When gating with Volkov this comes up. Also happening with other wingmen.
OnBehavior [Volkov]: shpOrder requires target [follow] ### (shpOrder gSource "follow" gPlayerShip) ###
Also Volkov will send the "Please, my armor needs repair" message but doesn't dock to do so. Instead, on approaching a station with dock services, he sends the "Volkov docks to repair his armor" message while he stays in formation, never attempting to dock.
And he won't "Attack Target" or "Break and Attack" either. He starts off towards the enemy and after about 15 ls turns around and forms up again.
Sorry, this is my fault. I put a parenthesis in the wrong place while attempting to fix the problem of them getting stuck trying to dock with stations without enough free ports, and as a result they get ordered to follow every time <OnBehavior> runs. I guess that causes the first problem because it runs after the player leaves the system and thus isn't a valid target.
Normally, I would test changes like this before adding them to a pull request, but I was writing for the next engine version, so I couldn't before it came out.
The fix is here. I've already let George know about it, so it should be in the next version.
It is sad to see when he finds Helena, but cannot dock with her ship.
However, fun to lure enemy ships there, he will still shoot and destroy them if they come near.
Wonder what happens if the wreck of Helena's ship gets destroyed, will he then follow the player to the end?
Tempting to try....
It wasn't nexccesary to destroy Helena's ship Funny enough after restarting the game he followed me into the next starsytem, constantly complaining about his armour. One system later he decided to take on a Sung Citadel and join Helena.
Merged in 1.8 Alpha 3.