Placing ships in a new sea area

When a group of ships moves to a new sea area, it is placed in a particular tactical location. If there are ships in that tactical location already, then each group can react, according to its contact orders, to the arrival of the new ships. Arrival in sea areas is handled as follows:

If there are no ships in the sea area already, then the new arrivals are placed at tactical location 0, and there is no contact.

If ships are already there, then the program selects a new tactical location. In some cases the new tactical location is predetermined: for example, if a group of ships is pursuing another group of ships, then it moves to the same tactical location as the group it is pursuing. In other cases the new tactical location is selected randomly, though more likely to be a tactical location which contains a group of ships with at least one frigate patrolling or which is not moving. If the new tactical location is empty, the new arrivals are placed there, and there is no contact.

If the moving ships are placed in a tactical location where other ships are already located, then each group of ships can react to the other's appearance. How this is done depends on whether there is a ship in the moving group that is hostile to a ship in the group already present, or not.

If not, then any moving ships with Join Allies orders are placed in the new tactical location, and any without such orders are placed in a different tactical location; one with no ships in it unless all tactical locations in the sea area have ships in them already. Then, any ships already present without Join Allies orders are placed in a third tactical location, again one with no ships in it unless all tactical locations in the sea area have ships in them already.

If there are hostile ships, then if all the moving ships have evade orders, they are placed in a different tactical location, with no ships in it if possible, and any of the ships already in the original tactical location may pursue the moving ships to the new tactical location if they wish. Otherwise, those moving ships without evade orders are placed in the original tactical location and those with evade orders are placed in a different tactical location, with no ships in it if possible. Finally, any ships already in the original tactical location with evade orders are placed in a third tactical location, one with no ships in it if possible.
Last updated 12/15/09