Newbie query re: mothballing ships.

[Suicide Junkie]

Empty hulls with just the basics ARE good for at least two things:

1) Put them in fleets, and train lots of fleets cheaply. Add real ships to the fleet as you build them, and send 'em off with full experience instantly.

2) Decoys. It never hurts to distract your enemy with a stack of 30 Whoopass-class empty-hull dreadnaughts while your real forces are elsewhere

[Baron Munchausen]

The old 'shell game' idea, huh? I suppose that would be usable against humans. The AI seems to know what you really have in a given location. At least if people use this strategy the 'Long Range Sensors' start to have real value. As it is, you learn everything that is in a ship class anytime you get into combat with it. All you have to do is send one little scout in to see the composition of an entire fleet. A small price to pay if you save a flet of deadnoughts from disaster. If the scanner jammer also worked in combat things would be different.