Colony ship production / escort?

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Colony ship production / escort? - 11/2/2011 2:50:39 AM

kfoelsch

Posts: 17
Joined: 11/2/2011
Status: offline

Hi. I've noticed that colony ship production seems to be sporadic. They don't seem to show up in the build queue in the way that other ships do, and freighters and other ships always seem to get built first. Even when I'm not building anything else, it seems that colony ship production is sporadic for these reasons.

Next, is there a way to escort colony ships? Pirates and other nastys seem to get the best of them even if there are ships in the same system.

Post #: 1

RE: Colony ship production / escort? - 11/2/2011 3:02:11 AM

philofdoom

Posts: 5
Joined: 5/5/2010
Status: offline

Colony ships are built from planets that are over a certain population which is 500mil i think or maybe less. Construction ships and those gas harvesting supply ships are built at planets as well but not sure if they have pop requirements. All the other ships are build by stations which is why they normally get built 1st.

Colony ships also take an age to build.

(in reply to kfoelsch)

Post #: 2

RE: Colony ship production / escort? - 11/2/2011 3:24:58 AM

ehsumrell1

Posts: 2529
Joined: 8/17/2010
From: The Briar Patch Nebula
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: kfoelsch

Next, is there a way to escort colony ships? Pirates and other nastys seem to get the best of them even if there are ships in the same system.

Hello Kfoelsch and welcome to the forum.
Yes you can escort colony ships. Just select the military ship you wish to use as the escort first. Then
right click on the colony ship. A selection box should come up and you can select the command "Escort
[Colony ship name]". That's it!

_____________________________

Shields are useless in "The Briar Patch"...

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Post #: 3

RE: Colony ship production / escort? - 11/2/2011 4:35:04 AM

Erik Rutins

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: offline

It's also worth noting that if you have enough escorts and frigates that they are not all busy, colony ships will automatically get one or more escorts. In ideal circumstances, one escort or frigate will wait at the planet to be colonized, while another escorts or follows the colony ship. If you don't have enough escorts or frigates, you'll have to prioritize this yourself by assigning military ships to protect your colony ship(s) manually.

Regards,

- Erik

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RE: Colony ship production / escort? - 11/2/2011 3:35:49 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
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Never trust the AI to do useful work

I send a small fleet to colony targets and hang around before and after colony ship arrival. Maybe I should experiment with more AI controlled ships one day in early game, to see what actually goes on.

(in reply to Erik Rutins)

Post #: 5

RE: Colony ship production / escort? - 11/3/2011 10:47:13 AM

Gelatinous Cube

Posts: 696
Joined: 10/26/2011
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As someone who likes to leave everything but the main combat fleets on auto, I've always been pretty impressed at how well the AI uses all my spare frigates/escorts.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 6

RE: Colony ship production / escort? - 11/3/2011 5:24:18 PM

feelotraveller

Posts: 1040
Joined: 9/12/2011
Status: offline

I've stopped escorting colony ships since the escorts follow the colony ship (yeah, nice of you guys to arrive now that we have been blown up!!!). Instead I try to have a military presence at their destination and/or give the 'escorts' orders to go to the same planet from the same system slightly before my colony ship departs. So far this has meant my military ships engaging before the colony ship has come under fire. (I need to be careful because I skimp on shields and armour for my colonisers.)

(in reply to Gelatinous Cube)

Post #: 7

RE: Colony ship production / escort? - 11/3/2011 9:03:19 PM

cookie monster

Posts: 1693
Joined: 5/22/2005
From: Birmingham,England
Status: offline

Heavily Shield and fuel the Colony Ship and de-select evade threats in the design screen.

Colony ships carry millions in population and a colony is usually worth alot.

So it's probably best just to micro the Colony Ship design and fuelling and then send them to colonise.

(in reply to feelotraveller)

Post #: 8

RE: Colony ship production / escort? - 11/3/2011 9:08:51 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

Sounds very familiar, feelo. Giving escort orders manually hardly works, they arrive after the colonizer. I generally run on auto designs, and the colonizers are usually not well protected at all.

To me it seems like:

Small fleets are handy. They can clear pirates and cause base damage in war.
Single/dual ships of some power from a proper large fleet can pretend to be a small fleet when needed.
Freighters deserve no escorts (an escort here is an AI ship of any class).
Colony ships need an escort, and a small fleet will do.
Mining bases can be protected by small fleets if you have small/large fleets spread around your empire.
Some mining bases built by AI are far away. Let them die unless very special. If it is very special, build a defensive base or two. Just keep the mining base outside the aoe radius.
Construction ships do just fine without escorts (in standard design)
If you feel you frequently lack a small fleet nearby, buy some more.

You may notice I am not a big fan of automated ships. A small fleet in my head is 4-6 destroyers, and in busy pirate times, they can do two things at once (split to hunt different pirates).

(in reply to feelotraveller)

Post #: 9

RE: Colony ship production / escort? - 11/3/2011 10:00:46 PM

Gelatinous Cube

Posts: 696
Joined: 10/26/2011
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I've been fiddling a lot with the best way to Automate ships. I like to be as hands on as possible, but I'm just no good at Micro--I'll get swamped and forget stuff and do a much worse job than the AI if I try to do everything by myself. Normally I leave Ship Design, Agent Recruiting, Troop Recruiting (even though I still have to do most of this myself) on Auto, and everything else either on suggestions or manual.

But lately i've found I have a much better time if I leave the fleet formation and indeed most of the military on Auto. It does a great job forming a good mix of big and small fleets, and uses the small fleets well. Not so much the big ones. When your whole military is on Auto, you can still take command of individually fleets by deselecting their Auto button, and they'll stay that way until you click it again. So I just take command of enough big fleets to feel like I can respond in a timely fashion to big threats, and leave the rest on Auto. My biggest fear was that the AI wouldn't properly use all the little fleets during a war, but that turned out to not be the case--it used them quite well. And with the important fleets under my personal command, the rest is cake if you have the numbers.

Most of you are probably so good at this that you don't need the Automation, but for those slower folks like myself, this game is great once you learn how to fine-tune the Automation settings.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 10

RE: Colony ship production / escort? - 11/3/2011 10:28:12 PM

Bingeling

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Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

I use automation quite a lot. Even when not doing silly AARs with diplomacy on auto.

Ship Design, troops, taxes, construction ships, explorers, the odd military single ship either very early or when I get too rich for my own good. Those are easily put on auto.

Manual taxes is not a lot of work, but you need to pay attention with alien populations and war, and when conquering alien colonies in particular. When starting war, your big, nice cash cow of an alien colony can rebel forcefully in a moment if you don't pay attention. Basically tax big, colonies with good revenue until the smiley turns grey, and leave the rest at 0. This improves the empire quite a lot, and that is not always wanted in my games. Better population growth, basically the same taxes as the AI.

For troop recruitment it can be nice to hire a few extra manually when you need some more. And leave the main work to the AI.

I like to keep agents on suggest, or I forget to send them. I don't usually do what is suggested, though. I hire manually.

I hope that new Legends options in game setup will make it more interesting to optimize some things further. And I love that the game gives so many different ways to automate. I just wish running some parts (Looking at you - ship design) was easier to run on manual.

(in reply to Gelatinous Cube)

Post #: 11

RE: Colony ship production / escort? - 11/4/2011 12:51:58 PM

Kadrush

Posts: 82
Joined: 11/11/2010
Status: offline

Why bother escorting colony ships? I simply make my own with a few shields and slaps of armor. When they got to the planet, if I got a message telling they are under attack I go there, see which pirate faction is attacking and pay the protection fee, always work. That strategy only does not work with space creatures.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 12