Some pre-newbie questions

[Arak Koba]

While I anxiously await SE4 Gold to be released (ten days, yay!), I have a few questions for the enlightened of the board:

Is there any value to building masses of small classed combat ships as opposed to just a few large, well equiped ones for your fleets?

Is puting redundant systems such as life support, crew quarters, etc., of any use?

And what does the loss of crew quarters, life support, bridge, do to a ship?

[Suicide Junkie]

Losing all crew quarters: 1/2 movement
Losing bridge: 1/2 movement
Losing lifesupport: 1/4 movement
Note: speed is always rounded down.

IIRC, the Auxiliary control only replaces the bridge during combat. Outside of combat you still lose the movement.

quote:

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Is there any value to building masses of small classed combat ships as opposed to just a few large, well equiped ones for your fleets?

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In most mods (& Classic SE4), no. Battlecruisers are the largest vehicles with full movement speed, so they are usually the smallest ships built.
The smaller hulls do have a slight defense bonus, but you get fewer weapons & shields for the money you spend.

In a mod with Quasi-Newtonian Propulsion, smaller ships are much more useful. Larger ships have to spend more space on engines, so the usefulness is reasonably balanced.
Compare two LCs with a Battleship. Under QNP, they can have the same speed, same weapons, same defenses.
- BB has larger mounts, for more damage
- LCs have a better size-based dodging ability
- BB dosent get hurt until all defenses are destroyed.
- One LC could be crippled while the other is undamaged: you lose firepower before all your defenses are breached.

[Arak Koba]

Great info- thanx!

All is much clearer now.

[Puke]

i have kicked the hell out of people by using hordes of small ships with boarding parties. with a small hull, ecm, and either stealth or scattering armor, you are almost imposible to hit (especially if you have an experienced fleet and crew).

so if you use a ton of those ships with weapons like boarding parties, napalm, plague bombs, subverters, or virus, you can really frustrate fleets of bigger ships or do massive damage to planets. or do a quick hit with your little ships to soften things up for the big guys. i think small ships still have uses later in the game.

also, i always use cruisers for construction ships, since its the smallest hull i can use for a spaceyard. you can also use small ships for stelar manipulation.

[Suicide Junkie]

That's a good point.
If you are already ahead on the To-Hit thing, the extra little bit from a small hull has a big effect...

Say your enemy had 80% to hit. Going down two hull sizes makes that 60%. Probably not worth it.

But, say you are a defensive race, well trained, and using the armors, so there is normally a 30% to-hit. Going down two hull sizes makes the to-hit 10%, so you're taking 1/3rd the damage, and you'll kick *** bigtime.