Beta 7 [feedback] formation flying

[SpaceCadet11864]

It's been a while since I played 6.2 (year-ish) but I believe the formation flying has been improved by a lot in beta 7. I've noticed a lot of ships flying in formation even in travel drive which if memory serves they would typically break up at that point. Here's what I noticed so far:

1. When you have ships that are set to "attack with.." the formation works very well
2. Follow tends to ignore formation, which I'd prefer they could be in some formation as some ships using follow could be used as a fighter screen
3. Formation tends to break if the player takes control of the leading ship and flies it themself, unless using auto-pilot. When using auto-pilot, formation tends to work better but not always.
4. highways really break formation but it's difficult to control that, I understand.
5. Destroyers lose formation after an attack order. Once the attack order is complete, they do subordinates do not fall back into formation, and using "recall subordinates" does nothing, the order just completes right away.

Some workarounds I've used for keeping destroyers in formation are making sure an AI pilot is in control of the leading ship, and ordering it to move several km away, typically with an additional move order so that I can make sure the formation is facing a certain direction.

An additional order, maybe "fall in formation, fall in line, get in formation!" would be an interesting way to perhaps force subordinates to get into formation as well.

[Scoob]

I've observed that formations are a lot more cohesive if said group remains within a given sector. As soon as a group's orders mean it'll traverse more than one sector, formations are totally broken. For example, I have regular Civilian ships - M-Class Miners and Transporters - escorted by groups of Fighters. However, time and time again, the group will arrive at the first sector transition together, just fine. Then the lead ship will traverse the gate and, soon after, engage Travel Mode to the next gate (or destination station). It's at this point that the subordinates DO NOT use their own travel drives, and slow boat following their leader. If the leader traverses another gate, it'll usually wait on the other side for the subordinates to catch up.

Just now, I ordered a small group (Frigate with two Corvette escorts each with four Fighters) to attack an SCA Minotaur Raider that'd just killed one of my ships. They stayed cohesive while in the original sector, but oddly kept stopping, failing to catch the Pirate because of that. Pirate then leaves the sector and the Frigate eventually pursues. The result of this was traversing three sectors in total. When the lead Frigate finally caught and engaged the Pirate, the two Corvette escorts were a whole sector away - the other side of the sector, not even close to the gate to the Frigate's sector - and the Corvettes fighters were in yet another sector, even further behind. Group formation totally broken.

If they can get groups to stick together AFTER a sector transition, then formation movement will be solid.

[SpaceCadet11864]

So I haven't tried it with your scenario specifically, but, I have seen groups of destroyers travel between sectors without breaking formation, which seems to be better than 6.20 - they even warp from sector A to B and stay in formation the whole time. Obviously this doesnt work with fighters, but I'm glad to see improvement here.