Seeker question
 

Does including components like Combat Sensors, or having Ship/Fleet training affect the chances of seekers hitting their targets (from the attacker's side), like they do with direct-fire weapons?

Re: Seeker question
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">don't think so. I've never seen a missile miss its target, even it's illogical (counter measures and flares do work against actual missiles)

Re: Seeker question
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">By the time you have the capacity, and the opportunity, to train ships in such a way, is it still worthwhile to be using CSM barges?

I have only played AI, but it seems that CSM rapidly becomes a waste of tonnage somewhere in midgame, when everyone has PDC.

Re: Seeker question
 

I have forgotton.
Do refitted ships retain Experiance?
If so then training would be worth it.

Re: Seeker question
 

Yes. As long as you don't mothball, the ships retain experience.

Re: Seeker question
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well that's true. However, seekers remain viable throughout the game in many mods, and they do also have their uses in the standard game: For example a few CSMs thrown into a fleet can help clog up the enemy's point defence if you are using a fighter-heavy strategy.

Re: Seeker question
 

For future reference, all of these questions, and many more, are answered in Section 5.5 and 5.7 of the Newbie FAQ. See the top sticky thread.

Slick.

Re: Seeker question
 

"By the time you have the capacity, and the opportunity, to train ships in such a way, is it still worthwhile to be using CSM barges?"

And the first thing that came to my mind was 2000kt of CSMs filling a Devnull barge... A fleet of 50 or so of those should get at least a few missiles through. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Seeker question
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm sure they would, though I haven't played Devnull. But by the time you can support such a vast fleet, especially considering supply concerns, would you not be able to build cheaper direct-fire ships that would hit just as hard?

It is not as though CSMs skip shields. CSM must get past PDC and Shield, and only fires every few turns. APB only must get past Shield and fires every round. While the APB may not always hit (unless you get Religious, I guess) and does not have the range of CSM, does it not become a more viable weapon than CSM in midgame.

Is that not why CSM does not continue to scale? So that its use is replaced by later weapons?

Re: Seeker question
 

To make seekers worthy of your limited tonnage space, mod in all seekers with speed of 30. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

I'm serious. Its not unbalancing, and it helps the AIs that use missiles.
The missiles will go straight for the target in one fly to whatever their maximum range happens to be, thus effectively reducing the number of hits that the PDCs can take on them.
Try it for a while, and will never go back. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif