ve added two checkboxes named “Ignore Standing Orders” and “Ignore Conditional Orders” to the Standing Orders tab of the Naval Organization window. If either is checked, the fleet will ignore any orders of the respective type until the checkbox is unclicked.
This is for situations where you have multiple orders set up and don’t want to remove them during a period when they might be inapplicable.
