I`ve been wondering for a while now. I never had any comment about doing it, but I`ll ask anyway. just to clear things up.
situation:
A fleet battle is going on. several caps and small ships are shooting each other to pieces. fleet A has a battleship which is fighting fleet B`s battleship. this capfight is taking place in the middle of the furrball. then B`s bs goes down. A`s BS leaves the furrball on impulse now that its target (B`s bs) has been downed. A`s BS sits at 2-2,5 k from the still ongoing furrball between the small ships.
then more caps show up on B`s side. they enter the furrball. is bs A allowed to `re-enter` the fray to engage the new caps on B`s side? technically, bs A never fled the fight, he merely went `inactive` because he had no targets anymore after bs B went down. this of course, only applies when bs A doesn`t attack the small ships with AA guns or BR or whatever.
This is how I go about fleet battles with my caps. when I have no more capital targets, I leave the furrball to give the small stuff more room to fight. sometimes the enemy bombers won`t like that and keep on attacking me, obviously. in that scenario, I`m still active in the fight, seeing as I`m engaged in combat still.
but what if I impulse out of the fleet battle and sit at 2k without being attacked by the remaining forces of fleet B? techinically, I`m not shield running as I`m not engaged in combat at the time. nor have I fled the fight as the server rules state, because I haven`t cruised, nor am I sitting at 4k from the fight.
I like to believe that this is proper cap conduct: leave the fight when your cap targets are down. don`t attack small ships, unless they are attacking you and are a realistic threat. so sit at the sidelines in case you are needed again when more enemy caps show up.
I'm a complete newb here, but your theory seems sound to me.
As far as I know Caps aren't supposed to engage fighters unless being attacked?
Therefore you would assume that B's reinforcements would have none to shoot at.
But, in anycase, the arrival of new B capships would tip the scales more in their favour, and as all you were doing was giving B's fighters a bone by not blowing them the hell up, you 're-entering' the battle seems justified.
In my humble opinion of course, which I'll guess doesn't mean much around here yet XD
Um here's the deal.
Capital ships can actually engage smaller vessels, they just can't engage the transports.
So basically... If you have 6 fighters and 1 bs vs their 6 fighters and 1 bs, and your bs kills their bs, you can stand down if you want but you can keep shooting.
as long as you stay there tho, you are in combat. whenever you decide to move 10k away, you actually fled, and you count as losing.
if a fight moves from you, you have to pursue it.
if you are within 10k of the fight and new BS comes in, you can target it freely.
for what I know the scenario you just said, its valid to start shooting the B's caps because you haven't left the fight, so technically you haven't left th battle so you also are not re-entering it,
but for the good behaviour and fair play, you should make a new engagement notice for the new capitols on B's side
' Wrote:Um here's the deal.
Capital ships can actually engage smaller vessels, they just can't engage the transports.
So basically... If you have 6 fighters and 1 bs vs their 6 fighters and 1 bs, and your bs kills their bs, you can stand down if you want but you can keep shooting.
Ah. Thanks for the heads up! *begins shivering uncontrollably and flies his Starflier as far away from all capships as possible*
' Wrote:...snipped... A`s BS leaves the furrball on impulse now that its target (B`s bs) has been downed. A`s BS sits at 2-2,5 k from the still ongoing furrball between the small ships.
then more caps show up on B`s side. they enter the furrball. is bs A allowed to `re-enter` the fray to engage the new caps on B`s side? ...snipped...
Quote:5.6 Fleeing in combat counts as a PVP death. Fleeing is:
a) Engaging cruising engines;
b) Docking with a jump gate, station or tradelane; c) Moving more than 10km from the fight.
Simply make a quick announcement along the lines of, "Moving back in to assist the fighters" or some such. You haven't fled, simply pulled back to make things even, and are actually playing quite fair, since you're under no compulsion (unless it was agreed upon in advance) to NOT sit and pew the fighters.
(11-21-2013, 12:53 PM)Jihadjoe Wrote: Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.
' Wrote:if a fight moves from you, you have to pursue it.
are you sure? fights sometimes also divide into several smaller battles with distances far more than 10k. I remember a fight in Alpha when a group of 3 on each side moved away dogfighting. We were about 30 or 40k away from the others when we finally took down the last corsair and noone dared to tell us that we fled before when we joined the others again.
I'd say it's similar with the bs. If it just ceases fire, cuts his engines and no one is bothering about it, I don't think it can be called fleeing if the fight moves more than 10k away from the battleship. Otherwise it would have to leave the system for being fair enough to stay out of the fight. And that would be somehow ridiculous.
' Wrote:Go play the game, within the given limitations. That is how role play games are played. Not by trying to work around those limitations or whining about them.
My usual approach in a heavy cap (when my opposite number on the opposing team is defeated, or never shows up at all) is to stay back a bit and offer support, such as bots and bats, a watchful eye for new targets, and the occasional fire support when an enemy fighter or bomber starts making threatening gestures towards me.
To me, that's not at all unfair, since I'm not really engaging directly in the battle unless the enemy chooses to involve me.
EDIT: That having been said, I do try to stay within 3k of the fight, though I announce that I'm offering support to my allies, rather than engaging in the battle personally.
' Wrote:Um here's the deal.
Capital ships can actually engage smaller vessels, they just can't engage the transports.
So basically... If you have 6 fighters and 1 bs vs their 6 fighters and 1 bs, and your bs kills their bs, you can stand down if you want but you can keep shooting.
as long as you stay there tho, you are in combat. whenever you decide to move 10k away, you actually fled, and you count as losing.
if a fight moves from you, you have to pursue it.
if you are within 10k of the fight and new BS comes in, you can target it freely.
I don`t shoot at fighters or bombers out of principle. unless the bombers attack me.
but thanks for clearing it up guys. just stay close enough to the fight and no worries.
This is actually how things SHOULD go in my opinion - caps against caps, let the fighters duke it out amongst themselves as well. The problem is, bomber swarms usually screw this whole thing up, as they'll keep on pelting your cap with snacs until you go down, and your fighters cant do jack about it.
I see no reason at all for capships to remain around and shoot at fighters - chances are you wont even hit them, but if you do manage, it's a huge disadvantage for the other side... especially when you're in a battleship that can put out 20k of damage per turret, per shot. Nobody likes getting 1 shot because the enemy got lucky - it's why everyone complained about getting snac'd in bomber vs fighter fights before.