Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread: C# Edition

[ExChairman]

Not sure whats going on. Having 2 groups of undamaged and fueled groups fighters/fighter-bombers that are at speed 1km/s even thou they ca get up to around 45000/29000 km/s, tried to set speed but nothing is happening, bug or not? Several other F/FB have worked as they should... Okay, now the FBs have started up to 29000 but Fighters is still at 1... Is there something wrong with the design?

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FTR Spitfire - MkII  033  (Spitfire - MkII  class Fighter)      311 tons       11 Crew       398.1 BP       TCS 6    TH 34    EM 0
45037 km/s      Armour 1-4       Shields 0-0       HTK 3      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 1
Maint Life 3.47 Years     MSP 80    AFR 8%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 10    5YR 152    Max Repair 350 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Taira-Mitsuharu Heavy Fighter SCAM drive (1)    Power 280    Fuel Use 128.11%    Signature 33.60    Explosion 17%
Fuel Capacity 17 000 Litres    Range 7.68 billion km (47 hours at full power)

Schwarzkopf-Hertwig Gauss Cannon R600-17.00 (1x6)    Range 60 000km     TS: 45 037 km/s     Accuracy Modifier 17.00%     RM 60 000 km    ROF 5       
Jiang Weapon Systems Fighter FC (1)     Max Range: 60 000 km   TS: 16 000 km/s     83 67 50 33 17 0 0 0 0 0

Tang Ordnance Swordfish Search Sensor (1)     GPS 280     Range 16.4m km    Resolution 100

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
This design is classed as a e for auto-assignment purposes

[nuclearslurpee]

I've noticed this behavior sometimes with fighters. It seems to happen if you move a fighter subfleet from the carrier fleet into another fleet instead of detaching the fighters from the carrier fleet. The workaround is to only detach the fighters from the carrier fleet and then have the separated fighters join the other fleet via 5-second order.

[lumporr]

If I have a railgun with only 10kkm range, but I use it with a 72kkm BFC, would it have good accuracy at 10kkm? In other words, could I use baseline, zero research, un-upgraded railguns on PD fighters using the shortest possible range? I know they wouldn't be much use outside of attacking unarmed vessels in combat (having to get all the way to point-blank range to even fire), but would it work just for the PD role to cover other, longer range fighters/bombers?

And while I'm here, ECM only reduces the range of the BFC and wouldn't stop my 10kkm railgun from firing, correct?

(Is this a good idea?)

[nuclearslurpee]

If I have a railgun with only 10kkm range, but I use it with a 72kkm BFC, would it have good accuracy at 10kkm? In other words, could I use baseline, zero research, un-upgraded railguns on PD fighters using the shortest possible range? I know they wouldn't be much use outside of attacking unarmed vessels in combat (having to get all the way to point-blank range to even fire), but would it work just for the PD role to cover other, longer range fighters/bombers?

Yes.

And while I'm here, ECM only reduces the range of the BFC and wouldn't stop my 10kkm railgun from firing, correct?

Correct.

(Is this a good idea?)

Maybe. Try it and see!

I will suggest that perhaps a better approach to bombers is for them to never be fired at in the first place. You can design missiles and MFCs such that your bombers remain outside of the probable missile range of an enemy fleet, although of course you remain open to any surprises the enemy may have in store for you. The reason to do this is to get more missiles in a volley by not wasting BP/hangar space on non-bomber craft.

[Vandermeer]

I will suggest that perhaps a better approach to bombers is for them to never be fired at in the first place. You can design missiles and MFCs such that your bombers remain outside of the probable missile range of an enemy fleet, although of course you remain open to any surprises the enemy may have in store for you. The reason to do this is to get more missiles in a volley by not wasting BP/hangar space on non-bomber craft.

For technicality I am going to add to add to this that since we are speaking of fighter craft, there is another way to not be fired at, which is simply to be too small and fly under their radar. There are numerous ways to divine how close you can actually get towards a target (I used support scout planes often), but generally you can get a fair deal closer than their actual maximum missile range due to their active sensor resolution being way too wide.
If you ever make a mistake in approaching and notice a launch, it also usually isn't an issue. You might be very deep inside their missile range, but since your bombers are likely much faster than their ships, you can simply turn around and leave their maximum detection range again, which will also cause their missiles to loose their lead.

Thus you can save on fire control size and make the missiles a fair deal smaller for your bombers, which is more fitting for their theme in many cases I think.

[nuclearslurpee]

For technicality I am going to add to add to this that since we are speaking of fighter craft, there is another way to not be fired at, which is simply to be too small and fly under their radar. There are numerous ways to divine how close you can actually get towards a target (I used support scout planes often), but generally you can get a fair deal closer than their actual maximum missile range due to their active sensor resolution being way too wide.

For those curious, the way to do this is to estimate the enemy sensor tech levels (usually pretty easy to do with some experience and passive EM readings) and calculate their detection range for your fighter. So if you use 250-ton scouts for instance, and the enemy has Active Sensor Strength 21 and EM Sensitivity 11 techs, the detection range of a size-6 active sensor is:

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R = sqrt(Strength * Size * Sensitivity * Resolution^(2/3) / PI) [m km]
R = sqrt(21 * 6 * 11 * 5^(2/3) / PI) = 36m kmOf course, you have to guess at the size (or use the maximum possible value of 50, but this is usually very excessive) but with some experience you can make a good guess. In this case, as long as your missiles and MFC have range over 36m km you can fire with impunity, although you will still need some way to get an active sensor lock on the targets from a scout or supporting ship.

[skoormit]

Is there a way to display survey locations after they were surveyed?

Yes.
On the Display tab on the left side of the tactical map is a checkbox for "Hide Surveyed Locations."
It is ticked by default.
Untick it, and you will see all the survey locations.

[ExChairman]

Compressed fuel tanks: Got 200 points of research towards these, but if I remember right you cant research them? If not why points, would have prefer ed the physical things, even in a limited number...

[Gyrfalcon]

Quick question - when you start a new game and automatically fill in the starting RP points, does it always follow the same paths?

I’ve only done two today, but both times they went railgun/missiles with a complete lack of civilian tech, extra command tech, etc.

[nuclearslurpee]

Quick question - when you start a new game and automatically fill in the starting RP points, does it always follow the same paths?

I’ve only done two today, but both times they went railgun/missiles with a complete lack of civilian tech, extra command tech, etc.

No, it is selected from a subset of the techs the NPRs get and follows their tech upgrade rules. The one time I tried it I got lasers and missiles.

[nakorkren]

When you play with "Inexperienced Fleet Penalty" turned on, it takes longer for your fleets to react to orders.  Does that include retargeting? Or just orders. If it does include retargeting, does this penalty also impact NPC ships? I've never noticed the NPC having any sort of delay in firing on new targets, which would imply it is not being applied to them, and it seems like it ought to be.

[nuclearslurpee]

When you play with "Inexperienced Fleet Penalty" turned on, it takes longer for your fleets to react to orders.  Does that include retargeting? Or just orders. If it does include retargeting, does this penalty also impact NPC ships? I've never noticed the NPC having any sort of delay in firing on new targets, which would imply it is not being applied to them, and it seems like it ought to be.

It does include retargeting, in fact targeting and retargeting is about the only thing affected as any other order is executed instantly (a rather less flavorful change from VB6, if admittedly less frustrating).

I believe NPRs do not suffer from this, which is only fair as they would have no idea how to deal with it - not only in the moment but also the necessity to do fleet training and how to manage this. Maybe someday, but for now I think they need the help. 

[nakorkren]

What's the difference between "Instant" vs "Instant RST" when using SM mode to research tech?

[Erik L]

What's the difference between "Instant" vs "Instant RST" when using SM mode to research tech?

Instant is for stuff like 12 cm focal length. Instant RST is for stuff like the Koensayr Twin Ion Drive.

RST = Racial S Tech. Not sure what the S stands for. But it is the tech you design and actually goes on the ships. Think of it as developing the engineering for the theoretical tech the egg heads produce in the labs.

[Steve Walmsley]

RST = Racial S Tech. Not sure what the S stands for.

I think it might be Race-Specific Tech - although I'm not certain