[Feature] Ability to set many tiers of command or Roster+

[PAwleus]

This feature-request is already known to Devs (at least to John J. Lumpkin) but I also place it here because a player from Steam asked me nicely to do so. Some ideas are inspired by Aurora4X and I invite to comment and suggest further improvements. I hope they can still be implemented into Terra Invicta because I think the game with them would be substantially more accessible and at the same time possible to play in a much more epic way (it's one of answers to p.3 from this post) but I wouldn't mind if at least some next Pavonis Interactive's Grand Strategy game with even more spacefleet action is inspired by them, preferably set in The Human Reach Universum that I think would make a great background (it could also be adapted as Terra Invicta 2 showing events leading to the next clash with Hydras but in the interstellar scale).

This is shown below in the form it was presented for Devs. BTW, Happy New Year!

FEATURE DESCRIPTION
What I see as the simplest form of this idea (making the roster much better) is to just have an ability to add subtiers to assets in the roster that is on the right side of the screen - basically, an option of having fleets that consist of fleets (generally: asset groups that consist of not just assets but also other asset groups)

RELATED TO PROBLEM
Perhaps I should show you an example of what I would like to be able to create in-game (and what I am very frustrated I currently can't from the mid game onward): a top tier fleet group named Earth Command that consists of all fleets and fleet groups in the Earth-Luna system - instead of all these potentially myriad fleets (and currently in such a situation the rooster is almost irrelevant as a tool helping a player) I would like to see in the rooster only the Earth Command group fleet unless I want to do something with some fleets/ships in it (then by clicking relevant fleet groups I would make relevant fleets visible in the rooster). In the Earth Command I would create second tier of fleet groups: Earth Defensive Command and Earth Offensive Command. In the Defensive Command fleet group I would have all defensive fleets (I have usually at least 3 defensive fleets in the Earth-Luna system even in the early game although they are often used offensively, as well) that defend important orbital habs (usually with Space Yards). In the Offensive Command I would have all fleets that are created with intention of attacking enemy habs and intercepting enemy fleets. Many of these fleets would be fleet groups that have subfleets and I would like to be able to sometimes move the whole subfleet to another fleet group when there is a need for it without loosing the organizational structure. I can currently do something similar but because some of the organizational structure is lost in the process of merging fleets I have to do many, many clicks on ships to recreate what I need and it's still flawed because of the rooster and fleet limitations.

It would be nice if AI factions created such groups because we have chaos in the Fleets window now and we are unnecessarily shown myriad small alien fleets that are usually uninteresting because they are stationary. For them it would be enough if such groups existed only for assets that have no movement ordered. It could also help to bring more order to the Habs window.

As for armies, eg. I would like to be able to create US Pacific Command (army group) that has US armies from the US west coast and I would like to be able to order their movement as a unit even though they are in different provinces (in case of armies it should probably be possible without deep changes to the game), and to move some of armies to a different Command (army group), sometimes.

SOLUTION
When you currently click on a fleet in the roster (fleet A) the Fleet window appears in the lower right corner of the screen with ships of the fleet (fleet A) listed - there could be an additional icon in the upper right corner of the fleet window that would allow a player to add an additional fleet (fleet B) to this fleet (fleet A) creating a new fleet of subfleets (fleet group - fleet C) and making both fleets (fleet A and B) just subfleets that are listed in the Fleet window of fleet C instead of ships (or perhaps changing the window to the Fleet Group window). Such a subfleet in this list could then be clicked to go to its Fleet window as to see its ships (the Fleet Group window is then changed back to the relevant Fleet window).

The main improvement, though, would be an ability to Drag&Drop subfleets between different fleet groups - when clicking on a fleet group listed in the roster a player would also see subfleets listed below the fleet group and it would be possible to drag&drop an entire subfleet to another fleet group listed in the roster (saving a player many clicks in comparison with the current state when there are many ships) or even a fleet listed there creating an alternative way of making fleet groups.

Main complication here is that fleet groups could consist of subfleets in different locations and it probably would demand too many changes to the game to make possible the movement of such fleet groups as a whole. To indicate which fleet groups can be ordered to move as a unit (that is which contain subfleets in the same location) their names should be shown in green and which cannot - in red (or in different colours for colour-blinded).

This idea is not just for fleets (it's the most useful for them) but also for armies and habs.

As to show a player the whole tree of such dependencies (organizational structure of fleets) an additional tab could be created in the Intel section and there could be a third way of creating fleet groups (hab and army groups, as well)

ALTERNATIVES
4 ways of creating asset groups (preferably, all 4 should be present in-game):

1. Icon in the asset window (Fleet, Habitat, Army window) - relevant icon in the upper right corner of the window and introducing an additional asset group window as a result of creating the asset group
2. Drag&Drop an asset (or asset group) to another asset (or asset group) of the same kind (fleet to fleet, army to army, hab to hab) in the roster
3. Tree of asset dependencies (modifiable to a player) in the relevant tab in the Intel section (there is still a place)
4. Drag&Drop an asset to another asset as in p.2 but in the Habs window and in the Fleets window instead of the roster

ADDITIONAL CONTEXT
Elements of the list in the roster within categories (councilors own, councilors turned, habs, armies and fleets) should be possible to be ordered at least alphabetically.

[neilwilkes]

This makes a lot of sense to me and is something I would absolutely be into fully - it not only works as a 'Quality Of Life' improvement in the mid to late game, but from the POV of the back story it is realistic as well - I know the current administration has eviscerated the idea utterly, but the US 'Space Force' creation was a classic example of exactly how things need to develop in the game. It also gets very nicely around the endless micro-management and instead allows you to create 'Battle Groups' if I am reading the above correctly that can then be managed as the player sees fit in any engagements thanks to the latest development build.

[PAwleus]

I have to say that changes from 0.3.50 introducing multi-ship selection during combat are already very helpful and an important step in the right direction. However, they still demand many clicks in every battle you want to use the mechanics. I hope they could be combined with above suggestions (and with pre-combat formation creator/viewer) as to allow choosing whole subtaskforces during combat with just one click (and changing their formations during combat). I forgot to add this idea to my feature-request so I am going to supplement it.