Problem with downing the first ship

[Lodrigues]

Anyone else has problem this patch with getting their first kill for research? I used the 2 ship combo with one monitor with missiles and second one with PD. This used to work well in past but now the aliens just blitz it, destroy the PD ship before it can even properly start shooting and then wreck other ship no matter what. Anytime I try to put another ship (like another PD) in they just plainly refuse to engage no matter what.

[esilva9]

well if they are coming straight for you you might as well sit there and hurl everything, i haven even built my first ship yet and its 2032, how much armor is your ships packing? i hear you want atleast 15 up front to tank hits with either ship.

[VoiD]

Originally posted by esilva9:

well if they are coming straight for you you might as well sit there and hurl everything, i haven even built my first ship yet and its 2032, how much armor is your ships packing? i hear you want atleast 15 up front to tank hits with either ship.

even 100 can get pierced, with about 40(?) I think you can take plasma hits.

Lasers can be stopped with very low armors from long ranges tho.

[esilva9]

Originally posted by VoiD:

Originally posted by esilva9:

well if they are coming straight for you you might as well sit there and hurl everything, i haven even built my first ship yet and its 2032, how much armor is your ships packing? i hear you want atleast 15 up front to tank hits with either ship.

even 100 can get pierced, with about 40(?) I think you can take plasma hits.

Lasers can be stopped with very low armors from long ranges tho.

im not going to argue you on that, but i am specifically talking about recommended ratings for the scouts. i dont think he needs 100 armor anywhere but a bit in the front could allow it to survive another hit atleast.

[b...]

Originally posted by Lodrigues:

Anyone else has problem this patch with getting their first kill for research? I used the 2 ship combo with one monitor with missiles and second one with PD. This used to work well in past but now the aliens just blitz it, destroy the PD ship before it can even properly start shooting and then wreck other ship no matter what. Anytime I try to put another ship (like another PD) in they just plainly refuse to engage no matter what.

0 armor fast engine. 10+ cheap ships all with rockets. Here, done

Edit. Generally if you plan to actually fight aliens before 2040 overwhelming quantity is the way to go.
Or heres a design that wipes fleets up to 1k strong(on autoresolve because autoresolve is broken) 20-5-25 frigate with cobalt radiator(important) and heavy dumbo. 50/50 pd and rockers fill utilities with magazines. And ship canon to the front to distract enemy PD

[Lodrigues]

Originally posted by b...:

Originally posted by Lodrigues:

Anyone else has problem this patch with getting their first kill for research? I used the 2 ship combo with one monitor with missiles and second one with PD. This used to work well in past but now the aliens just blitz it, destroy the PD ship before it can even properly start shooting and then wreck other ship no matter what. Anytime I try to put another ship (like another PD) in they just plainly refuse to engage no matter what.

0 armor fast engine. 10+ cheap ships all with rockets. Here, done

Edit. Generally if you plan to actually fight aliens before 2040 overwhelming quantity is the way to go.
Or heres a design that wipes fleets up to 1k strong(on autoresolve because autoresolve is broken) 20-5-25 frigate with cobalt radiator(important) and heavy dumbo. 50/50 pd and rockers fill utilities with magazines. And ship canon to the front to distract enemy PD

Oh I am not trying to fight the aliens or am being attacked, I am trying to down my first alien surveillance destroyer so I can research all the tech it unlocks. But the problem is that I have probably waited too long to do it. It's now 2033 and new destroyers coming to earth have long range laser and PD. So when I try the early strat of missile ship + pd ship it doesnt work and I get slaughtered before the missiles get even halfway to it, and it just slaps them away with pd, but when I try adding more ships it refuses to engage. They for some reason brought one dreadnought to earth, so I might try swarming it with ships in an attempt to kill it and get some exotics to research.

[Eltoron]

I have destroyed my first ship with orbital defence platform with only one layered defence module. The second one was destroyer on low orbit. I use four escorts with one infrared pd/one missile launcher setup. I chose missiles with biggest delta V I have. I don't remember the name, but it's a first tier missiles with PD option. I have lost half of my ships. But the alien destroyer was done.

[b...]

Fighters are ultimarely cheap AF. Depending on your mining capabilities you can probably afford multiple every month so even if you will lose 10 for everything you kill it will be net positive. Just dont autoresolve. AR favors armor way too much. Heavily armored ship with ton of PD is treated as immortal. Works both ways actually. AR never seems to be able to kill Motherships despite my fleet having AM torpedoes that 2 shot it

[Heart of Storm]

Managed it with a fleet of cheap ships, 4 missile boats and a pair of PD.

Keep them cheap and cheerful, 15 armour on the nose, nothing else, keep that combat rating down so the aliens feel safe to engage and try pick on a single ship. you want to do this earlier in the game than later so your massed missile fire can overwhelm their PD.

I have no idea what kind games these people recommending 100 armour on your ships are playing, presumably far later era combat, the OP is asking how to merk his first destroyer, not how to tank plasma shots - and for that a cheap group of missile boats is the way to do it.

[Eltoron]

Originally posted by Heart of Storm:

Managed it with a fleet of cheap ships, 4 missile boats and a pair of PD.

Keep them cheap and cheerful, 15 armour on the nose, nothing else, keep that combat rating down so the aliens feel safe to engage and try pick on a single ship. you want to do this earlier in the game than later so your massed missile fire can overwhelm their PD.

I have no idea what kind games these people recommending 100 armour on your ships are playing, presumably far later era combat, the OP is asking how to merk his first destroyer, not how to tank plasma shots - and for that a cheap group of missile boats is the way to do it.

This.
Also in my case it was a small swarm of completely unarmored missile boats with cheapest everything. The only purpose was to transfer from shipyard on extreme earth orbit fast enough, engage, and launch the missiles. Survivability is optional. The fact that two of them survive and was able to get to my station on low orbit after two months is a bonus.

[Left-Hand Path]

I used 2 monitor as missle platforms with vipers and a destroyer with PDs for cover fire and insurance. Lost both monitors, but it worked.

The alien scout went for my missle platforms first, the same behavior I witnesed before the patch.

[Lodrigues]

Originally posted by Eltoron:

Originally posted by Heart of Storm:

Managed it with a fleet of cheap ships, 4 missile boats and a pair of PD.

Keep them cheap and cheerful, 15 armour on the nose, nothing else, keep that combat rating down so the aliens feel safe to engage and try pick on a single ship. you want to do this earlier in the game than later so your massed missile fire can overwhelm their PD.

I have no idea what kind games these people recommending 100 armour on your ships are playing, presumably far later era combat, the OP is asking how to merk his first destroyer, not how to tank plasma shots - and for that a cheap group of missile boats is the way to do it.

This.
Also in my case it was a small swarm of completely unarmored missile boats with cheapest everything. The only purpose was to transfer from shipyard on extreme earth orbit fast enough, engage, and launch the missiles. Survivability is optional. The fact that two of them survive and was able to get to my station on low orbit after two months is a bonus.

As I said, my biggest problem is that when I send 1 missile 1 pd boat they get wrecked, if I send 1 more ship (for example pd with 16 strength) all aliens fleets of 1 ship start to avoid me and I cant get them to fight. I'll probably try experimenting with some weaker ships, if it gets them to engage me

[Eltoron]

Originally posted by Lodrigues:

As I said, my biggest problem is that when I send 1 missile 1 pd boat they get wrecked, if I send 1 more ship (for example pd with 16 strength) all aliens fleets of 1 ship start to avoid me and I cant get them to fight. I'll probably try experimenting with some weaker ships, if it gets them to engage me

You can force them to fight with two fleets. You engage simultaneously with two fleets. The one initiates the battle. You bid zero delta V when enemy try to escape. They bid zero too. So they disengage. Stays in place. And goes to shot cooldown before next action. Your second fleet engage at the moment the first engagement ends. And enemy can't flee since his fleet on cooldown. It's important to bid 0 at the first attempt.

[corisai]

Originally posted by Lodrigues:

As I said, my biggest problem is that when I send 1 missile 1 pd boat they get wrecked

No armor on missile boats. They aren't going to survive in early game anyway.

[N311]

i sent 3 missile boats and only lost one with 2028 tech. I think the big bit is that they cant take a hit.

Did a hard turn on all my ships with them going in different directions. So as other have said make your first ships cheap and fast.

Also this helped me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EK3_aW5hc

[b...]

Originally posted by corisai:

Originally posted by Lodrigues:

As I said, my biggest problem is that when I send 1 missile 1 pd boat they get wrecked

No armor on missile boats. They aren't going to survive in early game anyway.

You can go armor, but its either 0 or 100+ in front anything less is pointless.
And if you go 100 that means you could build 4 more ships instead