Um, you can move in 3 dimensions, you have to hold down some key (I forgot what the default is) to give orders in it though. Also if you use your ship's abilities right, you can easily destroy fleets much larger than yours. You're right that formation doesn't matter as much in Sins, usually just making sure you units are in firing range is enough. At least before you start to be the victim of missile barrage or repulse.

Note that in the online multiplayer game, at this time the use of the Z-axis is regarded as cheating.

Although I would like to see more formation such as X formation or box formation etc, even AOE (all version) or even space tatics such as those avaiable in Armada II

thanks i never knew that:P yeah that would be exploting a weakness:/

what i think is funny is Going above a SB is considered cheating, but spamming the hell out of Scouts  or LRF is not which is still exploiting an oversight......

they do but they dont... like, all vasari structures have a phasic shield which technically works the same as Mine and Jikara stealthing, yet Jikara's and Vasari structures arent invisible to radar, so the only conclusion is that Mines are tiny which makes them difficult to detect by interplanetary systems

well, the phasic cloaking ability 1) is channeled, 2) costs a lot of antimatter [total], 3) doesn't let the ship move or fire, and 4) doesn't let the ship repair.  and it's only on scouts

In other words, the cloaking ability is 99.999% useless, with that .001% of usefulness being found if you park a scout at a star and turn the ability on. If memory serves, the AM regen from the star outweighs the scout's AM drain from the ability, so the scout will in effect be perma-stealthed. Of course, if you really want a scout at a star, just park a starbase there for much better results.

Peeps should be careful in what they call cheating. If you're abusing the Z Axis to beat firing arcs, sure, I get that as cheating. But if you're using the Z-Axis in fleet engagements (ships just nose up and keep firing), I don't see how it's cheating at all. The AI controls capital ship movement pretty poorly, and honestly without manually telling your caps to go above or below the other caps - they flounder in space for about 2 minutes every time they want to turn around!

IC really needs to fix those firing arcs for starbases, though.

Stealth: Really hard to pull off in space... what you're asking for is electronic countermeasures that actively fudge up the sensors of the enemy. Ships do have a miss chance in this game, I think that already represents the ECM, because computers can aim things very precisely when they aren't being interfered with.

As for fleet size... it's not so much size as it is composition, although don't get me wrong - if the enemy has a 2:1 advantage, you're chances are going to be pretty slim without some sort of trick up your sleeve (repair bays, a starbase under construction, a kostura round or two en route, etc). If you're only slightly outnumbered, and the composition isn't that far off from what it needs to be... player use of abilities and good micromanagement skills will win the day.

But yeah, if you sit back with popcorn and watch the AI fight your battles for you, size is everything.

Also: the ships in SOASE do have target preferences - the ships they are designed to counter. However, if your ships are in a fleet, they will auto-assist the Flagship and attack it's target if they do good or mediocre damage against it (if they do bad damage, their normal preferences take over). To control a fleet you actually only have to order around the flagship, the ships will move with it and make semi-educated decisions on what to fight.

Although I highly reccomend micromanaging your fleet on a ship/ship-group level... use the SHIFT key to queue up attacks (there's your target priorities ). Holding down ALT while clicking a unit will get you every unit of that type in the Grav-Well, you can then issue them orders and way points as a group if you'd like (and don't forget command groups). I also reccomend turning the stacking feature off in the empire tree, as clicking on stacks multiple times just does NOT work to queue up attacks properly. When micromanaging your fleet, formation is less important than being sure that your support ships are properly placed in the mob to be able to support everyone.

I hate mornings, bah humbug! Gah, lousy digicons list doesn't have a coffee mug, injustice! Injustice I say!

Those bildings cannot be targetted.  I know, it's been an annoyance in many a game vs vasari.

Sorry.  you were right.  I just played a game as vasari yesterday and checked it.  I swear my ships stop firing at those buildings when they go phasic, but i'll not say another word about it until i get a chance to test that too.  (Was it changes since shipping, maybe?)  I was probably just looking at the battles during freakish moments where every ship fired at the same time and thought they stopped.