Orders, not joysticks: commanding the fleet
Published
In Hostile Flagship you never fly a ship. You give orders, and your pilots carry them out. Every command, from a key, a click, a menu or the weapon bar, becomes an order.
Orders on a flat plane
All orders are given on a flat plane. Height comes from where you are and the height band you choose; fighters change height on their own when they attack. Bands give enough control for hiding behind terrain without a height step on every order.
- Move (M, or right-click): press where to go, drag to set the facing.
- Halt (H): stop where you are.
- Follow (L): the selection takes up formation round a leader and keeps it until the next order.
- Engage (U): fight one target, wherever it goes.
- Move & engage (Y): fight whatever is met on the way, then carry on.
- Jump (J), Launch (O), Dock (I), Tactical burn (B).
- Height bands (Shift+1 to 4: Top, High, Med, Low), Land (Shift+5). Press a band twice to hot drop or hot climb.
- Node map (F4), Pause (Space), and hold Alt to see weapon ranges.
The right-click menu lists only what can be done now. A plain left-click on a travel icon does nothing: no accidental jumps.
Halt and Follow reach ships in parts of space you aren’t watching. Every area is simulated all the time; see One world, watched or not.
Orders win
A Striker on a move order starts no new fights, but its pilot still turns the nose and fires at what it passes. Right-click a group through a cloud of enemies and it cuts through, in formation. With no move order, its stance decides what it does: reckless, cautious or evasive (see the Striker).
Formations
A group forms up round its biggest ship, in the middle:
- One ring per class of ship, the smallest class on the innermost ring.
- The inner ring sits 4 of its ships’ lengths clear of the centre ship, at least 50 m.
- Each further ring is 10 lengths beyond the one inside it, at least 500 m.
- Ships on a ring keep 50 m apart, weighted forward: one dead ahead, then pairs from 45° back to 135°.
A mixed group moves at its slowest ship’s speed. A group of only fighters and scouts flies each at its own speed and arrives in formation. Fighters alone make a tight circle, about 90 m across.
Smaller ships keep clear of bigger ones, dipping under or climbing over them: fighters give way to scouts, and everything gives way to the carrier.
Jumps, launches and guns
- Jumps: choose Jump as group (all go when the last is ready), Jump ASAP (each goes when ready), or Pick the spot (choose where you arrive, when one of your ships is already there). The menu shows the fuel each jump costs and warns when a ship couldn’t get back. See Jump drives and fuel.
- Hangar: launch takes 4 seconds a bay, docking 6. Near enemies, both go hot automatically. See the carrier.
- Weapon bar: one slot per weapon group, keys 1 to 9. Each slot is Auto, Out or In. Guns that are In hide in the hull: they can’t fire and can’t be hit.
Command range
Each place is a fixed circle: 800 km across in space (400 km radius), 200 km across near the ground (100 km radius). Ships stop at its edge and leave only by a travel order.
Every order is data
Behind the scenes, each order is a row of plain data: when it was given, by whom, what kind, which ships, and its details. The simulation only ever reads these rows, never the mouse, the camera or the selection. A side can only order its own ships, and the enemy commander gives orders the same way you do.