running into lots of bugs in combat engine. Is this typical? Any advice appreciated.

A couple of added points: I altered "capture planet" to put weapons platforms at the top of the target priority list. Having done that is it the case that ships with "Capture Planet" orders will NOT attack planetary defenses?? A friend thought that might be the explanation, but if it is true, how DO I get fleets to attack planetary defenses before moving carriers / troop ships in?

Also, he thought that carrier ships (troop or fighter carriers) with "capture planet" orders will NOT wait until planetary defenses are eliminated before moving in to "drop troops.", possibly explaining the reason why my carriers charged ahead and got damaged. Is that true?

As for my fighters initiating ground combat - he thinks that only those "dropped" by your carriers (not previously launched for space combat) would conduct ground attacks. He thinks it's possible that those fighters were eliminated quickly by the ground defenses present on the planet and therefore I didn't get a ground combat report. Does that make sense? Also, if fighters can only be in ground combat if they are "dropped" not launched, then how do I keep them from getting launched in the first place?

Thanks,
DB

P.S. Is there a "how to attack a planet" FAQ or tutorial somewhere for SEV?

Thanks for the tip. I didn't have troops, but I did have fighters. They supposedly did initiate ground combat, but there was no report. And, since I can't watch any of the movies, I don't know what my fleet on the turn when I should have had ground combat. Could they possibly have attacked the planet since there (may have been?) no more fighters in my carriers?

I have three questions:

1) I now understand that "capture planet" orders keep all non-troop ships back, to allow the troop ships to go in and drop troops). Is this a special property of the "capture planet" order per se, or is there some setting in that order that I could change if I wanted armed ships to move in and attack planetary defenses while my troop ships move in to drop troops?

2) If I have a task force with "capture planet" orders, will other task forces with other (e.g., "optimal range") orders attack as normal, or will they wait until the troop ships do their thing?

3) Finally, is there a way to reset all the orders to default (since I've mucked around with them trying to figure all this out, and may have messed things up)?

Thanks!

QUOTED (my replies after "DB:"): I see a few possible problems, and other things that are more restrictions or limitations of the game.
(I am far from being an expert, so I could be wrong on some things)

1:
Capture Planet strategy.
It is set by default (in stock anyways) to launch all units in combat. If a ship carries fighters and can launch them, it will do so.
The carrier launched the fighters it was going to invade the planet with.
Simple fix, either use more specialized 'troop transport' that cannot launch fighters, or change the auto-launch value for the Capture Planet strategy to false, or even copy the Capture Planet to make an alternate one for carriers.

DB: Good idea -- thanks. One question: is there something special about the "capture planet" order, or is its behavior (e.g., having all ships hang back while troop ships go in) due to some switch/toggle that I can alter. I'd like a task force of armed ships to move to the planet and take out planetary defenses so that my troop ships don't get shot out of the sky.

2:
No troops.
Heck, no 'troop transports'
Unless I am mistaken, that right there could be a major obstacle in plans to capture a planet.
Sure, you could capture planets without specialized troop transports, but not having troops at all is a major flaw in any plan to capture planets, IMO.
I don't even know if a planet can be successfully captured without troops, even if all enemy ground forces were destroyed in a ground battle using just fighters.

DB: Yes, I was hoping the fighters would do the trick, but they didn't. That may explain why there was no ground combat battle -- maybe it only occurs if there are ground troops?

3:
Ships chasing down an enemy ship and only firing at stuff that is 'in range'.
Once a target is selected, as ship will chase it down until the target is no longer valid, retreats, or either it or itself is destroyed. It will still fire at targets of oppertunity with weapons not occupied with firing at the target.

DB: Thanks. This is too bad, since it would seem to make it a very good strategy to have armed ships defending a planet have "do not get hurt orders", to draw away any warships that are intended to attack enemy fleets then move on the planet, no?

4:
Max Range problem
Don't ships tend to 'slow down' or even try to turn when they get in weapons range on max range orders?
This generally means the chasing ship keeps falling out of max range...

DB: Good point. I'll stop using max range in general.

5:
Ships not attacking a satellite.
I can only think of two general things.
Either the ships actually lacked weapons that could target sats.
Or.
Something in the strategy used made the satellite as not a valid target. I know under the Target Type Order and Settings, one of the engage range types is "Do Not Engage", but I do not know why any strategy would even have satellites set to not be engaged at all.

DB: It's a mystery because my ships had weapons and ammo (or they would have retreated, right, not run up to the enemy and not fired??) and I specifically checked that "satellite" was a valid target. These were default orders ("max range", etc.) I never set anything to "do not engage".

6:
AI has a one tracked mind.
Overall, the AI goes by the book, it follows orders to the letter, period, no exceptions. Such as a Carrier trying to capture a planet launching the fighters it is trying to capture the planet with, because the strategy actually defeats itself when used on certain ships, even thought ot totally defeats the purpose of the Carrier trying to capture a planet in the first place...

DB: Thanks for the cuationary note. I kind of feel like these battles are more like programming assignments than warfare. Maybe the best strategy is to stick with the default battle plans and keep things simple...?

Thanks, I was not aware of that. I'm not sure I fully understand it either. I see that there is a "targeting priority order" but I'm not sure how that interacts with / differs from "Target type order and settings" (which is below it). One of the choices in "targeting priority order" is "Target type". Does this mean that the ship will fire on ships according to the targeting priority order, from top to bottom, and then if it gets to "target type", it will then prioritize ships according to the Target type order and settings" list? That must be wrong, because if I have "do not engage" listed in Target type order and settings, my ships won't engage, even if I don't have "Target type" listed in targeting priority order.

Is there a simple way of thinking about this, or a tutorial somewhere that spells this out?

Thanks!