Small ships vs Big ships

[Yef]

Thanks for the responses.

Another question, do you you think it may be worth it to go fighters instead of ships?

In the unmodded game, fighters were too powerful, IMHO, and in Proportions, despite doing a damage of only 4 per gun, I have taken on Heavy Base ships with 200 fighters. Talk about X-wing fighters and the Death Star.

I'm fighting the Dopplenganger, and for some reason the AI insists in sending unescorted HeavyBaseships against my fleet of 3 carriers, despite being defeated time and again.
It think it have to do with the building.txt.
Maybe the dopplenganger AI its not optimazed for Proportions?

[Gozra]

I really feel that is is not a question of little ships v. big ships. Each ship size plays a role in any Empire. Combined arms are invauable and fleets that employ this tactic are hard to beat. I tried building LC's with drones and when that fleet went against a comparible sized fleet of BC's the LC fleet beat the BC's however nearly all the LC's had sustained damage in the battle but all survived. I also found that ES's make great police ships. It helps your happines a great deal to have 2 or more ships in orbit over a planet and ES make good guards in that respect. ES's and FR's also make good Kamikazi ships. And a great deal depends on how you set up your empire. All ship sizes fighters, drones, are useful. I am in a mature game right now (Last Man Standing) And The Fleet uses all sizes. Every Ship size plays a role.

[rdouglass]

PVK hit on my favorite mid-to-late-game usage of small ships; nuisance ships.

While your main battle fleets engage the larger enemy ships, send small recon fleets of smaller ships. Even if they just sit in an enemy system, they lower happiness and (hopefully) start a few riots, destroy a few unguarded transports or colonizers, etc; just annoy the heck out of the inner systems and keep 'em chasing YOU. See how quickly many will retreat to restore peace and order (and income!!!) to their monetary infrastructure.

Just my $.02

[zen.]

I totally forgot about the effect enemy ships have on a system! I've found that smaller ships are good missiliers, dishing out decent damage for their size to compensate for mounts. By using their speed, they can spread missile fire pretty effectively. The downside, of course, is they're more easily destroyed where a larger ship would only be damaged.

I usually have logistics and repair ships following main fleets, so I lean towards powerful larger ships that can multitask. Diverse forces are usually the best.

For me, anway. Guess it always depends on your style of play and the mod you're playing!

zen

[spoon]

Only thing I use small ships for later in the game is when I have to churn out a ship asap. Combat-wise, I find that a swarm of frigates/destroyer ship capture ships can sometimes decimate a much larger (tonnage-wise) enemy fleet.

[Fyron]

In the unmodded game, fighters were too powerful, IMHO

Erm... a few PDC V per ship, and you can chew up fighters like there is no tomorrow...

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by rdouglass:
PVK hit on my favorite mid-to-late-game usage of small ships; nuisance ships.

While your main battle fleets engage the larger enemy ships, send small recon fleets of smaller ships. Even if they just sit in an enemy system, they lower happiness and (hopefully) start a few riots, destroy a few unguarded transports or colonizers, etc; just annoy the heck out of the inner systems and keep 'em chasing YOU. See how quickly many will retreat to restore peace and order (and income!!!) to their monetary infrastructure.

Just my $.02

That's what DRONES are for. Nuisance ships, meet cruise missiles!

[PvK]

Yes small ships can be good for boarding ships, and for blockading enemy planets, and generally forcing the enemy to send something larger after you, force them to build weapon platforms, drop a few mines here and there, etc.

Originally posted by Yef:
... Another question, do you you think it may be worth it to go fighters instead of ships?

In the unmodded game, fighters were too powerful, IMHO, and in Proportions, despite doing a damage of only 4 per gun, I have taken on Heavy Base ships with 200 fighters. Talk about X-wing fighters and the Death Star.

I wouldn't use fighters instead of ships in Proportions, but would definitely use them in addition to ships. And, carriers are definitely useful ships to have, and might be used instead of some or perhaps all of the large capital ships you might build.

Things to consider are the cost of 200 fighters, and the cost of ships that can move 200 fighters from system to system. Also, consider that damage to fighters is permanent, while ships can be repaired.

I'm fighting the Dopplenganger, and for some reason the AI insists in sending unescorted HeavyBaseships against my fleet of 3 carriers, despite being defeated time and again.
It think it have to do with the building.txt.
Maybe the dopplenganger AI its not optimazed for Proportions?

I don't think Doppelganger has a Proportions AI. The result will be rather inefficient, as you are seeing. It thinks it should build only the largest size ships, doesn't know how to design for QNP, etc. You might be able to graft in AI files from a Proportions AI that uses similar technologies, and have it suddenly figure a lot of things out.

PvK

[Atrocities]

I for one would like to have the smaller ships be more useful in later parts of the game. The AI ops for Dreadnoughts later in the game and does not buid lower cost ships.

[Captain Kwok]

An easy way to balance ship sizes in a mod is to keep the same engine:weapons:hull size ratio for all ships, i.e. QN propulsion while modifying mounts to provide the same damage/kT ratio at all sizes. Of course, the smaller ships will have their defense bonus due to size while the larger ships are more likely to provide that crippling blow. This works even better in a leaky armor/shield setup.