Right click huh. I guess someone had to have problems with something like that at some point.

I don't find them useful but I'll try to explain their value. Have you noticed that after you move a ship (so it has no more movement points this turn) that the game will automatically select another ship? Well these commands prevent you from selecting the given ships until the triggers are meet. Not hugely useful in my opinion as they are missing a command to make a complete set.

For me, the lack of a "fortify" command still sometimes results in a loss of starbases. The guard command does good until an enemy ship shows up, but sometimes I try to change/cancel the orders of another ship only to discover that I instead gave orders to a fleet protecting a starbase (and of all times, its when the enemy is close enough to attack next turn).

In case you don't know, starbase defenses are not worth it in this game. Anything beyond whats needed to survive against a random tiny is either a waste, or a short lived advantage. So thats why you need fleets to protect them.

No problem WDSherman. First post and I was helpful, guess I'm off to a good start then.

As for moving between cracks, I think I understand what you mean. The game counts diagonal movement as valid so it is possible to move between two opjects. So if you wanted to box a ship in, you would need a minimum of eight ships to accomplish that. Unless, ofcorse, there is another physical object around like a star or planet the opposing ship can't land on.

To help clairify my previous statements and have DivineWrath has said about Guard and Sentry commands. They are there to remove some micromanagement but still offer you the choice if you want to do anything about ships appearing in the area.

The game has a idle ship list, ships of yours that have remaining movement and no assigned task are on this list. When you hit the tab key the game selects the next ship on the list. The game also does this automatically after you move a ship to its full movement. Clicking Sentry or Guard assigns one of those tasks to a ship. Specifically to look for any ship that is not yours or look for any ship belonging to a race you are at war with respectively. Then the ships assignment is completed and it is added back to the idle ship list allowing you to respond to the approaching ship.

This removes the micromanagement of having to check everyship all the time to see if there is another ship around. It can be useful to park tiny scout ships out aways from your stuff on very large maps for these tasks, if only to get a heads up on a fleet or transport headed your way. Give that ship a laser and it can now take out that invading transport before it gets anywhere near your world. You still have to make an active choice when a particular type of ship is spotted. You just don't have to check for a ship manually every round.

I personally would like to see a sector sweep on top of the guard and sentry commands. That way my little ship will put around a sector and the stop and allow me to respond to appropriate targets. One last thing, just to clairify, again, auto-attack only works on ships and things belonging to a race you are at war with.

Anyways, glad I could help and good luck with your future endevors in space.