Any way to practice combat?

[Iestwyn (OP)]

My attempt at an emergency battlefleet (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12120) has shown me that I really need a lot of practice designing military ships---and using them.

Is there a way to create battle scenarios using SM mode? Ideally using an NPR?

Thanks in advance!

[Froggiest1982]

My attempt at an emergency battlefleet (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12120) has shown me that I really need a lot of practice designing military ships---and using them.

Is there a way to create battle scenarios using SM mode? Ideally using an NPR?

Thanks in advance!

If you want a suggestion, avoind NPR for combat testing. Go with you versus you. Same ships in the beginning will test your offensive capabilities and defensive.

Later you can start play considering the data you collect improving attack and defense. It is also great for detection as you will see exactly when ships can see each other. Remove all DTS first though!

Play with tactics too and experiment on formations.

Remember to keep SM on and flag all races in the event log.

I have a DB with all techs unlocked that serves only this purpose, it's my playground. Easy to setup. Create all ships designs, then sm colony on Mars with pop, declare indipendence and you have an exact copy of your race designs included.

After so many tests the ships are now so different, like night and day.

[nuclearslurpee]

My attempt at an emergency battlefleet (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12120) has shown me that I really need a lot of practice designing military ships---and using them.

Is there a way to create battle scenarios using SM mode? Ideally using an NPR?

Thanks in advance!

If you want a suggestion, avoind NPR for combat testing. Go with you versus you. Same ships in the beginning will test your offensive capabilities and defensive.

Later you can start play considering the data you collect improving attack and defense. It is also great for detection as you will see exactly when ships can see each other. Remove all DTS first though!

Play with tactics too and experiment on formations.

Remember to keep SM on and flag all races in the event log.

I have a DB with all techs unlocked that serves only this purpose, it's my playground. Easy to setup. Create all ships designs, then sm colony on Mars with pop, declare indipendence and you have an exact copy of your race designs included.

After so many tests the ships are now so different, like night and day.

As an addendum to this excellent advice, I would suggest creating blank ship classes with just the default initial components for each level of armor tech, which you can copy to design new classes at different tech levels, as ship armor is the only component which you cannot choose the tech level of when creating a new ship class - but copying a class should preserve the armor level as you modify it as long as you do not explicitly update the armor (using the button in the class design window).

[Iestwyn (OP)]

I was just about to ask how to do that. Pity that you can't change the armor tech, maybe to save minerals.

Thanks!