Ships and automation: strike a balance

[JaguarUSF]

I'm trying to strike a happy medium between ship automation and actually feeling like I am in control of my military. It seems like the best idea is to create a couple of manually-controlled fleets (automation off) but still have at least an equal number of ships not assigned to fleets on automate in order to do the menial tasks like escorting miners and refuelling.
What's everyone else's ideas about that stuff?

[tgb]

I prefer to leave the design and control of the military up to my "Generals". That said, the A.I. will apparently not take out Pirate bases, because the relationship with Pirates is so ambiguous (you can hire them as mercenaries, buy maps, etc.). I found that if I want to get rid of a Pirate base I have to form a fleet and do it my self, then reset fleet control to automated.

[RonLugge]

Strange; I've often had the AI say "here's a fleet, there's a pirate base, let's go introduce 'em".  Mind you, it doesn't do it as quickly as I would, but...

[Cromy]

Yeah the AI does sometimes, but i also have issue with automation of the fleets well more really with the fuel usage, if you place a solar panel on a ship and leave it in a system with a sun would it not use up fuel so long as it has sufficient energy to power devices that constantly require power?

[Gertjan]

Currently I think it is best to manually control fleets, although you can keep the ships automated, because then they will retrofit/upgrade/refuel themselves if you dont use the. That saves a lot time and energy on babysitting them. Alternatively, you can let the AI take care of fleets, but I suggest that you will let them come with suggestions first before they do something. Because I've seen that they also tend to attack targets that are too strong for them.

[Fishman]

I build a fleet I manage personally. Then I arm all my merchantmen. Merchantmen don't specifically try to pick fights, so I don't have to worry about them wandering off and getting killed, and additionally, merchantmen are not paid for by the Empire, so I don't have to actually spend my money, my citizens will arm themselves. Pirates and space monsters pick fights with these freighters and get turned into space dust.

However, this is an extremely unpopular move in the galaxy and everyone will hate you. But let them hate, so long as they fear...or at least get blown to bits.

[Interesting]

Im not sure if its an "unpopular" move.

[Fishman]

It's "unpopular" because the rest of the galaxy will bitch at you, not necessarily because it is unloved by the players. On the other hand, watching a pissed off merchant cruiser lay waste to an attacking fleet and burn down the space port in retaliation for being fired upon? Priceless.

[Gertjan]

I am leaving ship designing to the AI, but every time there is a new component researched I wait until the AI has designed new ships and I change those to include a solar collector and some armor (dunno if armor is really useful anyway, but it seems logical, but the AI doesnt use it). In this way it is much easier to use your fleets since when you manually control them they use far less fuel and can be used more frequently (instead of refuelling all the time). Saves a lot on maintenance and makes you much more effective in fighting wars and/or defending.

[2Harry]

On the other hand, watching a pissed off merchant cruiser lay waste to an attacking fleet and burn down the space port in retaliation for being fired upon? Priceless.

Can this still be done with the latest patch? (ie: 1.0.6.0).

It would be interesting if possible. The Ship Design screen only allows me to place one weapon on a civilian ship which is unlikely to be much of a threat to a war fleet. Is there a way around this?

Regards.

[torrenal]

The choice of weapon might help a tad.
To lay waste to droves of opponents....
Probably take the Super Area Weapon, and about a dozen merchantmen armed thus (don't expect any to survive the mutual slaughter -- area targets don't have a friendly fire mode, they are unfriendly to anything that is not the ship firing the weapon).
//Torrenal

[adecoy95]

i leave ship construction on advise, and whenever it asks me if i want to build ships, i accept, i decline defense bases tho, i dont really use them.

then i build a fleet or two of my own to do different tasks while the other ships handle things like defense and escort.

the only thing i dont like is that when a fleet of ships is idle in different star systems they will warp off and try and regroup together, i hate that

[the1sean]

ORIGINAL: JaguarUSF
I'm trying to strike a happy medium between ship automation and actually feeling like I am in control of my military. It seems like the best idea is to create a couple of manually-controlled fleets (automation off) but still have at least an equal number of ships not assigned to fleets on automate in order to do the menial tasks like escorting miners and refuelling.
What's everyone else's ideas about that stuff?

COAST GUARD: I build at least as many escorts and frigates as the AI requests, and once my economy gets going, about 50% more. I leave all of these on auto, no fleets. This takes care of escort and light emergency reaction duty (pirate/space monster attacks, etc). When my automated light combatant numbers are high, and my enemy is weakened, I often see them attack enemy targets of opportunity in a war, and react in numbers to enemy invasions! Very gratifying [:D]

NAVY: All destroyers, troopships, etc, I control myself. This is one of my favorite parts of the game, as I love a good 4X/RTS hybrid (I love you, Total War). I group destroyers into groups of 2 to 3 in the early game, this is usually plenty to handle space monsters, pirates, etc. Once real wars start going, I up the number to about 5+ ships per fleet, with the first fleet (hotkey one) being the largest for main thrusts into enemy territory, and the other fleets playing support. As an aside I find it easier to manage my troopships separately from my destroyer fleets.

DESIGN: I usually design my own ships, in fact, I have a custom ship design template that I load every game, then "upgrade" all the ships. Escorts I keep light for, well, escort duty (I have noticed that the AI seems to use them for this mostly). Frigates I beef up, because the AI seems to send them in as backup when something gets attacked. As soon as I research "Hyper Deny" I also toss this on frigates. This is the nail in the coffin for pirates. For Destroyers I usually put in about 4 to 6 fuel cells and a solar panel, I often leave manually controlled ships idle in important systems, and I set empire priorities so that they auto-engage nearby targets.

Overall, I feel like my approach keeps the busywork out of sight, but allows me to do the fun stuff like blow up pirate bases and annihilate enemy empires [;)] The main thing is providing a few more escorts and frigates than the AI will ask for. It also helps when you need to send half of your escort force in for a refit at once...