The way I do it to research up the sensor tree to build a cargo hull spy ship, and for the amonilies I build tiny hull
survey ships which I upgrade to fighters after harvest time. The CargoSpyShips I keep around thru-out the game,
I like to see what everyone else is up to ... (I'm nosy)
Spy ship specs: Cargo hull - 2 of the best engines - 2-3 life supports - all the remaining space fill with senors
As research provides better modules and engines, I update them.

I never thought of using cargo hulls to make spy ships. That would be great 'cause I wouldn't need so many spy ships to find everything and then, of course, keep an ever vigilant eye on everything in the galaxy.

Well, my opinon is that cargo size survey ships are over-kill.
Tiny hulls work fine and since the "anomolly rush" is a brief period early game ...
The cheaper, smaller survey ships are more cost effective.

I use Cargo hulls early as exploration vessels, all engine and lifesupport with a sensor or 2, to explore the unknown and map the galaxy.

But they are too expensive to use for military scouting. For that I use a more expendable small hull in 2 configurations. One as an early warning ship that is all sensors and no engine and line them up around my border. The second is a scout which combines all 3 engine,sensor and range to follow the enemy fleets.

Of course if I have built Eyes of the Universe (which I usually bee line for) I don't use any scouts since everyship can see 10 squares without sensors. It's a wonder that is actually a little unbalancing in my opinion, makes warfare a little too easy because the enemy can't sneak up on you.

Hmmmm, I concentrate on getting Colony ships and never build scouts until the rush is over. Heck, I build Constructors before I build scouts. My starting survey ship will go to a couple of star systems but picks up any anomolies on the way and then is put on auto-survey. Am I missing out here?

Survey ships are only worth it on gigantic maps. On anything else, get impulse drives and a four move flagship will find most of the anomalies by the time the first or second survey ship is launched. The tech and the production are much better used elsewhere.

Really depends on how you have anomolies set. If you have abundant then you definately want survey capabile ships very early. (right after getting impulse engines) For me i found it was too easy to exploit anomilies by building 3-4 fast long range cargo survey ships, so i now set them to rare.

Now i only start building scout ships once the rush is over, and I need to know where more resources are that I don't have constructors on the way too....


I'm still comptemplating whats the better scout, more speed or more sensor ? Either way I tend to put 2-3 ex life supports on them. I think i'll do the math on what covers more ground faster...

Usually the first ship I build is a cargo hull with 4 impulse drives and a few basic life supports, but no sensors. Its job is to check stars for habitable planets so I know where to send my colony ships. It's cheaper and faster than the colony ships (10 moves), and it doesn't "disappear" when it finds a good planet, so it's a much better scout. Knowing where the good planets are really helps in winning the colony rush, even on Suicidal. It lets you settle planets far from your homeworld first, and then fill in the closer ones later, beat the AI to the good planets, and it prevents you from building or buying too many colony ships. Once that's done, it's good for mapping out enemy systems and making contact with other civs. You wouldn't need it on a small map with abundant habitables where any system will have good planets, but on something like huge and rare, I might build two.

Well, on big maps having 4 survey ships can be a real life saver, it actually allow me to build colonies faster than any other cib\vilization (mind you, i'm playing on tought right now though).

Is it just me or the AI is much easier since 1.2? I used to be under attack by 2228 in most of my games and the AI was usually stronger than I.