Could someone please give me some suggestions as the best way to deploy/implement resupply ships? Is it best to just build them and leave them on auto?
Any design tips/deployment suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Resupply ship usage?
RE: Resupply ship usage?
By no means an expert but lately I've been obsessed over resupply ships and their uses. What I've learned / observed so far is:
1. Resupply ships unlike all other ship classes have no defined role when put on auto - e.g. Escorts and frigates will go escort your freighters or patrol supply lanes between systems, DD and CA will patrol, wait at, or protect planets, stations, etc.
Resupply ships after a whole afternoon watching them like an ant colony experiment, do...nothing. They sit in system they were built, meander every now and then between planet created at to spaceport, and refuel when needed. That's it. Only time they will protect anything is if an enemy enters the system they were put on auto, and you assigned appropriate stance and range - engage system targets, nearby, etc.
They will not go resupply anyone, they wont go find a gas giant to start filling up their resupply cargo. In short, resupply ships are only class thay essentially are useless on auto, other than being system specific protectors - if you put a few on auto-engage system targets, then if built with weapons, they will protect the system or act as fleet unit put in a fleet.
So definitely do not build them and just leave on auto.
2. Resupply ships are a bit hard to target cycle in order to manage their selection and deployment. E.g. Exploration ships have X hotkey to cycle, but resupply ships have no specific hotkey just for them, and are lumped in with Y key along with what is generally for me a vast horde of constructors. So i generally select to deploy them by first opening ships screen, select resupply filter, then click to 'tag' each one. Each tag will show the ship on lower left info screen.
This now means when list is closed, i can use B before and N next hotkeys to cycle back and forth between my list of resupply ships. I never have more than half dozen or so not in a fleet, so generally this is semi ok way to keep track and semi quickly find them to deploy / redeploy
Best way to deploy / implement resupply ships i've thus far experimented with depends partly what your desired role for them to be is so i will me tion the top few roles i've used them as:
A) pure resupply only ships - main function is to help alleviate fuel stock in key systems by being a military-only fuel depot, or forward deployed to fuel your frontline or expeditionary fleets going into deep enemy territory
-private sector ships are coded to never use resupply ships, so they are a military only fuel depot, you are ensured that when your fleet needs fuel, the private sector will not have reserved or sucked ot dry like some gas mining stations (although workaround there is to have no commerce module version of GMS but i dislike having two GMS design versions and prefer resupply ships as guaranteed military fuel depots)
Resupply ships can be built to max base size tech limit, so quite large. For pure fuel depot use only, i design them with max cargo capacity, and just enough shields / weapons to defend themselves until help can get to them. Speed is not really an issue - due to how massive, any real speed takes too much thruster tonnage so i just design for abot decent 15 cruise and 10-11 degree/sec turn angle.
Note - after a certain size limit unlocks, resupply ships automatically start to turn more flying fortrest than pure fuel depot because there is a max cargo resource capacity cap of 120,000. With the right massive cargo module tech and construction tech to build 3000+ size bases, you can easily max cargo modules to achieve this 120k cap and still have enormous tonnage left over for shields, armor, weapons, LR scanner, warp deny, grabity stop, bombard, etc - basically flying fortress death machines.
So my use of them generally evolves from pure fuel depot to self defending forward scouts fuel depots w/ LR scanners to eventually death stars wiping out planets.
As pure fuel depots in the beginning, i give best cargo size i can. 2 gas extractors to cap gas mining, plenty of docks for whatever is my largest fleet size, and just enough weapons / shields to defend itself (set on engage when attacked only to minimize undeploying from gas giant). Send at least one to whatever is your biggest ship building world, generally homeworld - even if your home system has local gas mining stations i find they are not enough if you have a booming private sector and especially if homeworld has bakkuras shipyard and you crank out lots of ships. They can drain your homeworld dry pretty quick so i park one resupply fuel depot in or very near home system, wherever the closest 70% or better gas giant with fuel type my military uses is at.
I park the other 2-5 anywhere, somewhere, to start filling up their cargo with fuel. Resupply ships keep their existing cargo through refits so sooner you start amassing a hefty fuel cargo, the better. If i need one ofthem to serve as forward supply depoy for fleet ops then imwill move it to whatever gas cloud or system my forward fleets need.
B) forward scouts / fuel depots / mini-forts - by the time mid line construction and cargo tech unlocked, 2k+ size'ish, i can generally design 40-60k cargo and have enough tonnage left over to fit LR scanners, warp deny, 20+ shields, armor, and weapons of each long range and short range types. A few fighter squadrons as well, like 2-4. Not quite deathstars yet but basically self sufficient and unless a whole strong AI empire fleet comes at it, kill pretty much any regular pirate 'fleet' all by itself or make them run.
I implement 3-5 of those, even on large maps i dont really see need for more - basically one around each cardinal map direction from my empire outwards with maybe one extra at whatever war front i am engaged. so the other 3-4 i keep back home as extra military only fuel depots near key ship building systems. They also serve as easy cycle replacements. Since resupply ships have no easy 'go redeploy at last location after refit' button, it sucks to retrofit and then manually have to find and redeploy back to old spots again. Home sector ones arent that bad as i know easily where my high fuel ship systems are but i forget sometimes what CG237 gas cloud i was parked at before.
So the 3-4 i keep back home i retrofit first, always - then as each becomes ready, i send then to 'relieve' the forward deployed fuel depot since i can find them using the tag method, and then send each of those forward epots back to retrofit after being relieved by the new gen model
C) somehwere along the line, depending on your playstyle and preference, resupply ships become quite capable flying fortresses. Around 3k+ size, in addition to my 3-4 home sector fuel depots, the 3-5 as forward scouts / expedition fleet fuel depots, i build and pit into a fleet another 5-6. More is better but i find 5-6 is economically ok, easier to manage my 'tag' list of resupply ships, and generally all i need.
This fleet becomes my cheap and easy alternative to world destroyer - once built its like that star trek worm AI construction from classic trek - completely self sufficient world killers. Refuel themselves where ever if needed - but by now these resupply fortresses which used to be fuel depots at lighter weights, have far more than enough on-board fuel cargo to self refuel forever. I 've rarely had to deploy on a gas giant to fill back up except with newly built deathstars.
Add a few cheap modules - 1 construction yard and 1 plant of each type and theoretically they should if needed be able to repair each other. I say theoretical because tbh never had to use it - between repair bots and massive shields/armor, ive never yet had my flying fortress fleet damaged enough they needed to use constructor yard repair ability.
Speed is not essential for this fleet other than hyper speed. Too much tonnage to turn them into 30+ cruise speed destroyers or cruiser type ships. All i need is about 15 cruise speed, enough to easily catch up to a planet. Turn angle is nice to have at least 15 as well. Slow speeds means AI fleets may escape, which is fine. This is the doom fleet - planets arent running anywhere so if the AI defense fleet wants to run, thats ok while i nuke their planets to extinction.
Long as design has torpedoes / fighters along with bombard, cant be kited by faster AI fleets either. If AI fleet stays at standoff, it will take a really big, higher tech AI fleet to dish out more LR dmg than the flying forts dish back and can absorb.
D) last way i implement and deploy resupply class ships is to protect a valuable world that is outside my colonizeable distance until i can get there via empire expansion. To be fair you could do this with any normal ship or small fleet as well but two considerations make resupply ships best at guarding your someday colony turf
1) no matter how many fuel cells, normal fleets have to eventually come back or go somehwere to refuel. Resupply ships carry their huge cargo of fuel with them and can stay parked on that uber wonder planet forever. Even with no pre-existing cargo, just add 1 resource scanner, and you can find, analyze, and mine a gas giant your scouts may not have catalouged once you get out there.
2) resupply ships can fit LR scanners better than regular military ships - so it is easy to park on that valuable world and see any thief creeping up to colonize your claimed turf.
Other than the annoying lack of an automation role that resupply ships dont have, and the hunt and peck nature to find, select, and issue orders to non- fleet individual resupply ships, i find them one of my favorite class types next to carriers.
1. Resupply ships unlike all other ship classes have no defined role when put on auto - e.g. Escorts and frigates will go escort your freighters or patrol supply lanes between systems, DD and CA will patrol, wait at, or protect planets, stations, etc.
Resupply ships after a whole afternoon watching them like an ant colony experiment, do...nothing. They sit in system they were built, meander every now and then between planet created at to spaceport, and refuel when needed. That's it. Only time they will protect anything is if an enemy enters the system they were put on auto, and you assigned appropriate stance and range - engage system targets, nearby, etc.
They will not go resupply anyone, they wont go find a gas giant to start filling up their resupply cargo. In short, resupply ships are only class thay essentially are useless on auto, other than being system specific protectors - if you put a few on auto-engage system targets, then if built with weapons, they will protect the system or act as fleet unit put in a fleet.
So definitely do not build them and just leave on auto.
2. Resupply ships are a bit hard to target cycle in order to manage their selection and deployment. E.g. Exploration ships have X hotkey to cycle, but resupply ships have no specific hotkey just for them, and are lumped in with Y key along with what is generally for me a vast horde of constructors. So i generally select to deploy them by first opening ships screen, select resupply filter, then click to 'tag' each one. Each tag will show the ship on lower left info screen.
This now means when list is closed, i can use B before and N next hotkeys to cycle back and forth between my list of resupply ships. I never have more than half dozen or so not in a fleet, so generally this is semi ok way to keep track and semi quickly find them to deploy / redeploy
Best way to deploy / implement resupply ships i've thus far experimented with depends partly what your desired role for them to be is so i will me tion the top few roles i've used them as:
A) pure resupply only ships - main function is to help alleviate fuel stock in key systems by being a military-only fuel depot, or forward deployed to fuel your frontline or expeditionary fleets going into deep enemy territory
-private sector ships are coded to never use resupply ships, so they are a military only fuel depot, you are ensured that when your fleet needs fuel, the private sector will not have reserved or sucked ot dry like some gas mining stations (although workaround there is to have no commerce module version of GMS but i dislike having two GMS design versions and prefer resupply ships as guaranteed military fuel depots)
Resupply ships can be built to max base size tech limit, so quite large. For pure fuel depot use only, i design them with max cargo capacity, and just enough shields / weapons to defend themselves until help can get to them. Speed is not really an issue - due to how massive, any real speed takes too much thruster tonnage so i just design for abot decent 15 cruise and 10-11 degree/sec turn angle.
Note - after a certain size limit unlocks, resupply ships automatically start to turn more flying fortrest than pure fuel depot because there is a max cargo resource capacity cap of 120,000. With the right massive cargo module tech and construction tech to build 3000+ size bases, you can easily max cargo modules to achieve this 120k cap and still have enormous tonnage left over for shields, armor, weapons, LR scanner, warp deny, grabity stop, bombard, etc - basically flying fortress death machines.
So my use of them generally evolves from pure fuel depot to self defending forward scouts fuel depots w/ LR scanners to eventually death stars wiping out planets.
As pure fuel depots in the beginning, i give best cargo size i can. 2 gas extractors to cap gas mining, plenty of docks for whatever is my largest fleet size, and just enough weapons / shields to defend itself (set on engage when attacked only to minimize undeploying from gas giant). Send at least one to whatever is your biggest ship building world, generally homeworld - even if your home system has local gas mining stations i find they are not enough if you have a booming private sector and especially if homeworld has bakkuras shipyard and you crank out lots of ships. They can drain your homeworld dry pretty quick so i park one resupply fuel depot in or very near home system, wherever the closest 70% or better gas giant with fuel type my military uses is at.
I park the other 2-5 anywhere, somewhere, to start filling up their cargo with fuel. Resupply ships keep their existing cargo through refits so sooner you start amassing a hefty fuel cargo, the better. If i need one ofthem to serve as forward supply depoy for fleet ops then imwill move it to whatever gas cloud or system my forward fleets need.
B) forward scouts / fuel depots / mini-forts - by the time mid line construction and cargo tech unlocked, 2k+ size'ish, i can generally design 40-60k cargo and have enough tonnage left over to fit LR scanners, warp deny, 20+ shields, armor, and weapons of each long range and short range types. A few fighter squadrons as well, like 2-4. Not quite deathstars yet but basically self sufficient and unless a whole strong AI empire fleet comes at it, kill pretty much any regular pirate 'fleet' all by itself or make them run.
I implement 3-5 of those, even on large maps i dont really see need for more - basically one around each cardinal map direction from my empire outwards with maybe one extra at whatever war front i am engaged. so the other 3-4 i keep back home as extra military only fuel depots near key ship building systems. They also serve as easy cycle replacements. Since resupply ships have no easy 'go redeploy at last location after refit' button, it sucks to retrofit and then manually have to find and redeploy back to old spots again. Home sector ones arent that bad as i know easily where my high fuel ship systems are but i forget sometimes what CG237 gas cloud i was parked at before.
So the 3-4 i keep back home i retrofit first, always - then as each becomes ready, i send then to 'relieve' the forward deployed fuel depot since i can find them using the tag method, and then send each of those forward epots back to retrofit after being relieved by the new gen model
C) somehwere along the line, depending on your playstyle and preference, resupply ships become quite capable flying fortresses. Around 3k+ size, in addition to my 3-4 home sector fuel depots, the 3-5 as forward scouts / expedition fleet fuel depots, i build and pit into a fleet another 5-6. More is better but i find 5-6 is economically ok, easier to manage my 'tag' list of resupply ships, and generally all i need.
This fleet becomes my cheap and easy alternative to world destroyer - once built its like that star trek worm AI construction from classic trek - completely self sufficient world killers. Refuel themselves where ever if needed - but by now these resupply fortresses which used to be fuel depots at lighter weights, have far more than enough on-board fuel cargo to self refuel forever. I 've rarely had to deploy on a gas giant to fill back up except with newly built deathstars.
Add a few cheap modules - 1 construction yard and 1 plant of each type and theoretically they should if needed be able to repair each other. I say theoretical because tbh never had to use it - between repair bots and massive shields/armor, ive never yet had my flying fortress fleet damaged enough they needed to use constructor yard repair ability.
Speed is not essential for this fleet other than hyper speed. Too much tonnage to turn them into 30+ cruise speed destroyers or cruiser type ships. All i need is about 15 cruise speed, enough to easily catch up to a planet. Turn angle is nice to have at least 15 as well. Slow speeds means AI fleets may escape, which is fine. This is the doom fleet - planets arent running anywhere so if the AI defense fleet wants to run, thats ok while i nuke their planets to extinction.
Long as design has torpedoes / fighters along with bombard, cant be kited by faster AI fleets either. If AI fleet stays at standoff, it will take a really big, higher tech AI fleet to dish out more LR dmg than the flying forts dish back and can absorb.
D) last way i implement and deploy resupply class ships is to protect a valuable world that is outside my colonizeable distance until i can get there via empire expansion. To be fair you could do this with any normal ship or small fleet as well but two considerations make resupply ships best at guarding your someday colony turf
1) no matter how many fuel cells, normal fleets have to eventually come back or go somehwere to refuel. Resupply ships carry their huge cargo of fuel with them and can stay parked on that uber wonder planet forever. Even with no pre-existing cargo, just add 1 resource scanner, and you can find, analyze, and mine a gas giant your scouts may not have catalouged once you get out there.
2) resupply ships can fit LR scanners better than regular military ships - so it is easy to park on that valuable world and see any thief creeping up to colonize your claimed turf.
Other than the annoying lack of an automation role that resupply ships dont have, and the hunt and peck nature to find, select, and issue orders to non- fleet individual resupply ships, i find them one of my favorite class types next to carriers.
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ehsumrell1
- Posts: 2529
- Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:53 am
- Location: The Briar Patch Nebula
- Contact:
RE: Resupply ship usage?
Very well explained jacozilla, good job!
[:)]
[:)]
Shields are useless in "The Briar Patch"...
RE: Resupply ship usage?
I can confirm that adding construction parts to supply ships will allow them the repair other ships and claim derelicts.
Don't bother trying to build or repair any stations at planets/asteroids with them though as it breaks the connection between the objects due to not being flagged as a "construction" ship, rendering both station and planet useless.
Stations in empty space, on stars, at black holes, and in nebulae (ie: places that don't "move".) are okay though.
You're better off using an actual constructor though so you don't get resources stuck in the cargo bays - you can't actually remove those either.
Supply ships make excellent sensor platforms as noted above, due to thier ability to refuel themselves from cargo they can comfortably sit in deep space for over a year if needed feeding you information.
With the refuel from cargo ability they also make incredible scouts. Stopping off at planets and nebulae when needed giving them functionally unlimited range.
Combine all the above with some weapons and boarding pods and you get a super fun bounty hunter ship which you can use to harass pirates, capture thier ships, and repair/refuel them before sending them home as either trophies or scientific aids.
In fact, the size boost they get lets you kit them out with quite a lot of guns and shields even with the mandated mission equipment, which makes them quite decent battleships.
With this extra space you can also fit enough troop bays to lift the entirety of your capital's garrison in one go.
Or fighter bays if you're inclined to want self fuelling carriers.
Or fit a ton of reactors and make early use of that superweapon you found.
When you first unlock them they're not quite large enough to let you build a huge death ship, you'll have to pick a role and specialise.
One size upgrade will give enough space to really flesh it out in that role, or the flexibility to mix roles a bit.
Two or more upgrades will let you do basically whatever you want.
Or you can just fill them full of cargo and docking bays and use them as mobile fuel depots, but thats boring.
Don't bother trying to build or repair any stations at planets/asteroids with them though as it breaks the connection between the objects due to not being flagged as a "construction" ship, rendering both station and planet useless.
Stations in empty space, on stars, at black holes, and in nebulae (ie: places that don't "move".) are okay though.
You're better off using an actual constructor though so you don't get resources stuck in the cargo bays - you can't actually remove those either.
Supply ships make excellent sensor platforms as noted above, due to thier ability to refuel themselves from cargo they can comfortably sit in deep space for over a year if needed feeding you information.
With the refuel from cargo ability they also make incredible scouts. Stopping off at planets and nebulae when needed giving them functionally unlimited range.
Combine all the above with some weapons and boarding pods and you get a super fun bounty hunter ship which you can use to harass pirates, capture thier ships, and repair/refuel them before sending them home as either trophies or scientific aids.
In fact, the size boost they get lets you kit them out with quite a lot of guns and shields even with the mandated mission equipment, which makes them quite decent battleships.
With this extra space you can also fit enough troop bays to lift the entirety of your capital's garrison in one go.
Or fighter bays if you're inclined to want self fuelling carriers.
Or fit a ton of reactors and make early use of that superweapon you found.
When you first unlock them they're not quite large enough to let you build a huge death ship, you'll have to pick a role and specialise.
One size upgrade will give enough space to really flesh it out in that role, or the flexibility to mix roles a bit.
Two or more upgrades will let you do basically whatever you want.
Or you can just fill them full of cargo and docking bays and use them as mobile fuel depots, but thats boring.
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Guardian54
- Posts: 56
- Joined: Sun Dec 06, 2015 4:38 pm
RE: Resupply ship usage?
I actually regret calling my "capital" ships "battleship" and had to use "dreadnought" once I realized Colossal Scale Construction let my supply boats fit 4500 capacity... only had to slap 101 massive cargo bays, 2 gas extractors and IIRC 13 docking bays to fit the 20% requirement and I used over 100 of that insectoid-specific high power thruster (sadly the idiots haven't researched the level 3 yet, but even level 2 is better than the last thruster tech for other races). I also have an obsession with weapon range so my first weapons tech was missiles, then torpedoes, then point defence, so I'm loaded down with a couple Death Rays, a couple of those super-area-weapons whatever the name was, 10 fighter bays, and as many meridian shields and ultra armour as I could fit (IIRC about 20 + 70) and thinking this is surely a balancing defect.
If I knew these things could do this earlier I would have built huge fleets of them to wipe out everyone else. That planet killer I'm repairing has nothing on the utility of these things, particularly with the shipyard wonder at my homeworld, it's ridiculous how these things were (NOT) balanced.
Thanks for the reminder about warp jammers and such though, I forgot that even though I even put a stealth generator on them.
If I knew these things could do this earlier I would have built huge fleets of them to wipe out everyone else. That planet killer I'm repairing has nothing on the utility of these things, particularly with the shipyard wonder at my homeworld, it's ridiculous how these things were (NOT) balanced.
Thanks for the reminder about warp jammers and such though, I forgot that even though I even put a stealth generator on them.
RE: Resupply ship usage?
Thanks Jacozilla - that's an excellent explanation.
Also, thanks for explaining your "tag" method. I often wondered what you meant by that. I'll have to try it out for myself.
Also, thanks for explaining your "tag" method. I often wondered what you meant by that. I'll have to try it out for myself.
I have never managed to get any ship to refuel itself from its own cargo bay. Do you mean that this is a special ability that resupply ships have, or are you simply referring to one resupply ship refueling from another?Serenitis:
With the refuel from cargo ability they also make incredible scouts.
RE: Resupply ship usage?
It's specific to the supply ship. When it gets down to ~20% fuel capacity if there is any usable fuel in it's cargo hold it will transfer that fuel from the cargo to it's tanks instantly until they're full.ORIGINAL: RemoteLeg
I have never managed to get any ship to refuel itself from its own cargo bay. Do you mean that this is a special ability that resupply ships have, or are you simply referring to one resupply ship refueling from another?
So if you park a supply ship on a gas giant and fill up it's holds you effectively have a range long enough to go almost anywhere. (Actually anywhere if you stop somewhere and gather more gasses on the way.)
And as a side bonus, because your fuel is stored in the cargo and transferred over when needed you only really need one fuel tank in the design saving you a bit of space.
RE: Resupply ship usage?
Really ?!? [&:]
I'm off to test that right now.
Thanks.
I'm off to test that right now.
Thanks.
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Guardian54
- Posts: 56
- Joined: Sun Dec 06, 2015 4:38 pm
RE: Resupply ship usage?
I strongly suspect it is true.
I deployed two low-fuel supply ships on a hydrogen cloud (NovaCore reactors) and they filled up spontaneously.
The problem is that the other two in the same fleet, also ordered to deploy, and which did indeed deploy, did not fill up spontaneously. Perhaps you can only extract so much gas from a cloud per unit time?
If it actually works like this then I think I might be ready for Hard after I finish my Normal game.
I deployed two low-fuel supply ships on a hydrogen cloud (NovaCore reactors) and they filled up spontaneously.
The problem is that the other two in the same fleet, also ordered to deploy, and which did indeed deploy, did not fill up spontaneously. Perhaps you can only extract so much gas from a cloud per unit time?
If it actually works like this then I think I might be ready for Hard after I finish my Normal game.
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Uncle Lumpy
- Posts: 167
- Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:55 pm
RE: Resupply ship usage?
I had a similar experience the first time I used a resupply ship. I deployed it in a gas cloud and a few months game time later I found it fueling at one of my gas mines two sectors away! Since then I always send them out in pairs so they can refuel each other. Or I will park a whole herd of them (3-4) in a cloud or at a gas giant along with a small defensive fleet. I really haven't paid much attention to how they handle refueling themselves. I thought the pairing up of them took care of it. But if they can refuel themselves, that's much better. I'm just beginning to re-arm my fleets (size increase of ships, and accumulated tech advances) after a brief war with some bugs to my "North." The gas opportunities are rather slim (few sources and very low %)up that way, both in my empire and the bug's. So I probably will have to herd my ships at one of the few sources available for my next war. My trade partner just to my "West" has a ton of gas giants and clouds just out of practical reach for me. Funny how the game distributes resources some times. [:)]
I once heard there was a garage, which some said was air tight.
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Guardian54
- Posts: 56
- Joined: Sun Dec 06, 2015 4:38 pm
RE: Resupply ship usage?
I learnt how to check what they have in stock. In the ships manager you can see their cargos, and once you have nuclear fusion (hyperfusion also uses hydrogen) deploy them properly at a gas cloud, suck up 10000-some units of hydrogen, and that'll last you the whole game.
Result is dreadnoughts with (EDIT: With only 1 fuel cell they constantly try to undeploy to go refuel, so 3-5 is a safer bet) 3-5 fuel cells. Make ABSOLUTELY sure you have at least 25 cruise peed though... Proton Engines actually beat Accelros or Quantum drive for cruise thrust per mass, and even in peak thrust per mass.
The result is that you have ships at least three times the size anyone else can manage. I used the initially available techs in Ancient Galaxy and 30 of these jumping into position about half a second before the first PK shows up, starting shooting about 5 seconds AFTER he shows up (supply ships do not auto aggro, they only return fire when shot at, you need to mad micro these dreadnoughts), and managed to blow the PK up half a second before his superlaser could fire.
A fleet of 30 of these tasked to attack enemy planets will destroy all facilities and fleets around it without taking even a scratch of actual damage. It's hilarious, EVEN WITH ONLY 1500 SIZE.
By the time you get to 4500 size you only need squads of about five to face-roll anything the AI can possibly throw at you at any given time.
Result is dreadnoughts with (EDIT: With only 1 fuel cell they constantly try to undeploy to go refuel, so 3-5 is a safer bet) 3-5 fuel cells. Make ABSOLUTELY sure you have at least 25 cruise peed though... Proton Engines actually beat Accelros or Quantum drive for cruise thrust per mass, and even in peak thrust per mass.
The result is that you have ships at least three times the size anyone else can manage. I used the initially available techs in Ancient Galaxy and 30 of these jumping into position about half a second before the first PK shows up, starting shooting about 5 seconds AFTER he shows up (supply ships do not auto aggro, they only return fire when shot at, you need to mad micro these dreadnoughts), and managed to blow the PK up half a second before his superlaser could fire.
A fleet of 30 of these tasked to attack enemy planets will destroy all facilities and fleets around it without taking even a scratch of actual damage. It's hilarious, EVEN WITH ONLY 1500 SIZE.
By the time you get to 4500 size you only need squads of about five to face-roll anything the AI can possibly throw at you at any given time.
RE: Resupply ship usage?
Yeah, something else to consider....
If you put supply ships in fleets you still have to deploy them individually, and if you use them to refuel ships in the same fleet you have either individual or bandbox select all the ships which are not the supply ship because if you tell the fleet to refuel the supply ship will undeploy in order to try and move to itself and thus cancel the order.
Personally I rarely bother putting them in fleets at all.
If I do it's usually 2 or 3 supply ships in one fleet in the early game before I get either significant capacity upgrades or repair droids so can they support each other and fix each other up if needed.
If you put supply ships in fleets you still have to deploy them individually, and if you use them to refuel ships in the same fleet you have either individual or bandbox select all the ships which are not the supply ship because if you tell the fleet to refuel the supply ship will undeploy in order to try and move to itself and thus cancel the order.
Personally I rarely bother putting them in fleets at all.
If I do it's usually 2 or 3 supply ships in one fleet in the early game before I get either significant capacity upgrades or repair droids so can they support each other and fix each other up if needed.
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Guardian54
- Posts: 56
- Joined: Sun Dec 06, 2015 4:38 pm
RE: Resupply ship usage?
Warning though: Resupply ship attacks are purely reactive. They will not respond to any enemy that does not shoot THEM.
In other words, yes, you have a bludgeon to carve through ANY enemy defences, but you need to micro the hell out of them to get optimum returns on investment i.e. shooting enemies too busy fleeing and not in range to shoot at you. However tasked to attack a planet they will eliminate all defenders with absurd efficiency.
Also it IS possible for a single enemy to take them on effectively, e.g. a PK firing its superlaser at one at a time (about the only thing that I know of that can take on a resupply ship unless you're criminally behind on size tech) without the others doing anything.
In other words, yes, you have a bludgeon to carve through ANY enemy defences, but you need to micro the hell out of them to get optimum returns on investment i.e. shooting enemies too busy fleeing and not in range to shoot at you. However tasked to attack a planet they will eliminate all defenders with absurd efficiency.
Also it IS possible for a single enemy to take them on effectively, e.g. a PK firing its superlaser at one at a time (about the only thing that I know of that can take on a resupply ship unless you're criminally behind on size tech) without the others doing anything.