Seriously, how many people actually lose more than a dozen ships a game? Once the early wars are over, I'm always so far ahead in research, economy and industry that I can churn out huge Dalek War Ships armed with top-of-the-line missiles are AMD (lolz 5space for 10def) *AND* upgrade all my old ones to the new standard each redesign. I usually don't lose *any* ships after the early wars... or I lose and die.

Much of the time a properly-equipped huge ship can punch through the enemy defences - I use missiles, and it's absurdly easy to have 70-80 attack and 60-70 defence from AMD. This means a single huge War Ship can destroy a fleet of 9-12 tiny/small ships with pissy little 20pt attacks and not lose a single hp.

In short, I don't see the point in variety. Sure, I usually branch out eventually, but the payoff for having very advanced weapons is that most of the time the AI won't be using anywhere NEAR enough defence to make a difference.

just outta curiosity has anyone bothered to try taking say a huge hulled ship and sticking nothing but the best defensive fields on it. and the best armor etc. no weapons just make a big ship that can take a pounding. and see if the AI can actually destroy it or not. That would be interesting to see. Oh well time to give this a whirl sounds like fun.

Starlost...

Not really. A single ship with 1 in attack will destroy it in a fight although it will take a really long time.

[quoteNot true, I've seen AI ships with 15 attack, 50 defense or the other way around, both in my first and only 1.1-game so]

Not extreme enough.

just outta curiosity has anyone bothered to try taking say a huge hulled ship and sticking nothing but the best defensive fields on it. and the best armor etc. no weapons just make a big ship that can take a pounding. and see if the AI can actually destroy it or not.

Defences get relatively useless in the very late game (if you have one that lasts right through to the end of the weapons techs that is) because the offensive power increases DRAMATICALLY but the hitpoints barely change at all. Packing 150 defence on a huge ship won't protect you all that well from a group of smaller ships with "only" 60 or 70 attack because it only takes a couple of mediocre rolls to kill you.

Early on and quite a long way into the game, defences are great. Sure, you can get by well enough with fast all-attack ships but I find it more fun to be able to blow my way through entire enemy fleets without losing a single ship, which you won't be doing without defences (you'll get attacked first eventually).

I think this topic will have a lot more relevance when multiplayer comes along. The AI is always likely to be easy to beat on the ship design front without worrying that much about perfecting efficiency.

Hmm just thought about an interesting strategy make a couple of medium ships with nothing but defensive armor, shields and Point defenses. Then create your super fleet killer ship and use the defense ships to buy you time to take out their fleets. Then all you have to do is simply add a new defense ship relatively quickly to the fleet. Your making basically, cannon fodder ships that the AI will be wasting shots on initially. I've noticed the pattern that the smaller the ship the AI targets them first and then goes after the largest ship once they are all gone. Not sure if it does this every time but the pattern is developing. Perhaps in 1.2 they will have some random ship targeting coding that would make it more unpredictable.
I also noticed at least in this current all random game v1.1 I'm in ( ok so I took a break had to sleep). All of the other civs are using missles tech. The Yor finally placed 1 ship out there with Mass Driver weapons. All I've created are ships with Nano Rippers so far.. and the best PD tech available.
Anyhow missle ships and mass driver gunners should have limited ammo. since that takes up room on the ship one would imagine..

Here's another interesting strategy have a couple of freighters parked by your target planet to invade when your ready upgrade them to constructors just prior to your fleet coming in and quickly build military bases. I've actually created an entire fleet of nasty nasty damn damn ships and snuck up on the enemy planet that way and took it right out.
Now the only thing I haven't figured out with the tech path though is just when do I get the psi shredder ( me likes that shredder) it is mentioned in the Future techs but it's never listed or is that something that only shows up with alignment? Hmm puzzleing just looked over the Weapons Tree fold out and it's not listed. Hey Stardock we need a complete tech tree. hehehe..

Starlost...

Hmm just thought about an interesting strategy make a couple of medium ships with nothing but defensive armor, shields and Point defenses. Then create your super fleet killer ship and use the defense ships to buy you time to take out their fleets. Then all you have to do is simply add a new defense ship relatively quickly to the fleet. Your making basically, cannon fodder ships that the AI will be wasting shots on initially. I've noticed the pattern that the smaller the ship the AI targets them first and then goes after the largest ship once they are all gone. Not sure if it does this every time but the pattern is developing. Perhaps in 1.2 they will have some random ship targeting coding that would make it more unpredictable.

Pointless, since the enemy ships will ignore your non-attack ships until after they have destroyed all your other ships. The formula for choosing targets is something like Total Attack / (Total Defense + Hit Points). That's why smaller ships often are destroyed first, they have little defense and low hit points.

Now the only thing I haven't figured out with the tech path though is just when do I get the psi shredder ( me likes that shredder) it is mentioned in the Future techs but it's never listed or is that something that only shows up with alignment? Hmm puzzleing just looked over the Weapons Tree fold out and it's not listed.

You need to have chosen evil alignment (like with all the Psionic weapons) and researched Graviton Driver III to be able to research Psionic Shredder.