Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread: C# Edition

[alex_g]

One problem might be that your turrets was way overkill for the smaller salvos of AMM. Each turret can only engage ONE salvo at a time. It is often more efficient to use smaller gauss cannons so you don't overkill salvos as frequently. If you had 18 quad 50% sized quad turrets those salvos of 4 missiles would probably produce much less overkill.

Yup, you're right and thanks for clearing that up. I got the idea that PD weapons can fire at multiple salvos from the C# changes list, but after seeing that post now, I realized it was only talking about the PD BFC which can fire at multiple salvos, not the weapon itself. Well, back to the drawing board then.

I also think that nine total turrets in a fleet probably is a bit small, unless your fleet was small.

I had 37 ships in that fleet. Out of those, 18 had defensive priorities, the 9 ships with quad gauss cannons I mentioned earlier and 9 AMM ships. I also had 9 missile cruisers (ASM ships), 4 light cruisers (laser weapons), 4 carriers and 2 sensor ships. And yes, in the heat of the battle I forgot to deploy my fighters aboard the carrier to help with the PD.

How do you manage your fleet compositions? How much PD do you allocate for your fleet?

Armour is also a pretty good way to soak AMM as well if that is your intention... but that works best on really large ships who can afford many layers of armour.

You also can keep some of your own AMM in store and shoot them at the enemy ships rather than their AMM, that will force them to shoot at your AMM rather than your ships and you will eventually drain their AMM storage. You also can withhold firing ASM until you are really close of you carry ASM  which also will keep their AMM busy shooting at them instead.

Their ASMs out-ranged my ASMs, but by the time I reached my ASM range they had depleted their missiles without any damage to my fleet so my intention was to get as close as possible before starting to shoot the ASMs so they'd get the least tracking bonus and have less time to react. Since they ran out of ASMs I assumed I'd be safe at about 2m kms to fire my ASMs. That's when their AMM bombardment started, my thought was: 'Hmm, if I was able to easily destroy all their ASMs why shouldn't I wait for them to deplete all their AMMs as well and then I'll just go in and destroy them with my laser weapons, or even better board them'.

That was wrong, even though their AMMs only had 1 damage, they were much faster than the ASMs and I had to use 2 missiles instead of 1 per missile which made my ammo run out even faster and then the escort ships holding the gauss turrets started failing due to lack of MSP and more and more damage was coming through. By the time I realized that I'm in trouble and started launching my ASMs some of my ships were already damaged and a couple more of their volleys were underway as well. It was too late.

This was the first big combat engagement I've had in the game, and it caught me unprepared. But I've learned from it and I'm learning even more discussing about it now on the forum. Thanks for your input!

[captainwolfer]

I also think that nine total turrets in a fleet probably is a bit small, unless your fleet was small.

I had 37 ships in that fleet. Out of those, 18 had defensive priorities, the 9 ships with quad gauss cannons I mentioned earlier and 9 AMM ships. I also had 9 missile cruisers (ASM ships), 4 light cruisers (laser weapons), 4 carriers and 2 sensor ships. And yes, in the heat of the battle I forgot to deploy my fighters aboard the carrier to help with the PD.

How do you manage your fleet compositions? How much PD do you allocate for your fleet?

Armour is also a pretty good way to soak AMM as well if that is your intention... but that works best on really large ships who can afford many layers of armour.

You also can keep some of your own AMM in store and shoot them at the enemy ships rather than their AMM, that will force them to shoot at your AMM rather than your ships and you will eventually drain their AMM storage. You also can withhold firing ASM until you are really close of you carry ASM  which also will keep their AMM busy shooting at them instead.

Their ASMs out-ranged my ASMs, but by the time I reached my ASM range they had depleted their missiles without any damage to my fleet so my intention was to get as close as possible before starting to shoot the ASMs so they'd get the least tracking bonus and have less time to react. Since they ran out of ASMs I assumed I'd be safe at about 2m kms to fire my ASMs. That's when their AMM bombardment started, my thought was: 'Hmm, if I was able to easily destroy all their ASMs why shouldn't I wait for them to deplete all their AMMs as well and then I'll just go in and destroy them with my laser weapons, or even better board them'.

That was wrong, even though their AMMs only had 1 damage, they were much faster than the ASMs and I had to use 2 missiles instead of 1 per missile which made my ammo run out even faster and then the escort ships holding the gauss turrets started failing due to lack of MSP and more and more damage was coming through. By the time I realized that I'm in trouble and started launching my ASMs some of my ships were already damaged and a couple more of their volleys were underway as well. It was too late.

This was the first big combat engagement I've had in the game, and it caught me unprepared. But I've learned from it and I'm learning even more discussing about it now on the forum. Thanks for your input!

Personally, my fleet design is as follows:
Cruiser Squadron (CruRon)
- 1x 24,000 ton Jump cruiser (Jump drive with 4 ship squadron jump, 6x dual gauss-67 turrets)
- 3x 24,000 ton Cruisers (30x 0.3 size 6 missile launchers, 2 dual gauss-67 turrets)
Destroyer Squadron (DesRon)
- 1x 12,000 ton Jump Destroyer (Jump drive with 4 ship squadron jump, 2x dual gauss-67 turrets)
- 3x 12,000 ton Destroyer (10 AMM launchers, 4 particle beams)

I try to always pair a CruRon with a DesRon, so a total of 14 dual gauss turrets per fleet minimum, with the gauss cannons being the 67% size version.
So excluding carriers, if I had a fleet of similar size to yours, that would be 4 Cruiser Squadrons and 4 Destroyer squadrons, for a total of 56 dual gauss turrets and 120 amm tubes (3,756 AMMs in magazines)

Admittedly, even that many gauss turrets wouldn’t have been enough to totally stop that many AMMs.

[Borealis4x]

Will the AI launch AMM's at a missile even if its not going to hit it?

I want to use 'saturation' MIRV multistage missiles to get the AI to waste all its AMMs before striking with my carrier bombers and don't want to waste space on the 2nd-stage size-1 missiles on agility.

Also, will the AI always use 3 AMMs to intercept 1 missile?

[captainwolfer]

Will the AI launch AMM's at a missile even if its not going to hit it?

I want to use 'saturation' MIRV multistage missiles to get the AI to waste all its AMMs before striking with my carrier bombers and don't want to waste space on the 2nd-stage size-1 missiles on agility.

Also, will the AI always use 3 AMMs to intercept 1 missile?

I would not rely on trying to run the enemy out of AMMs. It may work against NPR ships, but AMM bases often have large stockpiles of AMMs on the planet. However, as far as I know the AI will always shoot AMM at incoming missiles

[Borealis4x]

Is there a danger to expanding so slowly NPRs you encounter will outmatch you completely? From what I understand, they don't exist from the start of the game and instead have a percentage chance of randomly generating every time you enter a new system with a habitable planet.

[Elvin]

Is there a danger to expanding so slowly NPRs you encounter will outmatch you completely? From what I understand, they don't exist from the start of the game and instead have a percentage chance of randomly generating every time you enter a new system with a habitable planet.

If you started with 0 NPRs in the galaxy, then yes you are right - any you meet will be generated and will be within some threshold of your current "power". The exact upper (and maybe lower?) bounds are determined by the difficulty setting for the game, I believe.

[Borealis4x]

Which Ground Officer skills effect STO weapons?

Are they different for anti-ship STO and PD STOs?

And how is the weight of an STO weapon calculated? They are heavier in the ship design menu.

[Lord Solar]

Which Ground Officer skills effect STO weapons?

Are they different for anti-ship STO and PD STOs?

And how is the weight of an STO weapon calculated? They are heavier in the ship design menu.

Tactical bonus. Nope.
From the C# changes list: The STO mount includes the weapon, a reactor of the exact size needed for the recharge rate, an active sensor with range greater than the weapon range and a built-in beam fire control with a 4x range modifier.
Beam Fire Control: For normal weapons, this will be created using options for 4x Racial Fire Control Range and 1x Racial Tracking Speed. If the Point Defence Weapon checkbox is clicked, the fire control will be created using options for 1x Racial Fire Control Range and 4x Racial Tracking Speed. In all cases, the beam fire control will have a 25% range bonus vs a ship-mounted equivalent. The cost and size of the fire control will be 50% of the ship version due to its dedication to a single weapon.

Active Sensor: This sensor will be resolution 1 and have range at least equal to the maximum range of the weapon. The minimum size will be 5 tons. The sensor is fully functional and will detect targets in general, not just for the weapon. Size and cost are normal.

Reactor: This component will be designed to generate sufficient power for the weapons capacitor. Size and cost are normal.

ECCM: This is optional and can be added by checking Include ECCM checkbox. Size is 50 tons and cost is half normal to reflect the dedication to a single weapon.
It might have more modifiers that aren't listed.

[davidr]

I have great difficulty Terraforming Planets to a CC of 0.

I have colonies on Mars and on Barnards Star A-II which are taking gazillion years to bring the CC down.

Can anyone give pointers on the optimum way to approach Terraforming planets.Also I am using non-armoured Terraforming Stations each with 2 Terraform modules on board which are tractored to the relevant planet to commence their work  ( Each Terraforming Station is approx 56,000 tons ) . How many of these modules do you think I should provide at each planet ? I know that the replies will also depend on the Technology rate  researched but a general idea would be appreciated.

[db48x]

I have great difficulty Terraforming Planets to a CC of 0.

I have colonies on Mars and on Barnards Star A-II which are taking gazillion years to bring the CC down.

Can anyone give pointers on the optimum way to approach Terraforming planets.Also I am using non-armoured Terraforming Stations each with 2 Terraform modules on board which are tractored to the relevant planet to commence their work  ( Each Terraforming Station is approx 56,000 tons ) . How many of these modules do you think I should provide at each planet ? I know that the replies will also depend on the Technology rate  researched but a general idea would be appreciated.

2 modules is going to be slow indeed. Aim higher! Go for 100 modules total; it's a nice round number. You can probably make your stations larger too; go for 20 modules each to start.

[Lord Solar]

I have great difficulty Terraforming Planets to a CC of 0.

I have colonies on Mars and on Barnards Star A-II which are taking gazillion years to bring the CC down.

Can anyone give pointers on the optimum way to approach Terraforming planets.Also I am using non-armoured Terraforming Stations each with 2 Terraform modules on board which are tractored to the relevant planet to commence their work  ( Each Terraforming Station is approx 56,000 tons ) . How many of these modules do you think I should provide at each planet ? I know that the replies will also depend on the Technology rate  researched but a general idea would be appreciated.

Since I guess you are probably on early tech and early game; it is good to have a few dozen terraforming modules in orbit so that terraforming does not take forever.
Early game terraforming can takes decades easily; it might be a good idea to start with smaller planets or ones that are part way there already so that it is faster.
Stacking Production admins with Terraforming bonus officers can help too.

[davidr]

Thanks all.

db-483x 

I only put 2 modules per terrarform unit as the tugs would not be able to haul a station with any more.

Looks as if I will have to ramp up the number of terraforming stations in orbit of a planet. Currently Ihave around 5-6 stations per planet .

[nuclearslurpee]

Thanks all.

db-483x 

I only put 2 modules per terrarform unit as the tugs would not be able to haul a station with any more.

Looks as if I will have to ramp up the number of terraforming stations in orbit of a planet. Currently Ihave around 5-6 stations per planet .

Tugs can pull any size of station. The only effect of size is that the mass of the towed object is added to that of the tug for the purpose of calculating speed, and by extension fuel range.

I usually put 5 TF modules on my stations to keep the size in that 120-130k ton range, mainly because I like to be able to build stations out of shipyards instead of using valuable factory time if I can especially early in the game.

[davidr]

nuclearslurpee,

If I designed a Terraforming Station with 5 modules weighing 12ok-130k then my Tugs would be travelling at a snails pace and take years to reach their destination , especially when traversing Jump points. Designing bigger Tugs with bigger engines and fuel capacity would just mean a never ending saga of spending more minerals and fuel on even bigger shipyards , which themselves take ages to reach the desired capacity.

Looks like I will stick with 2 modules per Station , build more of them and more Tugs to handle the increased numbers of Stations , especially when they will all need to be moved once a Planet has been completely terraformed.

[nuclearslurpee]

Personally I start my tugs at 40k tons. You can easily put a tractor beam, some fuel, and 30+ ktons of engines on them and they will still tug a 120k ton station around at a decent clip.