So I answered a personal challenge from Omnitronic and had some strange things happen.
Firstly, his ships would come across the board to get mine…Because mine would just orbit in place, as if they were giant, slow, clumsy fighters assigned to escort duty. I carefully checked all ship settings, only the fighters were on escort. Fighters NOT on escort scurried across to meet Omnitronic’s ships, shot at them a bit…Then began circling in place as his fleet left them behind, eager to go see what my fleet was circling around.
Secondly, he posted the same challenge as a public challenge. Now I was able to fight it, my ships went out to meet his instead of developing dancing-mouse-itis. Unfortunately, the fighters assigned to escort duty did NOT go with them, but continued to circle in place about 1/3 of the way across the map.