Jumping in at the deep end

[Jtownsend]

I'm still perplexed about fighter management. They group as they're launched, I gather, but where did these 11 fighter units come from? I don't recall missing launches, and even then it's an odd multiple. Do the groups merge under some circumstances?

Good to know that I need to seperate fleets between fighters and capships. What about ideal fighter group size? And if I transport the fighters from one system to the next in a carrier and launch them, will they be in one big blob? Is that bad?

[Suicide Junkie]

They stick onto existing groups when you launch them.

You may have had a stack of 3 sitting around after battle losses killed them down to an odd number, and then tried to launch 8.

Those new ones stick onto the first fighter stack they see.

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If you load fighters up and relaunch, they'll all end up in the same stack.
You'll have to launch, move, launch, move...
They can only stick to existing stacks in the same sector, after all

[Jtownsend]

That sounds sufficiently irritating not to be worthwhile, though... Multiple turn operations just to split up stacks? Anyway, good to know I guess. Would there be advantages to having a lot of different stacks from a PD perspective? I've not done enough combat to understand PD, because my chief use of fighters is on WPs so they don't have so much approach time, but it's very hard to set up a simulator to show a close-engagement with multiple stacks of fighters, so I've not done much testing.

Heh, it'd have been easier if I'd never gotten fighters from ruins

[Jtownsend]

It's now turn 25. I'm in first place, 5 settled systems. I have built a 40ish ship fleet, of which about 2/3rds are PPBIII light cruisers.

Thing is, I've faced off the fleet-heavy number 2 player, I've long had peace with number 4, number 7 or 8 is likely to be soon cutt off by number 4, and the only other opening pases a 3-way nebula system that is likely to be a mess to expand my empire through.

I have some moderate hopes for tortoising and using my comparitively good position and race design to build up safely.

What are some powerful research directions to move in at around turn 25? I am still on engines 2, PPBIII, sensors 1, light cruiser construction. I have fighters, mines, and thanks to a ruin, Massive Shield Generators, although I'm not sure with my large number of planets if that's practical.

For the meantime I'm backfilling and I'll probably pick up a few backward techs like my engines. But direction is much appreciated.

[NullAshton]

Hehe, it was funny in a PBW game, when 2 colony ships with no weapons attacked each other. My colony ship won

[douglas]

No, you can do it all in one turn for each planet. You just have to use the cargo transfer screen rather than the load population order. This requires that the cargo ship be at the planet at the start of the turn. Both transferring and jettisoning cargo happens instantaneously rather than waiting for turn processing, so you can repeatedly transfer and jettison as much as necessary all in one turn.

[TurinTurambar]

Hey, no one's mentioning any repeat orders strategy. Get a fleet of transports automated to move population off your homeworlds and out to your new large "breathers." Having 3 or 4 Huge planets full of pop. when it's time to build Stellar Manip ships is pretty major.
Also, I do believe a Large size breather full to 4000M will turn out a sophisticated Light Cruiser every 2 turns.

Edit: Let me know if I need to "i.e." that strategy for you.

[Jtownsend]

It seemed pretty clear, but I'm not sure if I'll have a heavy-enough cargo fleet when I get my breathers for it to be worthwhile - unless repeat orders means something more complex and evilly brilliant than having the computer do ferrying for me over time.

Incidentally - the word is out that I'm fielding PPBs. Do Phased Shields make PBBs really sad, or do they simply act like normal shields, making PPBs like normal weapons? The damage on PPBs is quite adequate for my needs, but if phased shields actually make them useless that'd be good to know.

And on that note, what is next after PPBs for direct fire weapons? High Energy Discharge? Seems a bit far off, although the numbers look tasty. Need more research.

[Fyron]

Phased shields cause Phased Polaron Beams to act as normal weapons.

Note that every single shield point on the ship must be from phased generators, otherwise they will count as normal, non-phased shields.

Anti-Proton Beams (energy stream weapons) are the most powerful general purpose weapon. Far cheaper to build than Phased Polaron Beams, and they have one of the highest damage ratios in the game. Combined with long range (8), they are killer. Very expensive to research, but well worth it.

Wave-Motion Beams are very weak weapons. In situations where you are only going to get one shot, they are ok. But for combats that last more than 3 rounds, Anti-Proton Beams are vastly more powerful. Damage ratios (damage / kiloton (size) / rate of fire) are a very important comparison tool.

[Jtownsend]

Ah! Good point, I had actually failed to give thought to weapon size differing.