[Screenshots] Show me your capital system

[GCU Grey Area]

Yeah this save was started in 3.0 beta when it was first released, current save game time is 3 days 16 hours and all of the sectors remain the same, apart from company regard and heras twin which have now been claimed by the xenon so i think i'll go wipe them out and claim those sectors for myself to avoid a war with the teladi

I don't use SETA either so maybe just needs longer for it to run the simulation, HOP have been constantly trying to build and fighting in second contact II but haven't made any progress, they keep sending in a few ships at time.

Game duration could have an impact. Elapsed time in my game is at a bit over 33 days. Not much SETA here either, just a few hours near the start when I was keen to get my HQ up & running (mostly to research ship mods) when there was a nasty bug with station build times.

Could also be there's a fair bit of variation between different people's games. In mine the Teladi fleet managed a competent defence of Company Regard. Sky around the gate to Scale Plate Green is absolutely littered with abandoned build storage modules (presumably failed attempts to construct defence platforms), but Xenon never managed to gain a foothold. When I arrived in the region there were plenty of Teladi capitals lurking around, not many Xenon.

Edit: By the way have you ever managed to find a way to move your fleet in formation, rather than having them fly to sectors peacemeal and getting owned?

Depends a lot on your definition of 'formation' - I mean would you really call this mess 'Point Guard'?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/llur76vqnbiu2 ... 1.jpg?dl=0
Command ship is the Behemoth in the middle of the image, flying alongside the Colossus. At least half the fleet is on entirely the wrong side of it! Suspect the carrier might be distorting the formation, but ship's absolutely essential to avoid destroyers flying too far ahead of their fighter support (800m/s difference in speed between my capitals & fighters in travel mode). Subordinate roles for those ships is 'Attack' for the Behemoths, 'Interception' for the Colossus (& it's fighters).

On long journeys tend to move them in stages a few sectors at a time, so they remain in proximity to each other & elements of the fleet don't get split up (e.g. waiting in a queue at busy gates).

[taztaz502]

Yeah this save was started in 3.0 beta when it was first released, current save game time is 3 days 16 hours and all of the sectors remain the same, apart from company regard and heras twin which have now been claimed by the xenon so i think i'll go wipe them out and claim those sectors for myself to avoid a war with the teladi

I don't use SETA either so maybe just needs longer for it to run the simulation, HOP have been constantly trying to build and fighting in second contact II but haven't made any progress, they keep sending in a few ships at time.

Game duration could have an impact. Elapsed time in my game is at a bit over 33 days. Not much SETA here either, just a few hours near the start when I was keen to get my HQ up & running (mostly to research ship mods) when there was a nasty bug with station build times.

Could also be there's a fair bit of variation between different people's games. In mine the Teladi fleet managed a competent defence of Company Regard. Sky around the gate to Scale Plate Green is absolutely littered with abandoned build storage modules (presumably failed attempts to construct defence platforms), but Xenon never managed to gain a foothold. When I arrived in the region there were plenty of Teladi capitals lurking around, not many Xenon.

Edit: By the way have you ever managed to find a way to move your fleet in formation, rather than having them fly to sectors peacemeal and getting owned?

Depends a lot on your definition of 'formation' - I mean would you really call this mess 'Point Guard'?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/llur76vqnbiu2 ... 1.jpg?dl=0
Command ship is the Behemoth in the middle of the image, flying alongside the Colossus. At least half the fleet is on entirely the wrong side of it! Suspect the carrier might be distorting the formation, but ship's absolutely essential to avoid destroyers flying too far ahead of their fighter support (800m/s difference in speed between my capitals & fighters in travel mode). Subordinate roles for those ships is 'Attack' for the Behemoths, 'Interception' for the Colossus (& it's fighters).

On long journeys tend to move them in stages a few sectors at a time, so they remain in proximity to each other & elements of the fleet don't get split up (e.g. waiting in a queue at busy gates).

Ah yeah 33 days would make quite a bit of difference over my 3 days, i know every game and play through will be different i just didn't really notice any large scale conflicts yet maybe too early, glad the xenon are making a push though going to go save the teladi tomorrow.

And yeah i would say that is a great formation compared to mine, considering they'll be in different systems not flying next to each other, my fleet consists of 1 colossus full of fighters, with 2 behemoths in defence of the carrier, 4 fighters each (docked), and each behemoth also has 2 peregrine gunships set on defence. none of them fly in formation, the peregrines fly straight to the move objective ignoring their behemoths they are supposed to protect, behemoths do the same thing ignoring the the carrier its supposed to be defending.

I mean if i wait for them to all be in the same system then give them move orders around that system they'll fly in formation (Very badly) but the second you give them an order to a different system they just do whatever they please and fly at their top speed ignoring their assignments.

[GCU Grey Area]

And yeah i would say that is a great formation compared to mine, considering they'll be in different systems not flying next to each other, my fleet consists of 1 colossus full of fighters, with 2 behemoths in defence of the carrier, 4 fighters each (docked), and each behemoth also has 2 peregrine gunships set on defence. none of them fly in formation, the peregrines fly straight to the move objective ignoring their behemoths they are supposed to protect, behemoths do the same thing ignoring the the carrier its supposed to be defending.

Defence subordinate role, right? Yeah, that's still terrible. Just did a little test, same fleet with everyone switched over to Defence roles:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q4edrb3y5xcvi ... 1.jpg?dl=0
Guessing that's the sort of thing you see when your fleets are on the move. Strongly recommend not using Defence, it really is awful. Attack & Interception roles do a much better job of keeping a fleet together. Only 2 circumstances where I use Defence. For M ships on a carrier, where I only want them to fire from a docked position (i.e. essentially just providing 16 extra M turrets for the carrier) & fleets assigned to protect a station which hasn't built all of it's defence modules yet. Even in the latter case the fleet's ships are using Attack & Interception roles, so at least they patrol as a coherent group (even if I do find it hard to spot anything resembling an actual formation).

[Jeremy]

Welcome to Belter Industrial Park: https://imgur.com/a/vnz9xXC

Most my intermediate factories fit on a 6x3x4 or 8x3x4 plot and typically have around 10-15 production modules for the intermediate they are producing. However they also contain all the refineries needed, in a (near) optimal configuration so that only mined resources go in, and only end product comes out, with very little wastage of intermediate products. This cuts down on the storage needs and traffic a bit and eliminates the need for huge fleets of transporters. I simply assign enough miners to each station to keep them running constantly and a few transporters to get the goods to my product assembly plant and HQ/Wharf. Typical work force per factory is around 3K.

The product assembly plant nearby is slightly larger. Intermediates go in, and end products (anything a ship yard needs) come out. Finally, my HQ/Wharf is an absolutely humongous, organically grown, 1 billion Cr plus structure with a work force of 12K. It's essentially a product assembly plant combined with small intermediate factories and 2x M/S, 2x L and 1x XL ship construction docks and a whole lot of storage, docking and defense.

I have somewhat similar but smaller sized setups in 2 other sectors. Total value of stations is 5.75 billion. Total sales at my 3 ship yards are around 250M/hour. Total value of intermediate sales to NPCs around 35M/hour. Very little product is bought from NPCs, it's an almost entirely self-sufficient setup.

[pref]

Here a shipyard plex,

and a gate defence system (this will be fun with station turrets settings finally).

Hope 3.0 gets released soon and then the fun can continue..

[taztaz502]

GCU - Yeah they were on defence, i've changed them to attack now to see if the destroyers perform any better.

The carriers fighter AI is still REALLY bad however, the script literally tells all docked fighters to attack the same target so you'll have a ton of them all chasing the same thing rather than splitting up the fleet to attack different targets i think this is the main reason i lose fighters because they'll literally just get picked off when they're all chasing an enemy ship or picked off when they try to redock at the carrier i really hope i see a lot of AI updates soon because no matter what i try i'm not even remotely happy with their performance at the minute.

Xenon tend to perform quite well in large groups of fighters, but once you destroy them they will just send ships at you 1-2 at a time rather than gathering their fleet and giving you a real fight, gunships are just really sucky especially considering how great they are in the players hands.

Jeremy - That's insane, is that grand exchange or did you move your HQ some how

That's some major economy you have going there though!

Pref - Wow normally i hate huge complex's that produce everything but your shipyard actually looks great, like a huge city as opposed to a jumbled up mess. Kinda reminds me of the city from Valerian.


Question for all 3 of you, do you not find the game too easy having those huge productions? you must be to produce capital ships like they're fighters with that economy? I'm finding it pretty easy even with my little economy guess you're all preparing to invade those nasty split!

[GCU Grey Area]

The carriers fighter AI is still REALLY bad however, the script literally tells all docked fighters to attack the same target so you'll have a ton of them all chasing the same thing rather than splitting up the fleet to attack different targets i think this is the main reason i lose fighters because they'll literally just get picked off when they're all chasing an enemy ship or picked off when they try to redock at the carrier i really hope i see a lot of AI updates soon because no matter what i try i'm not even remotely happy with their performance at the minute.

Currently have my carrier-based fighters divided into 6 groups of 8 fighters on each carrier, all set to Interception roles. Seems to help. Used to have 8 fighters assigned to Interception for individual destroyers, which also worked. However it's MUCH more convenient to be able to switch fighters between docked & launched status on each carrier's info/loadout screen, rather than doing that with several dozen destroyers.

EDIT: map during a recent battle:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lcei736xwyvrp ... 1.jpg?dl=0
Note that my fighters are dispersed around the battlefield, rather than all chasing the same drone.
Think this is a consequence of the 6x8 grouping and/or use of Interception roles for fighters.

gunships are just really sucky especially considering how great they are in the players hands.

Tend to agree - too big to dodge incoming fire, not tough enough to withstand it for long. Aside from personal use (for which I agree they are outstanding), only uses I have for them at present is permanently docked deck guns on my carriers & as Interceptors for my personal Minotaur if I'm flying that rather than anything bigger. In the latter case I make sure to keep them well away from enemy capitals - would not want to lose them, they're all extensively modified so they can keep up.

Question for all 3 of you, do you not find the game too easy having those huge productions? you must be to produce capital ships like they're fighters with that economy? I'm finding it pretty easy even with my little economy guess you're all preparing to invade those nasty split!

Actually planning to restart when Split DLC is released (want to start as one of those nasty Split). However in my current game all that production is primarily to ensure my favourite factions can maintain their own fleets at optimum levels, though it is obviously very handy to be able to replace my own losses in a matter of minutes. Also means that if I want to build new stations I've got an existing stockpile of building materials (e.g. minimum 100k hull parts on hand at all times) & a fleet of 50 Nomads to deliver it to the construction site. Really just means game becomes a bit more strategic in nature, with fleets (& defence platforms) dispersed around the map rather than being followed around constantly by a huge fleet. Most of the time I'm just using a single Behemoth which carries an Interception wing of 8 Eclipses & 1 personal fighter (captured HOP Ares), doing my own stuff (missions etc) while my fleets wage war for me in the background. Although I do like to assist personally with the invasions (particularly like watching the fireworks when my Demolition Fleet goes into action).

[Jeremy]

Jeremy - That's insane, is that grand exchange or did you move your HQ some how

That's some major economy you have going there though!

Question for all 3 of you, do you not find the game too easy having those huge productions? you must be to produce capital ships like they're fighters with that economy? I'm finding it pretty easy even with my little economy guess you're all preparing to invade those nasty split!

It is Grand Exchange. I took over policing it from the Teladi after some stiff negotiations, but realizing I generated 99% of the traffic in the sector they reluctantly agreed to let me have it

As for too easy, if you're asking me if I could build a fleet big enough to wipe everything from the map, then yes I probably could, but that is not my goal. I am civilizing the galaxy, bringing prosperity to all regions, and increasing my trade empire. Think of me as the UN, but with shareholders and profit targets I've even set up Humanitarian aid, all races have easy access to food and medical production facilities conveniently placed in a nearby sector.

My ultimate goal is to keep the war(s) going (because war is good for business). To that end my efforts are based on keeping the balance between the races using economic tools/pressure. I am allies (25+ relations) with all factions. I don't go to war, I just provide the means for others to do so

[MHDriver]

Here a shipyard plex,

and a gate defence system (this will be fun with station turrets settings finally).

Hope 3.0 gets released soon and then the fun can continue..

Damn Son that is some impressive construction skills.. Makes my stuff feel slightly inadequate..

[pref]

Damn Son that is some impressive construction skills.. Makes my stuff feel slightly inadequate..

Thanks Daddy

Probably spending days in front of a game's designer is more inadequate beyond 14, but man i love ES for this station build UI.
Have been dreaming about this since i found X.

One could probably achieve military victory just by building, like in those tower defence games.

And reading the above convo about fleets finally working somehow it might even serve a purpose. My last memory of fleet action was about watching my 5 destroyers trying to kill a completely crippled K.. i realised after 15 minutes that IS my nemesis had higher sustained dps then those 5 combined.