First STO design - am I missing anything?

[Jovus (OP)]

Code: [Select]

Shore Battery
Transport Size: 999 tons
Build Cost: 476.7 BP
2x 6S1 18.74cm NUV Laser Battery
1x 6S1"Paladin" Gauss PD
1x Supply Truck Detachment
1x 4L1 "Vargr" Company HQ
3x MP

Do I need to provide something like MSP? Contrariwise, is the GSP redundant or unnecessary? I know the PWL infantry's mostly useless; it's there for RP purposes.

[Froggiest1982]

Code: [Select]

Shore Battery
Transport Size: 999 tons
Build Cost: 476.7 BP
2x 6S1 18.74cm NUV Laser Battery
1x 6S1"Paladin" Gauss PD
1x Supply Truck Detachment
1x 4L1 "Vargr" Company HQ
3x MP

Do I need to provide something like MSP? Contrariwise, is the GSP redundant or unnecessary? I know the PWL infantry's mostly useless; it's there for RP purposes.

What is MP?

you don't need any supply for STO's unless in the STO formation you have included non-STOs units that could participate in the ground combat phase.

It is also not completely uncommon, to do not have even HQs in STOs formations.

I would also have the PD separated by the actual Anti Ship systems to be fair.

[Jovus (OP)]

MPs are PWL infantry. Military police, used for cheap unrest suppression and, in this instance, roleplay.

I know a lot of people use larger units for ground combat - is that useful for STOs as well? I'm using smaller units on the assumption that they're harder to hit, and if a ground unit gets hit by an orbital weapon it's probably dead anyway.

[AlStar]

Given how STOs operate in-game, it makes sense to divide your anti-ship STOs and your anti-missile STOs into different groups; otherwise you'll have to give the unit different orders depending on what you need them to target, which, while not horrible, is that much more micromanagement that you're giving yourself.

[nuclearslurpee]

Given how STOs operate in-game, it makes sense to divide your anti-ship STOs and your anti-missile STOs into different groups; otherwise you'll have to give the unit different orders depending on what you need them to target, which, while not horrible, is that much more micromanagement that you're giving yourself.

STO targeting orders are given on a per-element basis, not a per-formation basis. If you have anti-ship and PD weapons in the same formation they can each target independently, so once you set them up they require no further management.

OP: The bigger issue here is that, with only 2 STO elements (totaling 3 units) per formation, giving those orders will be a lot of micromanagement to setup since you'll likely need a large number of formations to get appreciable defensive firepower. I would recommend using larger formation sizes, at least 5,000 tons if not larger, in order to reduce the micromanagement, and it is a good practice anyways.

[Andrew]

MPs are PWL infantry. Military police, used for cheap unrest suppression and, in this instance, roleplay.

I know a lot of people use larger units for ground combat - is that useful for STOs as well? I'm using smaller units on the assumption that they're harder to hit, and if a ground unit gets hit by an orbital weapon it's probably dead anyway.

The unit size makes no difference to hit chances, ships fire at individual STO Units so a STO Unit with 20 heavy lasers and 10 units with 2 heavy Lasers each are just as easy to hit . And as others have said the larger units are easier to manage

[Jovus (OP)]

Thanks all. The tips about formation sizes, management, and chance to hit especially seem useful. I was planning on wrapping these in larger formation sizes, e.g. organizing these 'companies' into 'battalions' and possibly those 'battalions' into 'regiments'. Were I to do that, would I still end up with the same management nightmare?

[Andrew]

Yes
You will set targeting at the unit size, better to build a battalion by making it one unit rather than 5 companies. Build the unit at the size you can transport and the minimum unit you would deploy to a colony

[boolybooly]

Something I have taken to doing to boost quick production is build single STO units in parallel and then integrate them into formations later.

e.g. say ten ground forces construction complexes making ten formations with ten units each, it will take a few years, during which time they cannot be deployed but you can make one complete formation in a tenth of the time. Which helps swift deployment and building with latest tech advances.

[nuclearslurpee]

Something I have taken to doing to boost quick production is build single STO units in parallel and then integrate them into formations later.

e.g. say ten ground forces construction complexes making ten formations with ten units each, it will take a few years, during which time they cannot be deployed but you can make one complete formation in a tenth of the time. Which helps swift deployment and building with latest tech advances.

This is no longer necessary or useful since the change to ground unit construction in 2.2+. You can build one full-size formation using 100% of your construction capacity so there is no need to build the smaller formations and combine them.

[Garfunkel]

 The only reason now to do that is if you're relying on fighter-sized troop transports which are obviously highly limited in transportation space. For all normal purposes, nuclearslurpee is correct.