Best defence platform?

[Doug Dimmadong]

I got ships down fine but what is the best defence platform layout?

[Jokoff Schön]

depends what you are defending against.
but it is the exact same science as ships.

[Doug Dimmadong]

Originally posted by Jokoff Schön:

depends what you are defending against.

Just anything. A good all rounder. I'm not spending the time to set up different min-max builds of them, just something I can set up to spam around. My go to at the moment is torp and hanger, but it seems lacklustre now and then.

[Terran]

Singleplayer or multiplayer? If singleplayer, just spam hanger bays, the AI spams corvettes. If multiplayer, don't bother, pump the alloys into your fleets.

[reven29]

Originally posted by Doug Dimmadong:

Originally posted by Jokoff Schön:

depends what you are defending against.

Just anything. A good all rounder. I'm not spending the time to set up different min-max builds of them, just something I can set up to spam around. My go to at the moment is torp and hanger, but it seems lacklustre now and then.

i mix general defense platforms (lasers, kenetics) with Hanger/flak discs and finally some artillery platforms with L weapons

[Doug Dimmadong]

Originally posted by Terran:

Singleplayer or multiplayer? If singleplayer, just spam hanger bays, the AI spams corvettes. If multiplayer, don't bother, pump the alloys into your fleets.

Singe player. I ask because I just played a game and had a starbase with like 400K power lose to a single nanite mothership. It looked like all of the torps and strike craft were targeting the enemies strike craft and completely ignoring the mothership. Was very weird.

[WJJellO]

Stations can't move and are huge. Point defense helps mitigate torpedos, which the AI strongly favors and which tear them apart otherwise. Offensive defense platforms need both long maximum range and no minimum range to be effectice against all potential threats. Hangars are best at this, then missiles, but both are vulnerable to flak and point defense, respectively. Fallen empire ships have a lot of point defense slots.

Fitting other types of turrets creates a situation where your defense platforms may not all be able to attack the enemy fleet. For example, if you have some mid-range turrets like medium railguns or large lasers and your enemy runs artillery with a skilled admiral to boost range, or if you run artillery and your enemy uses torpedos or small/medium autocannons+plasma or disruptors, those defense platforms will be basically useless in combat.

Also keep in mind that normal empires that take Supremacy can gain a 20% damage bonus to starbases. There's a commander trait for this as well (but it's not as common as Supremacy). Stations usually don't perform as well in combat as their displayed fleet power suggests.

[bratacsga]

I tend to have a hangar section on one side, and light section (4 small weapons, which I set 2 lasers, 2 missiles) on the other when I set up my initial designs.
It's only later that I might try variants