fighters in the early stage
 

playing against max advantage AI, in standard games I find that fighters, early at least, are mandatory, ie the way to go if you want to not be teared into pieces in combats. When I'm able to field CL with DUC IV, the enemy has already monstrous weapons... so it don't work well. On the other hand, hords of fighters, even low tech, can win my day. (the other advantages are that I can produce them everywhere, without maintenance, so it helps!=)

Any thoughts on that? it make the standard SE IV game always alike I feel.

Re: fighters in the early stage
 

It only works against the AI because they do not develop adequate point defense capability that a human player would. Point defense is generally considered overpowered and renders fighters useless.

I'd recommend you try the TDM modpack ( http://tdm.otaku42.de/ ) for more challenging AIs. Besides the change to AI, it does not alter the stock game in any other way.

Re: fighters in the early stage
 

I'm playing with it, when I spoke of Standard SE IV, this is a simplification, as I knew that the TDM modpack don't change the tech tree.

I would like to try a mod with a modified tech tree, but don't know which one to choose... Some are deprecated, some are for multiplay, etc.

Re: fighters in the early stage
 

the STM mod of Atrocities seems a good candidate: up to date, nice races, modified tech tree?

Any thoughts? How engines should be used seems to be a bit opaque, but if the AI manage them, I should be able to do so too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: fighters in the early stage
 

the engines use mounts in that mod. Just select the mount for the engines

Re: fighters in the early stage
 

Fighters was an after though added to the mod after many people complained that they were not in the mod. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif So in STM you have shuttles and fighters. Nice combination huh? Good luck. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: fighters in the early stage
 

ok... I just want to loose and get trashed by the AI, that's all.

Re: fighters in the early stage
 

Personally, I never use fighters in any of my games. Don't like 'em, though I'm not sure why. I can usually manage to beat the AI at max bonus, etc, simply by expanding as far as I can with my initial colony ship wave, finding a couple good chokepoints for my defensive fleets, and researching as fast as humanly possible. This way I can devote a lot of my planets to research while still having enough systems to maintain a good enough fleet to hold back the AI. Once you have all the requisite techs to build some nasty ships, it's easy enough to go wipe the floor with the AI...the only problem is surviving until you get the techs you need! It can be interesting... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: fighters in the early stage
 

My recommendation for the TDM mod was that the AIs make better ship designs that in turn would render your fighter strategy much less effective.

Re: fighters in the early stage
 

There is something that I don't feel right: my ships are still crawling at 2 warps/turn, where as my shuttle are at 16... so basically I can intercept any incoming ship entering my system with a big stack of shuttle from the other side of the sector...