[Bug] Ships told to escort in 1.04 sleep on the job!

Gratuitous Forum Support
1

In 1.03, ships assigned to escort flew around their target and moved to engage nearby enemies. Going from 1.03 to 1.04, ships assigned the “escort” order act almost like they are in formation. If they aren’t in range of enemies, they will just sit in space until the ship they are assigned to dies.

  1. Make a ship with short range weapons. I used a frigate with pulse lasers.
  2. Make a ship with longer range weapons. I used a cruiser with proton beams.
  3. Assign the short-range ship to escort the long range one.
  4. Watch as the longer-range ship moves out in front and gets blown up. The escorting ship actually turns toward targets, like it wants to fight them, but never actually moves to the long range ship to get in range of its attackers.

Where the escorting ships are put during deployment doesn’t matter. Even if put out in front, they seem to wait for their target ship to catch up, and as long as something doesn’t come into range they sit around while the rest of the fleet gets torn to shreds.

2

I’m getting the same thing. Doesn’t matter what weapons the ships have; I’m getting it for frigates escorting cruisers with shorter ranges than they have. They do precisely nothing until they hit the maximum distance from their parent ship, at which point they move until they’re back within range, and stop again.
This has, however, provided a rather illuminating look into how much my frigates are actually doing in battle (i.e., squat).

3

Noted. I think I can see where this is causing problems, and its related to an improvement I want to make where proper configurable escort ranges are put in anyway.