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[RedKing]

I think starting this campaign with 2 active NPRs was a mistake. I haven't even launched a ship yet (conventional start), and I've already slowed to a crawl with 1 day interrupts for "Potential Fleet Interception". Trying to burn through it with autoturns, but it's a bit frustrating.

Do the rest of you usually start with active NPRs?

I usually start with one. One of my preferred modes is to play an SM race from a moderately distant star system, and then SM in Sol and humans as the NPR.

[EuchreJack]

I think starting this campaign with 2 active NPRs was a mistake. I haven't even launched a ship yet (conventional start), and I've already slowed to a crawl with 1 day interrupts for "Potential Fleet Interception". Trying to burn through it with autoturns, but it's a bit frustrating.

Do the rest of you usually start with active NPRs?

I usually start with one. One of my preferred modes is to play an SM race from a moderately distant star system, and then SM in Sol and humans as the NPR.

I like to do that, but I've never played long enough to meet the Earthlings.

[RedKing]

I think starting this campaign with 2 active NPRs was a mistake. I haven't even launched a ship yet (conventional start), and I've already slowed to a crawl with 1 day interrupts for "Potential Fleet Interception". Trying to burn through it with autoturns, but it's a bit frustrating.

Do the rest of you usually start with active NPRs?

I usually start with one. One of my preferred modes is to play an SM race from a moderately distant star system, and then SM in Sol and humans as the NPR.

I like to do that, but I've never played long enough to meet the Earthlings.

Me neither. Seems like I keep heading further away from Earth with every jump. Plus, last time I used dev mode to peek in on my little hairless apes, and they hadn't gotten very far. Kept sending gate constructors into a hostile system just one or two jumps outside of Sol and getting blow'd up. Think they eventually mineral crashed from the expense of wasting 20+ gate constructors. 

[toomanysecrets]

Does a ship with combat drop modules need any cargo handling systems? Or just the transport ship?

[Metalax]

Just the transport ship needs the troop handling. Just remember that the troops start suffering if you leave them in drop modules for too long and ,as far as I have ever been able to determine, once they are loaded into drop modules the only way to get them out is to have them drop somewhere, you can't just transfer them back.

[toomanysecrets]

OK, thanks Metalax.  Now I'm wondering about armor. Should I make them super-fast or give them a little protection?

I'm playing around with the design and I can get a 1,000 ton ship with no extra armor up to about 19,000km/s.  Or I can do a 1,200 ton ship with 5 armor that does about 15,750km/s.

[Flying Dice]

Unless you're also give them point defense, speed is more important than armor. If a ship with no PD starts taking shots, it's probably going to die regardless of how much armor it has (unless it's an immobile blob of armor).

[Toady One]

(removed a brewing argument, please be more careful before posting)

[Azated]

I'm trying to decide if using reduced size launchers have any merit. The reload time is ridiculous, but if you're lobbing hundreds of missiles on the first volley at an enemy ship, the reload time probably doesn't matter all that much.

Another downside is the fact the missiles get expensive when the supply of your average cruiser numbers in the thousands.

[Tarran]

Reduced size also means they can fit better on smaller ships (e.g fighters, gunboats, and a few thousand ton ships)/ships with specific sizes in mind (e.g when you've already designed the Jump Engine) without having to make as many sacrifices in other departments.

[Karlito]

It's better to have a few salvos with many missiles each than many salvos with a few missiles each for overwhelming enemy PD, so yes, definitely make use of reduced size launchers on your missile ships.

Missiles are expensive regardless of your launcher size, so I'm not sure why that would be a factor.

[Flying Dice]

I rarely use normal launchers. Aurora missile battles are all about weight of fire, rather than rate of fire. If you hit a ship with a single volley of 40 missiles, you're going to get a lot more through their PD than if you launched four separate salvos of 10 missiles.

[Azated]

I rarely use normal launchers. Aurora missile battles are all about weight of fire, rather than rate of fire. If you hit a ship with a single volley of 40 missiles, you're going to get a lot more through their PD than if you launched four separate salvos of 10 missiles.

Then you're faced with the problem of more than 1 ship/stronger ships than you thought.

I just designed a first strike ship carrying 24 regular size launchers and 24 0.25 launchers. 48 missiles during the first salvo with continued fire capability if the enemy survives.

[Lightningfalcon]

What I do is have several reduced size launchers designed for crippling fist strikes, and then I either close in with beam weaponry, or I use normal lauchers. 

[FritzPL]

Tugs. How do? Do I, as stated somewhere behind in the thread, strap a lot of fuel and engines on that bastard and nothing else or what?