Stellaris Ship Design

[what could this possibly mean]

Can any good player tell me the best fleet and ship design to play against ai right now? Cant find anything on the internet

[Dark Emu (BELIEVER OF SKONG)]

I'm not particularly good but I have been playing for a long time. I usually focus on weapons that ignore shields if possible. Eventually (if possible) I go for weapons that ignore shields and armor. Arc emitters are my favorite weapon if it becomes an option.

As for fleet design. I usually go for a mix of artillery bow DDs with spinal mount CVs.

I don't know if that's currently "meta" or not but that's my thoughts on it as an experienced player.

[Kufesska]

Originally posted by what could this possibly mean:

Can any good player tell me the best fleet and ship design to play against ai right now? Cant find anything on the internet

most useful designs in my opinion:

full disruptor destroyers/cruisers - strong, uderrated by enemy and fleet power, but can win most battles easily
cons: close combat, very high chance of enemy ship disengagement, sometimes i have more losses in battles won by me than enemy, and they will return some time later...

full missiles+artillery computer+afterburners destroyers/cruisers, very strong against AI empires, except heavy PD fleets - mostly FE, some crisis and rarely common AI empires
allow to kite enemy ships, having bigger attack range and speed, having very small losses and winiing agaist much stronger fleets - they can be stronger, but if they can't reach you and attack, does it matter?

one special design: destroyers with artillery comuters + archaeo nano-missiles - it can shred any common AI empire fleet, because it has penetration iike disruptors but with bigger damage, range, ability to kite enemy ships and resistance to PD
but it costs a lot of minor artifacts, you can't build much of them, except if you have a lot of MA deposits after digsites, or star with dyson swarm and MA deposit(possible with only message in the bottle digsite)

and the only design i use in late game - artillery battleships with tachyon lance and kinetic artillery
it can destroy anything, not good against high evasion ships, but good against any crisis, FE especially with increased difficulty - x10, x20...
at that multiplicator crisis have huge damage bonuses, shredding through your ships, so i prefer glass canon tactic - research only repeatables for energy and kinetic damage/attack speed, so with increased range from computer, war doctrin(maybe adminrals and juggernaut) i can kiil half of enemy fleet before it can shoot at me for the first time
also artillery battlecruisers have one of the lowest chance for enemy ships to survive and disengage, creating huge losses each battles

[Kufesska]

oh, torpedoes are also strong weapons, especially against cruisers/battleships/guardians, but i don't use them(except against guardians) so i don't know right designs

[Sabaithal]

If you happens to get pulse armor tech, get the archeo-engineers AP to go with it, and equip all your ships with pulse armor. Its stronger than both T5 shields+armor. Even T6 shields and armor isn't quite equal.

[No magic]

Originally posted by what could this possibly mean:

Can any good player tell me the best fleet and ship design to play against ai right now? Cant find anything on the internet

Use a combined fleet of cruisers and battleships with energy and kinetic weapons, best XL or X weapon - focused arm emitters (don't forget to increase the damage and the speed of its application through technology ), the best choices against heavy opponents, and plasma cannons for small distance, medium or long distance - kinetic artillery and neutron launchers.

[No magic]

If you played on the Grand Admiral with mods and maximum crises where damage is measured in millions, you need the most effective weapon to destroy your opponent very quickly.

[Kufesska]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

If you happens to get pulse armor tech, get the archeo-engineers AP to go with it, and equip all your ships with pulse armor. Its stronger than both T5 shields+armor. Even T6 shields and armor isn't quite equal.

dude, you are clearly not playing vanilla stellaris, because nobody can afford buildig fleets with full pulse armor(except for crisis or nanite ships)
and spendng ascension perk for overpiced ship component, that slightly better than tier 5 armor? no thanks

[Magma Dragoon]

Cruisers with all disruptors and 3 afterburners with picket combat computer. Pairs well with missile cruisers once battleships show up.

Battleships with focused arc emitter + 2 strike craft + 2 whirlwind missile + 2 afterburners with artillery combat computer.

Disruptor corvettes with an afterburner or dark matter engine and swarm combat computer to get 90% evasion. A single fleet of these can be used to evade tank a superior force while your battleships pound them from range. Especially useful against Undidden and Contingency crisis fleets who don't have many strike craft.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Kufesska:

dude, you are clearly not playing vanilla stellaris, because nobody can afford buildig fleets with full pulse armor(except for crisis or nanite ships)
and spendng ascension perk for overpiced ship component, that slightly better than tier 5 armor? no thanks

If you play tall you absolutely can do it. Done it many games. Just need to find a relic world.

[Kufesska]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

Originally posted by Kufesska:

dude, you are clearly not playing vanilla stellaris, because nobody can afford buildig fleets with full pulse armor(except for crisis or nanite ships)
and spendng ascension perk for overpiced ship component, that slightly better than tier 5 armor? no thanks

If you play tall you absolutely can do it. Done it many games. Just need to find a relic world.

how much minor artifacts does your relic world provide?
Archaeo-Engineers produce 0.3 MA at base, lets imagine you have +200% pop output, so they produce 0.9 MA per month
there are 5 of them, so together they produce 4.5 MA per month
fleet of 28 battleships with pulse armor costs 1915 MA
your Archaeo-Engineers have to work for 426 months, so you can afford one fleet
and thats without using MA actions, which are definitely better than some minor ship component advantage

btw playing tall makes it worse - less systems owned = less MA deposits from digsites

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Kufesska:

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

If you play tall you absolutely can do it. Done it many games. Just need to find a relic world.

how much minor artifacts does your relic world provide?
Archaeo-Engineers produce 0.3 MA at base, lets imagine you have +200% pop output, so they produce 0.9 MA per month
there are 5 of them, so together they produce 4.5 MA per month
fleet of 28 battleships with pulse armor costs 1915 MA
your Archaeo-Engineers have to work for 426 months, so you can afford one fleet
and thats without using MA actions, which are definitely better than some minor ship component advantage

btw playing tall makes it worse - less systems owned = less MA deposits from digsites

I get it to about 10 artifacts per tic on average. Usually combination between the archeo world which ends up getting 6 or so with the archeo-institute built there, with others supplimented from other archeo-sites in my empire.

My storage goes to 3k usually but one game I got it to 5k somehow.

Also 28 battleships??? I only need 10 and a titan. The rest can be destroyers, and who cares what defenses those have (though I can still typically armor them with pulse anyway).

[what could this possibly mean]

Originally posted by Mist:

Originally posted by what could this possibly mean:

Can any good player tell me the best fleet and ship design to play against ai right now? Cant find anything on the internet

Use a combined fleet of cruisers and battleships with energy and kinetic weapons, best XL or X weapon - focused arm emitters (don't forget to increase the damage and the speed of its application through technology ), the best choices against heavy opponents, and plasma cannons for small distance, medium or long distance - kinetic artillery and neutron launchers.

Thanks, what combat computer do i use? Line?

[RCMidas]

Originally posted by Kufesska:

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

If you happens to get pulse armor tech, get the archeo-engineers AP to go with it, and equip all your ships with pulse armor. Its stronger than both T5 shields+armor. Even T6 shields and armor isn't quite equal.

dude, you are clearly not playing vanilla stellaris, because nobody can afford buildig fleets with full pulse armor(except for crisis or nanite ships)
and spendng ascension perk for overpiced ship component, that slightly better than tier 5 armor? no thanks

You could also go for Galactic Nemesis so that your ships only cost minerals no matter what their components are. It's quite unfair for your opponents at that point.

[No magic]

Originally posted by what could this possibly mean:

Originally posted by Mist:

Use a combined fleet of cruisers and battleships with energy and kinetic weapons, best XL or X weapon - focused arm emitters (don't forget to increase the damage and the speed of its application through technology ), the best choices against heavy opponents, and plasma cannons for small distance, medium or long distance - kinetic artillery and neutron launchers.

Thanks, what combat computer do i use? Line?

I play with two types - combat or psi computers, line on cruisers, their task is to fight at medium and short range, and battleships with the artillery regime, emitters are very good at the maximum possible distance.

[Corona the Star Wolf]

I always make sure my fleets have a few ships dedicated to missile, fighter. and torpedo defense. So I use point defense systems and flak guns, It helps keep the damage down a bit.