I find the biggest constraint of large ships is the logistics in the form of jump drives and maintenance facilities.
.Misconception many pople have who are used to the "standard" sizes of ships. These ships will take little over a year to build in relevant shipyards. Also, speed is all relative and ships of these speeds can still do well, CIWS is extremely useful (more than most give it credit for), and nothing is wrong with having fewer numbers of larger ships than massive numbers of smaller ships (especially when it will be more matched next update where the maintenance facility loophole/exploit is closed).Miscommunication. There are no "standard" sizes in this game. players can set their own standard sizes for ships, and nothing says one size is better than another. And these are not super big ships compared to other things around on the forums. And the entire point of ships in space is to be self sufficient enough to travel to hostile systems and do their things.Next update, you need the same amount of facilities to support these as equal tonnage of smaller ships. There are many more merits to build ships this large like, efficiency, toughness, and all-roundedness.
However CIWS do not shoot at fighters, and 5 CIWS will not be the equivalent to the PD of a fleet. It really depends on usage and enemy composition, there are times where they can be better, and times where they are not. They ARE, however, less flexible than turrets which can shoot at missiles, fighters and ships.Completely agree. That is why I always have a multiple layer PD system including a beam defense system (laser, rail, etc) and CIWS. In situation where my forces are split apart and my enemies have large numbers of smaller ships in the area, my beam PD wins me the day. In situation where there are so many missiles that they break through the outer layer of defenses or when I'm jumping into the face of a fleet, the CIWS saves the day.
Also, speed is all relative and ships of these speeds can still do well, CIWS is extremely useful (more than most give it credit for), and nothing is wrong with having fewer numbers of larger ships than massive numbers of smaller ships .
Next update, you need the same amount of facilities to support these as equal tonnage of smaller ships. There are many more merits to build ships this large like, efficiency, toughness, and all-roundedness.
The biggest problem I see with those ships is that any decent shipyard will take at least 10 years to build most of your warships. Completely useless, considering I wouldn't put their lifespan at even 2 or 3 years, due to a mix of slow speed, CIWS, lack of redundancy, and just massive size.Misconception many pople have who are used to the "standard" sizes of ships. These ships will take little over a year to build in relevant shipyards. Also, speed is all relative and ships of these speeds can still do well, CIWS is extremely useful (more than most give it credit for), and nothing is wrong with having fewer numbers of larger ships than massive numbers of smaller ships (especially when it will be more matched next update where the maintenance facility loophole/exploit is closed).
In my opinion, you need to standardize the sizes so that they can be refitted into newer and better models, and make them much, much, much smaller. There are super large ships, but they are more like self sufficient planets with guns put on a bunch of rocket thrusters.Miscommunication. There are no "standard" sizes in this game. players can set their own standard sizes for ships, and nothing says one size is better than another. And these are not super big ships compared to other things around on the forums. And the entire point of ships in space is to be self sufficient enough to travel to hostile systems and do their things.
In addition, you would need so many maintenance facilities to supply those ships that any kind of FOB is but a dream. The only merit I see in the warships is that they will take so long to build that you'd be able to restock the massive amount of minerals it takes to make them.Next update, you need the same amount of facilities to support these as equal tonnage of smaller ships. There are many more merits to build ships this large like, efficiency, toughness, and all-roundedness.
Since they're built with industry (well, unless one is a masochist with a million-ton commercial shipyard), they build pretty fast, actually. I had a high population, lots of construction industry; I could well afford to make it, and it built quickly - a year at most, I believe.
I agree on the self-mobility. I usually build them just the way you said, but I experimented here with engines on huge things.
Well, I used it like once, I think. In the home system. Salvaging one of those terraforming habitats after NPR forces shot it to bits. You've got a point about dedicated salvagers. If I put a salvager in a task group with freighters, they'll salvage to their cargo holds, right?
If I recall correctly, I was using those to haul resources from my operation one hop away to my home system. I definitely wanted the best fuel efficiency, and did not need much speed, provided the minerals got there regularly.
I don't really have a good benchmark for tugs. One thing I did was copy the intended victim for tugging, then add enough engines to make it go decently fast, then removed everything but what the tug needed. But that's cumbersome. Any good benchmarks for tugs?
I've found I rarely require to know about minerals in places where civilians can't go.
Well, they seemed OK for precursors and NPRs. I've not played with superspoilers yet. That said, understood.
I've not actually figured out how PD is set up. CIWS has the advantage of being fully automatic, where I don't know how to design and configure fleet-level PD.CIWS is fully automatic, but as said it works only on missiles (not fighters) and is inferior when in fleets.
I've always wondered why one would put more than 1 + backup fire controls. Are you saying that if I put more fire controls on a ship, it'll target more targets simultaneously?
Because thermal reduction reduces your thermal signature. Your own sensors on the cruisers can detect a 1000 signature at 25m km. That means a 6000 signature will be detected at 150m km. Using 50% thermal reduction, the 6000 is reduced to 3000, meaning it gets detected at 75m km. This is important if you want to get deep into enemy territory before you flip active sensors on so they are out of position.You have a larger one on the Dreadnought. There shouldn't be a reason you can put it on that and not your cruisers.Shield Strength - Recharge in seconds.
The biggest problem I see with those ships is that any decent shipyard will take at least 10 years to build most of your warships. Completely useless, considering I wouldn't put their lifespan at even 2 or 3 years, due to a mix of slow speed, CIWS, lack of redundancy, and just massive size.
In my opinion, you need to standardize the sizes so that they can be refitted into newer and better models, and make them much, much, much smaller. There are super large ships, but they are more like self sufficient planets with guns put on a bunch of rocket thrusters.
In addition, you would need so many maintenance facilities to supply those ships that any kind of FOB is but a dream. The only merit I see in the warships is that they will take so long to build that you'd be able to restock the massive amount of minerals it takes to make them.
Ok, I have a lot to write about this. First thing I'll say is, all these civilian ships can work. Military ones, not so much but I'll get to it. Also, depending on whether you RP or not, they can be acceptable. I'm going to give you suggestions on efficiency instead. Plus some general suggestions for combat ships.
Please accept this post with the spirit of constructive criticism
- The terraforming base is huge. Also, since terraforming bases generally move only once very long while, it's more efficient to build them without engines, and then tug them around. You can change the tug, and then move the base faster because the tug is faster. It's also probably more efficient to buy more smaller bases, instead of a single base with 200 modules. But if you RP, that's fine. Going to take forever to build though....
- Gigantus class Freighter: As before, it's really huge. Going to be very slow to build. I'm just going to say it in case you don't know but... You don't need a 100 cargo holds ship if you want to move large installations. Installations can be broken down in parts. You can just ferry them around over multiple trips. Still it can work if you want it. Less understandable, frankly, are the salvaging modules. You generally want dedicated salvagers, because that way the salvage ships can do their things, and the frieghters carry around what they're supposed to do. Would be a real waste to send one of these monsters on a salvaging mission.
- The Resilience freighter can work. Just as before, really slow. It obviously have maximum fuel efficiency, and huge range. However you probably don't need that much range, and you might need some faster cargo transfers. Using the best possible fuel efficiency is not always the best choice, unless you are truly starved for fuel. You want to strike a balance between range, fuel consumption and speed.
- The tug is ok, really big but ok. Just... you don't have a ship that big to carry around. Unless you want to use it to move the terraforming base? It's wasted for anything else, too big. It costs a lot of resources that can go elsewhere
- Tenax Propositi II class Freighter: Why cargo, troop bays and cryogenic berths on the same ship? If you want to move people, you'll need something with a LOT more than 10000 berths, and the troop bays are useless. If you want to move troops... you don't need the cryogenic berths or cargo. If you want to move cargo, you don't care about the other 2. Specialized ships are generally more efficient.
- The tanker, gravsurvey and geosurvey ships are ok. I'd put a jump engine on the geosurvey ship, else you can't move it easily to other systems. It's better if it's an independent ship, considering what it does.
- Your jump tender is also your gate constructor. That's not optimal. But well, supposing you have enough of them it can work. Personally, I'd still separate them into different ships.
-Let's start with big problem n.1. I'm looking at the cruisers and dreadnaught ships. These ships are SLOW. And I mean really slow. You have picked lasers as your weapon of choice, which means you HAVE to be faster than your opponent, or you will never be able to catch him and hit him. And preferrably, faster by a decent amount. For the solid core AM engine era, a beam warship should probably be moving at least at 15000 km/sec, that is triple of what you do now. According to my rough calculations, only about 10% of your ships is dedicated to engine space. That's way too low for a laser ship.
Generally, a good rule of thumb is between 25% and 40% of the ship dedicated to engines, depending on the ship mission. But 10% is way too low, and the speed shows it. The dreadnaught also uses commercial engines, which are a big no on military beam warships, for the aforementioned reason. Screw fuel efficiency, you need speed to catch your enemies, to close in fast to targets and kill them.
- Big problem n.2 is, your entire point defense is CIWS. That's really not good. First, CIWS ONLY shoot at missiles that target the ship they're on. If you have a fleet of 6 ships, then each ship will only be defended by its own CIWS. Second, CIWS do not shoot at fighters, small crafts or anything else. A much more effective PD for fleets is a layered approach, with laser and railgun turrets, and AMM. CIWS are much better left for civilian ships or ships who operate alone, away from your fleet. You may think that high armour and shields help with this, and it's true, but the fact remain you're using a lot more resources you should, in terms of minerals and build time. Also, neither shields nor armor can do anything against Mesons. So, if you face a meson equipped enemy, your only option is to kill it fast, and preferrably before it gets in close.
- You have almost no anti-fighter defenses at all on those ships. Your radar, with resolution 40, will most likely see fighters only after they start shooting at you, or just before. And while your turreted lasers may be fast enough to hit them, if those fighters are numerous and/or mesons you are in a very bad situation. Plus, with only 2 fire controls you can only shoot at 2 fighters at a time anyway.
Won't comment much on fighters and carriers, as they are previous generation ships. The dropship is kind of slow and huge, but it can work. One thing for the PDC, it has lasers. Which will not really work if your planet has atmosphere. you need mesons for that.
Why?Because thermal reduction reduces your thermal signature. Your own sensors on the cruisers can detect a 1000 signature at 25m km. That means a 6000 signature will be detected at 150m km. Using 50% thermal reduction, the 6000 is reduced to 3000, meaning it gets detected at 75m km. This is important if you want to get deep into enemy territory before you flip active sensors on so they are out of position.
Almost sure this was the largest fire control I could make. I can only make 4x/4x times normal.You have a larger one on the Dreadnought. There shouldn't be a reason you can put it on that and not your cruisers.
What do the numbers mean?Shield Strength - Recharge in seconds.
