ORIGINAL: Bingeling
Got to love it. Add more fuel cells and complain that ranges are too long [:D]
You know, I think it's beyond 'supply stuff' since I'm seeing the AI doing the similar things
I feel it might as simple as the speed difference (aka balancing) between Gerax and the warp bubble, after all, going from a warp bubble to a Gerax is an instant 6x-ish max speed increase (2,000 to 12,500 max speed) with a 40% energy requirement drop also, meaning you can fit for max speed alot easier
Quick math, 3 Basic reactors give 138 energy which is enough to full power the warp bubble with 6 energy spare for static... meaning on larger ships you simply won't have full warp speed without using a 4th reactor
However, using a Gerax, you can often get away with 2 basic reactors for full hyperspeed, total of 92 energy with 14 energy for static requirements, the larger beginning designs are still fine with two as you usually are only loosing 8-10% speed anyway
Infact, on the base constructor using 2x basic reactors a warp bubble is around 1,000 speed (0.92 sectors), a Gerax is around 11,200 speed (9.79 sectors)
This is what the game gives me when I first load up a pre-warp game with no changes to the design beyond the warp/hyperdrive
Other designs obviously are far less range due to less fuel cells by default (ignoring the fact that this could lead the AI building mines/bases outside of the range of any freighter)
Interestingly, a base explorer requires 4 for full speed, or leave 3 for 16 speed lose (so how badly do you want the full speed
)Perhaps the tech-tree prior to the 'classic-era' needs expanding further, atm it's just what? less than a dozen extra techs you need to research pre-warp vs classic?
And with the exception of Hyperdrive Tech. you can research all the initial classic tech from game start
Maybe even, a rebalance might work instead, consider lowering the Gerax speed and not have the energy drop so much
Of course that will lead to issues of rebalancing the other drives unless (for example) we then change the others requiring Tech 3 Gerax research prior
Sure it could be argued that we're intended to research Advanced Nuclear Fission first, but you still have the same issue as before, infact in a few designs the number of reactors needed is still the same, but you get the bonus of further ranges (better fuel efficiency, and more speed regardless when you're using a reactor lower than needed for full speed)
