I've been having fun with ship design. One thing I like is that tech advance are slow, so once I make a new ship class, it stays in service a long time. Then again, it dawned on me that I may be playing on the "slow" mode -- I never speed the game up with the "fast forward" button. It keeps me busy enough as it is.
Also, for my playstyle, I prefer to "copy as new" than to "upgrade," because I like to keep obsolete designs around just...because I'm indecisive, lol. I figure if I mess anything up, I can always go back to the earlier design. But also, I like having a long list of ships in the "build" screen, even though I recognize it adds clutter. It reminds me how far I've come, tech-wise.
One thing I've noticed is that the AI must've made something with long-range sensors before I switched to all-manual design and production of ships. I see lots of blue "fog blobs" on the map, but I only made 1 or 2 of the stations with long-range sensors. I'm still trying to track down exactly what ships/stations are using that component. Is there any way to search/sort for all my ships using a paritcular component in my galaxy?
ORIGINAL: Grotius
One thing I've noticed is that the AI must've made something with long-range sensors before I switched to all-manual design and production of ships. I see lots of blue "fog blobs" on the map, but I only made 1 or 2 of the stations with long-range sensors. I'm still trying to track down exactly what ships/stations are using that component. Is there any way to search/sort for all my ships using a paritcular component in my galaxy?
All the blue bubble you see on the map are spot of interest you learned about from pirates, ruins and derelict ships/stations. It just mean you should send a ship there.
ORIGINAL: Grotius
I've been having fun with ship design. One thing I like is that tech advance are slow, so once I make a new ship class, it stays in service a long time. Then again, it dawned on me that I may be playing on the "slow" mode -- I never speed the game up with the "fast forward" button. It keeps me busy enough as it is.
Yeah, tech advances are well-spaced in my opinion. They arent so fast that you dont get use out of the important techs, yet it doesnt feel stale, either. Glad you are having fun [:)]
ORIGINAL: Grotius
Also, for my playstyle, I prefer to "copy as new" than to "upgrade," because I like to keep obsolete designs around just...because I'm indecisive, lol. I figure if I mess anything up, I can always go back to the earlier design. But also, I like having a long list of ships in the "build" screen, even though I recognize it adds clutter. It reminds me how far I've come, tech-wise.
You know, you can "unobsolete" old designs if you want to bring them back [X(] just change the filter to list all designs, "edit" the old design and uncheck the "obsolete" checkbox. Also, you will be reminded how far you have come when you see old private sector clunkers, or fight weaker pirate factions [:D]
ORIGINAL: Grotius
One thing I've noticed is that the AI must've made something with long-range sensors before I switched to all-manual design and production of ships. I see lots of blue "fog blobs" on the map, but I only made 1 or 2 of the stations with long-range sensors. I'm still trying to track down exactly what ships/stations are using that component. Is there any way to search/sort for all my ships using a paritcular component in my galaxy?
Not sure how to do that. My suggestion would be to just zoom into the system at the center of the "radar blob", track down the most likely station(s), then double right click and click "components" in the view options...
ORIGINAL: the1sean
Not sure how to do that. My suggestion would be to just zoom into the system at the center of the "radar blob", track down the most likely station(s), then double right click and click "components" in the view options...
Faster to single click the design name after you select the ship.
The design loads faster (especially after my navy boasts 300+ ships&bases), and its easier to scan the listed components, etc.
//Torrenal
Exhaust color is not tied to fuel a ship uses. [:(]
A lot of the core functions of an empire players like to leave on Auto-Suggest are affected by government choice --
Mercantile guilds and technocracies aim for single small fleets, not many ships total.
Military Dictatorships need you to TELL them when to build bases/ships -- if it starts suggesting you are well behind the curve, and the spy missions will tend to start wars (sabotage my friends ports? Uh...). They also suggest missioins like invading independent colonies (my first encounter with the suggestion). While it will never suggest building enough ships to do so, it will make multiple fleets.
Way of the Ancients does a good size navy, multiple fleets, but isn't too keen on commerce raiding.
Way of Darkness aims for a moderate size fleet/number of bases. Plenty of requests to 'Blow Stuff Up' with the world destroyer, and frequent requests to attack trade ships...
The number of stars does not affect the galaxy size. They are all the same 'size', a ship in hyper still takes the same time to cross the galaxy. More stars simply packs them in tighter, making for faster action but a longer game.
At low settings, pirates favor escorts, some frigates, several destroyers, and the odd cruiser. At high settings, pirate cruisers are not uncommon, and pirate FLEETS attacking locations is not unusual. (I'm starting to consider building a station in every system/nebula to suppress the pirates in regions I otherwise control).
In the very early game, income is EVERYTHING. A well placed port near another empire could earn you 20+k/year, easily outstripping your 10k taxes/year. If you figure in modest expenses of say, 6k/year for a port and a small navy, that takes your income from 4k/year (almost enough for 1 colony ship a year) to 24+k. Trading territory maps will help get ships traveling between empires to kick off that initial revenue.
Another thing to watch for in the early game is populated planets. A planet boasting over a billion taxpayers is hard to pass up.
The Troop Fleet
A fleet of troop transports, for the simple purpose of taking over planets en-masse. A tactic intended to mid/end-game play, for quickly eliminating opponents to take their fleets/infrastructure mostly intact.
Step One:
Nab a cruiser (not an escort... this takes something bigger, I regret).
Make it the flagship of a new fleet.
Step Two:
Design a troop transport: Should have enough shields and speed to survive (if barely) a drop at a planet with a medium spaceport. If you take the base transport, give it Megatron Z4 shields, double them over the base design, bump the speed up to the mid 40s, and get turning speed at 12 or better, you are in good shape. Be sure to include a solar panel.
Step Three:
Make a fleet of these. ~20 may do for a start. Make more as you need. If you incorporate existing transports, remember to retrofit them. Be silly to slow your fleet over one out of fuel transport with an old hyperdrive...
Step Four:
Math time: Figure out how many troops this fleet can carry. Don't forget the cruiser in the equation. Now issue the fleet a Load Troops command or 3... Keep loading those troops until your fleet gets near 90% full.
Step Five:
Pick a target empire. A small empire that's clustered in a small area makes for a good quick practice run. Pick a port you have in the area, and set it to your fleets home planet. Send your fleet home to that port.
Step Six:
Once the fleet arrives at home, have them refuel.
Step Seven:
Odds are, your fleet is balled up on the port. Issue one more 'Load Troops' command to have them scatter a bit (and get any non-full transports out of the equation).
Step Seven:
Declare war.
Step Eight:
Pause the game.
Working from the ball of ships by the port, select one, send it to a target planet.
If you pick a transport that doesn't have a full load of troops, then send it to get more.
After targeting a planet for attack, check it for any intel on troops. If there is troop intel, or evidence of a large spaceport, you may opt to send multiple ships to the same planet. Return to the fleet (press B to reselect the ship you just targeted, L to go to it, and L again to turn off the locate), pick another ship and repeat as needed until you run out of transports to send.
For targeting, planets with ports should generally be selected early -- once you take out the ports, fleets of that empire will have a harder time fueling.
*Important* Do not deploy the flagship. That's why we use a cruiser -- so it's visually different from the transports to avoid accidental deployment, and so the game doesn't override its flagship status (As happens with escorts).
Step Nine:
Un-pause the game, and watch your attack launch. Periodically check back with the flagship to see if any transports have returned to it.
After fetching troops, or deploying troops at a planet, transports return to the flagship (and thus why we don't want the flagship moving... if the returning ships have to chase down the flagship, it slows the process). If the transports with the flagship need troops, send em off to load up. If they have troops, pick a target and send them. Even if you will take the target, stacking on more troops of your own cuts losses. And if the port is taken before the ship arrives, it'll come back to your flagship for re-deployment.
Ignore any fleet movement suggestions you get, if they affect your troop fleet, any attacks will be aborted. If they affect other fleets, those fleets will bash up ships and destroy ports/mining stations that you are trying to take intact.
//Torrenal
edit: Capitalize keypresses... asking people to press l can be... misleading, where L is clear.
Also, nice idea about the cruiser as leader, maybe a resupply ship would be the ultimate fleet boss?
What I have been doing (with some success): I find it a mess when single ships go on their invade missions, as I get confused as to who area going where, so I try to keep them in fleets.
I make an invasion fleet containing only troop transports. If my empire is huge, I may make two or more (separated by region). The rule for the invasion fleet, is that it only contains full troop transports. Troop transports that are not full are left out of fleets, and are left on auto. The only exception is that after invading a planet, the fleet doing the invading will hang around (if safe), to reload its troops after the battle is over.
I try to split the invasion fleet when going for multiple targets. It is not nice to having 4 ships going to system A, 3 to system B, a single to system C, and try to keep track of all. It is better to send fleets around.
I get used to going to ship list and troop carriers. Sorted by fleet, I can go through the non-fleeted transports, and add them to fleets if full.
But your home ship is a nice idea indeed, you know that those at the ship are either ready to action, or ready to go load troops.
Will a ship in a fleet that receive the "load troops" order actually keep travelling around until full, and then return to the lead ship?
Also, I so miss multiple levels of fleets. In the extreme big invasion fleet case (ever tried Teekans?) it would be nice to have:
Level 1: Invasion fleet
Level 2: Invasion North, Invasion South
Level 3: Under invasion North: System A, System B
I also like keeping battle fleets "modest" in size. A bunch of capital ships and cruisers. But I will have multiples of them. For the rare case when I meet a huge fleet, it would also in this case be nice to join fleets temporarily without destroying their old fleet structure. Rather than having three of my fleets hang around in a system to defend it, it would be nice with a superfleet that contains three fleets.
I've not found it necessary for a resupply ship. Troop ships are making single 'attack' runs, followed by a resupply run (ahem, Load Troops), during which they will (I *think*) refuel. Anyway, I only had issues after ordering the fleet to deploy on the far side of the galaxy, or after adding a transport with an obsolete design (old hyper and no solar panel... found my fleet cruising along at a whopping 8,000 with hyperdrives that allow 60,000...)
As for the actual invasion, the entire point is not to have a massive fleet to invade a single target, it's to have a ready pool of transports for invading multiple targets. I've found that the majority of cases require I send only 1 transport to take the planet (woohoo! Small port, with 1 division defending it), with typical exceptions requiring as many as 3 transports to overwhelm the defenders (small port 10 troops defending), or on the order of about a dozen to successfully slip past the defending large spaceport + defensive bases relatively intact (might lose a ship or three). Atypical exceptions needing 12 or more attacking ships to overwhelm the defenders (you might see a bug report of mine with a screenshot of 170 troops on the planet surface... there's a reason I didn't stop at 100 troops, the planet had something on the order of 60-80 troops on the surface, and I was aiming to minimize losses of my own troops -- training takes time).
As for loitering at planets you intend to capture -- Part of the goal is to take the infrastructure intact. If your ships loiter at the planet being invaded, they will attack merchants, trade fire with escorts, etc... Better to just remove them from the equation and let the land forces sort it out. You lose fewer transports, and you get more ships/bases when all is said & done.
Ships ordered to load troops can return with as few as 1 troop onboard -- returning full is not a requirement -- but simply ordering a fleet already at its home system to load troops will trigger only the non-full transports into hypering out for troops, whoever is left has a full load. [:)] (Haven't tried this mid-invasion... not sure if it will trigger ships on the way to invade to return early).
Going to the ship list is why I made my first troop fleets... the thing was taking 20+ seconds to load, on a per-ship basis for locating ships and picking targets, that was sub-optimal. So I threw a bunch of transports in a fleet and tried for what worked.
//Torrenal
I have discovered the love for resupply ships when the range of ships is not infinite.
I had a war in a small, slow-tech galaxy in which I underestimated their troop power (you should think that twice the number would work, but no). I lost my troops, and had earlier turned off automatic recruitment, and forgotten to turn it on again.
I was stuck with a smaller enemy that had managed to grab a couple of minor systems from me. So he was feeling good, and refused a reasonable peace (in which I would build more troop [;)]). So in order to force him to agree a reasonable peace I went ballistic in his home system and shot up everything (after they had shot my troops dead). So, killing a large space sation with 3 defensive turrets was kind of tought. I had to pick off the turrets on at a time then the station. Thing was, the massive shooting drained fuel from my ships, and when that happened it was quite handy to have a resupply ship on the gas giant in the system. Capturing a minor planet would not help much, as a sizeable fleet making return visits can run a place empty quite fast. If that matter, I was not very technologically advanced, running caslon fueled ships.
Before the war he was a single system empire. When I blockaded all his planets in the home system, he became more agreeable in peace talks.
I have also had remote colonies with poor fuel supply. As I like to have multiple quite powerful fleets spread around, I have experienced these outposts not being able to support a fleet doing the odd short pirate trip. This gives a resupply ship or two something to do between wars.
Might try more construction ships. I suspect you may be playing smaller maps than I do (I am in either the 1400 or the 1000 star games), so scarcity may be more of a factor, but in my games, once I crank out 10-20 construction ships (with a like number of productive colonies to support them) I find I have no resource shortages, fuel included (well... up until I make my death-wheels -- ~2000 firepower ships with ~3000-4000 fuel capacity each, which will suck any space port dry). In the early game, if I build a colony at great distance from other colonies, I'll explicitly task a construction ship with building a mining station at a fuel-bearing gas giant near the new colony (same system whenever possible). This not only makes fuel available at the new colony, it gets a construction ship in the area to build mining stations in the new region.
//Torrenal
ORIGINAL: torrenal
In the early game, if I build a colony at great distance from other colonies, I'll explicitly task a construction ship with building a mining station at a fuel-bearing gas giant near the new colony (same system whenever possible). This not only makes fuel available at the new colony, it gets a construction ship in the area to build mining stations in the new region.
Some advice for even experienced players to notice :
1) If you plant a colony near the home systems of 2-3 ai clustered together, then when the spaceport is built, trade will go way up, and your port will build lots of freighters for you. A bonus is that you will buy lots of resources from the ai empires to build those ships, denying them the opportunity to build up their own merchant fleets using those resources.
2) Sell your territory map and tech to ai right after taxes are collected and before they spend the money on colony ships. You can determine this by watching your cash balance early in the game, or your civilian's cash balance later on, in the empire summary screen...
3) A rapidly expanding player empire with 19 ai empires to trade with can just about finance its own expansion by selling territory map updates to the dumbo ai empires.
4) When you first meet an ai empire, its opinion of you is low. Buy its galaxy map and get all of its tech and cash on the first trade selling what are obsolete techs for you. Then turn right around and give it a large cash gift. Get your money back by selling obsolete techs, repeat until it is friendly. Then get a free trade agreement.
Once you trade with it again, you will notice that the obsolete techs are no longer listed, just the latest ones. Now you give a gift of cash and get it right back by selling your territory map. In the process above you should have made the ai happy with you to about 48 to 64. If it is less, then you did not repeat the trading enough. If it is more then you gave too much...
5) When you discover a spaceport in one of the restricted zones, then IF you immediately buy 4 ships there, they will build on the next turn. IF you choose your design right, then you can get 7-8 size 850 cruisers from the resources of a single zone port. So the trick is that you do NOT enter the zone unless you have enough cash to buy those cruisers...
6) An absolute top priority very early in the game is throwing enough cheap explorers at the map to find the NEXUS OF THE RED CLAW ruins. That gets you the yard tech to build big ships. Also very very important is finding the Imperial Archive so that you get the government type "Way of the Ancients".
7) When you can build big ships and have long range scan technology, design an explorer with a LONG RANGE scanner (size 72 component) on board, with an extra reactor or two and 400-800 fuel. Build one at every spaceport which is near a nebula so that you can find the restricted zones which seem to be most likely to be in nebulas. Later on in the game, you can use those poor busted up old LR scan explorers at systems whose spaceport does not yet have its LR scan active...
8) Kill pirate bases as often as possible to get your reputation up to heroic. At that level your AI empire relations can be improved up to 27 happiness points. Some ai are not impressed, for them the maximum is 7 points. Your own population becomes happier by about 7 points plus racial and empire bonuses.
9) The happiest fast growing races are Atuuk, Securan, and Shandar...
10) Once your reputation is heroic, send big cruisers or capital ships to those independent colonies which you were previously unable to plant because they were "unlikely" to "most unlikely" to colonize. Have them patrol the colony while your colony ship is on the way. When your colony ship is within about 3-4 days of planting, on final approach do a save game. Select the independent colony and watch the colony plant. If it fails, then reload your save game and select the patrolling warship. If the colonization still fails, Try one more trick - select NOTHING and watch the colony plant. If even that fails, your reputation, although heroic is probably still not at maximum, so tell the colony ship to "hold at" just short of planting. As your game proceeds, try planting after saves until you finally get the obstinate colony planted. This is a game exploit...
when you first start the game, and you want to get off to a faster start, immediatly design an impossibly large space port for your homeworld, and when i say impossibly i mean IMPOSSIBLY, if it dosent cost over 30k to retrofit your starting medium its just not big enough!
40 docking ports
20 shipyards
50 maxos blasters
10 of each of the manufacturers
5000 shield power
400k research in every field
these are the stats i use for it.
its so big in fact, that sometimes i will have to restart the game because it hangs at 98% on the homeworld, even if its already done (station grows).
however, doing this will cause the beginning game to be much more smoother, you will have alot less clutter in your shipyards waiting to be built, and you wont have as many resource problems as a result.
when you first start the game, and you want to get off to a faster start, immediatly design an impossibly large space port for your homeworld, and when i say impossibly i mean IMPOSSIBLY, if it dosent cost over 30k to retrofit your starting medium its just not big enough!
Egads, what's the maintenance on that beast?
What's the point of this? Besides costing you a whole room full of pretty pennies? I'm not clear what the advantage is, in having such a monolithic space port. Sure, you get the civvie ships out quicker, but is it really necessary? Does it pay off, considering that the upkeep on the moon-sized-port is probably more than your homeworld makes in a decade?
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” ― Christopher Hitchens
check the strength of your troops, if your playing a weak race, you may find that fielding robotic troops is actually a better choice than your own... for my recent game, the securian race only had a 7000 troop strength, but the robots had 6000... not too shabby for such a cheaper replacement
EDIT: the maintenance was only around 13k VERY manageable if you ask me, for being such a help early game
there are alot of advantages to it.
your research potential is always enough to prevent wasted points.
getting civilian ships out of the docks means resources will start moving alot quicker, try it a few times i bet you will notice a difference. i did!
you can start exploring the galaxy faster by queing up 20 explorers, usually i field 20 or so in 1400 star games.
later in the game, when strategic resources are well stocked, it makes building custom fleets alot faster. since you can build all of them at once.
i promise that you will notice a difference in resources moving around, luxury resources still move kinda slowly, but strategic resources move very well. for most of the early game, especially if i find some good lost colonys, there will STILL be ships waiting to start being built at the spaceport, for months!! even with 20 shipyards... i couldent imagine how long it would take to field them if it was still a medium
if you are concerned about the matience cost of the space port, since its possible that the reason i find it manageable is due to the quality i put home systems on (i want them to feel meaningful to capture and to control).... remove the research labs (you wont need them) and shields from your small space port designs.
Are you building that massive space port right off the bat using an empire with starting expansion? How are you able to get the resources for it? When you first start you don't have anywhere near enough and I would think starting such a massive project early on would cripple your ability to do anything else that requires resources.
Also, 20 explorers on a 1400 star map? My goal is usually 100 minimum before mid game.
20 to start with, i usually build them in waves... and yes its starting expansion... dunno about the resource thing, i have been able to do it decently, it does get a little slow at first, but once the new civilian ships start rolling out its usually smooth sailing from there
