Did you know?

[Sliverine]

i would think these forum rankings are based on post count no?

[Anthropoid]

Hmmph! . . . Galactic heroes . . . Posts not make one great [:D]

Luke Meets a Great Warrior

[Geroj]

Did you know that acceleration is based on number of engines and ship mass, but it is also related to reactor output? (without sufficient excess of energy you cant increase acceleration only with engines)

Did you know that hyperdrives will not travel at max speed if excess energy output is lower as needed (hyperdrives have statistic only for max speed and jumping time interval... unfortunately there is no info about needed power for max speed)

[Sliverine]

after the max speed portion of the graph the purple part will show you what is the warp speed of your ship and the energy used while in warp.

[Geroj]

yeah thats true but you will have that info only when you place hyperdrive and reactor with sufficient power output in design... if the excess energy output is lower than needed for max warp you have to palce another reactor and then charcteristic will show amount of energy needed for max warp

that info is not hard to obtain but it will be handy to have it without experiments (in my case i never check max warp speed and when i find out that my ships are slow while warping i assumed that this info will help also others [:)] )

[Fishman]

ORIGINAL: Geroj

Did you know that acceleration is based on number of engines and ship mass, but it is also related to reactor output? (without sufficient excess of energy you cant increase acceleration only with engines)

Acceleration isn't dependant on reactor output directly, but you need excess output equal to the maximum draw of the drives on full burn. Otherwise your thrusters don't fire and become useless deadweight that serve no function on your ship. This is an extremely unusual condition, however, since unless your ship is monstrously huge, conventional thrusters pretty much never draw as much power as your hyperdrive.

[Sliverine]

another did you know: that if you put med and recreation facilities on a star base and built that starbase on a planet via the planets interface, the bonuses will not be applied? Only way for planets to get bonus is via a spaceport equipped with said structures.

[Fishman]

That's supposed to be fixed in the next patch.

[Drusek]

Did you know that...
1. Your escort ships can be much bigger than capitals. That way you can stick with only one class for your main military ship from the beginning of the game and just retrofit to later and bigger designs. You can start with capital with size of 100 or end up with escort with size of 2000.
2. Spaceports build on planets don't need ANY cargo bay to be fully functional.
3. Spaceports build on planets need ONLY ONE mandatory fuel component.
4. Building some small spaceport on planets without any, with resort and medical component is very lucrative for your empire.
5. Star bases just need only one reactor and the rest of energy should be acquired from energy collectors.
6. Give your non-military ships shields and set their orders to evade stronger and standoff weaker enemies and only escape when shields are down to 50% - that way they will not run when it's not really necessary.

[Fishman]

[/b]1. Your escort ships can be much bigger than capitals. That way you can stick with only one class for your main military ship from the beginning of the game and just retrofit to later and bigger designs. You can start with capital with size of 100 or end up with escort with size of 2000.

Don't do that with escorts. That pirate thing will murder you.

6. Give your non-military ships shields and set their orders to evade stronger and standoff weaker enemies and only escape when shields are down to 50% - that way they will not run when it's not really necessary.

I set them to fight to the death, otherwise we'll never get those old crappy versions scrapped. Plus, if you set them to run away, they tend to fail their missions, and the entire mass gets confused.

[Drusek]

Don't do that with escorts. That pirate thing will murder you.

I actually only use capitals with 200 size at the beginning.

I set them to fight to the death, otherwise we'll never get those old crappy versions scrapped. Plus, if you set them to run away, they tend to fail their missions, and the entire mass gets confused.

That way to many can actually die and I don't give private ships any weapons (except miners maybe). I prefer for them to run vs being destroyed that way the cargo is still there and can be delivered if not to original destination then somewhere else.
Also private ships do tend to retrofit themselves. Early in game when there were already like 20-30 cargo ships I redesigned all cargo ships (for more cargo space, engines, shields, armor, etc) and suddenly most of the old ones come to my starting planet (only one with (big) spaceport at that time) and started to retrofit themselves - I had pretty long waiting line...

[Fishman]

ORIGINAL: Drusek

That way to many can actually die and I don't give private ships any weapons (except miners maybe).

Well, SOME die, but most of those who die are badly obsolete. Having them run all the time, however, does nothing to eliminate the tiresome cause of the thing which is making them run. Equipping them with battlecruiser broadsides does.

ORIGINAL: Drusek

Also private ships do tend to retrofit themselves. Early in game when there were already like 20-30 cargo ships I redesigned all cargo ships (for more cargo space, engines, shields, armor, etc) and suddenly most of the old ones come to my starting planet (only one with (big) spaceport at that time) and started to retrofit themselves - I had pretty long waiting line...

Well, SOME of them do. There's always a bunch of holdouts that for some reason refuse to, and I've seen the same crappy ships that the game started with still in service at the very end. The attrition rate of the obsolete junkers went up significantly when I armed bases with wave-blasters to repel mass-transport-swarms: The old junkers that didn't mount enough shielding to resist tended to get caught and pulverized.

[Sliverine]

i dont think u can build starports without any cargo component for that matter. even the smallest starport with med and recreational facilities will cost 1.5k+ and be almost 900 in terms of upkeep...well at least for mine which i designed with 3 shields and armor and no weapons. lol

[Drusek]

ORIGINAL: Sliverine

i dont think u can build starports without any cargo component for that matter.

You can - I do build them like that.

even the smallest starport with med and recreational facilities will cost 1.5k+ and be almost 900 in terms of upkeep...well at least for mine which i designed with 3 shields and armor and no weapons. lol

Yes it will cost ~1k but I do think it is worth it. When they fix the problem that resort and medical don't work for the planet on other bases than spaceports then we can make even cheaper ones - w/o the construction components.

[Sliverine]

oh? ah yea...u need a docking component not a cargo one. i think i messed it up somehow =X

and yes...the starbase issue has to be fixed.

and btw, if u ever find a planet with korabbian spice or stuff like that, just make a starbase with loads of mining and cargo + basic defense and stuff and make them on the planet. The only problem being that since its not a mine, there cld be pathing issues with the freighters not coming as regularly to pick up the stuff. They need to make it such that commerce components attract freighters at the very least...

[ookeek]

Obvious one that took me a while to figure out:  The blue circle icon next to some of your systems in the sector view indicates that ships can refuel there.  I guess the symbol in the blue circle is an oil barrel.

[lostsm]

hey galactic hero!!   you have gone so quiet

was the tip about troop transports and not having to babysit them?


this thread is [X(][:D]

[Wicky]

ORIGINAL: lostsm

hey galactic hero!!   you have gone so quiet

was the tip about troop transports and not having to babysit them?

this thread is [X(][:D]

Yep! You got it. Troop Transports was the nr.1 matter of my tip.
Since you guessed it right, I might as well explain it... you know you can design escorts with size 1500 and cap ships with size 200? Yeah you knew that... but did you also know you can design a ship as explorer with 50 weapons instead of a resource sensor, but then it will randomly try to explore enemy planets? And if you also set it's agressive mode to use "all weapons in range, flee at 20% shield" and it will try to raid enemy mining stations one after the other, until intercepted, and it will go back to repair/refuel, then keep on raiding enemy stations? Well well, it's all about what the AI does.

So, basically my tip is designing a troop transport in a special way. It will have it's primary goal set to load troops, then go idle. But we don't have to design it as a troop transport, do we? Hehe, of course not: a battleship with loads of weapons would be a much better design for a troop transport.

Let me explain the major problem of capturing enemy planets in a galaxy with 20 races with 80+ planets each: You have to micro your fleets (limited to 10), select individual troop transports to reload and capture, refuel them, repair them, wait for one single ship to refuel while the rest of your fleet is waiting.

So here is my "galactic hero" tip of the day: Scrap all your military ships. All of them Just redesign every ship as troop transport. Those ships will load troops, refuel and repair then go into Idle mode, when they are ready for action, waiting to be picked up with the "I" (idle) key.
And while normal military ships like escorts seem to be busy with patrolling mining stations which are already armed, you will now experience a totally new game, I call it "ping-pong".

Ping: you order loads of troop transport, which are really battleships.
They are now under AI command when built, will load some troops, refuel, and then wait. The AI does "pong" and puts them in the "idle" pool when finished.

Ping: you press the "I" key and everytime you press it, you select a fully ready for battle ship, and order it to capture a planet... maybe press I one time for capturing an outpost, 2 times for a developed planet and 4 times for a capital enemy planet.
Pong: The AI will now assign all those ships to capture the planet, destroy the spaceport and all vehicles around it, and when it's finished it sends you the message "colony captured".

At this point, you only have to order a s/m/l spaceport at this planet, drag a rectangle around your manual ships nearby and press "A" to put them back into automation mode. This means you don't have to care about anything anymore. The AI will automatically load excessive troops from the capture back onto the ships, they will repair/refuel, and reload lost troops at other next nearest colonies (coz that is their prime directive)

Basically all your troop transport will end up in the "idle" pool sooner or later, even those who have long battles behind them, or those which have been newly built. All you have to do is wait of them to gain in numbers. You assign them a task, and put them back into automation mode when you receive the message that their task is complete With this trick, I was able to capture like 50 planets per month with as little as 2 clicks per enemy planet.

In my current game, I have 0 escorts, 0 destroyers and 0 cap ships. But i have 200 troop transports. Each one has 95% weapons and shields, armors etc and just three or four troops. When I see a planet I want, I just press: I + rclick
This will select the nearest idle ship and attack the planet. Because troop transports only idle when fully loaded and refueled, it was always a fully battle-read ship which has been given the order.
Some minutes later I get a message, planet captured! I respond by building a small spaceport and put the ships around the planet back into automation. I don't care that it loads troops and refuels, all that matters is then when it is ready for battle again, it will be available in the idle pool by pressing "I" again.
If its a capital planet, I'd just press I+rclick+I+rclick... on it a couply of times and lots of "so-called troop transports" will engage in battle, wipe out the spaceport and land their troops...

And best of all, did you know whenever a ship is destroyed by enemy forces, the game will instantly queue a new one in your shipyards? And of course, because this ship is also a troop transport, and it's prime directive is also to load troops, refuel/repair first and then go into the idle pool too, you don't have to spend 1 second thinking about capturing planets.

[Gertjan]

Interesting use of troopships, but don't miliatry ships with troop components do the same thing on automation, ie load troops?

[Wicky]

Yep they both load troops.

Let's assume Gertjan, I invite you to my home to watch how it works, ok? You enter my room, and see me playing Distant Worlds.

I scroll randomly around the map, and zoom in on an enemy system. I press i+rclick on each of the four colonies in the system, for a total of 8 mouseclick-equivalents. Then I zoom out and go to another part of the galaxy.
*You: WTF was that?
*Me: I just ordered to capture those 4 planets.
*You: But you didn't look what ships you sent there.
*Me: No need, everytime I click "i" it selects a refueled, battle-ready ship with 3 troops.
*You: Ah, I see.

Some minutes later I go into the ship construction screen, scroll around a bit and exit it again.
*You: Didn't you order any more ships? Aren't you replacing the ones which you lost?
*Me: Nop, the AI automatically enqueues replacement ships when one is lost in battle.
*You: Ok.

Some minutes later, a msg pops out at the right side "Colony conquered". I click on it, thus zooming to the planet. I order a small spaceport, select all nearby ships and press the "A" button.
*You: WHAT THE HELL? Why don't you pick up the excess troups left on the planet from conquering??
*Me: No need. Those are troop transports, their primary directive is to pick up troops, and since this planet is nearest, and they were just put on automatic, they will retrieve them all. Then they will return to other near colonies to replenish any lost troops from battle if needed.
*You: (facepalms self)
*Me: And then they will go back into idle mode, waiting to be picked up with the "i" key again for the next target.
*You: (spills foam out of his mouth)

Some seconds later I zoom onto the capital enemy planet.
*You: Nice tactic, but how will you capture this planet! This is far too strong for one meager troopship!
*Me: Simple, watch any enjoy:
I press i+rclick and repeat 4 times.
*Me: Now the next nearest five ships will attack the planet together and land all their troops.

*You: Wow, impressive. Some more questions, why do you always get battle-ready ships which have troops loaded full when you press "i" ? I mean, it could also be an empty ship, or a ship without fuel, or an explorer?
*Me: Because I keep my idle pool clean. All constructors/explorers are set to auto. All troop ships are automated and won't be available to select with "i" until they are fully loaded with troops and refueled/repaired. And I don't have any stupid military ships, patrolling mining stations which are armed, anyway.
*You: Wow, you captured over 50 enemy colonies in less than 2 minutes! And it took you only a handful of mouseclicks! Thinking that I would have wasted 7 hours of micro-managing my fleets doing this, YOU ARE MY GALACTIC HERO !!!!
*Me: This was my tip of the day. Enjoy.


Of course this was just a small part of my tip, in reality its a huge lot more complex! You need to study the AI and spend dozens of hours watching what each ship does, but with this example you should be able to get you going.