Posted by: Jorgen_CAB
« on: June 17, 2020, 03:12:18 AM »Does it really matter if tugs or commercial carriers are used to move military ships around your empire as the function is basically to save fuel?
Tugs probably are the most efficient option though if the only thing is that you want to move fleet assets from one base of operation to the next in a strategical manner and time is on your side.
When things get messy I would personally not rely on either as time and speed are more important than saving on my fuel economy.
I don't see any problem of using tugs (or carriers) to bring my ships to my prepared staging areas from which the military ships will use their own engines to conduct tactical operations. In fact I see it as wasting resources not to use tugs for moving military ships around in a strategic sense as military engine can be a huge drain on fuel. In some instances I have had an entire fleet burn one year of empire wide fuel production in a few months of operations and that IS expensive.
Now this obviously depends on how fuel efficient military engines you design, but I tend to not have too efficient military engines as I either need speed or use the tonnage for other than engines on my military designs.
On some of the other point the OP asked about...
In general I have three general categories if military ships which are Main Strike, Escort and Patrol/Recon. Often some of the roles can be performed by the same class of ships but in general I tend to build ships for one main role that fit into those roles.
As small craft combat tend to come rather early in C# I tend to find carrier centred deep space combat to be very common so carriers tend to become the "Main Strike" role early on.
In the escort role I tend to build around the destroyer concept, a ship which concentrate on defending the carriers from mainly small craft and missiles and who usually carry a strong beam defence. They can be used for recon but rarely posses the ability to harm capital ships at long ranges, but they can potentially close to beam combat and engage there are they are designed to withstand enemy missile barrages.
The third category of ships are either frigates or cruisers whose job is patrol and reconnaissance in many different forms, these ships need to have decent defences but also offensive means to dispose of smaller enemy forces. They need to be able to operate alone or in small groups and are the main ships to secure a specific are for staging a possible offensive action or they will be the first ship to respond to a potential invasion. These ships are usually stationed more scattered around a larger empire while the other classes tend to be more centralised and used strategically rather than tactically.
I certainly use ships of all potential sizes but my main capital ships tend to be quite large as size does matter in terms of durability and capability, Patrol ships can be both large and small and both have merits. Pure scout ships are obviously better is small and fast so I tend to use carrier concept for most actual scouting as most if not all my ship have some form of hangars to house at least some scouting craft in them. If I can know the force of an enemy I also know if and when it is smart to engage them with my forces.
I don't tend to produce highly specialised ships unless they are really small as the waste in retooling and yard economy is not the best. I usually see that working within the range of producing small variances in the same yards to be very effective. That means that I can maintain one destroyer, one cruiser and one frigate design using small changes to vary their mission parameters. You can even refit ship between the variances so fast they become almost modular, especially if those components are available to be swapped in or out. Just make sure to retool the class for the most expensive variant you have. This way I can have MANY variant of ships using the same yard and configure them based on my needs.
Tugs probably are the most efficient option though if the only thing is that you want to move fleet assets from one base of operation to the next in a strategical manner and time is on your side.
When things get messy I would personally not rely on either as time and speed are more important than saving on my fuel economy.
I don't see any problem of using tugs (or carriers) to bring my ships to my prepared staging areas from which the military ships will use their own engines to conduct tactical operations. In fact I see it as wasting resources not to use tugs for moving military ships around in a strategic sense as military engine can be a huge drain on fuel. In some instances I have had an entire fleet burn one year of empire wide fuel production in a few months of operations and that IS expensive.
Now this obviously depends on how fuel efficient military engines you design, but I tend to not have too efficient military engines as I either need speed or use the tonnage for other than engines on my military designs.
On some of the other point the OP asked about...
In general I have three general categories if military ships which are Main Strike, Escort and Patrol/Recon. Often some of the roles can be performed by the same class of ships but in general I tend to build ships for one main role that fit into those roles.
As small craft combat tend to come rather early in C# I tend to find carrier centred deep space combat to be very common so carriers tend to become the "Main Strike" role early on.
In the escort role I tend to build around the destroyer concept, a ship which concentrate on defending the carriers from mainly small craft and missiles and who usually carry a strong beam defence. They can be used for recon but rarely posses the ability to harm capital ships at long ranges, but they can potentially close to beam combat and engage there are they are designed to withstand enemy missile barrages.
The third category of ships are either frigates or cruisers whose job is patrol and reconnaissance in many different forms, these ships need to have decent defences but also offensive means to dispose of smaller enemy forces. They need to be able to operate alone or in small groups and are the main ships to secure a specific are for staging a possible offensive action or they will be the first ship to respond to a potential invasion. These ships are usually stationed more scattered around a larger empire while the other classes tend to be more centralised and used strategically rather than tactically.
I certainly use ships of all potential sizes but my main capital ships tend to be quite large as size does matter in terms of durability and capability, Patrol ships can be both large and small and both have merits. Pure scout ships are obviously better is small and fast so I tend to use carrier concept for most actual scouting as most if not all my ship have some form of hangars to house at least some scouting craft in them. If I can know the force of an enemy I also know if and when it is smart to engage them with my forces.
I don't tend to produce highly specialised ships unless they are really small as the waste in retooling and yard economy is not the best. I usually see that working within the range of producing small variances in the same yards to be very effective. That means that I can maintain one destroyer, one cruiser and one frigate design using small changes to vary their mission parameters. You can even refit ship between the variances so fast they become almost modular, especially if those components are available to be swapped in or out. Just make sure to retool the class for the most expensive variant you have. This way I can have MANY variant of ships using the same yard and configure them based on my needs.