Slitherine

• Pirates have Stuff. Free Stuff if you kill their bases, For Pay Stuff if you chat them up in the diplomacy screen.
  
  
• Designing your own ships? Be sure to have enough reserve power to cover both your weapons and your engines. It might be nice to have a ship that can shoot or run, but if it can't do both at once all you get to call it is 'Mobile Base' and 'Moving Target'. Like Walking and Chewing Gum, you want ships that can do both at once.
  
  
• Got a base to investigate that's surrounded by Kraltors? Send in one (cheap!) ship to investigate it. After you've investigated that base, you don't need it, so there's no harm in letting the Kraltors decommission it for you.
  
  
• Want to put up lots of Long Range sensors, but don't want to build space-ports in every system? Make a Mote satellite. A monitoring station with one-each of every required component and some solar panels to power it (~ 15 components in all). Put them in your systems so they all get coverage. Cheap, deployable in droves, and should the enemy accidentally take the time to shoot one down, easily replaced.
  
  Advantages of a sensor net include: Spotting pirate bases in neighboring systems. Spotting incoming attacks. Spotting loitering pirates. Spotting Abandoned bases/ships. Sometimes they do exceptionally well in drawing enemy fire (in good ways, trust me on this one)!
  
  
• Hey, did you just get a ship you didn't build? Decommission it (unless it's something so big you can't make one yourself yet, or an ever-precious "Discovered Colony Ship"). You can get free tech research from it.
  
  
• Woah, did some pirates just join you? Decommission their ships. For some reason these seem to draw a lot of unwanted fire (other empire's ships still on orders to kill them?), and free tech is still free tech.
  
  
• Woah, is that an enemy planet with a space port making ships? Send in some troop transports and capture the planet. The base (and any ships it is making) become yours. Then decommission the poached ships for tech.
  
  
• Woah, they love us, but our own advisers are suggesting war. Why is that? Offer a trade with that nation. Do you see any disputed bases? Best you work at fixing that. If you have none to trade for their disputed bases, send construction ships out to their territory to make a few so that you can horse-trade your way out of a war. With bases in your territory (a political problem) they send ships to patrol or refuel at the bases (a political no-no). By keeping your stuff in your systems and their stuff in their systems, you can make everyone happy.
  
  
• Ah, finally drew that war to a peaceful close. What to do next... Check your spies. Are there any missions you should stop? Check your political trade options with them. Are there any bases/planets in dispute? Might be worth resolving.
  

• Pirate bases almost always appear in systems that have no owned planets or bases (eg: mining station).  They will also appear either on an asteroid or at planet/moon (eg: if it's just a star, there won't be pirates). 
  
• Collaray to the previous infoid, if every system near your empire has colonized planet or base, then you will generally not see pirates bases near your systems (Exception: If every system has something, pirate bases will still appear, the 'I have a Base' clause no longer gives protection).
• A new base will usually appear after you kill an old base.  The exception going to if a pirate base joins your empire.
  
• Pirates have to deal with many of the same things you do.  Namely, Enemy ships/fleets.  Mother Nature (I've watched the stormy areas kill a base for me), the Wildlife (Kraltor eating Pirate Ships -- Fun fun fun!), fuel (no fuel, no guns), and oddly enough: Pirates.  Different factions of pirates are just that: Different factions, and they can/do attack each other, same as different empires can war.
  
• Collarary to the last infoid: If it's a base in a stormy area, you might just do everyone without an eye patch a favor if you just leave it alone.  Who are we to correct pirates if they set up shop in the middle of a hurricane?
  
• Pirates like to loiter at neutral, inhabited planets.  They arn't basing there, they are just 'Doing what Pirates Do Best.' (that is, being annoying, and mooching off any passing colony ships).
• I might suggest tooling Escorts and Frigates for dealing with single (not multiple) Pirates, Destroyers for pirate bases, and let the larger warships deal with warring.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Gertjan

Thanks for the tips. I hope more will follow. What is the advantage of keeping a "ever-precious "Discovered Colony Ship"? Thanks for answering. 

quote:

ORIGINAL: Gertjan

Dammit, in my current game I just had one decomissioned.

• A fast & simple response to a pirate attack is to press Z, right click the pirate ship, press A. Repeat as many times as needed to overwhelm the attacker. Pressing the A turns automation back on for that ship, allowing it to resume automated operations after it flees from or destroys the pirate. You may find it helps to move the mouse a hair each time after you press Z.
  
  
• You can re-order the build-queue for a planet or station. Just select the planet/station, and double-click the info-panel in the lower left corner of the screen (This opens the detailed-info screen for that item. In the lower-left quadrant of the new window, select the Construction Yards tab, and you will find the queue there, with options to reorder or remove ships from the queue. Handy, if you need a particular ship in a hurry but there are a dozen merchantmen queued in front of it.
  
  
• Components for Ships/bases are usually constructed in the order that they appear in the design (exception: If shortages cause the build process to temporarily skip some things) If you put first the: Command Center, Habitation, Life Support, Reactor, and Solar panels (might need an extra item or two, those I'm positive on), you can follow them with shields and get something half-built to charge its shields, or (with a weapon in the right spot) shoot back at foes. Note that reactors are not powered up until the construction is complete, but the solar panels will still work to charge the Reactor's Energy Storage (don't expect to be rapid-firing your Death-Ray or other weapons until the reactors are turned on). This is great for designing space-ports that become quasi-operational before they are half built, or a defensive base bring up shields before the first of the weapons go into them...
  
  
• Damage will generally hit armor first. If class of ship has a habit of running into things that ignore shields, try tacking on 5 armor to the design. The ship will still get damaged, but odds now favor it getting away before something critical is damaged.
  
  
• Putting two damage repair systems on a ship doesn't make it repair faster, but if one repair system finds itself the victim of a stray bullet, the other repair system can fix it...assuming the ship isn't blown to pieces in the interim...
  
  
• A number of the 'Final Design' items in the tech tree are great in one respect (Best possible shield recharge, best possible fuel efficiency, best possible thrust, etc) but at the same time have caveats tied to them that may be cause to forgo the 'Upgrade Selected' option in upgrading ships... (Weak shield strength, low power output/storage, very energy hungry, etc). Just because it's the latest/greatest the game has to offer, doesn't make it the best possible choice for your ships.
  
  
• Sometimes you will discover bases in stormy areas. After you claim them, scrap them, or you will wind up losing merchant ships that foolishly try to visit it.
  
  
• 24 makes a good minimum mark for ship speed. That usualy gives you a cruise speed of 12. When out of fuel, you move at 1/3rd speed, and for some actions (such as docking at a port to fuel up) a ship will move at cruise speed (12 / 3 = 4). Ships any slower than 4 may have a very hard time catching up to bases on moons that are orbiting planets. Similar rules apply in a hyper-deny zone, ships will try to move out at cruise speed (which appears to suffer an added penalty), so you may find yourself watching an out-of-fuel construction ship limp out at a speed of 1.
  
  
• A very fast ship can actually move faster than torpedoes. All well and good, but if said ship is armed with torpedoes, and chasing someone (I suspect friendly fire does not apply even when torpedo fire collides with the firing ship...) said weapons have little purpose. A very slow ship can still mount torpedoes and fight fast ships -- 1) Some torpedoes are in range as early as the moment the ship first drops out of hyper, letting it fire immediately. 2) Until a ship decides to flee (generally when shields get knocked down to 20%), it will keep pace with slower ships in a fight (why else would stationary space-ports get kills?).
  
  
• Some torpedoes are not fire&forget weapons -- the next volley will not fire until the last has landed. This can be a serious 'Rate of Fire' concern for slow-moving, long range fire. Another problem with range is torpedoes loose effectiveness with range. To circumvent both problems to an extent, tack on a short range weapon, and include an 'All Weapons' order in the Design screen. The ship will then try to hold a range where all weapons can be used.
  
  
• If you give a design orders of 'Invade Immediately', ships of that design will not wait for the formalities of clearing space of defensive bases, ports, enemy-ships, etc. Instead, it will charge straight in to try and deploy its load of troops on the planet... If you succeed in grabbing the planet while it still has any orbiting structures, you get control of those too.
  
  
• If the enemy is about to claim a planet of yours with a port at it, you might consider scrapping the port to make retaking the planet easier, or to deny the enemy a base.
  
  
• Giving a base a mix of torpedoes and lasers will allow both weapons to fire on only those targets within their effective ranges. For torpedoes, that would be any ship trying to bombard the base. For lasers, that would generally be only those ships trying to drop troops on the planet, or foolish/unlucky enough to be close enough to make themselves an inviting target of concentrated fire. While picking off foolish ships isn't special, being able to design a base to focus fire on troop transports can have uses...
  
  
• If you take out the last planet of an empire, you gain control of all bases/ships that had belonged to that empire (retire-for-tech or keep and use.... decisions, decisions...)
  

• Speed -- To an extent this can be useful. If you can outrun your enemy, you can get away from his fire when it becomes a real threat to you. For the larger ships this may be difficult to use in plenty, but then those largest of ships should only have real fear of ports, and must be prepared to outrun stationary objects.
  
  
• Turn Rate -- The faster you can get your back-end pointed at your enemy, the faster you can get your speed working for you. Pack too little, and you may never outrun that port (sad, but true -- in the process of turning, a ship will move forward -- when fighting a port, that means moving towards the port. If the ship comes into range of the beam weapons, it will get singled out for heavy fire, and with already weak shields (which is why the ship is fleeing the fight), the outcome is seldom pleasant).
  
  
• Countermeasures -- These confuse attacking ships targeting systems, causing fire to miss. A must for any ship going into harms way.
  
  
• Strong shields -- Best at keeping damage from ever reaching a ship. There are two features of a shield:
  • Strength - How 'thick' it is -- how much damage it can absorb before failing.
    The thicker your shield, the longer you have to retreat after your shields fall to 20%
    
  • Recharge - How quickly it recovers from receiving damage.
    If your shield recharges faster than your opponent can damage it, you shields won't fail. This is a feature common to ships using multiple Megatron Z4 shields (Recharge 5x faster than the base Corvidian XH100). As with shield strength, this is additive when multiple shields are placed on a ship.
    
  
  
• Thick Armor -- Shields or no, some stuff will go direct to your ship so you need at least some armor. For ship designs using the 'Flee when shields at 20%', you need enough armor for your ship to get away intact. Damage that gets through shields will splash here first, and a port visit may be needed to fix damage done to armor.
  
  
• Redundant systems -- War ships have a funny habit of getting shot at, and that tends to break things in them. Be sure to include multiples of core components -- Hab Modules, Life Supports, Fuel cells, Engines, Reactors, even Hyperdrives. It would suck to lose a valuable ship just because it lacked for a spare.
  
  
• Damage Control/Repair systems -- A must for any ship that can be hurt. The repair system plugs the holes that enemy fire puts into your ships. In the event you can't include a repair system in your design, at least include a damage control system.
  
  
• Surplus power -- Power runs your guns. It also runs your engines. It sucks when a ship that is going to get away loses a reactor, and winds up without guns and moving at half-speed, on account of insufficient power to do anything more. Don't just pack multiple reactors, be sure one of them is a spare.
  

• Speed -- While disposable, these arn't throw-away. They should be able to outrun a Kraltor while initiating hyper (speed 40 should do).
  
  
• Turn Rate -- A must whenever speed is marginal -- a ship making a turn away from a threat will do so at half speed, so the faster you finish the turn the better.
  
  
• Armor -- Again, not a throw-away ship. Pack 5 armor for the odd encounter with an exploding ship or hungry Kraltor. (I find exploding ships generally damage 4 armor, and kraltor either stop at 3-4 armor, or the ship never gets away for other reasons (too slow, or a pack meal).
  
  
• Hyper Initiation -- Keeping with being a non-throw away ship, favor hyperdrives with shorter initiation times. A 15 second-to-hyper drive may leave you exposed to fire too long. The 4 and 5 second initiations tend towards ideal.
  
  
• Weapons - Keeping with Disposable, only the absolute minimum needed to do the job assigned. In the case of an explorer, no weapons -- he should never be in a fight long enough for a weapon to kill something, and weighing him down with them won't be any favor. In the case of an escort, pack as few as possible to meet your goals.
  
  
• Fuel Cells - Hand in hand with speed -- fewer = faster, but pack enough that your ship can still do its job.
  
  
• Minimum habitation units -- As your tech improves, you may be able to eliminate some hab or life support components. Do so, to cut build/upkeep costs on the design. Expect to be making plenty of these ships, so every penny counts.
  

quote:

ORIGINAL: Grotius
Great thread. Sean, you suggested putting armor and proximity sensors on private craft. I'm new to this game, so I want to make sure I understand how to do that. Presumably I make a new, say, freighter design in the ship designer, and obsolete the old one? Or is it possible to make and maintain multiple classes of (say) freighters? Maybe I don't need to?

I ask because I want to be able to make and maintain several classes of military ships. My understanding is that that is feasible, so long as I don't allow the AI to automatically upgrade ships.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Foraven

I would add to the tips that the upgrade function don't automatically add new devices like ECM to your designs, you have to put them manually (but they will be upgraded if they are there of course).

quote:

ORIGINAL: Grotius
One thing I've noticed is that the AI must've made something with long-range sensors before I switched to all-manual design and production of ships. I see lots of blue "fog blobs" on the map, but I only made 1 or 2 of the stations with long-range sensors. I'm still trying to track down exactly what ships/stations are using that component. Is there any way to search/sort for all my ships using a paritcular component in my galaxy?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Grotius
I've been having fun with ship design. One thing I like is that tech advance are slow, so once I make a new ship class, it stays in service a long time. Then again, it dawned on me that I may be playing on the "slow" mode -- I never speed the game up with the "fast forward" button. It keeps me busy enough as it is.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Grotius
Also, for my playstyle, I prefer to "copy as new" than to "upgrade," because I like to keep obsolete designs around just...because I'm indecisive, lol. I figure if I mess anything up, I can always go back to the earlier design. But also, I like having a long list of ships in the "build" screen, even though I recognize it adds clutter. It reminds me how far I've come, tech-wise. :)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Grotius
One thing I've noticed is that the AI must've made something with long-range sensors before I switched to all-manual design and production of ships. I see lots of blue "fog blobs" on the map, but I only made 1 or 2 of the stations with long-range sensors. I'm still trying to track down exactly what ships/stations are using that component. Is there any way to search/sort for all my ships using a paritcular component in my galaxy?

quote:

ORIGINAL: the1sean
Not sure how to do that. My suggestion would be to just zoom into the system at the center of the "radar blob", track down the most likely station(s), then double right click and click "components" in the view options...

• Exhaust color is not tied to fuel a ship uses.
  
  
• A lot of the core functions of an empire players like to leave on Auto-Suggest are affected by government choice --
  
  • Mercantile guilds and technocracies aim for single small fleets, not many ships total.
    
  • Military Dictatorships need you to TELL them when to build bases/ships -- if it starts suggesting you are well behind the curve, and the spy missions will tend to start wars (sabotage my friends ports? Uh...). They also suggest missioins like invading independent colonies (my first encounter with the suggestion). While it will never suggest building enough ships to do so, it will make multiple fleets.
    
  • Way of the Ancients does a good size navy, multiple fleets, but isn't too keen on commerce raiding.
    
  • Way of Darkness aims for a moderate size fleet/number of bases. Plenty of requests to 'Blow Stuff Up' with the world destroyer, and frequent requests to attack trade ships...
    
  
  
• The number of stars does not affect the galaxy size. They are all the same 'size', a ship in hyper still takes the same time to cross the galaxy. More stars simply packs them in tighter, making for faster action but a longer game.
  
  
• At low settings, pirates favor escorts, some frigates, several destroyers, and the odd cruiser. At high settings, pirate cruisers are not uncommon, and pirate FLEETS attacking locations is not unusual. (I'm starting to consider building a station in every system/nebula to suppress the pirates in regions I otherwise control).
  
  
• In the very early game, income is EVERYTHING. A well placed port near another empire could earn you 20+k/year, easily outstripping your 10k taxes/year. If you figure in modest expenses of say, 6k/year for a port and a small navy, that takes your income from 4k/year (almost enough for 1 colony ship a year) to 24+k. Trading territory maps will help get ships traveling between empires to kick off that initial revenue.
  
  Another thing to watch for in the early game is populated planets. A planet boasting over a billion taxpayers is hard to pass up.
  

quote:

ORIGINAL: torrenal
Another thing to watch for in the early game is populated planets. A planet boasting over a billion taxpayers is hard to pass up.