More questions...

[SilverRat]

I am playing a game that has me isolated within 8 quadrants--with no other AI in those zones (I sent 2 scout ships out in different directions and they found no exiting warp point they had not explored before they met up on the 'far side'. This isolation provides some time to devote to non-war activities, so naturally I have been working on research so I can eventually form a warp and begin to make contact. (My goal atm is to build an invasion fleet: with ships, SY's, Carriers, Miners, Sweepers and colonizer ships (with people, WP's and mines).
My plan is to build as I research, mothball almost everything and retro to future tech levels/ train before I send them out. I hope for a case where my warp opener opens a passage, THEN my invasion fleet is given the command to 'explore' (which I am hoping will allow them to warp into the next system) then have the warp sealed up behind them ("March or Die!: Failure is NOT an option") so I can build my next invasion fleet and open a different warp...

As I am new to the game I am foggy about the planetary weapons/ items but feel confident that their 'bugs' can be worked out with trial and error (and saving/loading often). I have a few general questions that I'd love some feedback on, some are silly but as a new player I haven't encountered many of them and am filled with anticipation at work... 8)

1-can I mothball minelayers/colony ships with cargo on them? (I doubt it but it would provide vast additional storage space for mines/wp's/Sats)

2-My plan so far is to go 90% research facilities with enough mining to allow for ships to be built.

3-I have colonized the only 12 gas planets available to me (4 of which are methane-my gas) and have researched mine1, warhead3, computer1, research2, destroyer). My SYs are producing ramming escorts and destroyers (with computer controls to make future retroing easier with the high price of the computer component). I plan to finish research on fighters (before I go for research3 and then rock planets) so my planets can churn out planes as my research continues-can they be mothballed on carriers? or should I just stick them in a fleet by themselves above my producing planets?

4-as I build techs for any unknown opponents what suggestions can you make on which weapons and defenses may be best against my opponents? (as mentioned I plan to have mines and fighters but also like troops for captureing planets instead of glassing them).

5-since I will be at the stellar manipulation stage of the game before I make contact (if all goes well...) what tactics or insight into those technologies should a new person know to make the most of them? I enjoyed Slick's tale about building a ringworld around his homeworld's star when the countdown to it's destruction was learned of, but have never reached that level in any of my games so far.

Anyway, this randomly generated game that was to pit me against the AI has me excited at the possibilities of developing a civilization without contact while preparing for it! I had chosen that warp points didnt have to connect all and could be anywhere. I tried the min/max method to learn (and was very pleased). This might make an intresting scenario!

Thanks for any imput. 8)

[Urendi Maleldil]

1. not sure. I don't usually mothball ships

2. sounds good if you're trying to get Warp Point tech fast

3. a couple of good things about fighters
- they cost no maintenance
- you can "store" up to 200 of them in orbit obove a planet without using up valuable cargo
- they're devastating against a race w/ no point defense
- load up your carriers as soon as you can. That way you don't have to waste time waiting for them to travel to all your planets to get filled up before you launch your invasion.

4. as large a ship hull as you can get, point defense, mine sweepers, shield generators.
- since you have time to build up your forced, you might want to add a few cargo bays so each main battle ship can double as a troop carrier (good if you're using tactical combat)
- Phased Polaron Beams are the best weapon in the game. They shoot every turn, have high damage, they're not too hard to research, and they skip normal shields

5. Stellar manipulation ships are expensive and slow to build. Protect them, otherwise you'll have to wait ten turns while you construct new ones if they get destroyed. Keep some in reserve for this reason.
- The A.I. sucks at using stellar manipulation.
- Make your warp point, send your fleet through, colonize the first large breathable world you find to establish a beach head there and close the warp point behind you. That way your main empire will be protected from attack while you're free to build more ships there.

[Renegade 13]

1: I'm not sure, as I also don't usually mothball ships; if I do, they rarely have cargo on them

2: Personally, I'd stick to maybe 80% research facilities, roughly 12% miners, and 4% each of organics and rads. As a side note, my usual mix if I'm in contact with other empires and need to both research and build up some decent forces is roughly 40% research, 40% minerals and 10% each organics and rads.

3a: Don't know if fighters can be mothballed on their carriers; I suppose its essentially the same question as #1.

3b: Depends on the answer to 3a

4: Defenses: Definitely have decent point defense. About level 4 leaves you essentially invulnerable to missiles as long as you aren't horrendously outnumbered. If you put about 2 PD per ship, you should be in great shape.

You'll also want armor; specifically scattering armor and stealth armor. At their highest levels (3), they each give you a 15% defensive bonus. This brings up another point; research ECM and Combat Sensors to their max.

Offensive: Phased Polaron beams are excellent as Urendi Maleldil mentioned, up until your enemies get phased shield generators. But that will be quite some time in the future, so PPB's should be great for a long time.

5: Urendi Maleldil mentioned the most pertinent points on Stellar Manipulation. Expermentation will reveal the rest

[gregebowman]

I have no answers to most of your questions, but since you're going the Steller Manipulation route, you might try to obtain atmosphere modification. I try to get to this as soon as I can, since once the planets are breathing the same air as you are, you'll find you'll extra spaces on your planets. There's nothing wrong with having a few extra spaces, as I usually use them for research or storage if need them.

[DarkHorse]

I'm fairly certain you can neither mothball nor retrofit ships with cargo on them.

[SilverRat]

Well I found out --- I can not mothball anything with cargo still aboard.

---I found a few tricks for 'sandbagging' a fleet--
First I custom design each basic ship to the current output of the SY so if it is manufacturing with 2020 of each resource I will make a ship with 4040 or less to produce the ship in 2 turns and move to the next.

---I name them for hull and the amt of metal pts I have put into them (ie: Cruiser 11350) to make retrofitting math / selection easier.

---Dont unmothball until you are ready to upgrade and go.

I have been having a blast with this one.

[Parasite]

Yes, as you found out you cannot mothball ships with cargo. You can retrofit mothballed ships.

Watch the minerals you use when unmothballing a ship. It can be expensive, especially if they come to you before you are ready to go to them. One disadvantage of retrofitting a mothballed ship is that it then costs more to unmothball.

A mix of upgrades while mothballed and upgrades while training before launch may be best. I expect your 2020 numbers are based on a shipyard I with a small bonus. Getting a more advanced shipyard and a jubilant and more populous planet will increase the amounts of building required.

[Atrocities]

Remote mining is your key to salvation. Build a huge mining star base at asteroids that have the highest mineral percentage, organic mining star bases at the highest organic percentage asteroids and the same for radio actives. Your construction ships might take several turns to make them, but when they come on line, wohhoo daddy do they produce. Remember you can only have ONE type of mining component per station per asteroid. If you have a starbase with all three remote mining components on it, min, rad, org, it won't work. They have to be all min, or all rad, or all org to work. And you can only have one mining base/ship per asteriod so make damn sure its the right base to take advantage of the highest % resource of that asteroid.

[Xaren Hypr]

Atrocities said:
Remember you can only have ONE type of mining component per station per asteroid. If you have a starbase with all three remote mining components on it, min, rad, org, it won't work. They have to be all min, or all rad, or all org to work.

I'm not sure that is quite correct. I frequently build multi-mining stations and, when selected, show that they are extracting all their resource types. As an example from my current game:

Size: Spacestation (500kT)
Comps: B/LS(x2)/CQ(x2), Min Extractor II(x2), Org Extractor II, Rad Extractor II
Asteroid Field: 186/138/209
Mining Amount: 2604/966/1463

While you can have only one extraction ship per resource (no having 3+ Mineral extraction ships on one field/planet), you CAN have all of the extractors on one ship and have them all function.

[Atrocities]

Hum, seems that when you combine them on a base they do all indeed work. I stand corrected.

As for ships

Only one ship can mine a location each turn.