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[Dutchling]

another question: will my dwarves minions die if I use CO2 instead of 'safe greenhouse gas'?
Because there is no way I am going to use stuff like that.

[Bouchart]

Safe Greenhouse Gas works the same as carbon dioxide and the other non-toxic greenhouse gases.

[gimlet]

You .... *don't* want to use the safegreenhouse gas, you insist on using the unsafe alternative???   Ooooookay.

Fortunately for you Dr Mengele, I don't think in this case there's any difference....

[Trorbes]

I believe that functionally they're similar if not identical.  There's probably a bit about how much GH factor they introduce, but I have done just fine using CO2 in my terraforming.

[Dutchling]

I don't want to use a gas like 'safe greenhouse gas' for the same reason I don't play as a Bard in an RPG.
It just sounds stupid 

[Tarran]

I don't use "Safe Greenhouse Gas" either. Too... generic sounding, vague, and boring.

[Flying Dice]

Plus, when there is already another GHG, such as CO2, present in the atmosphere, it makes optimizing pressures a pain.

[forsaken1111]

Ok that is good to know. But there is no way to add the parts to ship already under construction I assume?

nope. It does one check when you start construction and takes anything relevant.

[Flying Dice]

Okay, I think I just found the Holy Grail, so to speak. My survey crews found a quaternary (?) system (4 stars) with, among other things, a massive 600+ asteroid field 75 billion kilometers in diameter, 3 other JPs, 6 habitable worlds:
-Cost 0.0, home to a partially intact colony with a little less than 300 TL3 installations, in the inner system near the point.
-Cost 2.38, home to a partially intact city which apparently has 707 () TL3 installations, from the same civ, in the same area.
-Also, a cost 1.9 moon in the outer system, as well as some marginally-habitable places which I won't be bothering with because it is one of those systems with the massive orbital radius for the secondaries. OTOH, almost done terraforming the CC2.38 world so all is well.

[Trorbes]

So, 15 years into this game, first actual combat I've fought in (ever), I decide to test my laser frigates (based off the tutorial one, but doubled the lasers and added speed and shielding) on a hostile NPR one jump away.  First contact I see, it's sending volleys of size 1 missiles, 56 missiles per volley, that are apparently so fast that they only last an interval in my sensors before hitting my ships and taking them down in two volleys, I don't even get the chance to target them before they impact.  I've got missile frigates in the build queue and upgraded my Resolution 0 sensors for both, but it feels kind of pathetic in the face of this enemy.  Any suggestions?

[MarcAFK]

I must say i seem to be having a faster start with my conventional empire, converting industry to mines/factories goes damn fast when you make nothing but factories for the first few years, Into my 5th year i have 500 mines/factories, 15 research labs, just finished a commercial shipyard to go with my 5k ton single slip military yard, my 43km/s conventional geo probe is just finishing mapping the last gas giants (sure it took 3 months to get to jupiter, but it'd doing it's job admirably) And just finishing research on jump points, as well have finished research on most initial military prerequisites.
I'm not exactly as strong as i would be with a Trans newtonian start, but this pace feels more realistic, also it'll feel more realistic to build up a low tech military for my first explorations/contacts to get smashed and replaced as needed.
Once again theres not much resources out there, but i still have enough on earth to get stuff going fast,  within the next 5 years i expect to have started colonising another system.

[MarcAFK]

So, 15 years into this game, first actual combat I've fought in (ever), I decide to test my laser frigates (based off the tutorial one, but doubled the lasers and added speed and shielding) on a hostile NPR one jump away.  First contact I see, it's sending volleys of size 1 missiles, 56 missiles per volley, that are apparently so fast that they only last an interval in my sensors before hitting my ships and taking them down in two volleys, I don't even get the chance to target them before they impact.  I've got missile frigates in the build queue and upgraded my Resolution 0 sensors for both, but it feels kind of pathetic in the face of this enemy.  Any suggestions?

From what i've been seeing NPR's often dont have active sensors, you might want to make some decoy ships, small cheap fast moving ships (they only need to be slightly faster than the rest of your fleet to overtake them and take point position) that aren't much more than balls of  armour, the idea is to send them in first, one at a time even to absorb the initial volleys of missiles, after that you might want to send your long range missile ships into range, keeping whatever PD ships you have nearby, then close with your laser ships. If your laser ships are fast moving, well armoured, well equipped with ECM and PD then you should be able to just send them screaming toward the enemy at top speed untill they get into range.
If you're not sure the technical capabilities of the enemy you might want to send a small disposable expeditionary force, include all the ships you want to test, one meatshield (ball of armour decoy) to send in first to see if they take the bait, to check how many volleys it can absorb, and to see if the enemy missiles have active sensors, send one missile ship equipped with whatever missiles your fleet has the most of and with whatever point defence you currently are using, the point of this is to see what percentage of birds you can knock out of the air, and if any of yours manage to make it to the enemy (i expect this ship to get destroyed during the test so it's a good idea to slap active sensors onto these missiles so they hit something anyway) and lastly one energy ship of the same type your fleet is mostly made of, but by all means increase speed and ecm on it to inprove it's endurance, send it straight towards the enemy and see how many hits in can take, and what percentage of missiles it manages to dodge with it's ecm.  Also keep something with good sensors and speed in the system outside enemy range to watch the results.
Post whatever happens back here, I'm still learning combat myself
Oh and as you mentioned you couldn't even see his missiles before they hit, they must have good ecm so you need to increase your sensor sensitivity and range, at the very least do it on your point defence and or missile ships, do this before your test and see if it makes a difference.

[Osmosis Jones]

Also put an active sensor on the armour ball. It draws the NPCs in like flies to honey, and might even give you some useful info.

[Trorbes]

I doubt the missiles had ECM, they appeared at the logical range of my missile sensors, but even with a larger active sensor that detects them at 100k km they'd appear at the edge one turn and hit by the next interval - they travel at 16,000 km at least. I tested an even larger sensor after that (I savescummed the first two battles) but then I managed to get in range before they fired only a couple salvos, close enough to hit me in two intervals anyway, then tore me apart with beam weapons. These were only two ships, by the way; an 8k beam ship (I presume) and a 23k missile ship, with a TG speed of 4,700. They've just got a lot of firepower.

I'd rather not send decoys, that just seems gameist, but I probably should divide my missile ships into long-range and point-defense. And add more armor.

[RedKing]

I doubt the missiles had ECM, they appeared at the logical range of my missile sensors, but even with a larger active sensor that detects them at 100k km they'd appear at the edge one turn and hit by the next interval - they travel at 16,000 km at least. I tested an even larger sensor after that (I savescummed the first two battles) but then I managed to get in range before they fired only a couple salvos, close enough to hit me in two intervals anyway, then tore me apart with beam weapons. These were only two ships, by the way; an 8k beam ship (I presume) and a 23k missile ship, with a TG speed of 4,700. They've just got a lot of firepower.

I'd rather not send decoys, that just seems gameist, but I probably should divide my missile ships into long-range and point-defense. And add more armor.

ECM doesn't affect detection range, only targeting range. Cloaking affects active detection range (but only on ships, can't do cloaked missiles AFAIK).

Most NPRs seem to build a variety of missiles, one common one being the Size 1, fast kind with a small warhead. These are actually anti-missile missiles, but when the enemy fires 4 metric butt-tons of them per volley, they'll eventually chew through your armor. And the volley sizes are usually large enough that you'd have to spam CIWS all over your hull to have much effect. Best early defense against this kind of "sandblasting" attack is armor, armor and more armor. Or (if you're far enough along in tech), use of prodigious amounts of fighters. If you can build a fighter faster than the missiles, you can zoom them in to attract fire, then zoom away dragging volley after volley away from the main fleet and eventually depleting their ammo. Or even if you don't outrun the missiles, they have a tendency to fling Robotech-sized volleys at a single fighter. Because these kind almost never have built-in sensors, they can't acquire a new target once the original is gone and then self-destruct.

IMHO, beam weapons (and railguns) are utterly useless as offensive weapons in the early game, because of the huge range disparity between missiles and other weapons, and the fact that your engines are incapable of closing the gap quickly enough to bring them to bear. And, it takes a while before your beam fire controls are capable of anything but essentially point-blank range.