"Sentry" Command Fails

from GalCiv2 Forums

Being a "newbee" playing my first game of Dread Lords, I first reported this problem under Game Talk ("How do I attack a raider?")  I'm still not sure if it is something that I am not doing or doing wrong, but the "Sentry" command does not work.  Looking at the manual, it is the only command you can give your vessels to react to a non-enemy vessel.  However, whether I try to order a fleet or an individual ship to "Sentry" duty, the check box is nullified after I click the "Turn" button and any foreign ships in range are ignored.  The "Sentry" command does not persist from one turn to the next like the "Guard" command does.  Has anyone else encountered this problem?  How do I get my ships to attack or challenge a vessel belonging to alien race with whom I am not at war?

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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You don't seem to understand what "Sentry" or "Guard" is supposed to do. When idle, when either command is active, the ship(s) in question do nothing. When the given trigger wakes them up, they are ready to recieve orders. They take no actions until they recieve orders (I believe thats what they are intended to do, like in the civilization series).

The reason for this is, in DL original, when you finish giving orders to one ship, the game would automatically select the next ship (with remaining moves) for you. The "Sentry" and "Guard" commands give you a way to skip over certain ships until the given triggers are meet (like enemy ships in sensor range for the guard command).

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...However, whether I try to order a fleet or an individual ship to "Sentry" duty, the check box is nullified after I click the "Turn" button and any foreign ships in range are ignored...
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Yes they are ignored. You have not given any orders to the ship in question. They in no way are supposed to attack without the orders.

After giving it some thought, you seem to have the opposite problem I do. You seem to want some command, lets call it "Partol", which would automatically attack any ships that it can see. I on the other hand want a command, I call it "Fortify", which would cause a ship to remain idle and would have no triggers to wake it up (it would make it easier to protect starbases from attack).

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Okay, then back to my original question in my Game Play post:  How do I get my ships to attack a foreign vessel belonging to an alien race that I am NOT at war with?  I surrounded the raider with up to five fleets and in several instances the raider stopped long enough to where my fleets could not advance any further on it from several directions -- so they had to be in range.  When that happened, I set my fleets to "Sentry" to get them to challenge the non-enemy ship, but the "trigger" never happened and I discovered that the "Sentry" check box was unchecked programmatically after I clicked the "Turn" button.  The "Guard" command persists from one turn to the next, but the "Sentry" command doesn't.  Frustratingly, I had a massive armada chasing and trying to destroy the raider, but I could not get them to attack no matter what I tried.  Any suggestions?

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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You should probally send a bug report to:

[email protected]

They might be able to help. It should be noted that Stardock is currently busy with other projects, so don't expect an immediate responce. Be certain to explain your problem with attacking the ship in question.

You might want to include the save of the game that shows this problem. You might want to place a rally point at where the trouble some ship is located so the devs can find the ship in question.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You need to attempt a move onto the same space as the non-enemy ship in order to commence hostilities.  You can't automatically attack non-hostile ships.

Sentry simply tells the ship to wait every turn until another ship (enemy or not) is in range.

Guard is like Sentry then, except it only reacts to enemy ships.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I discovered the hard way that the "Auto Attack" command doesn't work on non-enemy vessels.  However, I thought the "Sentry" command would get my fleets to challenge a foreign ship when they couldn't advance any closer, but I couldn't get them to react either to the raider or to its victim freighter with that command.  The foreign vessels had to be in range since I couldn't get any closer, but fleets under the "Sentry" command would do nothing.