So, how do you test your ideas? Just play a campaign, throw your ideas out there, and take the consequences? Or do you post private challenges to yourself (if that is even possible), and then fight the battles from a “campaign game” perspective?
Actually, i have two laptop’s with GSB and identical mod’s, so i CAN actually challenge myself.
No, what i do is theorycraft a ship, then test it in small fleet engagments (on challenges), then see how it does on Defense of Caspin IV.
From there, i tweek it until i get it destroying at least twice it’s own HP, then go to the campaign. I do the first ~200 turns on easy, just to see how it works w/out a challenge. From there, i tweek it more until it works well THERE, then go to hard. Wait as LONG as i can to build up then do it in as short a time as possible, to avoid the whole “maintenance” problem early game. If everything goes well, takes me an afternoon (assuming GSB doesn’t forcequit on me…). FT was my first playthrough, so basically instantly. FR took me a day or so, and i’m on my third day working with cruisers.
So you don’t just use one ship type, you also restrict yourself to one ship design?
Yup. When i say i made a FT spam fleet, it’s got ONE kind of FT in it.
FR spam is ONE kind of FR, and CR spam will be ONE kind of CR.
Otherwise i could just build the largest mixed fleet evar, and kill everything that way. But where’s the fun in that!
So you re-start your test each time you are changing the difficulty level, or do you simply edit the .txt files and continue the same game?
Also, on how many fronts and with what fleet sizes do you generally proceed in your tests?
I restart my test each time. If i edit the text file, I’m not experiencing the entire campaign. One concern is buildup time v enemy invasions, so if i edit the file to cut down on anything…
The first 200 turns take me on the order of 90-150 minutes.
I start at the default homeworld, as that’s what most people will be playing. The fleet must be able to do every phase of the campaign, with at most light fighter suplimental coverage (as i always make a FT off-fleet, for the areas CR can’t get to)
Well, that’s what I was thinking, too. The early game is much different than what happens later.
I am still trying to figure out how you get away with one ship type, when a significant percentage of the fleets you encounter are either mostly fighters or mostly long-ranged missile cruisers. I usually use a fleet of frigates with four basic ship designs, and run, tweak, and re-engage when I encounter a threat for which I am not currently configured. Maximum fleet size around 24K HP (generally). Occasionally a couple of fleets will merge later and I’ll wind up around 32K, but that’s the exception not the rule.
With my FR fleet, i kinda sit towards the middle
With CR, i can’t get them moving fast enough (yet) to avoid missile fire. Or survivable enough to last through what it can’t kill. OR enough firepower to burn tanks…
it’s not easy. My FR fleet was nearly 80k HP at the end, which is the reason i spam; makes it REALLY easy to deal with things, just throw more stuff at it. After a point that becomes more effective.
However, the speed v gun density is still the #1 issue i’m facing 