Posted by: Zook
« on: August 29, 2012, 08:38:15 PM »I've just switched to fast jump-capable exploration ships with one grav and one geo sensor. Takes them a long time to survey a system, but it cuts the hassle to a minimum.
And, just for fun, I built some FGC (Fast Grav Craft) plus a carrier. Each FGC weighted in at 1000 tonnes, and was basically grav sensors stuck on an FAC engine. The carrier had the jump engine and enough hanger space to carry ten FGC's. It worked surprisingly well and took less micromanagement than I expectedI experimented with similar strategies my last game, because I hated resigning myself to losing survey ships every time they ran into spoilers. I didn't think it reflected the kind of navy I had going. The trick with parasite survey FACs is just using regular ship engines instead of FAC engines. Fuel is the big limit on surveying anyway. In 5.7 fuel will seemingly be even more limited, but on the other hand you will also be limited by deployment timers.
-snip-
Putting them in a squadron together then splitting it into individual ships after the jump works pretty good.