Any tips on ship design? Best Weapons and defense/support modules?

[DrDuckman]

Looking for any tips on ship design? Particularly when it comes to weapons and defenses?

Do I balance shields and armor? Are shields useless against projectiles and vice versa? Or could I just stack shields?

With weapons, it looks like missiles are the most efficient, as you can win before you take damage. Close range hardly seems to happen fast enough to be worth it, so beams seem useless. Ship mobility does not seem to affect combat.

The all round weapons (machine gun and plasma) are weaksauce compared to missiles. However, the machine gun atleast has a special purpose in providing missile defense(and can be pretty effective at that). I put em on defense ships.

Plasma seems like the "all round damage" weapon, but the game does not provide a way for the AI or the player to quickly close the distance and thus reward a versatile weapon over missiles.

But I am now trying the Vodyani who's heroes favor energy weapons(big energy weapon bonuses). Thus, what's the recommendation with them? I am trying to make beams work, but even when I win I take tons of damage every time. Should I just spam plasma?

I wonder if close combat beam weapons become more useful in late game big battles when the battlefield is crammed with ships?

Is there a point in mixing plasma and beam weapons?

General design tips would be also appreciated.

[Hendumaica]

I do believe it's a matter of taste.

To me and my knowledge, the combo Long range lasers combined with the bullet guns works the best with majority of shileds as defence, using a long range strategy. The guns would protect you from missiles when you'll be able to be protected from longrange lasers. I go for 2 long range lasers for 1 gun. If i do have a 7th weapon slot i go for a missile for the sake of it.

Now later in a game, i go for huge ships with this set ups arounded with very small sized ships as escort mmade for middle/short range.

Close combat lasers+ guns for them.

Support modules: You probably want the one decreasing the chance to get focused for your heroes and the one increasing the ground troops for larger ships. So far it works well for me .

[DrDuckman]

Some races definitely favor either energy or kinetics.

I mean, the Carvers get +40% damage for projectile weapons on their hero, so it's definitely worth it to just focus on kinetics. They also get bonus armor pen.

Similarly, the Voydany have a skill for energy weapons that makes a huge difference on their damage, so it would be worth to just eat the missile damage and go full on plasma, then use the close range maneuver to try to avoid missiles as much as possible.

[Hendumaica]

Oh ya forgot to share that detail: I mostly play the Empire.

[DrDuckman]

What's your experience with shields? do they do anything against projectiles?

[Hendumaica]

Originally posted by DrDuckman:

What's your experience with shields? do they do anything against projectiles?

Despite the amount of extra health that help you to cope with any projectile damage better, no they don't help .

Thus missiles can be intecepted with guns and guns matters starting round 2 at the soonest as a DPS source. So if you're confident enough into your long range DPS and have couple high performance slugs you may not need to care about projectile damage that much

[DrDuckman]

I am thinking for Vodyani I will stick with kinetic guns on the defense ships for missile interception, and then plasma guns for damage. Maybe a 2 to 1 ratio of shields to armor...

That way I can take advantage of their + energy damage but also be safe from missile fire, and get maximum damage without caring about their point defense.

Hopefully it will work out.

[DrDuckman]

Wait, you mean the beam weapons? You are using the close range only weapons with the long range only weapons? Does that not mean you are under utilizing one or the other?

[Red Destiny]

Just going on a tangent here, why can't lasers be used as point-defense weapons?

What's more likely to intercept a missile? A projectile, even if it's moving really fast? Or a laser moving at/near the speed-of-light?

Of course, this is all theoretical, because from a gameplay stand-point, having lasers > all is not going to be enjoyable.

For Vodyani, I just spam long/medium lasers, AS DIFFERENT FLOTILLAS DO NOT SUPPORT EACH OTHER IF THEY HAVE SHORT RANGE WEAPONS. I have seen this time and again where flotillas just sort of glide away from each other and refuse to fire their short range weapons.

That alone makes the short range lasers/weapons completely useless.

[Red Destiny]

My point was using short range-only weapons like the beam laser is completely useless. It's better just to put an additional pulse laser on.

[vivas]

I use what is most effective against the faction i battle against. Some ships go without any energy defense so thats a no brainer. Only thing is to have either a good mix of ships or enough cash to refit ships accordingly.

[Crisco]

Every race I've played (All of them) I put one gun and the rest missles, stack every ship in one flotilla. I win about 90% of my battles. The 10% I lose are from ships being caught out numbered.. The AI will switch to all gun ships giving them 80% at long range vs. the 100% for missles and even with their all gun ships they can't counter the overwhelming number of missles. Some of the AI will (for some unknown reason) switch to all beam. I guess it's to counter the high DPS of the missles but I love it when they do that, instant win.

[Zlorfik [CH/BY]]

Not considering any hero bonuses I have found the following to be effective:

Ships

Attack ships:
2 Long Range Beams : 1 Missiles (or SR Kinetics)

Protector ships:
1 Short Range Kinetics

Hunter ships:
2 Long Range Beams : 1 Short Range Kinetics
Long Range Beam in big slot, Short Range Kinetics in small slots

Coordinator ships:
1 Short Range Kinetics
Long Range Beam in big slot, short range Kinetics in small slots

Carrier ships:
Short Range Kinetics in small slots, Short Range Laser in big slots


The reason for this choice is simple. I tried full Missiles with Cravers (26 ships, 20 of it attack) against a fleet that turned out to be mostly Kinetic and I got wrecked. I tried using Short Range lasers only on very defensive ships and got wrecked. The problem with those is mostly that only the lane(s) that go close combat from both sides will actually do damage and will not damage any other lane. So I figured I would mix them up.

The Attack ships only use Missiles to force the enemy to put some defenses on it for them. Most ships focus on mid range with the mix of kinetics and LR beams. That said, the fleet is more efficient in mid to long range and a bit less in short range while not giving up on missile defense.
This composition doesn't really favour neither beams nor kinetics, so modules for these bonuses are not really worth it.

As an addition I found that it is far more resource effective to put fleet modifiers on Protectors as Coordinators use double resources for single effect. E.g. compare the numbers shown when you put a fleet repair module and a invasion module on a Coordinator. The invasion module's numbers will double (from double slot bonus) while the fleet repair mod stays. I don't know if this is a visual bug or if it doesn't apply. But I trust what I see. That said I put modules that are important for defenders on it like more targeting chance, shield reload and any spare ones become invasion / manpower.
Considering that, my Protectors use fleet modifiers only and i tend to make two different models: one boosting flotilla speed (called escort) and one focused on flotilla repair, flotilla shield and flotilla invasion. Sometimes flotilla invasion gets its own model, depending on play style.

Lanes

I also have questions about the battle setup with the 3 lanes. I have noticed that in certain cases only one lane got completely wrecked while the other lanes remained all 100% healthy. I figured it depends on both parties' chosen battle formation. E.g. a close range optimised lane will do terrible if the same lane of the enemy stays long range. Ships always target other ships of the same lane first unless there are defense ships in other lanes that they can reach.

I had terrible losses and then decided to put my whole fleet in one single lane. I don't know if this is an advantage or a disadvantage but so far it proved to be super efficient if the lane was mid range in the tactical card with fleet setup as described above. The missile attackers will be technically less efficient in its lane, however if the enemy uses just one lane which stays long range, they do maximum damage. Same goes for the close range beam. If the enemy can close in to close range, the beams will give them the rest.

I have often seen that a long range lane would just not fly in the general direction (left) but just make a left curve, getting "behind" enemy ships. How can I find out, how the ships will fly and thus be most efficient against the enemy?

[dobbsmerc]

every weapon except the short range beams will fire on other flotillas using their long range efficiency rating once they have finished off the enemy flotilla in their lane, however this is dependant on positioning as determined by tactic card used. Most often seen when flotilla 2 cannot fire on enemy flotilla 3, since they can only fire to the front and sides it's usually too far into its maneuver to get a shot at the back flank

[Hyndis]

I've been a fan of medium support ships. Install all of the modules that help support your fleet. Individually they're not all that powerful, but get enough support ships working in concert together, repairing each other and giving each other shield strength, and its nearly indestructible. Your damage output won't be the best, but you'll be able to outlast and wind everything through attrition.

Weapons can be anything. I like kinetics because they also help shoot down missiles in addition to doing decent damage and looking nice. With at much durability weapons don't matter all that much.

[PhailRaptor]

The default fallback strategy is to use mostly long range Lasers, with a handful of Kinetics for anti-Torpedo defense.

Beams are worthless. Even if you use the Turtle battle tactic card, one of your flotillas is still incapable of even closing with the enemy (it stays at medium range). The other 2 might get close enough, if the enemy also chose a short range strategy (hint -- they won't).

Torpedoes are hit or miss. If the enemy is building pure Lasers, or especially if they are doing Beams, then by all means, go for it. When they actually do connect with their targets, they have easily the highest base damage output of any weapon module of equivalent tier and materials. But you're gambling that, first, your enemy is not using Kinetics (they sometimes are), and second, that then enemy won't react immediately to your use of Torpedoes, and swap their ship designs to use Kinetics instead (AI won't, people will).

Kinetics are certainly viable as a primary weapon choise, but by doing so you are accepting the inevitable that you will get chunked a fair bit before you dismantle your opponent. I believe that Kinetics fall into second place in terms of damage output, yes? However, you will generally be doing more of your damage in the later stages of the combat cycle, when you enter Medium range, bringing your weapon effectiveness to 100%. This gives enemies using Lasers plenty of time to pummel you before you destroy them. Use of Kinetics usually requires relatively substantial defensive measures, primarily Shields, as well as repair modules.

All of this said, your choice in Battle Tactics cards is critical to the success or failure of your ship designs. It doesn't matter how many Lasers your ships are packing if you use the Turtle card, sending your ships into close range, or if you're using all Kinetics and you choose Power to Shields, staying at long range.

Another thing to watch out for is adaptation in ship designs. It's not enough to simply fill your ships with all 1 thing and call it good. If your enemy adapts to your designs, like noting your heavy use of Lasers by switching from Armor to Shields, your effectiveness will go down. Lasers rely on taking down your opponent quickly to minimize damage returned. If you don't have enough fire power to "alpha strike" through your enemy's Shields, you might still win, but you're going to take losses. Losses require Industry (and probably Strategic Resources) to rebuild the lost ships, as well as time for the construction and the travel time to join the battle group.