Hi all! My first time commenting in this thread, so I'll update you on the status of the universe from my perspective.
I've encountered another species. The one and only other species so far. It appears that they are VASTLY behind me in tech. I would make peace with them, as I see no need to eliminate them. . . except that they live close enough to my homeworld (Earth) that they keep trying to send ships through it, and also making suicide runs against Earth. They do this often enough that my diplomacy team can't get them to neutral on their side.
As such, I am going to take them out.
I spent a long time trying to find their homeworld, because it wasn't exactly clear where they were coming from. I'm a new enough player that I questioned where they came from, despite seeing which gate that they came through. This was primarily because the gate they came through led to a dead end. I tried surveying the area again, but did not know that I had to reset the survey (and couldn't find a button that suggested I could - Thanks for fixing this in 6. 3 Steve!). Once I finally managed to reset the survey, my survey ship found the jump point. . .
The problem is that as soon as they found it, my jump gate construction ship ran over to build a gate. This was fine for my side of the jump point. . . but for some reason still unknown to me, my gate ship decided to go through the newly built gate and build a gate on the other side of this UNEXPLORED jump point. So far as I know, no one is supposed to go through unless ordered.
Anyway, since my gate ship went through, I sent my primary fleet in too.
My primary fleet consists of:
1 supercarrier (84,000 ton beast that holds 45 bombers, 20 PD missile launchers on 4 FCs, a quad laser turret, and enough missiles to take out a planet)
2 missile cruisers (~30,000 tons - 160m km range 8WH missiles)
2 destroyers (~20,000 tons - 4 dual laser turrets, 2 fire controls)
4 frigates (~15,000 tons - 2 single laser turrets)
4 escorts (~13,000 tons - point defense, 2 launchers, 1 FC)
Of course, I realized just after I clicked 5 seconds, that my primary fleet was now TRAPPED in that system until the gate was completed. This also happened to be their home system. Fortunately, I have a massive tech advantage. My missiles are 160m km range, theirs are about 40m km. Their active sensors are just 600k km, mine are almost a billion. My laser range is 128k km, theirs is very very short.
In fact, up until recently, I hadn't lost a single ship. The initial engagements were primarily at extreme range. Missiles and bombers hitting them. I eventually ran out of my anti-ship missiles. This means we have to get closer.
As a result of getting closer, they actually launched some missiles at me, which scared the hell out of me. They came at me with 136 "fast" attack craft ("fast" because they moved at about 1/4 my carrier's speed). These launched 136 salvos of 2 missiles each! These missiles were fairly slow (~6000 km/s) and my carrier moves about 4500 and is the slowest warship in my fleet. I immediately turned to match their course to make certain I had maximum time to shoot down the missiles. I ran my escorts and PD systems on the carrier at FULL capacity (I even phased them so I was firing every 5 seconds), and managed to shoot down every. last. one. Thankfully, my PD missiles had a 100% chance to hit every time. When I finished, I chased down the ships that had fired them at me. Destroying those 136 ships was a test of patience, but a very satisfying result.
Their latest wave is where I have had some issues. They are still slow, but they seem better armed. Not in range, mind you, but in power. I got too close, and in one barrage from 3 ships, they had destroyed one of my frigates. Breached my shields and armor. . . and destroyed the whole ship in one 5 second pulse. They must have had a dozen beams on the ship. That explains the slow speed and the 600k km active sensors. Anyway, I won't make that mistake again. I am only attacking them from outside 50k km now. They can't even touch me out there.
Anyway, that's the news from Mu Cassiopeia.
I love the depth this game presents.