What is a picket ship anyway?

vmxa1 · March 6, 2003, 05:09

Man I can not seem to fathom what I need to build to satisfy the requirement of a picket ship. The doc is no help and in fact does not even list it as a mission type.
By process of eliminaion, I thought it was PD ship, so I made some. No way would it let me put them in as pickets.
Scouts did not work, so recon is not it?
This is keeping me from making any fleets over Flots or maybe Wave.
Someone clue me in on what misson type I need to have to create a picket ship. Does it have to be a certain class, such as Frigate? I made cruiser size ship as the PD.

Epistax · March 6, 2003, 08:59

scouts work

I'm guessing either it was put into the escort ring, or it wasn't really a scout.

Harry Seldon · March 6, 2003, 09:45

I've always used scouts as picket ships. I think they're the only ones you can drop in that slot. The escort class can contain any type of ship, and the mission ship class has to contain an offense capable ship. I had a TF with a few LR and IF ships for mission, carriers and PD ships for escort, and scouts for picket, all ranging from battleship to light cruiser size. I rolled over everything I came across except for guardians.

Xlr8 · March 6, 2003, 12:49

The picket ships (scouts) run around the perimeter of your TF. They help illuminate stealthed ships and stuff during combat. They enable the rest of your TF to target and see better cuz they are usually loaded with ECM, ECCM, X-Ray Trtansponder, etc.

vmxa1 · March 6, 2003, 13:21

Well could some one post the design of any ship that is allowed in the picket slot please?
I know what a picket is in real life, but so far none of the ships I have design is allowed in that slot. I arm my scouts, maybe that is the issue?
It seems crazy to disallow other ships from being in any ring. Let me slap in what ever I want, it is my game.

Cabbagemeister · March 6, 2003, 13:21

I think any ship you designate a reconnaissance ship shout be able to go into the picket ring. I started loading, ummm, either destroyers or light cruisers with detection and ECCM, and the task-force generator wouldn't put them anywhere BUT the picket ring.

Interesting side note: if you create a whole task force with its mission set to recon, then the computer will put every ship in the task force into the picket ring, unless you manually change it.

Xlr8 · March 6, 2003, 14:54

Quote:

Originally posted by Cabbagemeister
I think any ship you designate a reconnaissance ship shout be able to go into the picket ring.

Yes, that is correct. You can build battleship-size recon vessels and they will enter the picket.

Eric S · March 6, 2003, 15:52

The recon designation isn't sufficient, it has to be ships with one of the sensor specials (my strongest TF last night had two SD with ECCM/best scanning tech and a ton of PD. Found with an armada based on a core of Titan ships that pickets of any normal size left you without a picket after EVERY battle that wasn't trivial).

Speaking of which, how effective is stealth/cloaking in combat? Does the AI know where you are even if you're out of sensor range? I ask because if I "Watch" a combat against a cloaked enemy, my TFs with pickets (with the best sensor tech) will almost always head out in the direction of the invisible enemy., and sometimes even start shooting before the TF pentagon starts to fade in.

vmxa1 · March 6, 2003, 16:04

Ok, I finally was able to create a picket with a Recon mission on crusier hull.
It should not be so hard. Give us an open TF, where you can stick any ship in any ring.

Xlr8 · March 6, 2003, 16:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Eric S
The recon designation isn't sufficient, it has to be ships with one of the sensor specials

ah... hehehe. I was auto-building. Hehe.

Thanks for the clarification.

Eric S · March 6, 2003, 17:09

vmxa1, I agree. If I want to put together a TF entirely of one ship design, I should be allowed to do so (even if it's not a bright idea). I always built balanced ship designs in MoO2, and usually used one ship design, two at most per fleet.

I also think that we need documentation on what each ring does. I'm assuming that the core ring will focus on the mission assigned to the TF. Does this mean that if you drop short range ships into the core, that the TF will move in to attack from a closer range to enable those ships to attack? That might explain the "bug" that some people have complained about where a LR TF will close to near-point-blank range during an engagement, and get eaten alive. I've never seen this happen in over 50 hours of game play, but I'm meticulous to keep the core clear of conflicting ship types. (It could also have to do with the fact that I almost always "watch" combat rather than trying to control it.)

I also assume that given the name, the Escort ring should engage anything that comes in range, ignoring the TF orders unless that target is the closest target in range.

No clue what the priorities of ships in the Picket ring would be. Hopefully point defense, since they tend to be lighter ships. And do all ships in the TF benefit from the sensors in the picket, or is it strictly a spotting mechanism so that the rest of the TF can decide which way to turn in order to engage the enemy?

Xlr8, yeah, until I figured this out (last night) I was wondering why the recon designation autobuilder would favor ECCM and sensors to the exclusion of weapons. Now I understand some of that, except for the last part. I mean, really, is there a reason to put more than one ECCM module on a single ship?

The autobuilder will leave off weapons entirely to pack in as many ECCM modules as possible. Maybe X ECCM modules will negate X ECM modules, but not X+1 ECM modules (of the same level)?

Xlr8 · March 6, 2003, 17:29

Eric, ugh, who can say? You have spent more time with it than I have so far. I'm still in my 1st game.

But to address what you were saying about: "And do all ships in the TF benefit from the sensors in the picket, or is it strictly a spotting mechanism so that the rest of the TF can decide which way to turn in order to engage the enemy" ... I get the impression the TF gains the ability to see and target the enemy (sooner and further away) because the pickets are carrying the requisite ECM/ECCM equipment.

If you hover your mouse over a picket box after a bit a tooltip will appear and blurb something about scouts and their function. I'm at work so I cant tell you the verbage. Have you ever seen it?

I agree with you on the "ring bug". I also strive to keep the same types of ships in the main core ring.

BlueDEvil · March 6, 2003, 23:42

You can always create a PD or LR ship and change the class to Recon before saving the design. These ships should be able to pass off as Recon ships and use them as picket.

vmxa1 · March 7, 2003, 01:59

I do not know if it will break anything else, but they could let us rename the mission of any ship after it is in teh reserve. This will allow us to met teh requirements of the TF.