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Drakenred

Join Date 03/2006

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Stupid player tricks

as opposed to stupid AI tricks

here are a couple of things I have been doing in my game that seem to work surprisingly well

1) AWAC/SWAC (Space Warning And Control, (yes I played SFB back pre doomsday) hulls , basicaly this is one of my early builds, take a Cargo hull, stick enough sensor on it to get range 10 sensor sweeps, and send it crawling to the boarder, a couple of them are usualy all I need to see deep into the neibors terriroty, often giving me several turns to react to anything the AI trys to pull because the AI seems to inevitably "stage" its fleets in my SWACs sensor range before they launch an attack.

Upgrades are usualy either speed or a couple of more sensors, and when I get medium hulls to build semi survivalbe SWACs I can convert them into Construction hulls for a quick beef up of border bases

2)I also tend to "Obsolete" the "Traider" and "Colony" ships as soon as I dont need them anymore, It seems that If I do need a Freighter to deal with replaceing a lost trade rout I'm better off going with a new hull anyway to take advantage of speed or range improvments

3) I have been useing thoes Big "Wings" to help me better spot a certan group of ships in the view mode, so I try and stick with certain things on certain kinds of ships so I know when Im looking at the map what I have handy in each area, and what should be scooted out of the danger zone( thus I know that if I see that big yello thing on the wing, thats a ship to keep out of combat)

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1) I think that's a pretty common use of an early ship build - but it doesnt hurt to say it again!

2) I built my own colony and freighter ships which then get upgraded to use better engines or more life support depending on their needs. I don't know what you mean about changing hull though - I always use cargo Hulls for them.

3) That's a pretty good idea I think - some visual clue to see whats going on. My scouts and sensor platforms look pretty distinct anyway with big satellite dishes poking out everywhere!

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1) its offten the most overlooked custom build because its too easy just to use the provided scout,(which is only realy good for sweeping the map IMO) but most people dont think that its worth the risk to put up a single 1 hit hull as a sensor platform, Bascialy the game mechanics dont diferentiate between a 1 hit platform and a medium cruiser hull, the sensor platform is going to go down unescorted to anything that outguns it, and anything that can outgun anthing thrown at it is a front line ship, not a sensor.

2) by Hull I ment the complete ship, Basicaly I try to keep my build list clean, and that means No freighters u nless I need one

3) this is also usefull when your building 2 types of fighting ships

My "Fast" ships are long and lean like a cheta (they usualy hang back a bit too, since they are good at picking off anything that thought it could tagle with my heavy hitters but somehow lived)

My Heavy hitters are short and wide. After all they need some way to properly show every weapon they are about to kill you with.

anything that is suposed to be planitary defence (speed1) is simply a naked hull with tiny weapons

My Sensor Ships are big and studded with antena in addition to the yellow makeings
My troop transports look like Bricks with big blockhouses for the troops in addition to the module(s)
My Constuction ships look like big open scafolding that cant posibly keep from falling appart when traveling at speed

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1) its offten the most overlooked custom build because its too easy just to use the provided scout,(which is only realy good for sweeping the map IMO) but most people dont think that its worth the risk to put up a single 1 hit hull as a sensor platform, Bascialy the game mechanics dont diferentiate between a 1 hit platform and a medium cruiser hull, the sensor platform is going to go down unescorted to anything that outguns it, and anything that can outgun anthing thrown at it is a front line ship, not a sensor.

2) by Hull I ment the complete ship, Basicaly I try to keep my build list clean, and that means No freighters u nless I need one

I use 3 basic types of sensor/scouts. One is fast, has a fair bit of life support depending on the map and the rest is sensors. The second is a no engine affair with all sensors just to sit at the borders until I build Eyes of the Universe - the AI doesn't seem to prioritise Sensor techs at all, so I nearly always get it when I feel I need it. The third is a combination of the first with a survey module on it - that way it can perform 2 functions at once, scouting and picking up anomalies - it is very useful on gigantic maps.

I have masses of ships built... masses (well, for the Terrans anyway)! They each have an upgrade when the relevant next tech comes in - I really dont mind going through the list and hitting obsolete once in a while... they're all clearly marked MK1, MK2 etc. I also tend to have 2 of each grade - one pure speed, one with a balance of life support on it. The reason I keep both about of each grade is because I tend to switch between medium and gigantic maps a lot.

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2)I also tend to "Obsolete" the "Traider" and "Colony" ships as soon as I dont need them anymore, It seems that If I do need a Freighter to deal with replaceing a lost trade rout I'm better off going with a new hull anyway to take advantage of speed or range improvments

I obsolete those ships at game start. mine do better, cost less, and look cooler

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Well should throw this on the awacs, I used this effectivly against the dread lords picking off there transports. Take a cargo hull load it with a laser and then just load it with engines. Made super fast ships and with sensor ships to help spot targets and keep it out of danger (it is a rather expensive ship with just how many engines and the cargo hull). I could pick of dread lord transports, now in the sand box game haven't attempted this much between the ai dose tend to escort it transports, but there still ships that can be picked off easily and use it to pick off undefended starbases.
Biggest problem with this ship is it dosen't gain experince so you always have a 1 attack , 1 hp light weight

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Biggest problem with this ship is it dosen't gain experince so you always have a 1 attack , 1 hp light weight

Why dose this not gain XP? is it because its a cargo hull?

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Instead of creating a ship that's completely loaded down with sensors and have it crawl to your frontier, why don't you do this instead?

Create a fast "pusher" cargo hull that's completely loaded up with engines and life support, then create a more stationary cargo hull that's loaded down with sensors? That way you can send the engine rig out to where ever you need it to be in a flash and once it gets there, upgrade to the sensor design?

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Early game it dosent matter because the boarders are far away from you to start with and you realy dont need the speed, and no one is mounting anything more theatening than ill will for the most part, so I just send them out to get them on their way, by the time I need faster units I usualy have at least the next sensor upgrade and the SWACs units are the fastest Standard hulls that I build that are on the map

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