After testing a lot more, there seems to be an insoluble problem with fleets of more than two ships.
Ship A forms a fleet.
Ship B joins and is assigned a place. This works fine.
Ship C joins and, incorrectly, is assigned either the same position as the flagship, or the same position as ship B.
-Either Ship C cannot physically move into its place, in which case the fleet is now broken, or:
-Ship C somehow takes position and helm locks.
Ship A, the Flagship, now shows Ship C as locked, but not ship B.
Ship B itself, however, still considers itself locked, and cannot maneuver.
Ship A starts moving, and Ship C follows. Ship B remains immovable unless it leaves the fleet.
The fleet is now also broken.
In a third variety, all ships successfully take position, but during travel, one ship is no longer considered locked by the flagship, and falls away. It still considers itself locked and cannot move.
I have tried with various configurations of different ship types, and the problem seems persistent.
The problems can, I think, be divided into two issues:
- Flagship and slave ships can disagree about whether or not slave ship is position-locked, which is weird.
- Flagship can attempt to assign the same place (including its own place!) to two slave ships at once.
Temporary workaround, in case anyone is getting stuck:
-Choose a ship OTHER than the flagship you want, and use it to create the fleet.
-Add all the ships you want to the fleet.
-Hail on the fleet channel. Each ship will open a channel to you.
-Go to your desired flagship and "promote to flagship"
-Quickly request transports from each ship's in turn on each ship's private channel. This will take you to their transporter room, where you can instantly travel to the next ship.
-Do not return to the flagship until you have visited all the others.
-When you return to the flagship, all the other ships will now show up on the fleet screen as having recently checked in.
-If they have not yet taken up their positions, the flagship should be aware of all of them, and assign them separate places.
-Once the slave ships are in position and think they are locked, they will still not show as locked on the flagship's screen.
-So repeat the process of visiting each ship in turn, and return to the flagship last.
-All ships should now be updated to show as "locked" on the fleet screen.
-The fleet is now functional. Reward yourself with a cup of tea and a little lie-down!
N.B.: If you subsequently visit any other ships in the fleet, the other ships will disappear from the flagship's list, and you'll have to visit them all again, in sequence, before returning to the flagship, to get them back.
Ship A forms a fleet.
Ship B joins and is assigned a place. This works fine.
Ship C joins and, incorrectly, is assigned either the same position as the flagship, or the same position as ship B.
-Either Ship C cannot physically move into its place, in which case the fleet is now broken, or:
-Ship C somehow takes position and helm locks.
Ship A, the Flagship, now shows Ship C as locked, but not ship B.
Ship B itself, however, still considers itself locked, and cannot maneuver.
Ship A starts moving, and Ship C follows. Ship B remains immovable unless it leaves the fleet.
The fleet is now also broken.
In a third variety, all ships successfully take position, but during travel, one ship is no longer considered locked by the flagship, and falls away. It still considers itself locked and cannot move.
I have tried with various configurations of different ship types, and the problem seems persistent.
The problems can, I think, be divided into two issues:
- Flagship and slave ships can disagree about whether or not slave ship is position-locked, which is weird.
- Flagship can attempt to assign the same place (including its own place!) to two slave ships at once.
Temporary workaround, in case anyone is getting stuck:
-Choose a ship OTHER than the flagship you want, and use it to create the fleet.
-Add all the ships you want to the fleet.
-Hail on the fleet channel. Each ship will open a channel to you.
-Go to your desired flagship and "promote to flagship"
-Quickly request transports from each ship's in turn on each ship's private channel. This will take you to their transporter room, where you can instantly travel to the next ship.
-Do not return to the flagship until you have visited all the others.
-When you return to the flagship, all the other ships will now show up on the fleet screen as having recently checked in.
-If they have not yet taken up their positions, the flagship should be aware of all of them, and assign them separate places.
-Once the slave ships are in position and think they are locked, they will still not show as locked on the flagship's screen.
-So repeat the process of visiting each ship in turn, and return to the flagship last.
-All ships should now be updated to show as "locked" on the fleet screen.
-The fleet is now functional. Reward yourself with a cup of tea and a little lie-down!
N.B.: If you subsequently visit any other ships in the fleet, the other ships will disappear from the flagship's list, and you'll have to visit them all again, in sequence, before returning to the flagship, to get them back.