Matrix Games Forums

I recently got the long range scanner tech and am looking to make use of it. Ship building seems constrained by the roles, so I'm not sure how to make a recon type base or ship. Should I just use them on the explorer? Are they good to add to star ports/bases?

I haven't really played around with them either, but I did find a couple of abandoned space stations with advanced sensors. My impression is they would be great on the main spaceports, naval bases in empty systems (is it even possible to build something like this?), perhaps supply ships (to act as secure recon asset for hunter-killer wolfpacks or main fleets) and perhaps scout ships. Putting it on every space station seems overkill, they're pretty expensive I think.

How big is the range really? With fuel range we can see a circle, is there something similar for sensor range?

I've noticed a large red (my empire color, don't know if it's related) circle on the galaxy map around those captured stations, that seems to pick up every ship inside it. It usually covers several solar systems.

I'm interested in how big these ranges are as well, eg. range 8000 for a resource scanner - I've seen my automated exploration ships jump back to a visited system to search individual moons and asteroids within it, are they scanning for resources? So 8000 doesn't cover a whole system?

The range on the first long range scanner you get is, I think, 450,000.

450k is good and all, but how long is that "in game"[&:]

The LR scan range is viewable in game at sector level with a circulare "hazed" zone around the ship/base.
There's no issue mounting a LR scanner on any ship, but it only works as ship detection, so is not that useful. I built one design around the LR scanner (200 size is a min, as the thing is big) and put one ship in each fleet. It's a kind of AWACS

Range is decent enough, at higher tech it's easy to get full sector coverage. They're essential for defense anyways.

Is there a list of what size range each ship class should be in? Escorts less than 150? frigates less than 200? etc? Want to add on some components to ships but don't really know how many gadgets I can tack on before it falls into a different category.

ORIGINAL: PDiFolco

The LR scan range is viewable in game at sector level with a circulare "hazed" zone around the ship/base.
There's no issue mounting a LR scanner on any ship, but it only works as ship detection, so is not that useful. I built one design around the LR scanner (200 size is a min, as the thing is big) and put one ship in each fleet. It's a kind of AWACS

You put a solar collector on that and shouldn't you be able to park that sucker anywhere. Would be cheaper than a base I'd think!

ORIGINAL: Korvus77

Is there a list of what size range each ship class should be in? Escorts less than 150? frigates less than 200? etc? Want to add on some components to ships but don't really know how many gadgets I can tack on before it falls into a different category.

What people need to realize, they aren't classes, they are roles
You can have a 200 sized Escort if you wanted, and a 150 Destroyer
They only determine what they are being used for

I realize most of us see it the way it was in Space Empires and Gal Civ, but it's completely different
The only limits are what your Space Yards can build and what you can afford to maintain

Oh in that case I'm going to start building some much bigger escorts and frigates. [:D] When the ai tells me I need more escorts I sometimes get lazy and just let it build them and was worried it would skip to an obsolete design due to size.

ORIGINAL: Joram

ORIGINAL: PDiFolco

The LR scan range is viewable in game at sector level with a circulare "hazed" zone around the ship/base.
There's no issue mounting a LR scanner on any ship, but it only works as ship detection, so is not that useful. I built one design around the LR scanner (200 size is a min, as the thing is big) and put one ship in each fleet. It's a kind of AWACS

You put a solar collector on that and shouldn't you be able to park that sucker anywhere. Would be cheaper than a base I'd think!

Yep that's the idea - mobile LR scanner, cheap ![;)]

ORIGINAL: BigWolf

ORIGINAL: Korvus77

Is there a list of what size range each ship class should be in? Escorts less than 150? frigates less than 200? etc? Want to add on some components to ships but don't really know how many gadgets I can tack on before it falls into a different category.

What people need to realize, they aren't classes, they are roles
You can have a 200 sized Escort if you wanted, and a 150 Destroyer
They only determine what they are being used for

I realize most of us see it the way it was in Space Empires and Gal Civ, but it's completely different
The only limits are what your Space Yards can build and what you can afford to maintain

Could you describe the roles and what they are used for? In other words why would you not only build the biggest ships possible?

ORIGINAL: Tanaka

ORIGINAL: BigWolf

ORIGINAL: Korvus77

Is there a list of what size range each ship class should be in? Escorts less than 150? frigates less than 200? etc? Want to add on some components to ships but don't really know how many gadgets I can tack on before it falls into a different category.

What people need to realize, they aren't classes, they are roles
You can have a 200 sized Escort if you wanted, and a 150 Destroyer
They only determine what they are being used for

I realize most of us see it the way it was in Space Empires and Gal Civ, but it's completely different
The only limits are what your Space Yards can build and what you can afford to maintain

Could you describe the roles and what they are used for? In other words why would you not only build the biggest ships possible?

As IRL, it can be better to have 3 small ships for the price of 1 big : more flexibility, management of small threats (pirates), specialization (ex :1 with torps, 1 beam, 1 armored troop transport..). Plus smaller ships go faster and have longer range.

I'm still biased toward treating 'roles' in-game as 'classes' in practice. This stems from the use of frigates, destroyers, cruisers, etc. as different ship classes in real life. The classification established by the game seems to mix up classes and roles.

US Navy had DDE, which was a destroyer converted to anti-submarine warfare for escort purpose. If I were about to design a ship with similar role in-game, in the context of capital ship battle group escort, should I design it as an heavily-armed (large size) escort or a destroyer?

To me, it is counter-intuitive to design it as an heavily-armed escort because that defeats the purpose of having destroyer design available to me. Besides, the game manual states escorts are the smallest of all ships and used to patrol colonies and facilities. They are not supposed to engage in long-range patrols or combat missions. And if you notice, when you start the game, the default escort design is always smaller than the default frigate and destroyer design. Therefore, I always consider escorts as corvettes.

ORIGINAL: Tanaka

Could you describe the roles and what they are used for? In other words why would you not only build the biggest ships possible?

You could build the biggest and baddest if you wanted
But, would it help you win? Or leave you short because or you cannot build as many (ie. Forces over-stretched)
Like the real world, smaller vessels have uses, they can response to minor threats faster, afterall, why send in a 200-size ship to take out a lone weak sand worm, when a 100-size one can get there faster and still deal with the threat

Bigger is not always best for everything, just unfortunately, games tend to be programmed where they are

Another example, you're building a killer Capital Ship that could turn the tide of battle... but it will take alot of time to build, so use other ports to build smaller ships in order to ensure you're not taken out of the fight while it's building

But, there is nothing wrong with designing like they are classes, just remember that any sized ship can be used for escorting, for example

ORIGINAL: BigWolf

ORIGINAL: Tanaka

Could you describe the roles and what they are used for? In other words why would you not only build the biggest ships possible?

You could build the biggest and baddest if you wanted
But, would it help you win? Or leave you short because or you cannot build as many (ie. Forces over-stretched)
Like the real world, smaller vessels have uses, they can response to minor threats faster, afterall, why send in a 200-size ship to take out a lone weak sand worm, when a 100-size one can get there faster and still deal with the threat

Bigger is not always best for everything, just unfortunately, games tend to be programmed where they are

Another example, you're building a killer Capital Ship that could turn the tide of battle... but it will take alot of time to build, so use other ports to build smaller ships in order to ensure you're not taken out of the fight while it's building

But, there is nothing wrong with designing like they are classes, just remember that any sized ship can be used for escorting, for example

How is it that smaller ships are faster if bigger ships hold more engines etc? Are they coded to automatically be faster?

The larger you make a ship the slower it will go, for a test just keep throwing armor on an escort and you'll watch the speed, acceleration, and turn rate all go down. Therefore larger ships require more engines than smaller ones to go an equivalent speed. I am not sure but I guess the roles primarily have to do with how a ship is assigned a mission by the ai when its automated.