Do I really need support frigates?

[Lucius Confucius]

Do they only provide fuel bonuses? Or do they keep the ships in the fleet from getting damaged? I always send one support and one combat ship with each fleet.

But now I want to optimize my fleets, removing any redundancies. I know support ships give small bonuses to all specialities.

[japp_02]

After launching many, many expeditions I still cannot figure out how to best use these Support Frigates...What I do is adding ships to an expedition, also a support one and then watch how much fuel the expedition needs, then I take out the support frigate to see if this number goes down in which case the sujpport frigate would be a bad choice.
Other than that I have no idea what's the best usage of support frigates, I don't see any mission type where it's more useful.

I'm curious to see other player feedbacks.

[Lindy Bomber]

I use mostly support frigates.

They reduce fuel and add mission points in all catagories.

Apparently in nighter level missions there is a chance to get an off mission encounter, the threshold for success is much lower (50%). So your comat patrol might get a trade encounters. If they have no trade points they will take damage.

I find two mission specialist and three support can handle any specialist mission. Balanced missions I'll send 5 support frigates. Thus was before the freighter techs introduce in Desolation, so the math may have changed a little.

[knighttemplar1960]

If you use nothing BUT support frigates you can do most of the missions for almost no fuel. You just have to make sure that your star rating is high enough that your ships won't need repairs.

[japp_02]

I cannot confirm the theory that supports will reduce fuel in all cases, in some cases with 3-5 ships containing a support, if I take it out I see the fuel needed number is going down, so they don't reduce but consume fuel, I won't add them to the expedition. For what do they stand for? "Support" for what? For trading missions, combat, or whatelse? Difficult to say and I found no extensive docs about, not even in the game wiki.
Hello Games knows much better but they never answer gameplay questions AFAIK...

[Pul Myfinger]

Lucius Confucius eredeti hozzászólása:

Do they only provide fuel bonuses? Or do they keep the ships in the fleet from getting damaged? I always send one support and one combat ship with each fleet.

But now I want to optimize my fleets, removing any redundancies. I know support ships give small bonuses to all specialities.

I have moved away from including combat ships in non-combat missions and will be moving away from using support ships as well. Likely, I will replace most of my support ships with other types.
With all my ships rated very high and by sending out 5 to a mission, I never need repairs. I don't worry about fuel ... just make more as needed.

[luZk]

They're great in endgame frigate missions, so yeah I think you should at least get a few. When you can send 2 S battlecruisers and 1 support to do a 3/4 star mission and cut down fuel use quite a lot.

Also they're great for giving you just a little more of everything because they can do everything at an average level.

[japp_02]

luZk eredeti hozzászólása:

They're great in endgame frigate missions, so yeah I think you should at least get a few. When you can send 2 S battlecruisers and 1 support to do a 3/4 star mission and cut down fuel use quite a lot.

Also they're great for giving you just a little more of everything because they can do everything at an average level.

So you are saying they help S-Class frigates reducing fuel but not lower class ones? That's weird...Sounds like a bug to me.

[luZk]

japp_02 eredeti hozzászólása:

luZk eredeti hozzászólása:

They're great in endgame frigate missions, so yeah I think you should at least get a few. When you can send 2 S battlecruisers and 1 support to do a 3/4 star mission and cut down fuel use quite a lot.

Also they're great for giving you just a little more of everything because they can do everything at an average level.

So you are saying they help S-Class frigates reducing fuel but not lower class ones? That's weird...Sounds like a bug to me.

No I am saying that a single S battlecruiser can do a low star mission with a support ship. You wont have to go farm tritium as often.

Or a trade ship like this @ 50 tons of fuel.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2244406540

Or how about this @ ZERO fuel cost?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2244407909

Or simply doing missions with the wrong ships for the task
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2244410288

Or like this.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2244411804

[<Ire>Shooter]

never used them in over 2500 hours of play, I guess it depends how you play....I build and explore, so there's no need for them to me

[luZk]

<Ire>Shooter eredeti hozzászólása:

never used them in over 2500 hours of play, I guess it depends how you play....I build and explore, so there's no need for them to me

When you have all construction blueprints manufacturing plants rarely gives you the storage upgrades. So you either pay 18mill pr ship storage upgrade or send frigates collecting them.

I just did the whole frigate mission board using circa 1k tritium.

[japp_02]

luZk eredeti hozzászólása:

japp_02 eredeti hozzászólása:

So you are saying they help S-Class frigates reducing fuel but not lower class ones? That's weird...Sounds like a bug to me.

No I am saying that a single S battlecruiser can do a low star mission with a support ship. You wont have to go farm tritium as often.

Or a trade ship like this @ 50 tons of fuel.

(pictures)

TY for giving examples in pictures, very interesting. I have a hard time to understand why your pic #2 requires 0 tonnes of fuel and the #4 250 instead, must be the mission type.

[SirDuke]

It´s simple math.

Every ship needs fuel.
Even support frigates.
This basic value can been seen, when inspecting them


How much the mission needs at all depends on the length of their journey.

BUT

Support frigates carry a specified amound of free fuel for the mission.
(Visible though inspection, too)

In short missions, this fuel might be enough to do it completly for free.

Longer missions still need extra fuel, cause it´s just too far.

But you can easily send the support frigates along.
Their fuel needed is basicly that low, that they travel for free.
So you can raise your star level for that mission without etxra costs.

[luZk]

japp_02 eredeti hozzászólása:

luZk eredeti hozzászólása:

No I am saying that a single S battlecruiser can do a low star mission with a support ship. You wont have to go farm tritium as often.

Or a trade ship like this @ 50 tons of fuel.

(pictures)

TY for giving examples in pictures, very interesting. I have a hard time to understand why your pic #2 requires 0 tonnes of fuel and the #4 250 instead, must be the mission type.

Example 2 requires no fuel because its both support frigs(the subject of the thread), Example 4 is a 20 hour mission. A above average range/time mission that would prob require 650-750 tons if done with 4 ships and no support frigs.

[luZk]

SirDuke eredeti hozzászólása:

It´s simple math.

Every ship needs fuel.
Even support frigates.
This basic value can been seen, when inspecting them


How much the mission needs at all depends on the length of their journey.

BUT

Support frigates carry a specified amound of free fuel for the mission.
(Visible though inspection, too)

In short missions, this fuel might be enough to do it completly for free.

Longer missions still need extra fuel, cause it´s just too far.

But you can easily send the support frigates along.
Their fuel needed is basicly that low, that they travel for free.
So you can raise your star level for that mission without etxra costs.

Then do the math.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2244407909

[luZk]

<Ire>Shooter eredeti hozzászólása:

never used them in over 2500 hours of play, I guess it depends how you play....I build and explore, so there's no need for them to me

You're missing out on a lot of free building materials that frigatte missions provide.