Assuming for the moment that reallocating patrol strategies were a simple matter...phkb wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 11:57 pmI dug a little deeper into the logic for a police ship heading back to the station. If the Witchpoint-Planet location where they are created is in the last 10% of the distance from the witchpoint to the planet, they will head back to the station. Otherwise they will be heading to the witchpoint.
Suppose:
- All launching vipers head to the WP
- Once at WP the majority head on to the star and from there back to the station.
- A small remainder (say 10% or so) head back from WP to planet (just because it will occassionally look more interesting)
Police losses will likely mean more police on the Planet - WP lane, less on the WP - Star lane and less again on the Sun - Planet lane. That makes sense from a player view as the WP - Planet is the most typical route to the station. Any masslock delays enroute to the star (and then on to the planet), whilst still annoying, add to the idea of the sun being further away without actually requiring it to be so.
I remember that being talked about but I think it may have been more as a suggestion. IIRC ships are simply generated randomly along the lanes and allocated an appropriate heading.