[7.0 Beta 3] Subordinates lagging behind leader (Save)

[Scoob]

Hi,

Please examine this vanilla saved game.

Once loaded, pause to give yourself a moment to find the ships in question. You'll be a passenger on a Destroyer in sector Hatikvah's Choice I.

Open the Map, and zoom out a little and you'll see four Fighters (each called "Eclipse ( something)" - where "something" is "Bolt" or "Pulse" showing their weapon load out - to the south-west of you. These ships are Interception subordinates to the mining ship "Miner M - Drill (Mineral) (MZF-506)". You'll see that this Mining ship is waiting by the gate in Argon Prime for these Fighters to catch up, as they've lagged far behind their leader.

The Drill Miner is quite a bit faster than the Eclipse Heavy Fighters, but it could easily slow down to stay in formation if it wanted to. It does not. Additionally, it's not like the Eclipses are flying at their top speed to keep up / catch up, they're not even using their travel drives. For me, after loading this save again, they don't seem particularly inclined to use it either.

From observation, ships travelling purely in-sector tend to stick together pretty well in v7.0 - a definite improvement. However, as soon as the leader traverses sectors, subordinates either lag behind as in this example, or they rush ahead. Regardless, either the LEADER waits the other side of the gate for its subordinates to catch up, or the subordinates wait the other side for the leader to catch up. Neither is ideal as it leaves the leader alone.

So you're aware of the speed differences, here's what they are:

Eclipses:

Speed: 202
Travel Speed: 2,429

Drill:

Speed: 297
Travel Speed: 3,560

I'd usually try to pair faster ships protecting a slower one, but they don't stay as a cohesive group when traversing sectors regardless. Practically speaking, it's likely better to have the Miner being FASTER than its subordinates, as they're expected to stand and fight while the Miner escapes if there's a hostile.

As mentioned, I've reloaded this save and can watch the Eclipses lagging behind the leader for some time after loading.

[Scoob]

Note: if I select the Mining ship and issue a "Recall Subordinates" order, the Eclipses will immediately engage their travel drives. If I don't do this, they slow-boat the entire way...which takes a while. All that time the Miner is unprotected and, just as importantly, NOT Mining, it's just waiting.

[Scoob]

Hi,

I have another example of this here if you'd care to take a look.

Once loaded, pause to buy yourself time. Open the map and look for my station "07 Warehouse: Ore / Silicon | All Liquids", expand it to select Alpha group "Frigate - Cerberus V. (Drones)". Double-click to centre on this ship and you'll see it's about to attack an SCA Minotaur Raider, as manually ordered by me a short while ago. The Cerberus is to the West of Grand Exchange III, however, its two Nemesis escorts (set to Attack) are way back in Grand Exchange I, and the subordinates of the two Nemesis are in Grand Exchange IV. This small fleet as become massively spaced out, leaving the leader exceptionally vulnerable.

This spacing out is occurring constantly where a group flies between sectors. Hopefully the saves are of use, as this is quite a critical issue, considering the importance of Escorts.