ally orders

Can anyone explain how to give orders to my allies (in single-player mode at the moment). According to the manual, "to issue a smart ping, first select the item in the game you want to interact with; you'll see three buttons appear in the action grid" (p. 22). I haven't seen the buttons though ("set ally attack target", "cancel ally order", and "set ally defense target"). I've confirmed that I know which part of the screen is the "action grid", and I've got the latest patch for the game. What am I missing?

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You need to select your ally's ships. The easiest way to do it is to click on the arc around the planet that displays the pip bars for the ships. With them selected, you'll see those three buttons on the lower right of your UI. The "action grid" is where all your buttons are for building and ship controls, and that's where these three will appear

Note that giving ally orders is not just to the ships you selected, but to the AI in general - it will decide what to send

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it will decide what to send...

and generally where to send it. Sometimes the AI can be painfully slow in responding to your requests. This may also have something to do with your standing with them, but I'm not sure.

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Ah, ok! I thought I was supposed to select the planet I wanted to attack or defend.

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