no idea about chances but i definitly like the idea. i think something happened in one of the entrenchment updates that messed up group jumping behaviour, as well as fleet moving within a grav well

idn, though, what are you doing exactly? if you right click to attack a target, each ship will charge forward, get into its 'optimal' firing position and start plugging away. LF and HC are faster than say cap ships, carriers and some support cruisers, so they will get to the battle first.

if you want them to move forward in a formation until they are within firing range and then attack, you would be better off changing engagement range to local, then telling the fleet to move close to the enemy fleet (or where its going to be) but not actually telling which ship to attack until its within range or even not at all...

that might simulate the effect you are looking for

if you are retreating (i.e. you have pressed the retreat button) your ships will all disengage, turn around and head to the nearest safe planet without regard to group movement commands or anything. if you are just telling them to move... in general... no i dont think there is a way too keep them in formation

but yeah, it would be a nice visual if nothing else. and if possible, while implementing that, if they could give the AI some 'suggestions' of places where each type of ship should be located in a formation, that'd be fantastic. as it is, we have everything just jumbled up.

i saw the front of the game box and saw how the fleet was alined and i was thinking zomg uber cool, then in game it wasnt like that i mean, as far as tactics go, it would be beneficial to put battleships and dreadnoughts (maybe battlecruisers), Heavy cruisers, Light frigates, scouts and Hosikos/Guardians/(i forget the name of the vasari one) at the front of the formation, and have carriers, LRF, cielos and variants plus a few HC and LF as reinforcements, plus utility battlecruisers, carriers, and colony battlecruisers at the back, with flak frigs and scouts arrayed around the fleet.

THAT would be hot. imagine seeing that jump into your system...

A single speed move order would be very useful. I always miss it in RTS games when I find it isn't there.

not the last 3 games i played...

sounds good, has my vote

It's a bit of a pain when you come to a field of 100 mines and your scouts are behind your cap ships. Good idea to look formation.

You could press the Devs. for said feature... use my tactic, OR create a mod that FORCES the speed of ALL of your ships to be the same... that way no one is outstripped by anyone else (Might make things less fun, in my opinion, though).

Koda0 (^)

In small fleets at the beginning of the game, it is not an issue, but the larger your fleets get, the worse it becomes... once your frigates start stacking on top of each other, your formation is screwed...

Simply put, a lock formation button would be appreciated as the ideas given above only work under very specific conditions...

Mod's not gonna do us any good for online multiplayer, though.  It has to be something that the designers add to the game 'cause it's doubtful that more than 20% of all online players would get the mod.

wow... no one even hinted at the existence of my post...

As far as yours goes, You would still have Intercept and the one on the Vasari carrier... (But regardless, I don't like the idea of slowing down all ships)  

If you are in a locked formation, then you should only travel as fast as your capitals can plug along...  If not, everyone just gets to the destination as fast as they can...

First off, I was agreeing with you...

Next, I think it should be toggleable as a Greek army could be in phalanx (locked formation) or man to man.  Once you switch it off, it goes to normal fighting...

I know what you mean...  The problem is a bug in the "Auto Join Fleet" command.  It should be fixed so that if you give a specific command to one ship to do something, it should do that until you give a general command or it finishes doing what you told it to...

Basically, you can give general attack orders or you can give specific orders.  Microing works against ships, but not so much against structures and planets...