What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?

[Black]

It might be weird but at the point where I designed the freighter I had no other choice then to do this (I don't have a design here as I am at work. Here is some background and explanation:

I started with conventional start so I had only one 7000 worth naval shipyard at the time of designing. I also had only conventional engines so I loaded up the freighter on cargo space (5000 worth) and conventional engines so it would have at least SOME speed – the engines were pretty big and yet very fuel efficient so it worked in effect (I believe it ran on around 40 km/s at the end). However the design was something like 6900 tons already and I could only add about one extra maintenance space. That resulted in the average critical failure rate of around 280% which was really funny to think about but I risked it as I would be waiting another five years for better engines. I also started adding 500 more tons to the shipyard as I knew I would need to refit it immediately when I can. But for now, I thought, it can manage with constant supplies and repairs.

Turns out it was a bad idea. The ship did 20 trips to Mercury and back and then exploded while in orbit of Earth loading up more cargo.

Well I don't really have experience with preTN. I thought that your cargo ships were TN vessels. If they have conventional engines, then comets are not really accessible for you. Are your cargo ship engines commercial? Commercial ships don't have failure rate. This is cargo ship that Steve uses in his current game:

Code: [Select]

Atlas class Freighter    39,150 tons     172 Crew     673.4 BP      TCS 783  TH 1500  EM 0
1915 km/s     Armour 1-102     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/6/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 11    Max Repair 75 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 1   
Cargo 25000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 15   

Commercial Ion Drive (5)    Power 300    Fuel Use 6.19%    Signature 300    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres    Range 22.3 billion km   (134 days at full power)
The RN/SLR-7 EM Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  6m km
As you can see there is no failure rate and it should be this way for all commercial ships (cargo, colony, miners, salvagers...). Maybe all conventional engines are military and that's why your cargo ship has failure rate.

As for failure rate of 280%. For military ship that number is actually ok. If you look at some of Steve's fiction, you will see that some of his military ships have failure rate over 600%. But for ships that will travel a lot (grav survey ships or patrol ships that guard systems without some kind of fleet base) is better to have lower failure rate.

[Alfapiomega]

I am not sure if they are commercial ships available too for me. I had to tweak the engines a bit (make them much bigger to get more power out of them so that the speed isn't something like 2km/s) so they end up being military ship engines.

I actually got past the conventional start into TN part and got better engines now so it is more convenient. But still with very limited size of ships (cargo hold of only 5000 due to starting with ONE shipyard with 1000 tons) it takes a lot of time (there, back x5) to put something on the comets. The speed went up to about 1250 km/s but still...

[joeclark77]

To make an engine "commercial" you need to have less than 0.5 power and greater than 25HS of size.  (In practice I would recommend making them 40HS and have 0.2 power... that makes them slower but fantastically fuel efficient.)  However, it'd be hard to make a freighter using that size engine and still have it under 7500 tons.  Do yourself a favor and build a commercial shipyard.  Those start at 10k tons capacity and seem to grow larger at 10x the rate of naval shipyards.  It wouldn't take long to get one with 40,000 tons capacity for making freighters.

Your second problem I think is you're too eager to get started.  When I have done conventional starts it has often been 15 years before I built my first survey ship, and 20+ before I built my first cargo or colony ship.  30-40 years before I'm up to the level I usually start at with a TN start, and ready to visit other stars.  The advantage of a conventional start is that you get to design the industry and shipyards yourself, and you get a really awesome economy and great researchers trained up, but you have to be patient.  It also feels really great when you accomplish something like your first interstellar transit.

One of the disadvantages is that you will have terrible mercassium and neutronium shortages, because you have to build the research labs and shipyards that everybody else gets "for free".  So once you are able to start setting up a mining network, you'll want to be very aggressive in targeting exactly the minerals you need.  If I do a conventional start nowadays, I will just give myself a bunch of labs at the outset, maybe 15 or 20.  That makes things get rolling a bit faster.

[Evanissimo]

I believe I have encountered the lamest Precursors ever.  They've got 2 ships just sitting in Alpha Centauri, watching me colonize it, all attempts to chase them down just result in them running away out of reach.  So I've just decided to let them be.  And pillage the lamest ruins that have probably ever been found as well.  I mean come on! 56 Ion Drives? What a lame thing to get from ruins!I'm almost at the next Tech Level, these guys aren't precursors, they're Pre-Losers!

[Black]

Precursor scouts, they are quite fast but unarmed.

[tryrar]

Just entered a nebula(after making some purpose-built scouts for this job) and encountered a couple hostile craft. They're beam ships armed with a single particle beam, but they do 9 damage....and have a sensor range of 13m km(at first I thought I had encountered a PDC!)

Making plans to avenge the ship they are currently battering, but good god, what size and/or tech level do they need to be at to get that kind of range?!

[joeclark77]

13m km doesn't seem too long range to me.  What was the resolution?  You can get that kind of range if you build a big enough sensor.  Typically I will put 5HS or 10HS sensors on one of my warships, and 2HS sensors for backups on the other warships.

[tryrar]

well for reference, my tech, at max size and assuming 100 res, can barely reach 1m km. Granted, it could have been a higher res sensor, but not by much since my survey ships don't exceed 6k tons

[joeclark77]

At "max size", are you sure?  Do you know you can make a sensor larger than 1HS?
I just opened up the design-tech window and selected an active sensor with the lowest technology levels (active grav sensor strength 10, EM sensor sensitivity 5).  I left the default 100 res.  Here are the stats for a 1HS sensor:

Code: [Select]

Active Sensor Strength: 10   Sensitivity Modifier: 50%
Sensor Size: 1 HS    Sensor HTK: 1
Resolution: 100    Maximum Range vs 5000 ton object (or larger): 5,000,000 km
Range vs 1000 ton object: 200,000 km
Range vs 250 ton object: 12,500 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 10    Crew: 2
Materials Required: 0x Duranium  10x Uridium

Development Cost for Project: 100RP
Increase the size to 3HS and you triple the range to 15mkm:

Code: [Select]

Active Sensor Strength: 30   Sensitivity Modifier: 50%
Sensor Size: 3 HS    Sensor HTK: 1
Resolution: 100    Maximum Range vs 5000 ton object (or larger): 15,000,000 km
Range vs 1000 ton object: 600,000 km
Range vs 250 ton object: 37,500 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 30    Crew: 6
Materials Required: 0x Duranium  30x Uridium

Development Cost for Project: 300RP
If you do what I do, you would typically start with at least a 5HS sensor on your biggest sensor ship, and it would be set to resolution 160 because NPRs tend to use a lot of ships in the 8000-9000T range.  Still assuming those lowest technology levels, here's what you get:

Code: [Select]

Active Sensor Strength: 50   Sensitivity Modifier: 50%
Sensor Size: 5 HS    Sensor HTK: 1
Resolution: 160    Maximum Range vs 8000 ton object (or larger): 31,620,000 km
Range vs 1000 ton object: 494,063 km
Range vs 250 ton object: 30,879 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 50    Crew: 10
Materials Required: 0x Duranium  50x Uridium

Development Cost for Project: 500RP

[niflheimr]

I'm play-testing some of my own modifications ( don't worry Steve , I'm not reporting bugs from my modded copy , that'd be crazy . I can't wait to play with the new stuff you are putting in 6.3 ).

Here's some of what I got so far :

Vastly improved laserheads. Higher range multiplier and heavy damage. Too bad the damage type is hardcoded Here's an example , 4x9damage laserheads :

Code: [Select]

Missile Size: 10 MSP  (0.5 HS)     Warhead: 36    Armour: 1.5     Manoeuvre Rating: 12
Laser Heads: 4
Speed: 96000 km/s    Engine Endurance: 3 minutes   Range: 17.6m km
Active Sensor Strength: 0.3744   Sensitivity Modifier: 240%
Resolution: 80    Maximum Range vs 4000 ton object (or larger): 800,000 km
Cost Per Missile: 22.275
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 1152%   3k km/s 384%   5k km/s 230.4%   10k km/s 115.2%
Signature increasing ECM cloak - Makes a 1kt drone look like a 15kt destroyer.  I've combined that with thermal signature increase tech. Perfect for drawing missile fire away from your fleet and protecting the biggest ships (in my case , the tanker/collier ) . The ECM cloak won't display right in the summary view , but the sensor size increase does work.  Works wonders for drawing a beam fleet into ambushes

Single shot lasers - 10% size , 1h recharge time. Kinda bugged since it will round the power consumption to 0 when in turrets ( resetting the ROF to 30 ). Seems like the minimum size is hardcoded to 2hs.

Range 16x fire controls. Too bad the size and range are computed from the same multiplier - wanted to have 16x range 64x size.

Cold-storage missile magazines for colliers . Stores 250% more missiles , but has a 80% chance of explosion. Minimum size 20 (2000 units )

Disposable 400 tone missile pods. No reload on the at all ( actually they do reload in about 90 days but I just scrap them after firing to keep with the RP ). Haven't got some really light tractor beams working yet so I need to keep them in hangars.

Any other ideas guys ? I can't remember when I last got this much fun from something . Oh , and kuddos for you Steve , everything in the DB is quite direct and simple. Am I right that the damage pattern types are specified in the weapon code though ? I don't plan on decompiling it to mod that , I still have nightmares from the nights I spent in college doing that , but I was curious .

Next on my list are turret-mounted particle beams and finding a way of toggling between signature decreasing and signature reducing cloaking - but I doubt I can do it easy

Edit :

I really hope Steve will put some sort of proper signature increasing ECM in . I've just finished a hotseat battle with a friend - using my kludged ECM and damn it's effective.

4 2kt drones , with size 8 sensors and 2000 thermal signatures that looked like 40kt battlecruisers suckered me into ignoring the 4kt "frigates" coming from the back. Only they were pod-carrying battlecruisers with a 600 size 14 2 stage missile salvo. Followed closely by just 10 1kt stealth FACs - packing laserheads and one shot 40cm xrays. I've lost 300 kt of warships in 15 seconds. My friend lost the 4 drones and one unlucky FAC ... for 9kt and 2500 BP .

It probably won't work a second time - at least not in the exact same way but it should be easy to surprise an enemy.

 

[Erik L]

That's one thing I'd like to see. More tech variation/options. I know for the new player it can be overwhelming, but there are just so many ways you can put a laser together.

[niflheimr]

The disposable pods are quite nice too - they can bring the edge you need to take a pesky npr ( like the one I'm fighting now - frikkin 350 35kt cruisers and almost a thousand FACs ) , but if you missuse them you won't get a second chance since you can't reload them in less than a month.

I've tested the cold storage magazines and they are fun too - they will give you the extra storage you need in a collier , but it's a bad idea to take them into battle. I took a few lucky shots through my pd and one of them reached the magazines. Strength 4000 secondary explosion and one dead collier.

Laserheads are vastly superior against CIWS now ... but they have a flaw , since they detonate all at once - so overkill is large and you won't get them to retarget. They actually balance gauss cannons now since you can't intercept them that way - only way is 100k+ range PD lasers. And while they do quite a lot of damage , they are capped at a given max damage - so no matter how much WH points you add , individual laser strikes will penetrate just as much as a 1WH one .

[tryrar]

Wow, exploiting a small t5 ruin gave me 100 Epsilon 300/432 shields, enough to take me right to epsilon through disassembly! Also, I picked up compressed fuel storage from an earlier ruin I SMed onto mars at the start of the game! Ruins are giving me good stuff this game, should I be worried?

[Aloriel]

Hi all! My first time commenting in this thread, so I'll update you on the status of the universe from my perspective.

I've encountered another species.  The one and only other species so far.  It appears that they are VASTLY behind me in tech.  I would make peace with them, as I see no need to eliminate them. . .  except that they live close enough to my homeworld (Earth) that they keep trying to send ships through it, and also making suicide runs against Earth.  They do this often enough that my diplomacy team can't get them to neutral on their side.

As such, I am going to take them out.

I spent a long time trying to find their homeworld, because it wasn't exactly clear where they were coming from.  I'm a new enough player that I questioned where they came from, despite seeing which gate that they came through.  This was primarily because the gate they came through led to a dead end.  I tried surveying the area again, but did not know that I had to reset the survey (and couldn't find a button that suggested I could - Thanks for fixing this in 6. 3 Steve!).  Once I finally managed to reset the survey, my survey ship found the jump point. . .

The problem is that as soon as they found it, my jump gate construction ship ran over to build a gate.  This was fine for my side of the jump point. . .  but for some reason still unknown to me, my gate ship decided to go through the newly built gate and build a gate on the other side of this UNEXPLORED jump point.  So far as I know, no one is supposed to go through unless ordered.

Anyway, since my gate ship went through, I sent my primary fleet in too.

My primary fleet consists of:
1 supercarrier (84,000 ton beast that holds 45 bombers, 20 PD missile launchers on 4 FCs, a quad laser turret, and enough missiles to take out a planet)
2 missile cruisers (~30,000 tons - 160m km range 8WH missiles)
2 destroyers (~20,000 tons - 4 dual laser turrets, 2 fire controls)
4 frigates (~15,000 tons - 2 single laser turrets)
4 escorts (~13,000 tons - point defense, 2 launchers, 1 FC)

Of course, I realized just after I clicked 5 seconds, that my primary fleet was now TRAPPED in that system until the gate was completed.  This also happened to be their home system.  Fortunately, I have a massive tech advantage.  My missiles are 160m km range, theirs are about 40m km.  Their active sensors are just 600k km, mine are almost a billion.  My laser range is 128k km, theirs is very very short.

In fact, up until recently, I hadn't lost a single ship.  The initial engagements were primarily at extreme range.  Missiles and bombers hitting them.  I eventually ran out of my anti-ship missiles.  This means we have to get closer.

As a result of getting closer, they actually launched some missiles at me, which scared the hell out of me.  They came at me with 136 "fast" attack craft ("fast" because they moved at about 1/4 my carrier's speed).  These launched 136 salvos of 2 missiles each! These missiles were fairly slow (~6000 km/s) and my carrier moves about 4500 and is the slowest warship in my fleet.  I immediately turned to match their course to make certain I had maximum time to shoot down the missiles.  I ran my escorts and PD systems on the carrier at FULL capacity (I even phased them so I was firing every 5 seconds), and managed to shoot down every.  last.  one.  Thankfully, my PD missiles had a 100% chance to hit every time.  When I finished, I chased down the ships that had fired them at me.  Destroying those 136 ships was a test of patience, but a very satisfying result.

Their latest wave is where I have had some issues.  They are still slow, but they seem better armed.  Not in range, mind you, but in power.  I got too close, and in one barrage from 3 ships, they had destroyed one of my frigates.  Breached my shields and armor. . .  and destroyed the whole ship in one 5 second pulse.  They must have had a dozen beams on the ship.  That explains the slow speed and the 600k km active sensors.  Anyway, I won't make that mistake again.  I am only attacking them from outside 50k km now.  They can't even touch me out there.

Anyway, that's the news from Mu Cassiopeia.

I love the depth this game presents. 

[Alfapiomega]

Hi all! My first time commenting in this thread, so I'll update you on the status of the universe from my perspective.

I've encountered another species.  The one and only other species so far.  It appears that they are VASTLY behind me in tech.  I would make peace with them, as I see no need to eliminate them. . .  except that they live close enough to my homeworld (Earth) that they keep trying to send ships through it, and also making suicide runs against Earth.  They do this often enough that my diplomacy team can't get them to neutral on their side.

As such, I am going to take them out.

I spent a long time trying to find their homeworld, because it wasn't exactly clear where they were coming from.  I'm a new enough player that I questioned where they came from, despite seeing which gate that they came through.  This was primarily because the gate they came through led to a dead end.  I tried surveying the area again, but did not know that I had to reset the survey (and couldn't find a button that suggested I could - Thanks for fixing this in 6. 3 Steve!).  Once I finally managed to reset the survey, my survey ship found the jump point. . .

The problem is that as soon as they found it, my jump gate construction ship ran over to build a gate.  This was fine for my side of the jump point. . .  but for some reason still unknown to me, my gate ship decided to go through the newly built gate and build a gate on the other side of this UNEXPLORED jump point.  So far as I know, no one is supposed to go through unless ordered.

Anyway, since my gate ship went through, I sent my primary fleet in too.

My primary fleet consists of:
1 supercarrier (84,000 ton beast that holds 45 bombers, 20 PD missile launchers on 4 FCs, a quad laser turret, and enough missiles to take out a planet)
2 missile cruisers (~30,000 tons - 160m km range 8WH missiles)
2 destroyers (~20,000 tons - 4 dual laser turrets, 2 fire controls)
4 frigates (~15,000 tons - 2 single laser turrets)
4 escorts (~13,000 tons - point defense, 2 launchers, 1 FC)

Of course, I realized just after I clicked 5 seconds, that my primary fleet was now TRAPPED in that system until the gate was completed.  This also happened to be their home system.  Fortunately, I have a massive tech advantage.  My missiles are 160m km range, theirs are about 40m km.  Their active sensors are just 600k km, mine are almost a billion.  My laser range is 128k km, theirs is very very short.

In fact, up until recently, I hadn't lost a single ship.  The initial engagements were primarily at extreme range.  Missiles and bombers hitting them.  I eventually ran out of my anti-ship missiles.  This means we have to get closer.

As a result of getting closer, they actually launched some missiles at me, which scared the hell out of me.  They came at me with 136 "fast" attack craft ("fast" because they moved at about 1/4 my carrier's speed).  These launched 136 salvos of 2 missiles each! These missiles were fairly slow (~6000 km/s) and my carrier moves about 4500 and is the slowest warship in my fleet.  I immediately turned to match their course to make certain I had maximum time to shoot down the missiles.  I ran my escorts and PD systems on the carrier at FULL capacity (I even phased them so I was firing every 5 seconds), and managed to shoot down every.  last.  one.  Thankfully, my PD missiles had a 100% chance to hit every time.  When I finished, I chased down the ships that had fired them at me.  Destroying those 136 ships was a test of patience, but a very satisfying result.

Their latest wave is where I have had some issues.  They are still slow, but they seem better armed.  Not in range, mind you, but in power.  I got too close, and in one barrage from 3 ships, they had destroyed one of my frigates.  Breached my shields and armor. . .  and destroyed the whole ship in one 5 second pulse.  They must have had a dozen beams on the ship.  That explains the slow speed and the 600k km active sensors.  Anyway, I won't make that mistake again.  I am only attacking them from outside 50k km now.  They can't even touch me out there.

Anyway, that's the news from Mu Cassiopeia.

I love the depth this game presents. 

Nice! Good luck with future battles!