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Emperor0Akim -> My Shipdesigns and maybe yours (5/2/2016 1:24:52 AM)
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Hidiho,
I read a lot of ship Design Threads and found most of them either end in arguing over some playstyle or a min-maxing guide for warships.
and just wanted to share some designs I came up with in my games. And only some of them are warships :)
Oh and Kudos to the Developers for all the Sci-Fi References in the System Names, its really fun to figure them out.
So I will part this post into three categories.
Part One will be my Designs so far, Part Two are Ideas I have not tested/used yet and Part Three are questions I have not found answers too yet.
For starters I play Universe Vanilla, Max Size ( 15x15, 1400 Systems ) in unregular Clusters, Expensive Research, and all Races Included on Very Hard.
My Race are the Humans with a Modded Government ( Imperium of Man ),which is nothing more than a Military Dictatorship with 0.1% of changing the Leader.
Part One
My Ships.
I don't think automated military ships and I will ever become friends. Defense Fleets work okay for Systems but everything else did not do what I wanted,
when I wanted it.
State Ships
The Explorer/ AWACS Ship - Unarmed, Fast Scout, I guess everybody uses, with every Scanner I have, including Long Range.
The Longe Range Scanner has the advantage of not only highlighting what all the ships around you are doing but also let you see and grab
all those nice little Debris Fields and lost Ships lying around. And you can park or refuel them everywhere because nobody cares.
Should Later have enough fuel for 15-30 Sectors ( 15x15 universe )
FUN FACT : Tractor Beams and Point Defense seem to not count as Weapons for other Races. So I put a Tractor Beam and a Handfull of PDs into every Ship just to avoid capture
and add into the chances of fleeing. ( Since Tractors can also push enemys away )
FUN FACT II : If you experience that your Scouts are ignoring the ancient ruins, my solution is to keep the range of the resource scanner low. This forces the scouts to fly near enough
to the planet to explore ruins/ships. They take a while longer to explore a system fully, but keeps me from asking questions like : "If you explored this sector completely, why are there 5 ruins with unknown
contents ?!? "
The Buildship : I guess like everybody else, 1 Yard, 1 of each plants, enough cargo space to build the biggest base in stock ( I have yet to find out how much that is, but I go with more is better )
.. also a ressource scanner just in case the explorer ignored one planet.
The Pillager : Frigate Sized Build Ship, For About 300 Size I get a Cheap, Spaceport constructable ship I can massproduce to clear out debris fields and quickly send to repair stranded capital ships.
Later gets enough weapons to deal with the occasional Space Slug or Kaltor. Btw. I can confirm if set to All Weapons/Don't Flee they will Fire while repairing. Sadly the surprised
pirates that jumped into my occupied debris field never came out.
Fleet Tender : Same as above but with Docking Bays and Gas Extractors. Not happy with those at the moment.
Resupply Ships : I will give those a try again, since my Fleet Tenders won't stay still when a horde of thirsty warships arrive. And I hope a deploid resupply ship will do that.
Early Colonizer : Small Troop Transporter that brings the Glory of the Emperor to those unenlightened free colonies.
Colony Ship : As cheap as possible, while still able to move. Since no Cargo Bay, Passenger Compartment or more Colonizer Modules enhance the abilities of this ship.
State Miners : I read about them and will try them out especially with frontier planets and new colonies.
Colony Escort : A Idea I got just now, Basically a System Defense Ship, with Mining equipment and Troop Compartment. It gets built for every Colony Ship that goes out of the home cluster
and transports a handfull of homeworld-trained troops/clone troopers to the new colony, starts mining the system and can at least scare away minor pirate attacks.
System Defense Ships - Slower but more Durable than the aggressive counterpart, with fast jump hyperdrives to get faster to intruders and hold the line until the sector fleet arrives.
And with enough energy collectors to supply the wait, so the tank is full when its needed.
Combat Ships - I like to try out new things, and most of the time my fleet consists of cobbled together ideas and what I found lying around. But I am always happy when my tech-level gets high
enough to remove the slow-ass hyperdrives from those capital slugs. But I prefer close combat brawlers with torpedoes as first greeting. I would prefer to actually use a staggered
fleet layout with different experts and weapons, but sadlly the ships don't do that for me. Sometimes the Torpedoships start only shooting when on top of the enemy, the Carrier releases
some fighters, turns around and runs without getting hit. So I stagger my ships weaponry. Some Torpedos, Some Long Range Lasers, Lots of Blasters, all weapons get stronger the closer I am
so .. yeah. And two ion cannons and tractor beams just to annoy the others. The same goes for assault pods.
Now I start dreaming again of Fleets Consisting of Different Groups with actual Fleet Formations .. 1st Imperial Warfleet - 1st Group 3 Capital Ships, 3 Missile Cruiser, 5 Picket Frigates with PDs, 2 Carriers.
2nd. Group - 4 Troop Carriers, 4 Marine Ships 3rd Group - Fleet Tenders with Fuel and Repair.
-- Edit --
Well my beautiful ascii art don't seem to work ..
-- Edit--
Okay .. thats how I attack anyway, the main Fleet Jumps Into the System and Kills Everything in the Sky. The Second Group comes a bit later and takes over planets and leftover ships and
mines. Then the Fleet Tenders Jump in from outside the System and Refuel Everybody.
This is the one change that would be really great. The Tenders Dock on the Capital Ships and feed them, the Whale does not hunt the shrimp, it just opens its mouth.
Private Ships
I do NOT put Weapons on private Ships, since you can only put one in which in return will annoy most of my trade partners and lead into shot down ships.
( in hindsight it was hilarous to watch the lemming-herd of traders rush to the ancient guardians and getting mowed down one by one )
This said, I reference to the Fun Fact with PDs and Tractors. Those go on every Ship of mine.
Also the best Hyper- and Sublight Drives available and enough Vector Engines to keep the Turnrate between 20-25.
Because all those little Buggers are the liveblood of my Empire and I want them to move my stuff around. And after a year of flying taking 5 month to dock is not an option.
Gas Extractors/ Mining Ships - Optimized after the Ressource Mining Thread to have enough Extractors/Miners to Mine at optimal Rate and a Small Cargo Bay for quick Returns.
Also no Luxury Extractors since their job is basic supply.
Freighters - at the moment I am using the 5,10,15 Cargo Bay Design, but I am thinking of switching to just three equal design on the different types. And using those different types
to manage a staggered retrofit. Because retrofitting all your Private Sector ships at once will grind bigger empires to a halt for at least 1-2 years.
Passenger Ships - or Money Trucks , those fill up my new colonies and resort bases. More Armor and Shields than Freighters and as much Passenger Compartments as the Build Size allows.
Bases
I put Commerce Centers on every each and one of them. I think of them as the Customs-Department of my Empire.
And Private Ships will fly to every godless back end of the universe just to refuel the hellhole ... so the least they can do is pay their tarrifs to me.
After long trials with different Designs, Sizes and Layouts I finally fell into line and use the small, medium and large concept for the spaceports.
( also the retrofitting is easier to manage )
New Colony Spaceport : Small Spaceport, some Dockingbays, 1 Yard and 1 of each Plants, Medbay, Entertainment .. to be in the sky as soon as the coloninzer lands.
I think I will change this into a yet cheaper defense base, and make better use of the ground defenses ( Mortalen or Boskaren Clone-Troopers get really cheap later in the game )
System Capital Spaceport : Medium Spaceport : . One per System as Central Trade Hub. Some Shipyards, Armed and Armored to the teeth, not as big as the next one but scary enough.
Capital Spaceport : Large Spaceport - Hangs above my Homeworld, every regional capital ( Center of the Cluster ) and every Wonder I built ( Since I read, that those count as Tourism Target I started to spread those
across my empire against piling them on the homeworld )
Defense Base - as said above, found no real use else for them .. maybe I my enemies where not strong enough yet :)
Homeworld Research Hub : Like the Capital Spaceport, Armed with everything and the kitchen-sink. This is the most important installation of my Empire. Retrofitted once in a while to add new Weapons
and some Research Labs, to keep the potential above the output.
General Research Station : Three Equally Designed Stations with all Research Modules on Board to keep my Research output roughly equal. Big enough to safely put researchers on. ( Basesize counts into the sabotage difficulty )
Built to occupy Bonus Locations with more than 25%. With Expensive Research, I ignore the research path completely, so there are no wonders to think about.
I try to colonize the the ruins with the same effects. And a good part of my research is done by the pillager ships and my spies.
Cheap Gas Extractor/ Miner : Optimized like the ships, I would have liked to build in different sizes with more variety but, then I could not use auto-retrofit. Which becomes to much micromanagement very soon.
Refuel Outpost : The Exception to the rule - Large Gas Extractor with all the Bells & Whistles and Long Range Sensors .. on every Fuel Planet and Nebula. Less Pirate Outposts, More Gas-Stations for me.
Resort Base : or Money Printing Press, Well Defended and long range scanners with as much Passenger Compartments as size allows. Each Compartment equals money. I am thinking if I should really arm them at
all since they never/seldom get attacked, and if size is the most important factor for sabotage .. it may be cheaper to just use a bit of defense and lots and lots of compartments.
I put those everywhere. If there is a big enough population nearby they will make money. The best part, the empire does not matter, build them on scenic locations just outside your friends borders
or if you are fast enough inside the borders before they expand .. their touristst, their private sector .. your station, your money
Bait Base - Since I saw that Video with the Pirate Fleet banging on that base without getting a dent in the armor, I thought .. if the base got enough energy collectors to fill the energy bar a bit,
it could also shoot back .. will try.
I seem to fall short on part three ..
the only question I have is .. WHY and WTF ?!? .. whenever I automate single warships ..
I read that a flexible destroyer defense is a thing, since destroyers position themselves at planets .. my destroyers try to escorts small freighters 5 sectors away ..
or patrol mines ..
I know, its a old game, but I only found it a few weeks ago .. so .. please comment and maybe share some things out of your toolbox.
What are your usefull designs.
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