How do I position corvettes in the front of formation?

[Kryndude]

I want my corvettes to take the lead and my destroyers to stay back, but when I merge them together destroyers always stand on the front. Is there a way I can change that?

 

[Chaos_TLW]

Merge your destroyers last. Order of ships in a formation is determined by the order in which they we're merged into the fleet, so you can have your Corvettes in the spearhead, cruisers in the middle and destroyers in the back by merging a pure cruiser fleet into a corvette fleet, then a pure destroyer fleet into that combined fleet.

 

[Kryndude]

Merge your destroyers last. Order of ships in a formation is determined by the order in which they we're merged into the fleet, so you can have your Corvettes in the spearhead, cruisers in the middle and destroyers in the back by merging a pure cruiser fleet into a corvette fleet, then a pure destroyer fleet into that combined fleet.

Thanks! But how's it decided which of the two fleets goes front? The one selected first before pressing merge button?

edit: I'm sorry but that doesn't work for me for some reason. No matter the merge order they keep aligning according to ship size.

 

[Pchang]

I would not worry too much. Once you get into combat, the corvettes have a higher combat speed and will quickly move in front of all your other ships.

 

[Kryndude]

I would not worry too much. Once you get into combat, the corvettes have a higher combat speed and will quickly move in front of all your other ships.

True, but I was hoping if I placed corvettes in the front so that they're the first to confront the enemy, maybe my bigger ships won't get targeted immediately and stay alive longer to do more damage.

 

[Pchang]

Corvettes will be the first in range and may get shot at 1 once. After that, your other ships will be in range and enemy non-S weapons will not shoot at corvettes. If you really want corvettes far out in front, you will have to put them in a separate fleet and move them together (in a neutral stance). When in a system with enemy ships, change the corvettes to aggressive, wait several game days, then change the rest of your ships to aggressive.

 

[Razzlie]

Give your corvettes the best thrusters and everyone else the worst ones, they'll be very very quickly at the front all the time.

How useful this actually is depends on how you do your fleets, I don't personally use this so no guarantees on its effectiveness.