MOO1: Your kind of ships?

[neutrino]

Neutrino: Never took much time w/ the torpedos, didnt like waiting every other turn...

Other great special combo for later in the game is the neutronium field projector & ion stream = effects every ship in the stack at the same time, instead of killing the top, then the next and so on. It's been 10 years so my terminology may be off... First hit 'em w/ the shield/armor reducer, then w/ the hit point reducer. finish 'em off w/ the tachyon stream or some other streaming weapon and they're gone!

Not that I like using torpedoes that much because of its slow rate of fire. I think they are not worth bother until Proton or Plasma are discovered. (I like their sheer damage points, though, in a massive volley.) At any rate, they do not come into play until late in the game, so their usefulness is rather limited.

I love Neutronium Field Projector, too! My favorite tactic is to wipe the enemy stack with it, then hose it down with Gauss Autocannon. And if more than one NFP is fired against the same stack, the armor reduction is cumulative. Pretty brutal!

 

[vmxa]

I loved Starcraft and the new one looks good.

 

[Sullla]

Hmm, maybe it's something in my playstyle, but my games almost all end before I get anywhere close to the end of the tech tree. I've certainly never come within shouting distance of tech level 99; my longest game (a slugfest that dragged out to 2700) still didn't get much beyond level 55. I've never used half of those weapons that you guys are talking about.

For what it's worth, I mostly agree with Zed's guidelines for designing ships. Small fighter, small bomber, medium missile boat, and large/huge Autorepair gunship are pretty close to the ideal prototypes for this game. Of course, sometimes you have to compromise due to missing techs and develop variations to fit the situation; when Antimatter or Omega-V bombs are brand news, it's often tough to fit them on a Small hull, for example. I've used a Medium version of the small bomber to great effect in that situation before, loaded up with max speed and targeting computers. Early in the game, I also prefer to build Larger rather than Huge gunships, due to the cost involved. Depends on the situation whether to go with small or large gunships early on.

Generally speaking, I'd strongly advise designing ships for a specific purpose and sticking closely to that. Trying to build "all-purpose" ships is only going to waste space; design two separate ships for each function and split production between the two.

I'll also mention in passing that my favorite gun is the Fusion Beam, which always seems to come right around when I want to go on the offensive for the first time, and the Heavy version of the same is quite good at cutting through even planetary shields. I have won many games on Impossible with a weapon no better than that. For the same reason, Stingers are my favorite missile; Pulsons are also excellent, but usually come too late to be decisive in my games.

I don't know about Death Rays or the like, because my games are always over before getting anywhere close to those techs.

 

[Zed-F]

Death Rays are only gotten from the Guardian at Orion. I never use them because they need an awful lot of miniaturization to be worthwhile, and I never get to the tech levels where they're all that useful.

As far as favorite beams go, I have to say that I'm not that big a fan of the shield penetrating weapons as, with the exception of the NPG (neutron pellet gun), they tend to need a lot of miniaturization to be useful. I tend to like NPG or Ion cannon as an early fighter weapon. In the mid-game, Fusion beams are alright on a larger ship, but I find that I can never mount as many of them as I'd like, as they don't miniaturize particularly well; instead I prefer Megabolt cannons, (+3 to hit is always good, and they miniaturize well), which are a bit higher tech but hold their utility better as the game goes on. I will agree that fusion beams are one of the best choices between ion cannon and megabolts, though; the only other noteworthy beam in that range is Graviton guns, and that mainly because they are the best fighter beam (and best anti-fighter beam) in between ion cannons and megabolts, providing you have good computers. I tend to prefer some combination of autofire beams and high-impact beams in the end game; Auto-blasters are of particular note as they are very space-effective weapons that miniaturize quite nicely.

 

[neutrino]

Before the discovery of super weapons (e.g., Disruptor), I think a medium hull equipped with Heavy Ion Cannon(s) and Merculite/Stinger/Pulson Missile(s). If a little more space is available, then install Anti-Matter/Omega-V Bomb(s). Install the best engine and maneuverability possible, plus Inertial Stabilizer, if available. With the remaining space, squeeze in Battle Computer and ECM Jammer, though do not expect to install their latest versions. Finally, what little space still left, add Shield. Armor -- only up to the latest level that benefits from miniaturization. Build them in the hundreds, or even into the thousands. A massive stack of this design should neutralize most massive stacks of hostile fighters with sheer number of missiles, while its Heavy Ion Cannons more than adequate against shields of hostile large and huge stacks. They should hold on their own until just about everyone starts going high-tech.

 

[Zed-F]

Not a fan of general purpose designs like that, which tend not to be very good at any one thing. I find it's more efficient to bring the right tool for the right job.

 

[neutrino]

The reason I tend to go for a general-purpose design is to make a huge production run over time. Thereafter, as I get better tech, I make a different design and make another huge production run. More or less a brute-force approach until I have a better tech to design and build more specialized fleets. The AI, though builds much larger fleets, do not optimize their fleet composition very well, so a human player can get away with such a brute-force approach.

 

[Andii]

In general, I think the following specials on huge ships is game breaking in most cases (when paired with quality computers, weaps and defenses.

Automated Repair / Advanced Damage Control
High Energy Focus
Anti-Missile Rockets / Zyro Shield / Lightning Shield

You will take minimal damage from missile bases, allowing you immense freedom on offense, and you can rush and terminate enemy stacks before they even have a chance to retreat half the time if you use combat speed 3 or 4 (need at least level 4 engines)

Always use the best battle computer, you can cheap out on shields 1-2 levels if you MUST to fit enough weapons on board, and ECM is least important especially if you have a missile defense special.

If you need to get weaps in space FAST, make a medium ship and bolt on the best guns you have, even if only 1 fits. When you mass produce them they will WRECK fleets, just don't send them at missile bases because they will get owned so hard (you will not have space for ECM tech until ultra late in the game if you use your best beams and bombs).

 

[vmxa]

Strange as I do not use any of those weapons. HEF reduce the number of guns you have and most of these come at a point, when you already getting too strong. You can make a case for ARU as it is much earlier for huge ships, IF you make any huge ships.

 

[Inca]

The huge end-game monsters are kinda no-brainers. What I find harder is ship design in the early phases of the game. For instance very early on stabilizers don't fit into small and medium hulls. If I'm very restricted in what I can fit in I usually prefer higher manoeuver over stabilizers.

I rarely use ECM-jammers on ships - manoeuverability works just as well as a missile defense and is multi-purpose - while ECM-jammers only defend against missiles - not beams. In rare cases on huge designs if I still got a tiny bit of space left I pack in some ECM-jammers if nothing else fits.

I agree with Zed-F and Todd Marshal (I read his opinion in another thread) on medium hull NPG-ships. Gotta tell you a secret about the NPG (and other shield-halving weapons). These are supposed to be a bit like spray-gun weapons and therefore have a kind of almost-always-hit characteristic early in the game. Later on as AI-tech gets better that characteristic wears off. But I do love medium hull NPG ships early on - they usually have the following stats when I build them:

- Duralloy Armor if available (not Zortrium yet - talking early game here)

- Nuclear engines if available (sometimes Sublight Drives if I get them early - but have been building them with Retros too if no better drive was at hand)

- best maneouverability available

- I tend to balance shielding with the number of NPGs I put on them most of the times these ships have shield 2, sometimes shield 3 (talking early game)

- I usually have 3 NPGs in there - depending on available construction tech.

- Battle Comp II if I have it and can fit it in

- nothing else

I mainly use these to defend planets - still during the expansion phase when I'm colonizing - and also during the consolidation phase. Quite often these have a rather long shelf life in my games.

The advantage of the NPG is that you don't need high computer tech levels to go with them - BC II or BC III helps but not much more needed. With Ion Cannon BC II is a little on the low side - with NPGs BC II works very nicely.

These are also typical Bulrathi weapons (with the bears being poor in Comp thech). So you can delay Comp tech a little - research other stuff like planetology and range thech - which you need anyways. Mass Driver is not as compact as the NPG - but sometimes there just isn't anything else available. So if do have neither Ion Cannon nor Neutron Blaster in your tech tree Mass Driver can be a way out - especially for the Bears. By the time Hardbeam comes along you should have found other stuff though - or you're pretty much dead.... NPG and Massdriver work as Anti-Alkari weapons early on - not later in the game though...

So while those shield-halving weapons are huge (with exception of the NPG) - you can save some space again because you don't need that much in Battle Comp tech to go with them. If your comp tech really sucks a large hull with Mass Drivers can work well.

Regarding HEF (High Energy Focus): I like to combine that with Tachyon Beam - this works wonders against huge fleets of small Klackon fighters. Also the Tachyon Beam minimizes beautifully - gets much smaller than the standard beams with higher tech levels. But that's more or less End-Game stuff. Once I get as far as having HEF and Tachyon Beam the game is practically won already.

I'm more interested in hearing about your early game ship designs beause that's usually the critical phase of the game.