Twelve Colonies Comments Thread

[Destragon]

Hey Steve, maybe it won't work with the 2.0 database, but I would love to know what that huge galactic map looks like when you view it in the map tab of this utility:
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12292.0

[nuclearslurpee]

A lot of things happening on a lot of fronts, the galaxy is clearly very busy even if individual fronts are moving more slowly as a result of the compressed timeframes and increasingly thin Colonial deployments.

Possible bug note: in one screenshot of the Aeolus encounter, there is a Dragonscale-class freighter labeled as "FT-00" this looks like a class series number gone wrong? Should either be the proper series number or just omitted if series numbering is turned off for the freighter class?

I note with interest that near the end of the update we see the Colonial Marines transition from 5,000-ton battalions to 20,000-ton regiments as the base combat formation. I wonder what has motivated this, is this a needed change to combat a shortage of leaders or just to cut down on micromanagement?

The galaxy map is looking quite involved now - and it should, after 15 years I think this is one of Steve's longest-running C# campaigns? Certainly out of the TN start campaigns at least. I'm hoping that we start to see survey ships finding multiple routes into different parts of the alien empires to really turn up the strategic tension!

[Kiero]

Question:
What would happen if a player would try to capture the raider ship by boarding, but before that happen raider ship would transit to their home system. Then the marines take the ship. Can they get back or are they stranded in the raider system?

[Bremen]

I wonder how fighter supplies are, and if maybe the Colonies could make up for their lack of Battlestars by replacing colony garrisons with fighter squadrons (maybe supplemented by ground units). Particularly the older, slower fighters.

[Garfunkel]

Steve's already doing that to an extent - he noted that some colonies had Marine regiments and independent Viper squadrons.

Time to bring the fight to the Stave! Nice to see the AI consolidating fleets, or at least trying to do so.

[nakorkren]

Steve (or others with fighter experience), you commented in the update thread that one group of fighters were highly trained and experienced almost no delay in targeting/retargeting. How did they achieve that high training? Did you actively train them, or did they accumulate it through time and combat experience?

I'm accumulating fighters while my carriers are out working (fighting) and I tried training the fighters. They ran out of fuel almost immediately, even when I tried the somewhat hokey trick of putting a slower ship in the fleet. I could add a tanker, but they'd still be burning through fuel at an insane rate.

EDIT: right after I posted this, I realized that you may be training the fighters while they're docked in the carrier. If that's the case, please confirm.

[nuclearslurpee]

EDIT: right after I posted this, I realized that you may be training the fighters while they're docked in the carrier. If that's the case, please confirm.

I can confirm that this doesn't really help. The fighters simply drain fuel from the carrier in this case, so you will not run out of fuel as quickly but still often enough that it is very annoying to try and train them.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

They have been active long enough for the background fleet training to take effect.

[skoormit]

EDIT: right after I posted this, I realized that you may be training the fighters while they're docked in the carrier. If that's the case, please confirm.

I can confirm that this doesn't really help. The fighters simply drain fuel from the carrier in this case, so you will not run out of fuel as quickly but still often enough that it is very annoying to try and train them.

Would adding a big tanker to the fleet, set to "refuel own fleet" help with this?

[nuclearslurpee]

Would adding a big tanker to the fleet, set to "refuel own fleet" help with this?

Possibly. I'm not sure (1) how the order would interact with the training mission, and (2) if it would be fast enough. You also still have the problem of maintenance failures blowing up fighters if they're not in a hangar.

[Garfunkel]

Make a training command, put fighters inside a carrier, move carrier under the training command with a tanker set to refuel own fleet.

[ZimRathbone]

Make a training command, put fighters inside a carrier, move carrier under the training command with a tanker set to refuel own fleet.

also add a Supply ship set to Resupply own fleet (handles the maint failures assuming that all ships have at least enough MSP to repair the largest component on each ship).  I usually set this up for all my major fleets, and have these as a separate sub-fleet (along with an ammo collier) that can be detached before advancing into combat.  You do have to reset the Supply ship status periodically (at least after every save) as for some reason the status keeps reverting to No Resupply.

[nakorkren]

I started a new thread to address the fighter training fuel cost discussion, so we can continue that conversation without taking the Twelve Colonies Comments thread on too big a tangent.

Looking forward to the next story update!