Escort missions

Here are some hints for making escort missions:

List the ships you need to protect in the Escort list. Set the priority level in accordance with the importance of the ship. This is obvious for most of you, but it is worth mentioning anyway
Use the Near Ship possibility at arrival conditions. It makes the position of all attacking waves unpredictable
Highly random delay between waves. Makes hostile attacks even more unpredictable
The good-secondary-time SEXP. The AI tends to use heavy bombs and ignore their Trebuchets. Use the good-secondary-time SEXP to order the ships to use their Trebuchets when they are out of the range of heavy bombs.
Careful mission balance. Pay special attention to make the mission bearable and beatable.
The fighter wings who defend the strike team should be powerful. Otherwise, your wingen will take them down without a problem. Force the player to attack the fighter escorts. This gives time to the bombers. If the player disobeys, sooner or later all his wingmen will die.
Reinforcements. If you think your mission might become too difficult, it is a good idea to make reinforcements available.
Moving ships. The ships you will have to escort must be moving. Of course, it can be an exception if your mission is to defend a repairing party.

Escort Missions