Explorer Ships

[Rising-Sun]

I havent gotten the expansion yet and wanted to give this another try on huge galaxy settings along with six powers and minors, this mod i been playing as Alien (some of you already know). Its pain for explorer ships running back and fourth to refuel and came up another solution that save alot of timing and extend the range greatly. This is useful at the beginning of the game time.

Make a supply ship class along with default settings and a resource profile so you can get readout on resources on planets, moons, etcs. If you deploy that ship on gas gaint that have carson, mine it and it will fill up the fuel storage as well without heading back to bases. This is useful for other ships to get fueled as well if you having a long journey. Even many stops, you still can fuel yourself as long you have carson in your cargo bays. believe it only work on planets when you deploy.

By adding shields and armor and be sure to have enough speed to escape unless they have warp damper. This class isnt cheap but effective for long journey looking for resources, planets, etcs. Even couple of good escorts would be useful.

[Gray Death]

Nah, i would get insane with that idea. You will have to control that ship manually for exploration, and with so much sectors and stars it becomes a nightmare after sometime.

[Rising-Sun]

ORIGINAL: Gray Carlyle

Nah, i would get insane with that idea. You will have to control that ship manually for exploration, and with so much sectors and stars it becomes a nightmare after sometime.

Have it on explore this system, then it would do the rest for you. Having short range and long range recons, let the short range automated while checking long range so you can get outta there if large enemy forces present.

Or having large fleet checking edge of the borders, but that techs take awhile to research if you want to extend that far. Its also depend on how big the galaxy is.

[jpwrunyan]

Wait, why wouldnt I just stick more fuel tanks on my explorer ships? Just reduce the number of times they need to refuel. Are they going to go that remotely into space?

[Gelatinous Cube]

Yes.. the default AI-designed Explorers are less USS Enterprise, and more US Army Cav Scout. They poke around, then get out of dodge, and during war they will act as scouts and not explorers in a ratio that conforms to the "Exploration" priority drop-down in the Empire Policy screen.

[Gray Death]

ORIGINAL: jpwrunyan

Wait, why wouldnt I just stick more fuel tanks on my explorer ships? Just reduce the number of times they need to refuel. Are they going to go that remotely into space?

I use a special explorer for long range missions that can go from one corner of the galaxy to the opposite one without refueling. It is only for the "navigational directions" that you get from ruins or abadoned ships.

[jpwrunyan]

Thats a good idea. Ive been reluctant to pimp my scouts too much because they have such a short lifespan (space monsters). But just have one special scout on hand would be a good way to do it.

[Canute0]

Instead of resuplly ships , why you dont build light armed Gas mining stations at the frontier where your Explorer can refuel ?

[Rising-Sun]

ORIGINAL: Canute

Instead of resuplly ships , why you dont build light armed Gas mining stations at the frontier where your Explorer can refuel ?

Cuz there may or maynot be any fuel there, having those gas mine stations will lead freighters travel so far while having one or more much closer to home.

Beside, having resupply ship is handy for long journey. Find a planet that have carlson on it and deploy there til the cargo is full of them, when the ship get low on fuel it will automatically draw carlson from the cargo bays. If you find a gas planet with carlson and hydrogen, it will mixed them up. I perfer carlson only, that way you have plenty of fuel.

Im not sure how you unload cargo to bases or planets, doesnt seem to have that options. You will have to keep maintain what ship travel far and keep mining carlson (deploy) so the cargo bay is full. You will besurprise how far this can go til you have late end techs.

If you are playing small galaxy map, there really no need for this. This options is for med/huge galaxy maps.