Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Flying Dice]

With the survey ships, I honestly don't bother making the geosurvey ships commercial. Much easier to just pump out designs that are identical except for the sensor type. There's also the thing about how my survey ships tend to last through an average of 4-5 system explorations before they fill their secondary role as early-warning tripwires. They're usually cheap enough that it is just as cost-effective to churn out another run of them as it is to bring old ones back into the core systems and refit them up several generations.


Of course, if you don't play with maintenance on, you've got even less reason to care. If I'm going to be perfectly candid, I usually don't, as I like to draw a line between the type of micromanagement that is interesting/challenging/useful, and the kind that is boring/repetitive/pointless. I tend to build the infrastructure I would need anyways, for the sake of realism (hah).

[EuchreJack]

Hey, the only times I build geosurvey ships as military craft is when I don't have any civilian engine researched.  The way I see it, my civilian yards usually don't have enough to build, so I like having my civilian yards build geo ships while my military yards build grav ships.

Although, sometimes I build geo ships as military only because I have a military yard free but my civilian yard(s) is building something useful.

It all depends on your priorities.  But yeah, I think it wise when explaining the game to mention, "Oh, and you can chose whether to make your geo ships military or civilian.", so the player knows they have this option, and can make an intelligent choice.  I made the same complaint about the "geo is military" stance a while ago.

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, the important thing is to know that you have options. We're all going to have different preferences; what really matters is that we have enough choices to be able to come up with multiple valid design philosophies.

[PTTG??]

It does kind of fit that prospectors might concivibly operate from civilian ships totally independently.

[Felius]

My SOP is generally to make a very cheap, small, jump capable (self-jump civilian designs can be incredibly cheap, specially when you can use a size 1 or 2 jump module) dedicated geo surveyor with a good fuel endurance, set them on automated surveying the nearest body and let them loose on any system I haven't surveyed yet. Grav surveyors have a similar policy, except they also have to have a number of engineering sections and a decent cache of supplies. On the other hand, grav surveying is quick enough that I can have each grav surveyor scan at least about a dozen systems at each resupplying.

[Flying Dice]

What I'm really looking forward to with the new missile design in the upcoming version is making a slow-burn sensor 2-stage, so I can have a ship jump into a system, fire off the transport missiles at the major bodies (dropping off geosurvey buoys and sensor buoys), then hop back through the JP until you're sure the system is empty. Give the thing gravsurvey sensors and you've got a viable dual-role survey vessel without the inefficiency of ships with both grav and geosurvey modules.

[MehMuffin]

If the build times aren't an issue, is there any real reason not to build FACs instead of fighters? I can fit more weapons on a FAC of the same tonnage as multiple fighters, and the FAC engines are more efficient and don't have much of a speed disadvantage.

[Felius]

If the build times aren't an issue, is there any real reason not to build FACs instead of fighters? I can fit more weapons on a FAC of the same tonnage as multiple fighters, and the FAC engines are more efficient and don't have much of a speed disadvantage.

Mostly it's a construction issue. You can build fighters on fighter factories, but FACs need an actual shipyard.

Is there already an ETA for the next version release? I've been thinking of starting a new game but I don't want to do it if next version is out to come next week.

[Flying Dice]

"Soon."

According to a post Steve made on June 17th, in response to someone asking if it would be worthwhile to start a new 5.60 campaign:

A way off yet. I have quite a few changes left to code and a lot of testing.

[MehMuffin]

If the build times aren't an issue, is there any real reason not to build FACs instead of fighters? I can fit more weapons on a FAC of the same tonnage as multiple fighters, and the FAC engines are more efficient and don't have much of a speed disadvantage.

Mostly it's a construction issue. You can build fighters on fighter factories, but FACs need an actual shipyard.

Yes, I have a couple 1000 ton shipyards with a ton of slipways for them. My question was more if there was any combat advantage of fighters over FACs beside the fact that you can have more fighters and that they don't require Shipyards to build.

[MehMuffin]

If the build times aren't an issue, is there any real reason not to build FACs instead of fighters? I can fit more weapons on a FAC of the same tonnage as multiple fighters, and the FAC engines are more efficient and don't have much of a speed disadvantage.

Mostly it's a construction issue. You can build fighters on fighter factories, but FACs need an actual shipyard.

Is there already an ETA for the next version release? I've been thinking of starting a new game but I don't want to do it if next version is out to come next week.

[Karlito]

Fighters are smaller and faster. They'll be harder for enemies to detect, and might even be able to approach completely unseen on an attack run. Also, the squadron mechanics make managing large groups of fighters a bit easier than large groups of FAC.

[Bremen]

For beam fighters, they also get a bonus to targeting (Fighter fire controls get a 4x tracking speed bonus). They also have to devote less tonnage to engines (a fighter engine is 50 tons, a FAC engine is 250 tons).

[Flying Dice]

I've never had more fun with combat in Aurora than with a carrier group supported by a pair of scouts. I had one engagement in my last campaign where I sent one heavily stealthed sensor frigate in-system to find the NPR forces, sent in a light cruiser subtype fitted with a truly fucking massive AS (had something like a coverage radius near 1.5-2b km at medium tech, IIRC), then launched my squadrons of long-range interceptors and picked off something like 40 ships in an extended stern chase around the system. My carriers' magazines eventually ran dry, so I withdrew them and polished off the remainder with a frigate battlegroup. Quite satisfying, and a good way to break up the monotony of missile engagements.


Incidentally, you don't need to worry about AI-controlled fighters; as of 5.60, NPRs (and the other special interstellar friends) don't build them. I think I've seen someone here mention concerns about that at some point.

But yes, the three main advantages of fighters over FACs are:
1. Built at fighter factories rather than shipyards.
2. Much harder to detect.
3. Easier to manage.

[Tibbz2]

I'm working my way through tutorials, and I understand screens and how to do stuff, I just have no idea what to do overall...

Like when I start up a game, what do I do? How should I do it? When where argh I have no idea what im going to do :p