New player struggling

[wr8th]

quote:

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Originally posted by Gryphin:
RE: Ship Capture: If you study this early, you may not have to study shields or as many ships sizes, (and several other techs).

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If you have ship capture ability try sprinkling warp points liberally with mines. Any intruding ships that are damaged or incapacitated can be captured, repaired (bring a repair/supply ship) and analyzed for technology....

[ 11 April 2002: Message edited by: wr8th ]

[Gryphin]

Hmm, I guess I have not beatten this to death yet.
<Soap Box>
I don’t use mines but I was wondering:
Let me guess.
A ship enters a mine field and looses all engines.
Since it has lost all engines it can’t use any remaining shields.
Since it has no shields it is easy to capture.

My question:
How much would the following cost you in resources per turn?
The Mines, (once deployed can not be used anywhere else)
The Mine Layer, (specialty ship that drains resources when not in use and will become obsolete as your fleet becomes faster)
The Repair Ship, (is a drain when not in use, granted has other uses when needed)
The fleet to protect them at the Worm Hole while capturing and repairing the ship.

I feel the resources spent on this strategy would be better spent on the best fleet you can build. This will give you:
Much greater flexibility
The ability to move all elements to where you need them.
Retro Fit for all elements
The ability to move elements to the front lines as your empire expands.
You may want to include Satellites. These can be moved when convenient.
</Soap Box>
I guess I'm just too competitive.

[capnq]

quote:

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Tried building empty DD's and retrofitting them but it said could only increase value by 50% or something so I had to scrap the lot and start again.

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You can make an intermediate design within the cost limit, then retrofit to that, repeating as needed until you can build the final design you want.

Note that the new design only has to be under 150% of the combined total minerals, organics and radioactives, not the individual totals.

quote:

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I normally base my ships on planets because of supply. I used to base them at worm holes but then have to remember to keep getting them resupplied.

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A ship only uses supplies when it moves or fires*; you can park it somewhere indefinitely.

*Or uses a component that uses supplies, such as [edit to correct error] a Cloaking Device.

[ 11 April 2002: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Suicide Junkie]

*Or uses a component that uses supplies, such as Stealth Armor**

** Stealth armor actually uses no supplies.

An energy-field style "cloaking device I" or stellar manipulation component will use a decent amount of supplies.

[wr8th]

Hi Gryphin,

I'm a newbie and was playing the Proportions mod using my "Mine Sprinkles" tactic. The original intent is to make the warp points to my home sytem less than an open door to too-nosy neighbors. I'll use a med. transport and stock up on mines and send it to multiple warp points then restock and repeat. Any ships fortunate enough to survive, I send in a destroyer or three and a heavily armored boarding ship with the repair/supply ship in tow. If the ship is still alive I'll try and stand off and finish it with missiles, then repair and bring back to a base.

I understand your approach though, but the Proportions mod is slower to develop and research doesn't increase as quickly. If I've given bonuses to the AI and research treaties are not forthcoming, this form of flypaper is helpful.

I didn't use this in the unmodded Version.

[capnq]

quote:

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A ship enters a mine field and looses all engines.
Since it has lost all engines it can’t use any remaining shields.

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[ Edit to correct info that changed in Gold patch 1 ]Losing the engines won't take out the shields if the ship also has other supply storage. Shields are only active during combat; they don't protect the ship while it's "cruising" during movement, so they don't stop mines or damaging warp points.

The mines might take out the shield generator(s), though.

[ 11 April 2002: Message edited by: capnq ]

[ 13 April 2002: Message edited by: capnq ]

[capnq]

quote:

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There is a list of damage/kiloton ratios for all weapons somewhere, but I don't remember exactly where.

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Suicide Junkie's damage Ratings, about 80% down the page as I type this.