Ai Ship Names

never considered this?

I don't know what the '8-' means.

'Frigate' means medium hull.

Fighter is Tiny Hull
Heavy Fighter is Small Hull
Frigate is Medium Hull
Battleship is Large Hull
Dreadnought is Huge Hull

'M3' means Mark 3, or the third frigate design that AI has created.

I'm not sure what '-12' means but I think it means that that ship is the 12th ship of it's class.

3342 probably means that it's the 3342nd ship built in that game.

Sounds logical.

So if you wan't to know what your up against, your just going to have to go and have a look with a ship!

In my games, i only do quick spot checks to monitor what weapons/defences the AI is using. One quick check of a defender in a planet is good since the AI likes keeping its defenders up to date.

Hi!

I'm pretty cartain M3-12 means model from game year 3, month 12. 3342 is some incremental number for/from ship ID, that all ships get. And Frigate means medium hull. IMO there are some other naming schemes, like a large hull with significantly more weapons than defenses is a Battelship, but a large with lots of defenses is called a Cruiser.

BR, Iztok

Interesting responses. Both sound reasonable.

So what does the number before the hull size designation mean? It isn't on all of them, but it is on some of them.

Sometimes the AI gives their ships/classes specific names, in alien languages, often containing apostrophes.

As for hull sizes, here's what I know:

Tiny - Fighter, Scout
Small - Heavy Fighter
Medium - Frigate
Large - Battleship, Cruiser
Huge - Dreadnought
Cargo - Colony Ship, Transport, Freighter, Constructor

Apparently, sometimes even those cargo utility ships are found flying around with weapons on them.

I hate those and their armed troop transpot mates!

If you attack one with a fleet, you will probably loose a ship, you always have to stuff around and unfleet one of your ships to attack them. Then if they are fleeted (no warships) you will probably even loose your nice warship for one of their crappy cheap nothings. i hate em grrrr

^And yet their ridiculously pointless to build yourself. Troop Transports get destroyed anyway during invasions, so why spend money to put weapons on them?

Hi!

With earlier versions of GC2 and in late game I've sometimes built troop transports with a single cheap weapon on them. The reasons were quite simple: the trop transport was usually significantly faster than my warships, and it also had spare room, so it could double as an interceptor, destroying soft unarmed targets in space or in orbit. After losing some by accidently attacking still-defended planets, I stopped using them. For that purpose I now upgrade those few early survey ships, that are hanging around with all anomalies taken and all space explored: I add them some engines and one cheap weapon, and they're usefull again.

BR, Iztok

Exactly as I do, Iztok. My "Seeker" 's become "Hunter" 's, the terror of freighters, miners, new stations, AI transports, SPORE SHIPS, and, especially, mining colonies!

I also find that it is worthwhile to retain their sensor suites (eventually replacing Survey pods with Class IV Sensors), because it gives them lots of advanced warning of heavy patrols and makes them very hard to catch. You have to keep an eye on them, though, and move them away from raider-killers.

Actually, they can eventually become stand up ships against things like armed transports, and AI Vengence raiders, with weapons upgrades, a few defenses mixed in, miniaturization, and GOBS of experience and anomaly hull plating (we're generally talking starting-out cargo hulls here).

drrider

BTW, no one mentioned the Vengence raiders. An AI civ in a secondary position late in the game will send out dozens of these things. They appear to be a moderately advanced but relatively cheap, fast heavy fighter type, oriented on killing freighters and other soft targets. In the course of doing this, they can lead your defense patrols on merry goose chases.

They often replace Defenders later in the game as the standard "always have 1 or 2" orbital garrisons of planets, also.

drrider

I had created some designs like that, which I call 'Bombers' a few weeks ago, before I had the box, but then I scrapped them, because I thought attacking soft targets meant declaring war and having it expand into a true war.

The designs were Medium hulls, with lots & lots of engines, some life support, a survey module(thats all you need when you've got Eyes of the Universe), and the rest is either weaponry, or one weapon and lots of defenses.

The Vengeance Raiders appear to be rather easy to defeat. They sound more like pesky flies rather than real threats. If you have Galactic Privateer, your trade routes are safe. And if you have Eyes of the Universe, you can place your fastest defenses at the border to shoot them down as they cross. Or rather use your own 'Hunters' or 'Bombers' or whatever you call them to shoot them down as they are built.



Too bad Asteroid Mining Bases are the only things that can't be armed. Freighters, Mining Starbases, Economic and Influence Starbases, Transports, Constructors, Space Miners and Spore Ships can all be armed.

Yes, an attack is an attack. You use these to raid during a war. They give up firepower and defenses for range, speed, and early warning.



Its a waste to use a medium hull for this. The whole point is to avoid shooters and kill valuable defenseless stuff. For that, you can cram more speed, range, and sensors...and one shooter item...into a cargo hull. Oh, and at high difficulty you can't always count on being the first with any particular Galactic Achievement - the AI knows their value also.
The Survey module is also a bit of a waste, unless you haven't been able to afford the time to go to SensIV, and there is too great a premium on space for an extra Sensor. By the time you are using these ships, the anomalies are generally all gone, and a Survey mod is very expensive.



But they usually aren't until late in the game. By then continuing miniaturization should allow you to protect your raider a bit while maintaining its range and speed. Actually the AI rarely arms constructors, miners, and influence SBs even late in the game. I've never seen weapons on a spore, but I happen to have encountered very few. They are escorted part of the time, though.

drrider