Blockade Runner ship class

[Trachmyr]

Not to mention if your propulsion experts , it'll get you a combat speed of 7... who needs a retreat option?

[serpwidgets]

quote:

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Hmmm....Escort Class 6-QIII engines, SolarSail-3, Q-reactor and you good to go NOTHING can catch it without mods

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Yeah, but I'm talking about an affordable solution early in the game that won't be useful as a major "attack fleet" type ship... and one that doesn't take 50 years of research to build.

It seems like it's at about the time I get LCs that I've met a few races and have explored out about as far as my escorts will go in any reasonable amount of time. The idea is that they'd be much faster than a regular ship, and would be handy for running through enemy turf in a hurry without either getting caught, or having to bring an entire fleet through. I like the comments on the supplies, I hadn't considered that. Thanks.

Also, I don't get how an escort with the mentioned components would be any faster than a cruiser with those same components. At that point in the game, why build the escort?

[Marty Ward]

It does seem weird that all ships have about the same speed. Thats why I added speed to my smaller ships, along with the other stuff, it makes them different.
A few people have been working on something with "engines per move" but it sounds to complicated for me to do and I think there are some small problems with it.
If you want to quickly mod a fast ship I would suggest adding speed to a hull by giving it the "Standard Ship Movement" ability. That way you can oick the hull type(s) you want to speed up.

[geoschmo]

How does this sound for an idea. From what little I know about hull types I think it would be doable.

Leave the escort class that you start out with alone, then as you advance in ship construction tech, say level 3, along with the destroyer hull you discover an "enhanced escort" class hull. This would be the same size as a normal escort hull, but with the added abilities.

You could even advance it gradually. At level 3 say the enhanced escort gets +1 speed and some supply capacity, at level 4 a new escort class with +2 speed and more supply cap.

Explain it as better shipbuilding techniques allowing stronger structures with less mass in materials giving them more acceleration from the same engine power.

(Someone with more physics knowledge than me will have to tell me if thrust to weight ratio is applicable to to ships operating in a vacuum. )

Geo

[Nitram Draw]

That's definately do-able Geo and sounds like a great idea.
I used to build only 2 escorts each game, my first two scouts. After I got Destroyers I never built a smaller ship. Since I added speed and combat move to the smaller hulls I use them a lot more, as capture ships, sensor ships, fast supply ship etc. They still tend to lose some of their usefulness after everyone has DN's but in my current game, turn 300 or so, I still have them in action.
It's also a pretty easy mod and I think the AI would use them even if the increases were gradual. I modded all mine from the start so the AI doesn't have many problems using them, although they could vary their designs a little more. I wish I knew more about modding the AI ship building, I botch it every time

[DirectorTsaarx]

quote:

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Originally posted by geoschmo:
(Someone with more physics knowledge than me will have to tell me if thrust to weight ratio is applicable to to ships operating in a vacuum. )
Geo

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Well, technically it's a thrust to _mass_ ratio, since weight is mass * gravity (well, technically it's acceleration due to gravitational attraction, not "gravity", but why nitpick that much?) & there's not much gravitational attraction going on in deep space.

Anyway, the point is, thrust to mass ratio definitely has an effect, no matter how much or how little gravitational attraction is being exerted on the mass. After all, momentum and energy are functions of mass. To go a step further, the idea of thrust is that it expends energy to create an acceleration (i.e., change in velocity, which applies to changes in speed, direction, or both); that acceleration, when acting upon a mass, causes the mass to change velocity.

All right, now I'M confused. What the heck was I talking about?

[Happy_Dau]

I recently had the idea for the following:

How about making all Ship Classes (the standard ones) available from the start. Escort would stay normal but all other ships would take HUGE amouts of resources to build. I mean really huge. So you COULD build a Battlecruiser but it would take several years to be completed.
Advanced levels in Ship Construction would make either the next ship (lvl 2: frigate, lvl 3: destroyer, ect.) cheaper (normal cost) or make all hulls a little bit cheaper.

This would have worked extremly well for SE3 since ships were build OUTSIDE the ship yard. This could prove interesting:
Empire A begins construction of a really HUGE Ship that would surely devastate EMPIRE B. Now Empire B could break the defense lines and directly head for the space yard the colosss is built and destroy it before it's done. Well, in SE4 the ships are contructed INSIDE the Space yard, making it necessary to destroy the space yard. Could prove difficult if it's built on the homeworld.

That was just an idea and I will test it out as soon as I got some time again...

MfG Happy_Dau