Newbie question!

[TerranC]

But the thing is even with LOW tech requirements, Quantum Reactors take some time to research which could be better used to research Light Cruisers or Phased Polaron Beams.

Here is a better alternative until you have some research points to use:

*Research Astrophysics
*Stop at Level 1 and Research Stellar Harnessing

You will get Solar Panels 1-3 which create supplies per star, which is pretty cheap to research even in high settings.

[Marvin Kosh]

Originally posted by TerranC:
But the thing is even with LOW tech requirements, Quantum Reactors take some time to research which could be better used to research Light Cruisers or Phased Polaron Beams.

Here is a better alternative until you have some research points to use:

*Research Astrophysics
*Stop at Level 1 and Research Stellar Harnessing

You will get Solar Panels 1-3 which create supplies per star, which is pretty cheap to research even in high settings.

Ah. Yeah, you could pack a little ship full of solar panels and it could regenerate the supplies for a fleet quite nicely as it cruises to its destination. That'll really improve the range, what's more you can have a few of these ships stationed around and about in outlying systems as refuelling tankers.

I was just basically saying that once you get Quantum Reactor, that's the thing to have

The other good thing is that Stellar Harnessing leads to solar sails, which means Even More Free Movement Points

[mac5732]

In regards to singel ships, all you have to do is design a supply ship, (as many supply holders as possible) send and and meet with your 1 ship, then just create fleet with both ships, then just wait until the supply on the one ship is full, take the ships out of the fleet and go their seperate ways, just be sure you hv enough supply to get you supply ship back to a re-supply base.

just some ideas mac

[Baron Munchausen]

Supplies are like water. They seek the 'lowest level' at all times. So, if you build a ship with almost nothing but supply storage it will hold much more than any one warship and will 'fill' the ships in the same fleet from its own tanks. The warships will stay 'full' while the supply ship has more than the capacity of any one warship. When it sinks down below the capacity of the warships, you can remove it and add a different (hopefully full) supply ship to the fleet.

The solar panel ship is good, too, but can be very slow to regenerate supplies for large fleets. It's also far more expensive to build and maintain. Tankers are better for short-range operation. A combination of tanker ships and solar panel ships is best for long-range operations.

[CW]

I always thought supply storages are counted as cargo compartments, aren't they? I couldn't design a tanker based around a transport hull.

[Grandpa Kim]

Sorry CW, unfortunately supply components have no storage capacity so they do not count towards the storage total on transports-- at least in the unmodded game. Seems to me some mods do have this feature. .... Come to think of it, I haven't tried that trick in gold yet, so it may be possible now. I don't know.