A way to make it so your ships don't move

[Helix345]

I've found that my ship's captains, even after getting into a perfect firing distance decide to continue to move their ships, which then due to pathfinding issues, causes them to turn around so that none of their guns are facing the enemy, and be destroyed. Anybody have a tip to fix this, is there something I'm not doing?

[Mat8876]

This is a problem with the base game as you said with the path finder there is nothing you can do about it.

[Revanchist]

Hitting the stop command usually works for me on everything except ISDs. Those guys never listen to me.

[Mat8876]

I can't even get the stop button to work i can't think of a unit that hasn't ignored me. Maybe i'm just not liked by my troops.

[Helix345]

even after leading them to victory countless times, my troops don't seem to like me either

[Revanchist]

I think you'll find that random and unprovoked executions will keep your troops alert and motivated.

[Mat8876]

I'd have no troops, my troops just ignore me and charge straight into the middle of an enemy fleet.

[Corey]

Usually movement or attack-move commands work better than direct attack commands. The game is basically analyzing the unit as a group of hardpoints, and every hardpoint want to shoot the target so they tend to end up trying to perma-rotate for a (usually non-existant) position from which everything can attack.

[Pali]

If, when giving a move command, you hold right-click and drag slightly, an arrow will appear - the ship will orient in the arrow's direction when it reaches the desired location.  To have a ship rotate in place (slooooowly), hold right-click and drag on top of the unit, and it should again try to orient in the arrow's direction. Edit: Also, if you first give an attack order, and then issue a movement order, your ship will usually keep shooting at the ship you ordered it to attack while it tries to comply with the movement order, so if you want your SSD focusing fire while also turning to a specific direction, order it to attack the target, then drag a right-click over it to tell it to face the way you want.  Won't always work, but it usually does.

[Helix345]

Thank you for the replies gentlemen, I'll try out your suggestions.

[Ordinarygamer96]

The greatest strategic puzzle in this game is figuring out how to actually get your damn SSD to fire all its guns.

[Pali]

Technically, it's a tactical puzzle.

[Helix345]

You jump the SSD directly in the middle of the enemy fleet so it doesn't have to move. It will auto light everything up.