Is Resupply Tech worth it???

[Baron Munchausen]

I tend to use Stellar Harnessing, too. I prefer to build dedicated "Supply Ships" and build fleets rather than spend vital space in every warship on solar panels, though. The reason that Resupply doesn't seem "worth it" to research, at least early in the game, is that supply is something you can get from a planet instantly. This means you tend to want to stick around your planets, which is as it should be. If the QR was available early, the whole flavor of the game would be changed.

Speaking of the QR, does anyone think it's a bit illogical that one little component can refuel an entire FLEET in a single turn? Sure, the tech is supposed to produce limitless supplies but does that mean a limitless VOLUME or just an endless stream at a real, definable rate? I think the QR should produce X supplies per turn and just never run out, not infinite supplies per turn.

[Courageous]

Yeah, it actually took me a while to figure
out how powerful it actually was. I simply
assumed it only resupplied the ship which
had it installed: this is not so. I agree
with you: it should produce a large -- but
finite -- amount of supplies every turn.

[Psitticine]

I agree as well - QRs are a bit illogical right now. Providing a large but finite amount of supply a turn sounds like a great idea for an improvement.

[Courageous]

Yeah, either that or make it so that a
ship with a QR neither needs supply nor
provides any.

C//

[rdouglass]

Great comments. But I still have a question for combat and supplies.

Does anyone know how the sharing of supplies work during combat. Even if I do have a QR on 1 ship in my fleet, it does not seem to share supplies during combat. My non-QR ships run out of power fast when I'm up against waves of AI ships. I like to use Shard Cannons (Crystal Tech) on heavy mounts and they eat up the supplies pretty fast. Then once they run out, my combat speed (I think) drops to 1 in the next round (AI wave). IOW, they don't seem to be resupplying between combat turns only between regular turns. Anyone else see this problem???

Of course the solution would be to QR every ship, but again, I like to storm the AI early and those "tanker" ships don't seem to cut it ('cause of the above). In low tech, large map games (IMO) it still seems a waste to research resupply when I can do the same with using a little bit more Kt space and a LOT less time and research points. Maybe it makes sense in an All Techs - Small Map game, but I never play those.

That's what makes SE series cool - there really isn't 1 best way to do things. Maybe I should play against myself or another human sometime and test the differences.

[Taqwus]

On sharing during combat -- there isn't any. There might not be any between attacks if you have to defend several times during an AI turn, either. The ship captains have other things on their mind during combat... if you want to *guarantee* that a warship won't run out during combat, it needs a QR.

(Evil tip -- if your opponents run out of supply *during* combat, but are otherwise intact, consider backing away and waiting out the 30 turns. Then attack again, immediately. Their shields will be down -- useful if dropping them by force would have required a slugfest.)

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Jubala]

From my observations ships out of supply can still shoot to their hearts content. Doesn't seem quite right to me. Especially considering they couldn't in SE3.