Hello. I'm still learning Aurora and have a question. Whether you're using beam or missile units for JP defense, how do you deal with the crew morale and maintenance cycles. Do you have mother ships that have the facilities on board that take care of these items, or do you have to collect them and take them back to a planet.
Thanks
I like use small beam task groups as pickets if I know an NPR is on the other side. Their primary purpose is to take out enemy jump scouts and gate construction ships that come my direction. I either use a single frigate, or a small squadron of 3-5 FAC. Ships I intend to use for picket duty have 12+ month deployment times, and 4+ year maintenance lives. Every year or so when they exceed deployment time I order the existing pickets back to the nearest colony for overhaul, and send fresh pickets forward.
In my last game I tried using carrier-deployed fighter pickets, but discovered that carriers make the crew moral situation worse if the carrier intended deployment time is shorter than the picket intended deployment time. In the end, my carriers ended up dropping off fresh fighters and then collected the previous bunch to take back to the nearest colony for rest and recreation.
