- I use corvettes, as well as fighter garrisons... but then again I don't defend my Jump Points usually... IMO anything worth really defending is worth parking a few real warships at. Anything else is worth retaking, anything not worth either is worth losing. My defenses focus on PPV and slowing the enemy down, buying time for a local defense fleet and /or the "real fleets" to show up. I use multi-layered defenses including STOs to protect my planets... as far as I'm concerned if the aliens want to occupy space, they can have it. I'd rather let them have to dedicate resources to defending and occupying things that have no real value.
- But, YMMV. I'd suggest Commercial Hangars on "Missile Bases" You tuck little fighters that are naught but missile tubes with an M-FCS, one or two Sensor elements to spot for 'em, and shove 'em into a commercial hangar with an Ordinance Transfer System. The Commercial ship has no deployment needs, and the missile tubes have their deployment clocks AND their Maintenance clocks frozen when docked, so it's good enough for a defense system. The Ordinance Transfer System will let them be reloaded from a Commercial Magazine by launching them, a small 50-Ton magazine and 0.3x Reduced Size Launchers in them might be useful here, too.
Commercial hangars do not freeze maintenance clocks. At least, they aren't supposed to.
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg103584#msg103584
- They do, I've tested it... albeit on a much older version... What they DON'T do is
reverse either the deployment clock or the maintenance clocks. So while a Warship won't degrade while it's inside the hangar, it will not get any better and as such each subsequent launch will keep increasing the deployment and the maintenance clock. The post in question is roughly 3
1/2 years old, and not too accurate IIRC as you cannot reload ships inside of a Commercial Hangar.
- Regardless, each Commercial Hangar is still only 1,000 Tons of space, so you only need one Maintenance Module per hangar, and the deployment clock
is for sure frozen so you save about 92,900 Tons this way if you have 1x C. Hangar, 1x M. Module, 1x Ordinance Transfer System and 1x C. Magazine... that weight coming from the Rec. Module that you don't need since you could just roll up a Rec. Ship or a Rec. Station to periodically... relieve the crew. Since you won't be launching unless you are under attack.