Re: Jumping in at the deep end
 

You can capture anything with troops: planet type and atmosphere are irrelevant.

Re: Jumping in at the deep end
 

Develop Ship Capture tech, available with Military Science, and build boarding ships. Capture some gas giant colony ships and analyze them for the technology. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Jumping in at the deep end
 

Or trade the AI for the technology. They often give it up pretty easly. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Jumping in at the deep end
 

There's no AI, (10 players on a medium map I think) and only one identified gas player, who may not be near me very soon. I'm hoping to luck into an amenable gas player, if there is one.

I have 4 pretty good systems blocked off and colonized, I've stopped my EB at turn 9, have PPB3s, PD, stealth armour and thanks to a set of ruins, Fighters 1. This gives me (with the end of my EB) 3 light carriers which are probably the finest in the galaxy owing to heavy mounts. My useless worlds - I built too few shipyards, not reckoning with the impact of my limited expansion - have been churning out pretty basic fighters that will hopefully make good warp point fodder while I build more CYs, SSYs, and PPB escorts.

Only one contact thus far, and I'm looking to expand into an adjacent colony I didn't notice before, which will not add any extra warp points if I can grab it and hold the other side. Not sure if it was visible at the start - if it was, it was an oversight not to colonize it immediately.

Re: Jumping in at the deep end
 

The heavy mount of Light Carriers isn't so much of an asset (if memory serves, it deals 12.5% more damage per kt than the Large Mount, but is bigger and can be more easily damaged), but the hull itself is sturdy enough: compared to a Light Cruiser, it has 420 more hitpoints, all the cargo you will ever need, but is slightly more expensive and lacks the 10% defence bonus of the Light Cruiser.

Light Carriers also make impressive minelayers due to their high basic cargo space: you can focus on the minelayers components themselves, since your fighter bays can carry 42 small mines already. Add the Stealth Armour, and you have a nice vessel able to lay twenty mines a turn or so, while carrying 60 and able to avoid detection. Of course, the problem is to avoid running into enemy minefields... but that's what scouts are for, or fighters. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Jumping in at the deep end
 

I don't think my initial carrier design was the greatest, to be truthful. I didn't think to go with mines - to be honest, since I fluked into fighters I've kindo of lost my yen for mines. I can appreciate the benefits, but anywhere that can be building mines now can be churning out 3 or 4 zippy little no-maint system pickets. Mind you, a PD escort could probably wipe out a few million of them.

I'm putting my 27k or so research towards Light Cruisers at the moment. It might be a bit of a big research project as sensors aren't yet completed, but I think at the level of the game's skill level and with a pretty huge fighter swarm building on each chokepoint, mostly owing to my shortage of shipbuilding (being remedied) I might as well have a hull worth building when I have the shipyards in a turn or two.

Re: Jumping in at the deep end
 

Update - Turn 18

No hostile contact beyond a blasted colony ship - R&T alliance with that player now

20 colonies in 5 systems, 4 borders, each guarded with a few capships and a mess of crude fighters - fighter tech being a freebie as I've mentioned.

Score is 212k, ranking is 2nd, 52 tech levels, 29k research per turn, 15.1b pop, 314 units (all fighters, I've been lazy about mines because fighters move themselves instead of me picking them up) 21 ships, including 5 or 10 PPB3 light cruisers and 3 PPB light carriers, 3 starbases around my homeworlds.

The only major threat I'm aware of in the wider universe is my relative isolation, a lowish number of SYs, my resources are still not being balanced - and one player who is playing a very fleet-heavy mercenary-mongol game and allegedly has 80 ships. I'm just about done researching intel and will soon set up a few facilities and start on counter intel projects, my only use for them.

Mid-game or late-beginning tips are very welcome.

One particular worry is that fleets don't seem to be "pooling" supplies as I would expect. Instead my capships are 55/3000 and so on while my fighter groups in the same fleet are often 2/3rds full. What's up with this? How do supply pools work, what is the easiest way to deal with supply when fighters are in space draining them, and any info on supply mechanics generally is greatly welcome.

Re: Jumping in at the deep end
 

Fighters and ships do not share supplies. This was done to prevent an easy exploit of launching fighters, fleeting them to gain supplies, then recovering the fighters. Launch them again and they have full supplies.

Also, note that supply sharing only happens after you hit end turn. The supplies are not shared during the middle of the turn as soon as you add ships to a fleet.

Re: Jumping in at the deep end
 

Ok, interesting. A few more questions:

So, my fleets are sharing each turn? So I should wait till a few CL's I'm building get into the line then assess my supply problem? Or will I want some supply ships regardless?

And the fighters. So recovering and launching will replenish them, but will it cost the carrier? And how can I make sure the one fleet that is currently yellow will be recovered rather than others? I have an awful lot of the miserable things.

Also, how do you manipulate the base fighter units, the groups, beyond putting them into fleets? Do they merge on their own? I have some in groups of 2 and some in groups of 11, and I'm not quite sure how it's happening.

Re: Jumping in at the deep end
 

Adding some supply ships to your fleets always helps. Adding some now means you'll reduce your current supply woes and you won't need to add as many later on when your fleet gets bigger.

Launching fighters does not cost any supplies.
Fighters have full supply when launched.
Its when you have the fighters in the same fleet as ships, that you lose supply.
Use shift-click to make the fighters move with the fleet when you need them to.

To control the grouping of fighters, you can use the strategies to launch in groups of 5,8,10, etc in combat.
Outside of combat, you'll have to launch one group, move them away, then launch your next group. Otherwise they'll all bunch up into one huge stack.

Any fighters launched (outside of combat) while there is a fighter group in the sector will be added to the existing fighter group.