ship designs in mid and late game

[vmxa1]

"Originally posted by GTPoompt
vxma1: do you usually research mass driver? I usually take class 1 shield but i suppose the computer usually goes for MD so its easy to steal."

It is not one of the choices that I always do A or B. It varies, but you could do either. I tend to feel I can get by without the shields as they only help a little.

"IMO i usually would go for cybertronic comps over autolab. Autolab is nice but i end up not building that many autolabs later on in the game. Also, I usually play 6 race hard large so usually someone gets autolabs, i'll either trade for it (i usually don't play rep) or steal. Especially nice when theres a psilon."

I cannot justify skippin autolabs, unless I am going with a blitz race. In that case I will do no research. I only play impossible, unless someone posts a game save.

Often I can get by with no combat or just a little at this stage and can get by with crappy comps. I will get the autolab up asap on all planets. rush buy if I need to, but usually will have a prebuild going so I can get it in one turn or so.

Research is penalized at a higher degree in impossible and you need those structures (RL and Labs). Supercomps, you do not want to skip either, but you can aviod rushing them everywhere. I will get them up right away on my best planets.

Autolabs and RL let you move pop from research to industry with litle or no lose in RP. I am not saying you cannot win doing it some other way, but you will lose ground.

"You guys take the graviton beam or planet grav gen."

This is another one that is not a lock for one or the other IMO. I do not need the grav beam and I may not really need the generator. If I am playing wiht Low-G (I used to use it a lot). I probably go with the generator. Did I draw a lot of lowg planets?

I am not far way from getting phasors, so I probably will not even need the grav beam. If I am a creative race, I often do not use the beam anyway.

"Quick Question: Is there any way to set what attributes the computer gets? I would like to play a game where EVERYONE is uncreative and repulsive"

I don't know. I remember Garth Vader talking about the MeltPot being able to create or change races, but I never used.

Maybe you could gen up a game and use Corion to change the traits of the races. I am not sure if that can be done and if it will cause any problems.

You can always give it a shot.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by GameGeek
Yeah, part of my problem is that I always played Creative races for a long time. Now I'm tired of spending the 8 points for Creative and am having to figure out which techs to choose in each level.

I think that adds to the fun and replay value of the game. I like to change up after a bunch of games and toss in a creative race once in a blue moon.

Most of the choices are pretty cut and dried, but a few you can justify more than one choice, depending on what is going on.

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by GTPoompt
IMO i usually would go for cybertronic comps over autolab. Autolab is nice but i end up not building that many autolabs later on in the game. Also, I usually play 6 race hard large so usually someone gets autolabs, i'll either trade for it (i usually don't play rep) or steal. Especially nice when theres a psilon.

Situational call. I usually go for autolabs, but if you know that you're going to go to war soon, it can be a very, very long trip from electronic to moleculartronic computers. In that case, I'd rather research the cybertronic and beg, borrow or steal the autolab.

You guys take the graviton beam or planet grav gen.

When I'm not creative, I take one of those two. There's a third item in that pack, but I can't remember what it is. I do remember that I don't get a lot of use out of it. I used to use the graviton beam a lot. Not so much any more. I like having the gravitation generator for those large, mineral rich planets w/ high-g.

Quick Question: Is there any way to set what attributes the computer gets? I would like to play a game where EVERYONE is uncreative and repulsive (double )

I think so. There's a link on these boards somewhere. I can't remember the whole URL, but I want to say it's something with "dopefish" and "kfizzle." On that page, at the bottom, he outlines a method of using the hotseat mode to set up a multiplayer game where you define all of the custom races, and then loading it into a single-player game. Caveat: I have not tried this, don't have a clue as to whether or not it works, or what it might do to a computer. (But if you try it, let us know if it works. )

[Old n Slow]

I haven’t weaned myself away from creative yet, so my tech choices tend to be which block comes first, second, etc. So for ships, I’ll get the shields with Mass Driver ( and later Gauss Cannon), thus getting some offense AND defense at the same time. In this case, Repulsive as a dis-ad makes sense, and I find that I’m researching Physics later than most other disciplines.

I’ll also research construction deeper than some of the other folks & thus tend to use Titans much more so than BBs. I’ll often have that tech before I go a-warring, so it makes sense to me to outfit those ships accordingly.

My minimal beam ship is a BB with Battle scanner, Autofire Mass Drivers, level III shield & a Positronic Computer/ usually using a dozen hvy AF MDs, with a 360 MD and a PD MD to round out the guns.

Next step up should be Titans with the same stuff -- then I’ll research some more computer stuff -- getting RT & SA while the goal is Autolabs. Then the research will move back to FF -- and ship upgrades will happen almost constantly. I’ve noticed that a single titan with RT, SA & Autofire Gauss Cannons can take out the guardian -- so I figure that that ship should be good enough for the late middle game.

I’ll try to supplement this with a couple of Missile cruisers for planets. (Once I get Zort (and the other two choices here are also very nice), I’ll stop research in this line ‘til close to the end of the game -- I should have MIRV Mercs which tend to work against planets very well.)

Rather than going a-conquering, my current modus operandi is to see if I can swing the election to either me or some other single winner (usually the Sakkra) and of course not accept the results. This tends to lead to large ship battles where my few boats are greatly outnumbered by inferior …targets. There is some sense of satisfaction in watching one of mine shooting down five to six of theirs.

[vmxa1]

Why use 360, why not just forward? do you find that you are force to fire in all directions?

It cost you space and hence guns.

[Old n Slow]

For the first BB, the hvy AF MDs cost 20 space each -- the 360 AF MD is only 13; the PD is 5. S I seem to end up with 11-12 HV AF MDs and one each of the other two due to spare change.

The 360 gun only occaisionally comes in handy when the ship gets spun around by a grav beam, or too many ship swarm & somebody gets to shoot from the side.

Usually the 360 gun & PD end up shooting missiles.

Once a few layers of Miniturization kick in (often after AF Gauss Cannons) the 360 gun suite seems useless... but by then the game is usually very much in hand and one can get sloppy with no penalty.

[Whoha]

You can set the atributes the AI has with the corion editor.

[Aabraxan]

My ship designs are definitely improving. My last game, I was cornered between the Silicoids and the Klackons. Went to war with the Silicoids and, just as I was about to wipe them out, the Klackons (with whom I'd had trade and research treaties) declared war, as did the Sakkra, both for unknown reasons. I had made the mistake of refitting my ships w/ unmodded phasors as soon as I got phasors, and my BBs were taking a serious beating from the Klacks. So I turned all of my colonies in shipyards long enough to build about a dozen destroyers and cruisers fitted with x2 mirv nukes and no beam weapons. These were sufficient to defend my colonies long enough to re-fit my BBs w/ autofire, armor piercing mass drivers. Turned it around and won. I've never had much luck with comebacks before, and now I know why: my ship designs stunk!