Help me with space combat

I just bought this game and I must say I´m very irritated with the space combat.. either the game is super bugged or there´s just TOO much strategy involved.
Here´s my problem.. I started out with an easy game.. just to get a feel of everything.
Having set up a nice little empire I create a few fleets and attack my trusty neighbor like all good hearted dictators would do. I go in vs. a civ that´s way behind me in tech but they slaughter my fleet. So I think, ok that was a fluke and send my next fleet in.. in short I got creamed. Irritated by this I start a simple game, finish the tech tree, make a few more fleets all armed with the best shields, cm´s, armor, death rays, black hole generators, torpetoes, disruptors... you know.. the works. Along comes this fleet of pirates and I attack them.... guess what.. THEY TAKE ME OUT! NOT ONCE, NOT TWICE BUT 10 TIMES.. THAT´S HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO CONTINUALLY MAKE MORE FLEETS AND INEVITABLE GRIND THEM DOWN!!!!
Am I missing something here? Is this a bug? I just don´t get it.. the only thing I´m sure of is that I don´t feel like spending my VERY limited playing time getting slaughtered.
3,813 views 10 replies
Reply #1 Top
Are you using the core ship designs or making your own? The core ships are best avoided at all costs.

If you are designing your own ships, you might be better off concentrating on a single type of weapons or defences (preferably weapons that your opponent doesn't have defences against, and defenses that counter the weapons that they are using). Mixing weapons and defenses not only takes three times as long to research, but is also simply not as effective.

You also need to consider that good weapons tech is not the only important thing. It's just as important to have good logistics (more ships per fleet), miniturisation (more weapons on each ship) and larger hull techs (more space on the ships and more HP).

If not, I don't know what is going on. I'm assuming you aren't doing anything daft like sending in ships one by one instead of forming them into fleets or something?
Reply #2 Top
Yea, I see the problem with the Pirate's, your letting the game run for too long without anything hapening and so it's throwing in somthing (IE: The pirates) to spice it up alil, you know, keep it alive instead of just a "Next Turn" game that goes on indefinatly. Otherwise everything that No118 said is perfect, couldnt have put it better myself!


And no, No bug.

Fate,
Reply #3 Top
Look at what your opponent is using on theit ships and try to use a countering srtup on your ships. If they have lasers try to fit shields, if you dont have shield tech then fit armour or point defence, you still get some defence benefit but not as much as if you had used the corresponding defence to the weapon.

Shields counter lasers
Armour counters mass drivers (projectiles)
Point Defence (ECM) counters missiles

Try to use a weapon type that your enemy isnt using defences for, they use armour? Fit missiles or lasers and hit them where it hurts.

Form fleets, your logistic ability allows you to form larger more powerful fleets. Larger hulls are more powerful but use more logistics points.

Play around with your balance of weapons/defences. I tend to skimp on defences on smaller ships in order to keep costs down and leave room for firepower. Don't go overboard on defence as you might find you lack the punch to beat the enemies defences.

In my opinion a balanced fleet composition is the way to go. I mix up te hull sizes and try to tank up my larger ships so that they can hopefully absorb the fire of the smaller enemy craft and ride out the enemy big guns long enough for my fleet to grind them down. You're going to lose ships in this game, but just make sure the enemy lose more.

Oh and dont forget to have at least one armed ship in orbit of every planet to ward off sneak invasions, the troop ships cant land until the garrison is cleared out, it sucks to lose some world behind the lines because a troop ship managed to sneak through!

If all else fails, sue for peace.

Good luck to ye!
Reply #4 Top

This pirate fleet appears to have infinite (...) stats. I just made 2 fleets of missle boats using just torpedos (not blackhole but the one before that). Both my fleets were slaughtered but what gets me is that I appear to do no damage what so ever. In this fight the pirate fleet had over 1500hp and my damage in these fights was 14hp in the first fight and 18 in the next. The fight lasted 2 rounds with my fleet firing one whole round ( 18 ships with 6 bays each) and one half round as they killed half my ships already
Reply #5 Top
Load up on one type of weaponry. I have had the same thing happen to me. Trust me, you can still make better ships than they do. DO not spread 3 types of weapons. Notice the pirate defenses are probably like 300 or more in each category. To hurt them, your fleet must do more than that in a category. There damage is your attack minus their defense in a category (missile, ray, or massdriver). If they have a missile defense of say 286 and you do 300 missile attack, they receive 14 damage. Make a fleet with3 or 4 big monsters and then some little guys who are expendable. Often, the little guys will get blown up while your big ships keep pounding them. At that stage in the game, it is impossible to beat a pirate fleet without losing a single ship.

Reply #6 Top
And (...) just means over 999. I took out a pirate fleet that was like 768 ray, 882 missile, and (...) massdriver. The hit points were like 1500 as yours. My fleet was something like 168 Ray, (...) Missile and 960 massdriver. You can do eet!
Reply #7 Top
A funny thing to do is build the Galactic Privateer and watch the pirates try in vain to kill your freighters. Every turn they try to attack and can't.
Reply #8 Top
I just made 2 fleets of missle boats using just torpedos


No defensive components?

You also want to accumulate experienced ships throughout the game. Those small hull ships may seem weak at first, but they can carry some hefty HP once they level-up several times. And fleet some vets with newer ships, so that when some do get destroyed, your veterans survive (and get even stronger).
Reply #9 Top
I wonder what version you are playing, laxi2610.
In 1.0 the pirates were something fierce, but they were dumbed down in later versions.

Have you updated the game?
Reply #10 Top
In 1.0 the pirates were something fierce, but they were dumbed down in later versions.


Yeah, but they can still be a challenge on harder levels. Plus one would assume that the pirate ships would be experienced and have better stats... but I haven't really checked into that one yet.