Andy
	Hi What do people think about distress calls and automated responses? If I had a cargo ship that was stopped for battle by a dastardly pirate I could have a setting set to output a distress call to all other positions in the system. Those positions in the system with "respond to distress call" set would automatically travel to support / defend the ship in question but not arrive until the next day. Couple of issues spring to mind : 1. It makes the game easier for players which is not something we want to do? What I'm saying is that it will allow affiliations to setup 50 ships in a system as fast response ships that will automatically respond to a distress call. All of us have time constraints and this restricts our reponses to attacks. Is it better to do this or not? 2. I think this will allow for some interesting tactics on the part of an attacking force. Ships can be lured away automatically while a real target is being attacked by a much bigger force.
Frabby
	Although I cannot remember where I seem to recall a similar discussion earlier. The problem is time inconsistencies: Ships spending their TUs could be at any point in time plus/minus one week so it is arguable wether they could really respons. Also, ship A may be in the same system and reach the battlezone in 110 TUs, ship B might only have to jump in from an adjacent system for 100 TUs. How far should that distress signal go? System? Affiliation? Aff and allies? Whole game board? The other, and in my opinion much worse problem, is that if I activate this flag on my ships this would effectively limit my control over my positions. A distress call can turn into a death trap if a large battleforce whacks a small explorer and only a handful of ships in the vicinity respond, they get whacked as well. It also takes much of the danger out of pirate raids if any freighter can count on warship assistance - no small raids possible anymore. I think the current system and threat situation is well balanced. Anyone caught by surprise takes 4 rounds of fire.
Andy
	Hi The distress calls should only be received by ships in system ie those designated for the task. The point is that you manage the fleet you have to protect your cargo fleets. When in the future a player has 100+ warships we are going to need this type of mechanism. The warships should only be able to respond next day though. I think this is an additional thread to the fleet discussion. Andy