Serious space combat bug |
It seems patch 1.13 created a new bug :
Under 1.08 version of the game if your attack on enemy ships didn't result in the total destruction of one of the parties you had the opportunity to change the orders given to your ships.
Now if you attack the enemy, once engaged in combat you cannot disengage, you must either wipe out all the opposition of perish. Of course you can leave the battle area by exiting your forces beyond the yellow circle, but once your last ship has left, your fleet will automatically re-attack as long as you have movement points left, even if you have no ordinance left !
In strategic combat your forces will simply get slaughtered because they will continue to attack without any ammo left onboard ! You cannot use fast ships on “hit and run” raids anymore, there are no way to cancel the attack once the order is given, so the computer keeps on attacking and attacking again until you are either eliminated or the enemy is. 
resolved
i fixed it - open data/settings.txt search for settings with radius in name (dont remember exact name) - it should have value of 1000 - change it to 1200 or more ( i play at 2000)
combat distance vary and depend of which side of hex you attack - it could be 800 1000 or 1200
edit
Thanks. Will try it.
Thanks. 
Will try it.
I’m not sure however it will solve the “endless attacks” bug.
I’m a bit disappointed by the 1.13 patch, I think the combat radius addition creates a lot of troubles instead of improving the gameplay.
Personally I think I will disinstall the game and re-install the 1.08 version which works better as far as space combat is concerned.
Elaborate
I’m a bit disappointed by the 1.13 patch, I think the combat radius addition creates a lot of troubles instead of improving the gameplay.
This sounds like a fairly serious issue. I have the game but have not had time to install it. Would you explain this a little more?
I really like the combat
I really like the combat radius.
Before it, you damaged the ships of the ai and after the last weapon of a ship was out of order the ship began to flee. The combat maps are endless. Wish you fun when heading behind 17 damaged ships combat speed 12 with your ships combat speed 13.
Now they leave the map ( if movement points are left ) when they reach the boarder of the radius, or ( if no movement left ) they begin to follow the boarder line of the radius -> they fly in large circles.
So they are easier to get down ( with no movement points ), or if they had movement ( they just flee ). And since the combat will end after 5 mins they even have a chance to survive with no mps left.
Redbull102
Combat Map Size
The combat map radius needs to be increased in size and the starting placement needs to be a bit closer to give the defenders a decent chance of catching fleeing ships before they retreat. So far I've found 2000 for the radius to be ok, particularly when the placement is decent.
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With the combat radius you
With the combat radius you are supposed to be able to disengage and flee from battle. It just works fine if you are the defender. But if you’re the attacker you just cannot do it, because once you have disengaged you are automatically re-engaged : the attack order remains in force until you run out of movement points
Bug example
To better illustrate the consequences of this bug let’s have an example :
Suppose your fleet is vastly outnumbered/outgunned by the enemy and the only advantage you have over this armada is your ships are faster and armed with long range weapons (missiles).
Your only chance to survive is to fight a “guerrilla” warfare. The idea is to engage the enemy fleet, fire your full load of missiles, hopefully destroying an enemy ship or two then to run away (using your superior speed) once you have depleted all your ordinance or when the enemy is getting too close for comfort. Then, you just have to go back to your home base with the movement points you have left, to re-supply and then undertake the same “hit and run” tactics again.
The 1.13 patch is supposed to allow this type of manoeuvre, I think it actually even encourage it, because under the 1.08 version of the game the enemy had plenty of time to catch you, even with slower ships. But with the present bug you just cannot do it ! Because once you disengage instead of being allowed to issue new orders to your ships they automatically attack the enemy again, and will keep on attacking again and again until they have run out of movement points.
The only way to get out of this “attack loop” is either to destroy all the enemy ships or have all yours destroyed.
In that case
I'm not so convinced if this is a bug or WaD. I mean - if you are outnumbered/outgunned by the enemy then it is natural you are NOT attacking but only defending. Therefore the game allows only defender to retreat - when you are attacker you have to be prepared to face consequences.
Not so...
Actually, that's not really the case, IE:
If you attack via a warp order, you can retreat just fine, you'll end up in a parsec away from the warp, but on the otherside of the system.
On the otherhand, if you use the "attack" order, it is remembered by the game as "keep attacking w/e is in section (x,y) until you run out of movement points". Since retreating costs 1 movement point, if you had 2 movement points before you attack, you can retreat normally, and everything will be fine (since moving to attack takes 1 movement, and retreating takes another), thus allowing you to attack and retreat at the same time. In otherwords, if you want to use "hit and run" strategies, make sure you have 2 movement left before you attack (by moving around them), then attack, run, and then use emergency movement pods to run back to your planet.
Either what I posted above is a serious exploit, or the order memory is a bug. Another words, the order should only be executed once, and cleared as soon as combat ends. I believe the second is more likely, Aaron probably just forgot to clear orders after a retreat.
I think it's really a bug
To Richie : Some people say “attack is the best defence” 
To Kalin : I fully agree with you. The “hit and run” tactics works (of course) if you have movement points left (ideally you should keep at least half you mvt pts in reserve). The problem with 1.13 is once you give the “attack” order this order is not deactivated when you disengage, so all your remaining movement points are just wasted as your ships will continue to attack until their run out of movement points. You just cannot run away.
This is why I agree with you on the fact Aaron probably forgot to clear the attack order after a retreat/withdrawal (which is somewhat strange because it did not forget to do it under the 1.08 version of the game).
Problem solved
I noticed the “endless attack” issue has been addressed :
9. Fixed - Any ships which retreat from combat will have their orders cleared.
Thanks for your reactivity guys !
but
remember not only retreated
sometimes it happen to fleets that combat time timed out
*single tear*
This is the kind of stuff that brings a hardcore gamer to tears. Excuse me....
THanks!!! Could not get
THanks!!! Could not get ships to engage even though I had no treaties. This resolved the issue.
It seems the "endless attack
It seems the "endless attack syndrome" also affects the AI : on one occasion the AI attacked one of my colonies, the enemy fleet was badly mauled and had to retreat, but after this attack instead of moving away the damaged enemy ships kept attacking and attacking again, even if they were heavily damaged and without any weaponry or ordinance left. Actually they did not exactly re-attack they just reengaged and tried to immediately retreat beyond the combat radius : their attack order had not been erased.
Oops I release that this
Oops I release that a similar issue has already been posted by pujal :