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[coleslaw35]

With that size and action, it may be a gate constructor.

Interesting.

Anyways, I managed to establish communications with the alien race! I wonder who/what Zuckerman is.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[coleslaw35]

So what does it take to do more than just find out the alien's name? Is there a way to, like, improve relations further? I've already established full communications.

[acidia]

What is the most effective way to build up protection level for a conquered planet.  My entire battle + invasion fleet isn't enough to meet the protection level now that the planet has moved to a candidate population.  I'm turning on the "prevent increases in political status" but it is a bit too late it seems.  Is protection level tonnage based, weapon size based?  My starting missile bases offer way more protection than my fleet but couldn't do anything to a real enemy fleet.

Edit:  If you leave the team working, your relations continue to improve faster than just leaving them alone.  My relations have always naturally increased very slowly once they are positive.  Not sure exactly how agreeing to things like free trade increase it but I do seem to build relationship faster once they are enacted.

[Metalax]

What is the most effective way to build up protection level for a conquered planet.  My entire battle + invasion fleet isn't enough to meet the protection level now that the planet has moved to a candidate population.  I'm turning on the "prevent increases in political status" but it is a bit too late it seems.  Is protection level tonnage based, weapon size based?  My starting missile bases offer way more protection than my fleet but couldn't do anything to a real enemy fleet.

The protection level from each ship is equal to the total hullspaces of weaponry, the actual total tonnage of the ship doesn't matter. Two size 3 weapons have the same protection value as a single size 6, and so on. Note that reduced size launchers/box launchers use there actual size for calculating protection value. The quality of the weaponry doesn't matter, only the total size.

Churning out some PDC's with a bunch of launchers tends to be the fastest way of building protection as long as you have the manufacturing capacity present, and they can at least be of some use, if only for AMM's.

[Mini]

So what does it take to do more than just find out the alien's name? Is there a way to, like, improve relations further? I've already established full communications.

Diplomatic team to start with, and then simply having the various agreements also increases relations. Note that they only increase the alien's disposition towards you, so the aliens will likely start letting you do all sorts of things before you can let them do the same.

[coleslaw35]

So what does it take to do more than just find out the alien's name? Is there a way to, like, improve relations further? I've already established full communications.

Diplomatic team to start with, and then simply having the various agreements also increases relations. Note that they only increase the alien's disposition towards you, so the aliens will likely start letting you do all sorts of things before you can let them do the same.

What exactly do you mean by "agreements"?

[coleslaw35]

I want to shoot them so badly, but I know that's not the best idea. I may shoot them if they decide to steal too many of my mineral rich asteroids.

The Deltas are soft, squishy geo-survey vessels. I dunno about that Mansk though. Same thermal signature, different speeds and activity. They really seem to like YZ Ceti though. Ships go in that system every few months. I never see them leave though.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Mini]

What exactly do you mean by "agreements"?

The stuff on the diplomacy screen, trade etc.

[coleslaw35]

What exactly do you mean by "agreements"?

The stuff on the diplomacy screen, trade etc.

Alright. Just making sure there wasn't something actually called "Agreements" that I needed to look into.
I'm kinda spooked now by the way. This just came rolling into the Epsilon Eridani system. Hopefully they're friendly?

EDIT: Oh god. I was so zoomed in that I didn't see their 1 billion km active sensor range.

SECOND EDIT: The fleet left (fortunately). The only thing I lost was my sense of safety.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[MarcAFK]

I bet you that's a carrier, or maybe a tender for anti fighter FAC's.
Someone mentioned nemesis, that was the name of one of Steve's first aurora AARs, he did a second one years later. One of my last ones had a similar theme, a rogue star which gets close enough to earth to affect the sun causing cataclysmic disaster.
The origonal Aurora had solar storms or something which he had active.

[coleslaw35]

I bet you that's a carrier, or maybe a tender for anti fighter FAC's.

I was about to design my own carrier. I want to make one that can hold six 300-450 ton fighters. Should I up the capacity so I can hold more or will six be fine?

or maybe a tender for anti fighter FAC's.

What's a better counter for FAC's? Missiles or lasers? Also, what's the benefit to putting turreted lasers on a fighter if the fighter already has a high speed?

My understanding is that when it comes to tracking speed and it's not stuck on a turret, lasers can only track a target as fast or slower than the ship which the laser is mounted on. So if I have a fighter that can go 5000 km/s, and all the enemy ships go 3000 km/s, then there's no reason to turret the laser, correct?

[AlStar]

I was about to design my own carrier. I want to make one that can hold six 300-450 ton fighters. Should I up the capacity so I can hold more or will six be fine?

For what it's worth, I've had good luck with just sticking boat bays (enough room for two 500 ton fighters) in my normal cruisers - this is using beam fighters, mind - it probably wouldn't work if I needed to carry around enough extra missiles to rearm fighters.

What's a better counter for FAC's? Missiles or lasers? Also, what's the benefit to putting turreted lasers on a fighter if the fighter already has a high speed?

If you're fast enough to catch them, then lasers are always the better answer, since you never run out of ammo. However, the main thing with FACs is that they tend to go rather fast. Fragile though.

My understanding is that when it comes to tracking speed and it's not stuck on a turret, lasers can only track a target as fast or slower than the ship which the laser is mounted on. So if I have a fighter that can go 5000 km/s, and all the enemy ships go 3000 km/s, then there's no reason to turret the laser, correct?

For fighters - where every single ton counts - you'll totally want to go with non-turreted weapons. Not only are fighters fast enough you don't need the extra speed, but you can't afford the extra space they take.

[Aseaheru]

Honestly, I have issues getting 500ton fighters.

[LoSboccacc]

Remember initiative take an important role in combat turn order

I learned the hard way making fighters with the smallest gauss. I tought, why noot, if I'm faster the smallest range will be enough to hit everything except in actual combat they moved first so I was out of range, then I moved in range but the shooting phase was lost at that point.

This was maybe on 5x don't know if it changed.

They made one hell of point defence ahainst missiles tho.

[iceball3]

Remember initiative take an important role in combat turn order

I learned the hard way making fighters with the smallest gauss. I tought, why noot, if I'm faster the smallest range will be enough to hit everything except in actual combat they moved first so I was out of range, then I moved in range but the shooting phase was lost at that point.

This was maybe on 5x don't know if it changed.

They made one hell of point defence ahainst missiles tho.

The way initiative works, it's actually advantageous to move after your opponent in the movement cycle, as it means your ships can make better interception attempts, and likewise trumps interception attempts on themselves. For instance, if you order your fighter to move to a vessel, it will move straight to the vessel's current position if it moves first, then the enemy vessel in question will carry out the rest of it's own movement, possibly moving out of the range of the fighters. Likewise, if your fighter moves last, then they can move to the final position of the vessel in question, rather than on an estimated bearing. Anything moving 2,000 km/s or faster will very much be hard to intercept with minimum-range systems unless you flat out beat them in initiative.
This is why the higher, more valuable initiative ratings on your officers is a good thing, because it denotes how late in the move-cycle of each turn it can go. The reason why you can manually shift your task group initiative to lower numbers is due to it making it easier to make formations if you can control what order your ship's move cycles proc.