OSG 16 - Training Day

[Zed-F]

Pretty quiet turns overall. At the start I fiddled with some sliders on various planets to maximize various efficiencies, such as terraforming UP Anraq so it can grow to its maximum size. Over the course of my turn RC 3 came in and I started building a lot of factories. I turned off spying on the humans and kitties now that we've updated our intel on them; they are the weakest races and consequently we know they will have less tech than the bugs and the rocks. As for the bears, well... they got eliminated during my turns.

Things are looking pretty peaceful overall. Several techs came in and we now have radiated bases and a colship enroute to the one radiated planet in our territory. We've also expanded as much as we can into the upper corner. I scrapped a couple of our old designs, but held off on designing something new. Really there's no reason to until we want to design an actual navy and go on the attack.

Technology is currently focused on Computers (for Improved Scanners), Planetology (for Atmospheric Terraforming) and Propulsion (for Fusion Engines.) All of those are pretty key technologies. Atmospheric will let us greatly improve our wealth of hostile planets, Improved Scanners is vital for our ability to defend our worlds properly as it will tell us which of our planets are coming under attack and how long we have until the attackers arrive, and Fusion Engines are one of the best engines in the game as they allow a strategic move of 4, tactical speed 3 (speed 4 with stabilizers) and decent speed troop transports (warp 3) as well. Once we have Fusion Engines, we can actually start thinking about building a fleet which will allow us to go on the attack. We could do it with nuclear engines and stabilizers if we had to, but warp 1 transports are soooo painful...

One other thing that would be useful to do would be to watch out for trades. Getting Enhanced Eco off the bugs would be grand, except they won't trade it to us at the moment as it's their highest planetology tech. Once they've got a better one, though, we might be able to snag it from them in a trade. Also, we should consider trading for a decent beam weapon, like Ion cannons or something. I forgot what weapons we already had when Fusion Bombs popped and selected Merculites as better missiles never hurt, so it will be a while before we have a good beam unless we trade for one, steal one, or loot one. (Not like Mass Drivers is a good beam option anyway.)

Roster:
dathon
Snaproll
mostly_harmless
Zed-F <---- Just Played
ignatious <--- Up Now
Azoth <--- On Deck

 

[Zed-F]

I would definitely have chosen Atmospheric Terraforming or Advanced Eco here, probably Eco then Atmos.

Heh, I decided to go with Atmos over Advanced Eco. We do have Reduced Waste 60&#37; or I might have chosen differently. I figured that the cats have Improved Eco and the bugs have Enhanced Eco; we might be able to pick one of those up cheaply, and Advanced Eco burns a lot of RP.

And as per last time, since Zed is up next, I'll let him decide what he's going to do He's usually more aggressive than I am, so I'm sure he'll be starting down the war path with the apes... Speaking of that, I think this is going to be the last round with the "veterans" playing. We're off to a good start with a very solid position. Besides, that should give us even more to comment on

Aggressive with Nuclear Engines can be done, but I really dislike warmongering with warp 1 transports unless I'm really stuck for other good options or a good opportunity presents itself and better engines are not coming anytime soon. At this point we can build a good enough bomber, and a fair missile boat, but our options for beam ships at the moment are pretty weak and we might have some trouble holding what we take. You know my feelings on strategic speed, and fusion engines are our next propulsion tech, so 'nuf said.

 

[ignatius]

2420

send LR rad to from Regulus to Zoctan

2423

colonized Zoctan which popped the 3/8 GNN warning

2424

• ps5 pops, I choose repulsors over class 3 and 4, class 5 is missing
• All planets with bases are set to build the shield

2425

The election is us against the Coids, 32 votes total:

• 3 humans for us
• 7 coids for themselves
• 5 ants for coids
• 3 cats abstain
• 14 we abstain

2426

A coid transport is incoming at Ursa ...

2427

... which ends the Cat/Coid alliance.
A massive Klackon SoD is sighted west of Ursa, probably headed for Fierias - things beginning to heat up.

2428

• impr. scanner pops, bc5 next (only new option)
• The cats offer to trade 100 bc - as the Humans will probably be our first target, I accept despite the ongoing pirate crisis.

2429

Seems they heard my last remark as a massive Human SoD with 36 larges is incoming at Anraq, our ultra poor, ETA 3 turns. Good thing I decided to put a base up there and began shield construction 5 turns ago. I pumped enough funds for 3 turns from the reserve, but I fear it will not be enough for the PS to finish in time. Next emperor should try to turn them back with a threat in 2431 (they are pacifists and relations are aimable, so our chances are not too bad) and if that fails work to prolong the siege as long as possible.

I turned spying on on all races and beefed up defenses on all dead or less hostile planets within 6 pc of the Humans (keep an eye on those sliders, Azoth).

2430

• destroyed a lone Silicoid colship at Vulcan, the only hostilities during my turn.
• Atmos. Terr. pops, doom virus is the only new options (we missed both soil enrichment techs ), so I decide to do adv. eco, after all, as it should easily pay by itsself.
• Fierias has been destroyed by the huge Klackon SoD, but the Cats still didn't declare war.

Both, prop. and weapons are in the percentages. The action finally can begin ...

Roster:

dathon <-- On Deck
Snaproll
mostly_harmless
Zed-F
Ignatius <-- Just played
Azoth <-- UP NOW

Good luck, emperor Azoth!

ignatius

ps: just noted that I forgot to put the Tech sliders back into a sane state (wanted to save on the first turn of bc5 but forgot to restore computer spending), so please check them out.

 

[Azoth]

Got it. I'm looking at the save now...

Things sure have changed since my last turnset.
We have eighteen planets, up from just seven in 2380. Our research is progressing nicely, and we have begun fortifying our mature border worlds with shields and bases. The Bulrathi are no more and the Mrrshans may not be around for much longer. We enjoy peaceful relations with the other three races, and with 14 votes out of 32, we are in no danger of losing an election any time soon.

So, as a general question to the team, what are our long-term plans?
Judging from the past few comments, they appear to be war. We could invade the Human worlds, and then turn our attention to whichever western empire, the Silicoid or the Klackon, appears to be the most dangerous.

With this in mind, I aim to:
- Assemble a star fleet. I'll obviously wait until Fusion Drives and Merculite Missiles come in. I'm thinking of building a small bomber and a medium missile ship. The bomber will probably use Nuclear Bombs, because I don't think Fusion Bombs, Fusion Drives, and Inertial Stabilizers (for a 4-tactical move ship) will all fit on a small. Not to mention Battle Computers. The missiles will probably be Mercs. A large (huge?) ship with beam weapons would be nice, but we have nothing better than lasers. The Klackons, Humans, and Mrrshans have Ion Cannons (and the latter two also have Neutron Blasters) so I might be able to trade or steal some.
- Defend Anraq. I'll theaten the Humans as ignatius suggested; let's hope that works.
- Develop our northern holdings. Build factories, terraform, build bases. Standard stuff.

I'll play tomorrow afternoon, in about twelve hours.
Comments welcome. Shipbuilding advice in particular.

- Azoth

 

[dathon78]

Parents are in town, which is why I've been quiet.

Azoth is right; we are out of room to expand peacefully, so it's time to go to war Bombers are good, but missile boats are better used as escorts and offensive raids. They don't hold planets well, unless there are a LOT of them. Do we have Auto Repair? If so, an Auto Repair/Repulsor (ARS) Huge with 2-space beams sounds like the way to go. Toranor can probably build them at a good clip. Even without Auto Repair, a Huge Repulsor, or Huge with a lot of guns would probably be good. Ion fighters should also not be overlooked, especially with two stacks of identical design.

Let's see if we can get a better beam weapon. Blasters would be nice, but Ion Cannons miniaturize nicely (fighters!), and with decent computers, Heavy Ions can be more powerful than you'd think. Also, check the Human's weapons techs. If we can get the Class V up, and they don't have much that can penetrate it, we won't need to threaten.

dathon

 

[Azoth]

2430: Inherited Turn
Things are looking pretty good.
We lead the galaxy in production, population, and planet count.
Our fleet strength is abysmal, however; let's see if we can change that.

I fiddle with the sliders a bit:
Toranor, Arietis, Paladia, and Phyco focus on atmospheric terraforming. Toranor and Hyades have completed their planetary shields and have five bases each, so I put them back on research. Zoctan and Vulcan concentrate on building more factories.
I begin Espionage against all of the other races.
I shift research to Propulsion and Weapons, in an effort to begin ship construction that much more quickly...and hit end turn.

2431
Six planets complete atmospheric terraforming and start building extra factories and population: Toranor, Yarrow, Ryoun, Arietis, Regulus, and Uxmai.
Anraq will not finish its shield in time, even with maximum reserve spending, so I have no choice but to threaten the Human leader... His response:

"The Humans have no choice....!

...but to give you the secrets of Reduced Industrial Waste 80&#37;. Relish in our genius."

And then, rather lamely,
"These talks get us nowhere. We must take our leave."
Relations drop from Amiable to Relaxed.

2432
Our spies infiltrate Silicoid bases! We have four options: Computers, Construction, Planetology, and Weapons. The Silicoids have no beam weapons, so, hoping for something good, I pick Computers...and get ECM Jammer I. *sigh*
But it gets worse...we are caught! The Silicoid ambassador complains about our "bungling", but stops short of declaring war. Relations drop to Tense.
To be honest, I wasn't going to bother spying against the Silicoids. They are the only race with computer technology (slightly) superior to ours. But we had already planted 4 spies against them, and it seemed wasteful to just let them hide. Oh well.
I stop spying, although we still have two spies left. I consider offering tribute but decide against it; we aren't in that much trouble, our reserves are rather empty, and I'm not sure about RB rules for gifting technology (it can be a bit unbalanced.)

In other news: Propulsion is at 23%, Weapons at 30%. I dial down Weapons spending a bit.

2433
Two for two! Our spies strike the Klackons! I pick Weapons, cross my fingers, and...
We infiltrate Selia and steal Ion Cannons!
And, wow, I've never had luck this bad. The Klackons catch us spying, too. Relations drop to Tense. Not to be outdone, the Silicoids then declare WAR! They Hate us now.
I'm not sure if this is typical, but in my personal games (on Hard), I usually start spying when my Computer technology catches up to my opponents', and I rarely get complaints. And I usually don't have nearly as many bases and planets when I start spying as we do now!
Well, we did say wanted some early (hah!) warfare...

Now then, the Silicoids recently allied with the Klackons, so I'll have act fast. Unfortunately, the Klackons refuse to break their alliance with the Silicoids. Arrgh. Maybe next turn? I stop spying against the Klackons and resume spying against the Silicoids.
In the meantime, I go back to building bases at Arietis and Ryoun, and start a shield at Uxmai. I further reduce Propulsion and Weapons spending.

In other news: The Mrrshans reestablish a colony at Fierias, but a Klackon SOD destroys Ursa. They are still at peace, however.

2434
And now for the hattrick...our spies strike the Mrrshans! I pick Weapons, and we manage to steal Hand Lasers. They should come in handy in the near future...
Also, Fusion Drives come in, and I pick the only new option, Reajax II Fuel Cells (Range 9).

And then...Helos rebels. Forty five million colonists!! Truly, the RNG gods love me!
Not taking any chances, I send seventy million soldiers from Sssla to quell the uprising, raising Ecology spending to its maximum of +35 colonists. Thanks to Fusion Drives, they will arrive there on the next turn.

In other news: Uxmai completes its shield and starts building bases. A Silicoid fleet is incoming at Ryoun in six turns. We're furiously building bases there.

2435
We finish research on Merculite Missiles. Our new choices: Graviton Beam and Stinger Missiles. We have plenty of missile technology so I pick the (cheaper) Graviton Beam.
And...Imperial Troops successfully recapture Helos. At 70 vs. 45, the outcome was never in doubt.

So I can finally start building ships, right? Wrong.
Construction and Force Fields are now both in the percentages...and I just can't design ships knowing that we could fit much more in them (Construction) or equip Repulsor Beams (Force Fields.) So I wait.

In other news: Anraq (finally) completes its shield, and goes back to research.

2436
And, just next turn, we get Repulsor Beams! Excellent!
The new choices are Personal Absorption Shield and Class VI Shields. I'm inclined to choose Personal Absorption Shields, but then realize that we haven't updated our regular shields since Class II. So I pick Class VI.
GNN announces that pirates in the Rayden system diminished trade revenues by 46% last turn. And then the Humans come asking for a Non-Agression Pact. There are no unclaimed worlds in the eastern half of the galaxy, and since the Humans are the only race with whom we still have positive relations, I agree. We can always dissolve the pact later.

In other news: The Mrrshans reestablish a colony at Ursa. I deftly scout the planet just after the Mrrshan fleet leaves.

2437
GNN announces the leaders in advanced technology: Us, followed by the Klackons, Silicoids, Humans, and Mrrshans, in that order. No suprises there.
I scout the newly founded Mrrshan colony at Fieras, and promptly leave orbit.

2438
Industrial Tech 5 comes in! At only 13%. Nice. Our only choice: Andrium Armor.
So, on to shipbuilding:
I design three ships:
- FBomber 4.1, a small bomber with one fusion bomb and 4 tactical move
- Merc 4.0, a medium missile boat with a rack of 5 mercs, BC III, fusion drives, 2 tactical move, and for lack of anything else, a rack of 5 Class V rockets (the rockets can be traded in for an Inertial Stabilizer or Class II shields, or removed altogether)
- Repulsr 4.0, a huge ship with battle scanners and repulsor beams, top of the line computers and shields, and as many huge ion cannons as I can fit.

I direct our three rich/ultra rich planets, Toranor, Regulus, and Arietis, as well as our three largest planets, Sssla, Denubis, and Escalon, to build the Repulsr 4.0.
None of these ships will finish during my turnset, so the next player can fiddle with my design and shift a few planets to the smaller designs as necessary. Please note that we do not want to build six Repulsr 4.0s!

I spread out research spending evenly between all six fields.
In other news: The Silicoids are no longer allied with the Klackons. What a relief! Guess my promptings got through eventually...

2439
A very quiet turn.

2440
The Silicoid fleet arrives at Ryoun. We have 20 missile bases.
They have:
1 huge Monitor, with 29 Hyper Vs, and an assortment of lasers
1 Colony Ship; and
5 large Mako, with 7 Hyper Vs and 2 Death Spores each.
Hopelessly antiquated.

I destroyed every ship at the loss of three scouts, which I declined to retreat in order to keep the Monitor from retreating.
GNN reports that trade revenues are being lowered by 37% due to pirate activity.
Vulcan completes a Class V planetary shield.

Turnset summary and save to follow.

-Azoth

 

[Azoth]

Turnset Summary:
1. All of our planets are fully terraformed, and have completed factory construction, except:
- Anraq, the ultra poor, which has no factories. Now that we have Industrial Tech 5 we might want to start building some;
- Zoctan, our newest Radiated colony, which will need more time to fully develop;
- and Vulcan, our northernmost colony, which diverted production to a shield.
2. In terms of research, we have:
- Fusion Drives ---> Reajax II Fuel Cells
- Merculite Missiles ---> Graviton Beam
- Repulsor Beam ---> Class VI Shields
- Improved Industrial Tech 5 ---> Andrium Armor
We stole ECM Jammer I, Ion Cannons, and Hand Lasers. We were gifted Reduced Industrial Waste 80%.
In hindsight, I probably should have traded for a planetology cleanup tech at some point (or stolen one in lieu of Hand Lasers.)
3. Six planets are currently building ships. Our planetary defences are impressive; all (two) foreign incursion attempts were stopped.
4. I managed to cultivate many enemies. We need to decide who our first victim should be. We are already at war with the Silicoids, but the Humans are still a tempting target. If we decide to attack the Silicoids, note that they have *Scatter Pack V* missiles. We might want to rethink our small bomber design in light of this.

dathon mentioned that the veterans would no longer be playing so I think the roster now stands at:

Snaproll <--- Up Now
mostly_harmless <--- On Deck
ignatious
Azoth <--- Just Played

-Azoth

 

[Azoth]

And I forgot the save...

-Azoth

 

[ignatius]

Well, you definitely managed to bring us into the action!

And, wow, I've never had luck this bad. The Klackons catch us spying, too. Relations drop to Tense. Not to be outdone, the Silicoids then declare WAR! They Hate us now. I'm not sure if this is typical ...

I would consider the results typical, in the sense that if you open espionage against all races w/o being the Darlocks or having a huge lead in computers, it is almost certain that will end up at war against at least one of them. That it happened so fast has to do with the existing spy networks, but even if you started from scratch, after ten turns, the outcome would probably have been the same.

OTOH, as long as our bases can handle what they throw at us - we really only have three exposed planets at their current range (Arietis, Ryoun and Escalon), two of which are now heavily fortified - and we have 1/3 of the votes, being at war is not really our problem but theirs, as any BC put into ships is a BC less spent on research.

Merc 4.0, a medium missile boat with a rack of 5 mercs, BC III, fusion drives, 2 tactical move, and for lack of anything else, a rack of 5 Class V rockets

I found that larges usually offer a better deal for missle boats, as you can better use the space and can fit on cheap battle scanners to improve your CTH and initiative and maybe a small gun for fire&run maneuvers and to finish off the odd surving colship.

If we decide to attack the Silicoids, note that they have *Scatter Pack V* missiles. We might want to rethink our small bomber design in light of this.

Also the Klackons have SP-V, OTOH nobody currently has more than Hyper-X, so it would probably pay to wait for shield6 to pop and then go with a huge design. Even w/o autorepair it would take 100 Hyper-X bases to shoot down before reaching the planet.

btw: Does ECM also work against bombs or only against missles? I've heard both ways, but I'm still unsure - if so, then with BC1 the small design will be next to useless against planetary shields.

ignatius

 

[Zed-F]

ECM does indeed work against bombs.

 

[dathon78]

Alright, things are finally starting to heat up

We are looking pretty good right now. Normally I would be very concerned about having everybody in the galaxy hate us, but we have more than enough pop to block the council. Yes the Silicoids are at war with us, but the only thing they have that could punch through our planetary shields are spores and Heavy Fusion beams. Ryoun and Arietis are the only planets in range, and they should have enough defenses to hold, though I would like to see some trickle base spending at Ryoun. While it might be tempting to go after the rocks at this point, I still think the best target is the Humans. They have 3 very nice planets in our back lines, that will contribute greatly towards pushing east, and eliminating them closes a front.

One glaring hole that I see is that we STILL don't know what the Humans are fielding on their ships! It's always a good idea to probe with a scanners ship before committing to a military design. We have such a ship at Anraq; it should be sent to Sol before any of the Huge Repulsor designs are built. If those large ships are sporting Heavy Blast cannons, than that Huge will be a lot less effective.

Now, as for ship design, I like the Huge Repulsor, but the missile boat and bomber could use tweaking. High maneuver is critical for bombers, but even more so is a high attack level. I would swap out the IS for a BCIII. The 20% to-hit will be worth the two maneuver points. As for the missile boat, consider this design:

Mixing old missile types, especially slow antiquated Hyper V's, won't be very effective. Speed is actually just as important to a good missile boat as a bomber; get close enough to hit, unload, and back out quickly. Substituting IS for the Hyper V rack gives us a ship that is twice as fast, and is 40% harder to hit.

I found that larges usually offer a better deal for missle boats

I have to disagree there. I designed two potential large missile boats at our current tech levels:

The first ship was built along the lines ignatius suggested; a large missile ship with scanners and a couple guns for clean-up duty. But look at the price tag, compared to the medium designed pictured above. For every one of the large designs, I can have 5.5 of the mediums. So for every ten larges (40 missiles), I can have 55 mediums (55 missiles). 2 ion cannons and 1 attack level is not worth giving up the extra missile rack and 1 point of defense.

The second ship was an attempt to pile as many racks on board as possible. Now I have 6 racks, for approximately the same cost as 5 medium boats, plus one attack level. Good deal huh? Nope, look again. That large is slower, and has 3 less defense. It is going to be hit 30% more than the medium boat! And since missile boats tend to fly around without shields (way too expensive), this design is going to be toast if anything gets near, which is more probable since it's slower.

Medium ships are the better way to go here. The high defense minimizes attrition, and the low cost makes replacing the inevitable losses easier. Plus, even more than beam ships, numbers are what makes missile stacks so effective, and you can get more shots by using the smaller design.

As for spying, getting caught twice in a row is a bit of a bad break, but certainly not a super unlikely result. Right now, I think we should limit our espionage probes to the cats. We have a large computer edge, and they have several techs that would be nice to have.

Ok, here are my suggestions for Snaproll:
*Move the scanner ship at Anraq to Sol to get some intel. Don't let any of the Huge Repulsor ships complete until you know what you're up against. If the Humans are fielding missile or 1-beam designs, the Huge Repulsor is probably the way to go. If those ships are carrying mostly Heavy Blast cannons, I would use a combo of missile boats (re-designed) and Ion fighters. Even if we do go with the repulsor ship, we won't need as many as we're currently building. 4-5 should suffice against the current Human fleet levels.
*Re-design the bomber and build some while you're waiting for the scanner ship.
*It's time to scrap our Scout 2's; they are taking up a slot and costing us maintenance for little in return.
*Start spying on Kitty, I would use around 2%. Key techs would be Neutron Blaster and Improved Eco.
*Put a couple clicks at Ryoun and Arietis towards defense. Those are our point planets, and if the bugs decide to declare war, we're going to want more bases.

Onward we march! The ape's days in this galaxy are numbered

dathon

 

[StuporMan]

A couple comments from the peanut gallery.

You have 40 scouts running around eating BC in upkeep when armless scouts are now all but useless. A much better use of this design spot would be either another fusion bomber design, or an ion popgun. Small designs at this stage of the game (before flyswatter techs come along) are never a bad investment. You can get much more firepower, faster, and for less BC this way. The cost is that you stand to get several swatted. These also allow you to build a fleet reactively if necessary.

As to the second stack of bombers, once you get decent combat speed (4+ is ideal) having two stacks of bombers allows you to use one of the stacks to draw the missile fire from the planet. This gives your other stack 2-3 turns to get to the planet and drop bombs before taking any losses. Should everything go to plan, you can bomb out planetary defenses with no losses this way. Some consider this exploitive to the AI, but this is a good technique to hold in your bag of tricks.

Likewise, I would recommend scrapping the other older designs as soon as some of the newer ones roll off the assembly line. One missile base is much more effective than your whole fleet of these currently. A couple extra design spots are always a good thing, even if they go unused a few turn sets.

Finally, Dathon please go do your turns in OSG15a.

Thanks,
StuporMan

 

[Snaproll]

OK, I've got it. It will take me awhile to assimilate all the suggestions (sheesh there are so many, so much to remember), so I'll get this back in a day or so.

 

[Azoth]

Some thoughts and responses...

The criticisms of my ship designs are well-taken.
Swapping IS for BCIII sounds reasonable; our bombers would suffer an extra round of missiles before being able to attack, but as long as the missiles don't destroy 20&#37; of our stack, we'd come out on top. We'll just build a LOT of bombers. I was sure the Hyper Vs would be vetoed as well, and I can see why. In general, I have to agree that small/medium bombers and missile boats are preferable to their larger counterparts. (And, to restate, we certainly don't need as many Repulsors as we are currently building; I did intend that several planets would be switched to other designs.)

As for the scouts, I'm not sure how we ended up with 50+ in the first place; I recall having only 15 or so during my last turnset. They can't possibly be costing us more than a few BC in maintenance (how is maintenance calculated anyway?) and they are useful as bait. Without a token force of scouts at Ryoun, only the Death Spore ships would have stuck around to attack. Of course, such baiting could be termed exploitative, but if not, I can't see any harm in keeping them until we need an open slot.

Other than that, scouting Sol to see what the humans are fielding on their ships is indeed an excellent suggestion. Heh, I never would have thought of it!

One last thing: We will be butting heads with either the Klackons or the Silicoids eventually. So I may as well ask now. How does the AI choose between using Scatter V and more damaging single-shot missiles (Hyper X+)? And what sort of bomber would you employ against Scatter V? I'm not convinced that a huge with a maximum of 99 bombs would be most effective...perhaps the smallest ship that we could fit Class VI on? If so we should probably prioritize spending on the (pricey 20000 RP) Class VI shields...

Good luck, Emperor Snaproll!

-Azoth

 

[vmxa]

As to the missile choice, look at your own defense. If you have scatter packs, the AI uses them always. You have to switch it to missiles. So I would expect the AI planets will not be switching.

I am to lazy to look it up, but you could scrap the scouts and see how much it saved and then load the game back up. If it is even 2&#37;, that a lot for a large empire. Not that much for a small one.

 

[dathon78]

As for the scouts, I'm not sure how we ended up with 50+ in the first place

This commonly happens due to ship credit overrun and scrapping designs. When a ship is completed, any extra production from the ship slider is put in a local bank account that is then used toward the next ship, kind of like how hammer overrun works in CIV. If no ship spending takes place, and the overrun is not enough to build another ship, the credits sit there. What often happens is a colony ship is built, and the leftovers are in the 10's (maybe even 100's) of BC's. Not enough to build another colony ship, so it sits in the account while the space dock is empty. Then, the colony ship design is scrapped. The space dock production will go to the next ship. If it's the scouts, then the overrun in the account can build them, and they will get produced next turn.

how is maintenance calculated anyway?

Not sure of the exact equation, but it's based on ship cost and age. Right now, they are eating 0.1%, or 7BC/turn. Doesn't sound like much, but that's half a new bomber every turn, when all they are doing is sitting there. If you want a bait ship, better to scrap the scouts and build a bomber or two. Less maintenance, and it frees up the slot.

As for the exploitativeness (is that a word?) of baiting, it's debatable. We've never had that debate, to my knowledge. I'll admit that I use sometimes use this in my personal games, sometimes inadvertantly, sometimes with intent. Not sure where I sit on it.

dathon

 

[Blake]

As to the missile choice, look at your own defense. If you have scatter packs, the AI uses them always. You have to switch it to missiles. So I would expect the AI planets will not be switching.

In my experience both Auto and the AI always make the best call for whether to use Scatters of normal Missiles. As in they fire whatever does the most net damage (and in the case of auto, that's independent of what you manually set the missile toggle to).
I assume this uses the N_Warheads x (Damage - Shield) calculation to choose the best missile, I'm not sure if it takes speed into account or not.

To tell the truth I was awfully surprised when (in non-auto battles) it didn't DEFAULT to firing a higher missile if a scatter was guaranteed to do no damage, because I already knew that the Auto knew what to do.

The AI is quite good at doing such simple calculations and following hard and fast rules, for instance "Always run away from a missile which can be outrun", these rules don't always work for it, but the missile base toggle is pretty foolproof.

 

[ignatius]

Right now, they are eating 0.1%, or 7BC/turn. Doesn't sound like much, but that's half a new bomber every turn, when all they are doing is sitting there. If you want a bait ship, better to scrap the scouts and build a bomber or two. Less maintenance, and it frees up the slot.

I'm not 100% sure on this but I got the impression that even an unarmed scout provides some deterrence in case the planet is unscouted by the AI. Also, besides the use as bait, having scouts with retro engines over all your planets is very useful for measuring distances (e.g. when planning invasions on yet unscouted planets). Definitely worth the 7 bc/turn, so I would argue against scrapping unless we really need the slot.

ignatius

 

[vmxa]

I have never seen it fire a missile, if it had any scatter pack. So if I have zeons and scatter pack V, it will fire scatter pack V. It does this even if the ship can literally run pass the pack and hit me, where as the missile could tag it first.

Same as at times if you auto combat the beam ships will jump back to planet and let a weak fleet leave after striking it one round.

 

[dathon78]

@ignatius - At this point, an unarmed scout is not a deterrent. If the AI is coming for a planet, they are going to come for it in force (brush or cold war). None of our planets are at the point where they couldn't build a couple bases in a few turns w/ reserve help, so the scouts aren't doing anything on defense. As for measuring distances, I'm not sure what you mean. You can't send troops to an unscouted planet, and you can use the transport slider to see how long troops from a particular world will take to arrive. Yes the savings are small, but those scouts aren't doing anything at all, so why not eliminate them?

dathon