Learning the Rhythm

[Greenman]

Just got the game a week ago. I'm new to SE in general but I'm an old Civ I veteran from the early 90's. I haven't played a game this massive in a while. Thanks to the community for offering so much support.

Keeping track of my fleets is a lot harder than I expected. Following which ships are behind the tech curve etc.

What sort of strategies do people employ for keeping their fleets managable and up-to-date. What's the best way to keep your ship lists free of out-dated clutter?

[Taqwus]

The easiest way is to not build that many ships. No, seriously -- you generally don't need *that* many ships, especially warships (and it's warships that worry most about obsolescence). In the early game, you don't *want* that many non-colony ships, because the maintenance cost (unless they're mothballed) can cripple your ability to build facilities, which will in turn prevent your production base from growing rapidly. You can fall from 1st to 9th by having too many pop transports and scout escorts.

Another is to note that you don't need to upgrade your designs *that* often, either. If you have CSM-II frigates, you may not need to upgrade to CSM-III unless the extra squares of range are vital (e.g. opponents got there first); maybe you can wait for another level, or even until you can build destroyers.

Beyond that, a useful, logical (to you) naming scheme helps. I've named ship classes like CR-CS-1 for [Colonizer, Rock] - [Colony Ship hull] - [First Generation], CR-CS-SP-1 (first solar powered colonizer -- useful when using the Minister, which doesn't seem to understand the notion of supply), PD-BC-2 for second-generation point-defense battlecruiser, BA-BC-1 for first-generation beam-attack battlecruiser and so forth.

You can then sort by name in the ship viewer, and check whether you've got unduly obsolete vessels.



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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Coal]

Use at least 2 fleets. That way, one fleet can stay on-duty for defense, while the other can move to a shipyard for refiting.
When upgrading ships, don't refit your ships each time you research new tech. Wait until you can upgrade your ship's components a few levels, not just one level. If you refit with each new weapon development, your fleets will always be away from your borders and your enemys.

As for keeping track of a ships tech level, when I upgrade ships I put a 'MK II' behind the ships name, and raise the number with each upgrade.

Hope this helps.

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Rules? What Rules?

[Instar]

Your fleets are displayed in the ship list window. You have a good overview of them there. Generally, when I am taking my time, I just fend the computer off until I get to ultra tech and I rip on them with massive fleets and stuff. So I usually always have the most current ships because thats all I build.

[Will]

I normally progress in weapons and ship sizes so that one ship size = about 1-3 increases in weapon tech. Thus, my personal favorite in the beginning is build the bigger ships at the spaceyards and send my old fleets to take on the newest enemy fleet, usually a loss, but my valiant forces damage the enemy a lot, leaving more current designs to clean up. Wave after wave until I get BattleShip (800kT). Then I will usually have a few captured enemy homeworlds, so half can continue the assult while half gets refitted, and new ships are constructed.

I never really have to worry much about defense fleets. A few ships on a warp point is all I've ever needed (usually hopelessly out-of-date ships too). Probably because I attack the AI at so many points, most of their ships pull back to stop my onslaught

[capnq]

I use a mix of the other suggestions here. I try to name ships by a scheme to remind me what their intended role is: Defense ships start with "D", scouts start with "S", etc. I tend to upgrade designs just before I need to start building a new ship, and add Roman numerals at each upgrade: Apache IV, Sioux II, etc. Obsolete ships usually end up in low priority defenses and dangerous but expendable scout missions, or escorting better ships in large fleets. I'll retrofit older designs if they happen to be at a shipyard and I have resources available, but much of the time I'm barely keeping my build queues and maintenance funded.

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Cap'n Q