The time for peace has ended..

[voknaar (OP)]

So i've had the game a week now got the jist of the basics of the basics, still havn't found a meaningful reason to heavily populate other systems other than mineral shortages in sol, but thats yet to be a major consern.  Up until now i've had no direct contact with aliens, i've known of a possable alien world for sometime now due to uncovering a jump gate but declared the empty system it was surveyed in as too out of the way.  Now a Geosurvey ship in a JP connected to the empty star has just been blown to smitherines.  I have no knowledge of how to make a effective combat ship and havn't been heaviliy investing in weapons due to lack of hostile presence.

So Combat 101 whats a good simple design principals? Went to the missile building screen and had a "hmm. . .  the force isn't with me just yet" moment and havn't been back since :p Wall of txt which ment nothing to me but now i'm going to have no choice assuming the AI will start tracking my position.  I have a grav survey ship in the same system which probably wont make it to the JP back to Sol. 

Long story short I'm having a QQ so i'm wanting to learn how to pew pew. .   

[Hawkeye]

Missile Ships:
More launchers are better than few (well, who would have guessed   )
Ammo, more ammo, even more ammo!!!
Don´t overdo the armor, but some is nice
Don´t forget firecons/active sensors

None-Missile ships:
prepare for a slugfest --> armor/shields are your friend
speed - you want to be able to close with the enemy - FAST!
Like with missile ships, don´t forget beam firecontrols/active sensors

Defensive ships:
Good armor but don´t overdo it.
A little faster than the regular missile boats (so they can get to their assigned escort position)
Lots and lots of AMMs and PD-turrets
AMM-launchers in groups of 5 per AMM-firecon
Did I mention firecons and active sensors?


Personally, I am a big beliver in the "squadrons fight together" doctrine, so all of my warships mount some PD-turrests to protect the entire fleet.

Each ship carries at least a rudimentary passive sensor suite.

Each squadron has at least one, preferably two or three, fleet scouts with the biggest sensors (active and passive) I can get my hands on.


Other than that, have a look at the "Bureau of Ship Design" Forum

[welchbloke]

Missile Ships:
More launchers are better than few (well, who would have guessed   )
Ammo, more ammo, even more ammo!!!
Don´t overdo the armor, but some is nice
Don´t forget firecons/active sensors

None-Missile ships:
prepare for a slugfest --> armor/shields are your friend
speed - you want to be able to close with the enemy - FAST!
Like with missile ships, don´t forget beam firecontrols/active sensors

Defensive ships:
Good armor but don´t overdo it.
A little faster than the regular missile boats (so they can get to their assigned escort position)
Lots and lots of AMMs and PD-turrets
AMM-launchers in groups of 5 per AMM-firecon
Did I mention firecons and active sensors?


Personally, I am a big beliver in the "squadrons fight together" doctrine, so all of my warships mount some PD-turrests to protect the entire fleet.

Each ship carries at least a rudimentary passive sensor suite.

Each squadron has at least one, preferably two or three, fleet scouts with the biggest sensors (active and passive) I can get my hands on.


Other than that, have a look at the "Bureau of Ship Design" Forum

I second all of the above.  As far as missiles are concerned don't ignore the second order effect - the logistics requirements.  Your missile ships will probably have around 10-15 salvos in the magazines after that they become targets 
I try to have enough missiles in my colliers to replenish the magazines of the entire force.  The further from home you are expecting to fight the more colliers you willl need to support an extended engagement or a war.  The alternative is to set up supply depots close to the action.  Use the depots to store fuel and maitenance (if you are using it)  as well as missiles. 

[Five]

When i first started i was very confused on how to do this i decided to look at templates and use them till i got the hang of it.  Here is what i used for ships

hxxp: aurora2. pentarch. org/index. php/topic,2486. 0. html

It is Steve's NATO campaign. . . NATO starting forces.

And then for missles i used the Wiki

hxxp: aurorawiki. pentarch. org/index. php?title=Missiles

Hope those help you like they helped me.

-Five

[UnLimiTeD]

Keep in mind that Steves Nato campaign relies a lot on fighters, which are harder to micro than a few bigger ships.

[voknaar (OP)]

Thanks for the links & advice now for some questions

I read that active sensors are needed to get a lock with missiles, does that include search sensors as well?

In the sensor tab on the systems view screen are the slider settings to set the sensor strength of passives or are they just guesstimates? EG: if you use X sensor sensitivity you'll detect Y signature strength at Z distance and closer.

Is magazine size just to determine ammo capacity or do you need the same Mag size as the missiles it'll hold or larger?


I'll probably have more to ask once I start producing some ships and testing my 1st retaliation strike.

[Hawkeye]

There are three types of sensors (as you have probably noticed)

Active Search Sensors (think RADAR/Active Sonar):
   Once a unknown ship gets in range of those, you see the size of it (assuming it doesn´t have any cloak technology)
   Also needed to light up a target, so your fire control systems (beam and missile) can lock on..

Passive EM Sensors:
   Detect emissions from active sensors and shields as well as from populations.

Passive Termal Sensors:
   Detect, well, thermal emissions. Engines and populations are the primary sources of those.



System Map:
   Passive Sensor Ranges:
      Show you, at what range you would detect an EM/Thermal source with the set sensor strength.
      For example, if you set the slider to 300, any ship with a thermal signature of 300 would be detected, once it enters one of the blue circles.

   Signature Detection Range:
      Here you put in what you assume the enemy´s passive sensor strength is. The red cirles show you, at what range your ships/bases would be detected.


   Those ranges are exact, the trouble is in guessing what sensor strenght/emission profile the enemy will have.


Magazines:
   Can have any size you want. If you want your magazins to survive a hit or two (increased HTK), bigger ones are more economical (economy of    size), otherwise, you can cram   
             a  bunch of smaller ones into your ship(s)

[UnLimiTeD]

Also, if you fear your being attacked by mesons, armored Magazines might do you good in case they get too close.
But I tell you right now, don't let that happen.

A size 5 missile will need 5 spaces, a size 2 will need 2 spaces.
General rule is to have enough capacity for 5-10 salvos, depending on ship and salvosize.

Missilelaunchers have ammo capacity for one missile of the appropriate size.

[voknaar (OP)]

Just a brief update if anyone cares.  I've decided to create a new game that I'll SM.  The non SM game (which i was origionally posted about) will be kept in the back burner for now.  So what I'll do to learn about combat is go out exploring find a empire SM the tech levels my other empire is at and then design and SM ships to test their viability.  My first attempt at building a combat ship had 2 vital flaws.  firstly I had no jump drive for them, which would with current tech require size 65 jump drive (at about 10k RP to research and later found was going to be about 2200 tons added on by itself).  Secondly my energy based weapons had no reactor/s to power them.  So still getting my head wrapped around all the things I need to account for before I stick an squad into the assembly line. 

[UnLimiTeD]

Good plan to practice combat is to create two races and let them fight each other. Just make sure they are not on the same planet.

Also, keep in mind that the standard jump drive can transport 3 ships per jump.
That sadly doesn't seem to work if there's multiple jump ships in the group, but more than two ships do not have jump drives, because the system kinda tries to jump all non-jump-capable ships with the first jump drive, instead of spreading them over all available.

When creating ships, on the left side theres a lot of useful info you should look at, like how long it's gonna take to build, and how much energy you have/need.

[Hawkeye]

This is also due to the fact that each jumpship (when using squadron jump) appears at a different location around the jumppoint within the jumppoint distance rating of your jump-engine , thus splitting up the initial fleet. As Aurora can´t know which ships you want to stick together, you have to split the fleet up beforhand manually

[voknaar (OP)]

How will I learn from two fighting NPC empires? Is there a way to see their created designs?


As for the Jump Drive limits, I thought that would have been controlled by the subordinate formations box in task forces screen. Otherwise thanks for the heads up.

[UnLimiTeD]

You create two player races and control them both.