[MachManX]

I admit it...I do care for those dumb AI controlled wingmen  It sucks to see them vaporized because they just stay put while a capital ship blows up in their faces.  It would be nice if they were smart enough to escape the blast radius or at least try.

The second thing kinda adds to the first:  Have your wingmen hold their position at the current position of the player.  So it's kinda like "Form on my Wing", but at one point rather than following the player.  This would help in scenarios where the blast radius of capital ships have been altered and you want your wingmen to keep a safe distance.  It could also help to command your wingmen to stay in certain strategic positions in space...so you can create formations or blockades, etc.

[Nohiki]

+1 for you sir. Even though it is ROUGHLY possible to make the hold position thingy using sexps, the ai goal would be much simpler.

[Droid803]

Don't they already try to avoid shockwaves? (or at least, are supposed to according to ai.tbl).
But HOLD POSITION would be great, though probably non-trivial in its implementation.

[Sushi]

Don't they already try to avoid shockwaves? (or at least, are supposed to according to ai.tbl).
But HOLD POSITION would be great, though probably non-trivial in its implementation.

IIRC they only avoid shockwaves from ships they were targeting. So (for example) bombers will get out of the way, their escorts probably not.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I've seen fighters run from nukes even before the nukes hit.  It will even override play dead orders. 

[Droid803]

It will even override play dead orders. 

I don't think that's ideal, seeing as telling something to play dead is the best way of making something that's actually dead-but-not-asplode (ok, well, I'd sabotage their engines completely too, but yeah)

[MachManX]

+1 for you sir. Even though it is ROUGHLY possible to make the hold position thingy using sexps, the ai goal would be much simpler.

I wouldn't mind doing this myself if I was creating my own mission.  But for the numerous campaigns and missions out there...I'd rather have the feature built-in.