Ardilus -> RE: Hyperspace Range (1/23/2014 3:37:14 AM)
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A couple of thoughts on this for the OP.. Having started playing at RotS, the capability jump with Gerax really feels like the game 'begins'. I like to start at pre-warp mostly because I like having 100% control over beginning designs, early station placement, etc, but usually burn through at 4x game speed until arriving at the appropriately-research-intensive Gerax. That said, even with excellent drives, it will take considerable time to explore each system in a 1500 star galaxy. Generally you would need to purchase galaxy maps from other empires to finish out 100% exploration by late / end game anyhow. Another consideration is that you don't want to overbuild anything. Long fuel station chains could easily dampen your private economy and cost you heavily, especially in the early game. Also consider that it is usually better to keep most ship maintenance cheaper, and that includes minimizing fuel cells on most designs. Size caps also force consideration that the extra tonnage be used for weapons and defenses on military ships, and instead lean towards research for range extension, such as hydrogen-based drives. Especially when playing 'very hard', economic efficiency is absolutely vital in the early game, and I will often only provide one reactor on most ships - not enough to cover the entire power requirement for a full-speed jump. In many situations, this means that a basic Gerax max speed can sometimes be as low as 6000 or so, or in other words a much less significant range increase from warp-bubble.
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