Ships

[Kakuzu]

I never built custom ships in Galactic Civilizations, but I hear it would give me a nifty edge in these games.

So lets have at it. I saw some threads about game-breaking ship designs, especially with torpedoes. What makes this stuff good? What should I put on escorts, frigates, and destroyers? How much of it? Should I arm freighters? What kind of fleet sizes should I have?

Right now, I fleet frigates and destroyers in separate fleets in groups of five. I just let escorts and freighters do their thing. Everything uses AI designs.

[WriterNotViking]

Where to start? There are so many design philosophies to go with. I'll present you with my own, which may or may not work with you and which I can almost guarantee is not the most efficient, but I like it.

I design all my ships and bases, because I enjoy the process - I'm just one of those people. The cannon-fodder escorts and frigates the AI starts you out with have no torpedoes, and are therefore horribly raped every time they meet a pirate with better range. Torpedoes, therefore, are a must - I used to shoot for equal numbers of beam weapons and torpedoes, but I'm now experimenting with making torpedoes the primary weapon. Escorts usually stay below 200 in size, take two guns and a torpedo weapon, and a pair of shield generators. High speed and maneuverability, and a decent fuel supply, so that when I turn them loose, they'll actually spend their time escorting things rather than refueling. I make it sound like it has everything...

In a way, it does. I don't like making redshirt ships, I want them to last. Every design is fast and maneuverable, with the real difference between types being protection and armaments.

Frigates usually take an extra torpedo weapon and shield generator over escorts, but otherwise have similar performance. Once I advance in research, I start beefing up the frigates a little, and expand the size gaps between ship types.

I like to give destroyers a significant margin of superiority over frigates, since I invariably end up facing a steady and inexhaustible series of pirate attacks featuring my very own designs... Often before I've even had a chance to upgrade all my own ships. Must give some thought to Internal Security... In any case, the vast majority are escorts and frigates, so as long as I have a destroyer or two on hand, I can hold them back fine. Say four guns and three torpedoes, and four shield generators. I also include Hyperdeny as soon as I get it, from destroyers up, and I make sure that they're at least as fast as my escorts. I tend to not bother with destroyers until I can build up to size 350 at least; until that point, size limitations make having more than two ship designs redundant. Again, as technology improves and I can build larger ships, destroyers begin to buff up.

Cruisers are built at size 500 (is it still 500? I forget). Again, a healthy margin over the destroyer design, because those bloody privateers somehow manage to get a hold of destroyers at times. Equal speed, so the buggers can't get away so easily. Weaponry fluctuates at these levels - I'm not consistent, but as said, a solid improvement over destroyers.

Capital ships - as much as I can cram in there. No need for subtlety, we're trying to make a monster here. Hyperdeny, shields better than a small spaceport, maybe it loses a point or two in speed but the sheer amount of firepower it can put out more than makes up for it. I like to make assault fleets with these, a dozen or so, and then go fleet hunting.

Troop carriers are large, insanely shielded and half again as fast as the enemy's escorts. No weapons, or they'll go off on their own and engage in suicide attacks. They carry at least six troop regiments, and their protection allows them to survive the punishment of spaceports and defensive bases as it drops off the troops, who then take the planet and the orbiting bases. Works every time, and makes the game maybe a little too easy.

Exploration ships, in the early days, need to be fast and have great endurance. Once I can build larger, I include a long-range scanner which helps me find pirates, and when even larger sizes become available, I turn them into pirate-killing scout cruisers with obscene firepower and protection which are fast and agile enough to run circles around most escorts. Very satisfying to have one of those guys waltz into a nebula and wipe out ten pirate ships and a base all by itself.

Colony ships exist for mere weeks, so they don't need much of anything. Good shielding for unexpected pirate encounters, enough speed so they won't have trouble chasing down the planet they're supposed to colonize (I've seen this... Both entertaining and mortifying).

Freighters, mining ships and passenger liners all receive minimum protection, average speed (max. 30, usually 25 or so) and no weapons. Making them fast enough to outrun warships isn't cost-effective, and the one permissible weapon won't make any difference against 99% of attackers. Large freighters take double shields, though. Cargo size is about 4000 for small, 6-7000 for medium and 9-12000 for large types, but I have no idea if that may be excessive. I know it isn't too small.

Small spaceports improve on destroyer guns, but take ten shield generators, two to four shipyards, one of each production plant, eight docking bays and at least 5000 cargo space. Also, medical and entertainment centers - no military outpost is complete without them. Medium takes half again the weapons, double the shields and armor and a long range scanner if I can squeeze it in without making the thing too expensive. Also eight shipyards, two of each plant and twelve docking bays. Large once again improves weapons by half, shields now also by half, and definitely the long range scanner, along with twelve shipyards, three of each plant and sixteen docking bays. Construction speed so far has been entirely satisfactory. I like to have a spaceport in each system, but if it's otherwise unimportant, I make it a small one.

Mining stations and research bases come well armed, two guns and four torpedoes, and five shield generators. I think it's definitely worth the cost to make them defensible; if you don't, you'll lose them over and over again to pirates, never mind foreign raiders whose government you're at war with. If they can handle themselves for a little while, it gives you time to bring in the cavalry. Resort bases are usually also research bases, which works great when I can find a neutron star. I love neutron stars - research bonus and great scenery, it can't be beat. Double function, double value, therefore these bases take more guns and more shields.

Other than spaceports, I like to give all my bases enough solar panels to supply all their energy needs. They never run out of fuel when they most need it, I save on that same fuel, and they don't lose power with one lucky shot after shields and armor fail.

I build two kinds of defensive bases: small and large. The small ones are built on unimportant planets in systems which already have spaceports. The large ones do the same for important planets, and also serve to provide extra protection to important planets with spaceports. They always have medical and recreational facilities, for an approval bonus.

Military ships, once I am able to build larger, take enough solar panels to satisfy their basic energy needs. It saves tremendously on fuel, and it eliminates the irritation of having your great offensive ready to go, except the 1st Attack Fleet has run out of gas.

I think that's everything...

[bigbaba]

viking had some intresting hints here for ship design.

whatever you do: dont use the Ai designs. they are weaker AND more expensive then your own designs.

what i do at start is to build a new FF type with nearly double the firepower of the Ai design (80-100). and at the beginning, create everything that flies or is in the orbit so you can keep the maintance costs low. that lets you to put a higher number of ships in service what is vital at the beginning.

and at the end something for you all:

and if you want a real challenge, then start a game in a small galaxy (100 stars) with max pirates and as human against 11 realy aggressive races (they dont like humans) with a higher technology level then your empire. thats alot of fun.

[WriterNotViking]

Doesn't sound like fun to me, bigbaba [:'(] Thanks for the compliment.

Construction ships! Forgot about those. Shielded like a destroyer, at least, and a better turn of speed than civilian ships. I tend to arm them with torpedoes only, usually three. This gives them a little bit of offensive punch when the pirates show up at your construction site and proceed to pound your half-completed mining base into dust. I give them plenty of cargo space, but not really by choice, since the restrictions on construction ships (50% cargo, building, etc.) force you to add cargo bays to offset the weight used for shields, weapons and engines.

Also, when designing ships, make sure they have the reactor power to simultaneously move at top speed and fire all their weapons, with a little to spare. There is nothing worse than your powerful warship chasing after a pirate and not having enough juice left to charge the guns.

[Gunhead365]

Hi,

when designing your own ship, do you also have to design all the civilian ships like passenger ships, resource transports and so on? Or are these still upgraded with newest technology?

[Erik Rutins]

If you control design, then you have to design all of them. However, what I do is design the ships I want and keep them updated manually, make sure the other designs are basically fine with me and then periodically Shift-Click to select the rest and use the Upgrade button to bring them up to date without investing a lot of extra time.

Regards,

- Erik