Is there a listing of successful ship designs?
 

Showing components, etc? It might help some of us newbies put together better ships.

Re: Is there a listing of successful ship designs?
 

The problem is that there are so many different situations. I suppose an experienced player with TDM for example, could give you some outlines for types of ships that work well for specific races in that mod. But that advice might be worthless in a standard game or a Proportions game. And even within the same mod different games can be very different. That's the fun of it. It's not like chess where you have to figure out how to use the same fixed set of pieces and their moves to do things. The level of detail is too great for there to be any clear, fixed methods to anything.

[ July 11, 2002, 15:59: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: Is there a listing of successful ship designs?
 

Now wait a minute. We all had to learn the hard way, so should you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

The thing to do is play a bunch of games against other people and when their ships tear yours up, then you get the ships designs and can use them in your next game.

Geoschmo

Re: Is there a listing of successful ship designs?
 

Ship designs, like the game itself, are dynamic. As the game changes, your enemy builds different ships, or you meet a new enemy, you must be able to adapt to what you are up against so the best design is determined by the situation. This is one of the reasons AI's do not do well, they cannot adjust.

Re: Is there a listing of successful ship designs?
 

In the SE4 Dubious Strategy Guide there are listings of favorite ship designs.

Re: Is there a listing of successful ship designs?
 

I only have two suggestions about ship design:

1) In the standard game, make your ships as fast as possible. (For SJ's Pirates & Nomads, or other mods that use proportional movement, you'll need to find the right balance between speed & weapons/armor/etc.).

2) Don't forget to use combat sensors and ECM on your attack ships; and don't forget to use ECM on ANY ship that will be in battle on a regular basis (like the supply and repair ships you should be including with fleets).

There are, of course, exceptions to the first rule; for instance, to fit a space yard on a cruiser hull you generally have to give up an engine (unless you have master computers). That's perfectly acceptable, and better than using a battle cruiser hull for the space yard ship and either wasting space or adding unnecessary components (and, therefore, unnecessary expense).

There are very few exceptions to the second rule (ships armed only with seekers don't need combat sensors, for instance).

Re: Is there a listing of successful ship designs?
 

Ships armed only with seekers DO need combat sensors if they are also carrying point-defense. PDC are affected by combat sensors, and fighters can be very hard to hit. Granted, if you are not currently fighting any enemies who use fighters you will probably not notice the difference. But just as with most other 'rules' there are exceptions to this one and I thought you should be reminded. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Is there a listing of successful ship designs?
 

With respect to ship design, I do like the philosophy put forward by Suicide Junky/Atrocities (apologies guys, I cannot remember which of you it was).

The coda went as follows:

1 select your hull, and then add the requisite amount of bridge, life support and crew quarters for that hull size

2 max out on engines, and if available, stick in a solar sail

3 divide the remaining hull spaces in half, and allocate allocate one half for defensive systems, the other half for offensive systems of your choice

4 once you have this design save it, then copy it over and tweak it a bit

5 go to the simulator and fight both designs against each other a few times - go with the one that wins the most

Re: Is there a listing of successful ship designs?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">What an excellent idea!

Re: Is there a listing of successful ship designs?
 

Yeah, I like it and find it works well.

Want to make it clear it is not my idea, Atrocities/SJ get the credit