why build starships

[Rusty_Nail]

I have been simulating starships recently. While they have tremendous power, I cannot see any use for them. They sit idly by while a planet is destroyed, and can only react if attacked. But any ship can simply choose not to attack starships as part of its firing strategy. It works fine. Voila! Pass through a warp point or capture a planet,with a starship defending, without firing a shot. Am I missing something?
Maybe the answer is that with warp points you are within firing range immediately, as opposed to simulation mode. Is this always true? But if the incoming fleet has the first random move, it can at least avoid the starship 50% of the time completely, and the rest of the time escape after absorbing one round of fire. Is this not so? Then is it worthwhile building these expensive monsters to defend warp points or planets?

[Q]

Do mean "starbase"???
I do not know of starships in SE IV.

If you mean starbase, then the answer would be to use long range weapons as e.g. missiles or anti-proton beams for the bases. The latter in combination with the mount that increases the range by 6 makes it difficult to ignore the starbase for an attacker.

[Dracus]

if your starbase is cloaked, it will not attack.

[disabled]

When I have to place heavy defenses at a warp point (which rarely is needed) I build a two-layered defense.

The first layer consists of a starbase and several space stations on the exterior (far side of the warp point I'm defending). This is designed to prevent any ships from reaching the planet itself.

The second layer is a simple area of mines & satellites on the interior (the warp point in the system I'm protecting). This way, should an enemy attacker get into my space, they must deal with heavy losses from a set of battles, mines, and satellites.

This leaves the foe (in most cases) weak enough for my outdated, light defense ships to take out.

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HADRIAN T. AVENTINE
[email protected]
Administrator | SpaceEmpires.org

[Rusty_Nail]

I meant starbase,not starship, and it is not cloaked and uses long range weapons. But I do not feel you understand my question. If an incoming ship is programmed to not attack a starbase (and why should it after all, when the starbase can be bypassed, just like a satellite?), than it would seem to perform no useful purpose. I have tested this. They are simply and easily ignored while the fleet takes on other ships and the planet. I can see only one use, and that is to build a ringworld, unless I have missed something. Maybe the problem is that most people have not discovered that you can avoid attacking them in strategic combat. Could that be?

[Rusty_Nail]

I should add that I am thinking of PBW here and should have said that. In single player it does make sense to build them because the AI never uses the "don't fire on starbases" option. It almost always uses the standard "optimal weapons range" which results in suicide missions against powerful starbases. But a human does not have to do this. In a way, using them in single player is taking advantage of the AI programming. The same thing applies to tactical combat. It is too easy to beat a superior AI force by "dancing" in and out with long range direct weapons and playing "just out of range". These problems could be dealt with by introducing some additional moving and firing options and letting the AI use them. I hope to post a note on some ideas on this another time.