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Thats the problem with closing up the gaps in the AI so it performs as well as human players who know how to game the system, anyone who doesn't know those tricks is going to get wroughted by the AI. Newer or less savvy players find themselves getting whooped by the AI on a regular basis as it is.

I generally really like the AI in DW, it is a total btard in a good way. You can easily outmaneuver it strategically if you know what you are doing (all strategy games have the same issue) but it is tactically brilliant in most respects. Even if you know what you are doing it doesn't take much of a mistake for the AI to take advantage of you in a big way. Also it is not a cheating btard, unlike most games the AI has no advantage over a human player. For example the AI knows about what it has seen on the map just like a human player, it is not omniscient unlike in most games.

To be clear, I'm not saying that a swarm of small ships is the answer to everything. Hundreds of tiny escorts seem to be able to cover my empire and police pirates better than half that number of larger ships.

Yeah, neither I am advocating that more size is always the answer. Just keep in mind that in some senses hordes of small cheap ships are ironically the more expensive option compared to a fewer number of larger and more expensive ships, including but not limited to getting less firepower per credit spent on maintenance. Like lots of the best aspects of DW size vs number of ships is an engaging balancing act. Economies of scale and the way shields work favor a larger ship over a fleet of smaller ships with the same total size, but bigger is definitely not always better.

One thing that can´t be discounted in this argument is the fact that a swarm of smaller ships tend to have less firepower as the engagement draws out - everytime a small ship dies, the total firepower of the fleet goes down. Not so much for big ships, as they tend to maintain full firepower until they go boom.
This is mitigated a bit by the fact that big ships (and stations and fleets) don´t seem to concentrate their firepower on one target after the other. If they did, then the small swarm tactic would be even less viable.

Question: Are small, nimble ships harder to hit than big, slow ones? Has anyone tested this?

ORIGINAL: Litjan

Question: Are small, nimble ships harder to hit than big, slow ones? Has anyone tested this?

Yes they are Litjan. In addition, certain on-board ship components (Countermeasures, both ship
and fleet), engine types, and turning radius greatly affect the combat ability of a ship as well
no matter what size of ship.

ORIGINAL: Aures

Yeah, neither I am advocating that more size is always the answer. Just keep in mind that in some senses hordes of small cheap ships are ironically the more expensive option compared to a fewer number of larger and more expensive ships, including but not limited to getting less firepower per credit spent on maintenance. Like lots of the best aspects of DW size vs number of ships is an engaging balancing act. Economies of scale and the way shields work favor a larger ship over a fleet of smaller ships with the same total size, but bigger is definitely not always better.

problem with this is that the AI does no do any of this, at all.

this is just another solution to "beat up" the AI, it cannot adapt.

Can't argue against improving the AI, can't really be a bad thing.

Nimble (high cruise speed, high sprint speed and high acceleration) are harder to hit than ships without those qualities but I don't think size by itself has any effect. I could be wrong but I think all ships are probably point targets as far as hitting them goes.

I think the real solution is what players have already discussed long ago. Have a way to edit in ship designs for each race via mods. We could even have a type of 'Ship Design File Exchange'.

ORIGINAL: Aures

Can't argue against improving the AI, can't really be a bad thing.

Nimble (high cruise speed, high sprint speed and high acceleration) are harder to hit than ships without those qualities but I don't think size by itself has any effect. I could be wrong but I think all ships are probably point targets as far as hitting them goes.

the problem is the ranges of weapons are relatively the same, so even this "nimble" ship has to get close to fire off some rounds, and naturally its going to feel the heat of 20 blasters.

the problem with that, is that the AI doesnt loadout ships with just torps, blasters, ion cannons, it generally does a mix.

My 'swarm' escorts have the long ranged blasters (shatterforce?) if that helps any

I think it would be helpful to get a certain "target signature" value output for each ship in the construction dialog that shows how well this ship will get hit by the enemy.
It should reflect all effects of size (this must be a factor, just look at the geometry!), speed, agility and countermeasures. Later on (I am thinking further expansions, here [;)] ) this could also be affected by fleet leaders (admirals) or shipcrew experience.