ship range

[Tomcat]

One of the things I notice is that when I design ships myself I tend to have ships with limited range. The AI does a better job with ship range, but a poorer job on firepower and static energy usage. Does anybody have any good guidelines on computing the range of a ship you are designing? I haven't noticed anything obvious in the ship design screen that tells me what the ship's range will be.

[FerretStyle]

Ships don't have range, they can go as far as they want. If you are worried about lack of fuel then add more fuel cells. You should also be able to get more fuel efficiency by learning better hyperdrive tech.

[BigWolfChris]

Higher Fuel Storage = More Ship Range at full speed

Edit: As Ferret points out, range doesn't technically exist, but the range circle basically shows how far before fuel runs out, which causes energy to run out
After that, ships are reduced to half speed and unable to fire weapons

[Tomcat]

ORIGINAL: BigWolf

Higher Fuel Storage = More Ship Range at full speed

True, but not the answer to the question - how do I determine how many fuel cells I need for a given ship design and a reasonable range? Near the end of the game ships the AI designs can cover the entire galaxy, but early in the game this is not normally the case. There must be a design tradeoff between adding more fuel cells at a given level of technology for a desired range.

[Cindar]

I always add extra fuel cells ontop of what the AI gives you to start out with. Ship range is simply a function of hyperdrive speed * reactor efficiency * fuel amount, right? Its not like bigger ships cost more fuel in hyperspace, so unless you are removing fuel tanks the AI shouldn't be getting further then you are.

[Tomcat]

ORIGINAL: Cindar

I always add extra fuel cells ontop of what the AI gives you to start out with. Ship range is simply a function of hyperdrive speed * reactor efficiency * fuel amount, right? Its not like bigger ships cost more fuel in hyperspace, so unless you are removing fuel tanks the AI shouldn't be getting further then you are.

I don't know what the total algorithm is that the program uses to calculate range. I would be VERY helpful if a future patch included the range as part of the information provided in the ship design screen. Your suggestion is good but it still makes it a trial and error process. I typically play as humans and based on some good input from another player decided to "upgun" the ships the AI gives me to start with, as well as adding energy collectors. I guess for now I need to continue to experiment. Too little fuel and the ships need to stop and refuel a lot as well as potentially being unable to fire. Too much fuel and I give up space that could be used for firepower and shielding.