[quote=“Fek’lhr”]
I’ve been looking at a few topics, and feel a bit overwhelmed by the lingo (Klingon is my first language). I have a Mac, and just own the basic game. I am just playing Battles against the computer. There are a few things I’d like to do that I can’t find the correct orders for.
- I would like a group of fighters to hang with the main fleet and then take on other fighters that attack the fleet (Escort works for this.) After enemy fighters are no longer a threat, I would then like my fighters to attack enemy frigates/cruisers. Are these orders possible?
[i]No.
However, if you are clever, you can attach your fighters using Escort orders to something that will die; after the ship your fighters are escorting is dead they will then go wherever your orders indicated they should go. [/i]
- I would like certain long range weapon frigates/cruisers to stay as far away from enemy frigates/cruisers as possible, and move away when the enemies ships get closer, yet still stay at the edge of their weapon range. I sets Orders to max weapon range, but my ships barrel forward none the less. Sometimes they even just drift away and do nothing, even when they aren’t damaged.
This is a PITA, no way around it. Try setting your ships to “keep moving” and weapon ranges to the ship types you WANT to target to just under double the weapon range. DELETE any ship types you DON’T want to target (or just set all ship types to the same range–usually it is fighters that cause a problem here). With “keep moving” your ships–hopefully you gave them sufficient speed, 12+ for cruisers–will tend to loop in and out of range. BUT: ships make turning decisions all the time, and if the AI makes a bad turning decision, your ship might get a lot closer than you want, or move farther away than you want. Alternatively, don’t use “keep moving” but set range to ALL target types to the longest range of your weapons. Ships with these orders should move to just within range and sit. Three major variables in all this: what your ship targets, how many ships there are, and how big the map is. Experiment and good luck.
- I haven’t tried to build an aircraft carrier yet, but how would I order one to hang way back, and just wait to repair fighters/run away from frigates/cruisers?
Set all target types to 2000. Things that are faster than your CVN will will get you if they can get the targeting to work, so ship deployment becomes important.
On designing ships, do smaller hulls yield faster ships?
I am fairly confident the answer is “only indirectly,” I think the smaller ones tend to be less massy. Anyone done the numbers on this? Smaller ships are, however, faster because they turn more easily–ships prefer not to run over each other if possible, so bigger ships in a pack turn less easily, making their retreat speed potentially much slower.
In some battles, it seems my fighters can’t destroy the enemy fighters. I’ve been using Laser fighters with just a fighter engine II. My fighters never get killed, but they can’t touch the small enemy fighters either. Any idea why?
The faster your target, the harder it is to hit it. Pulse Lasers have a higher targeting speed than lasers. That might be the problem–some of the fighters you’re facing are simply that much faster than the Laser targeting speed. Or it is an orders issue–are your fighters dogfighting the enemy fighters you can’t seem to hit? Or are they shooting at something else? Try rocket fighters with painter assistance.
Is there some way to see the specs of the enemy fleet ships?
[i]No. However, if you zoom in on an enemy cruiser and slow the game down you will be able to tell a lot about what you’re facing. After you’ve played for awhile, your eye will improve and you’ll be able to start a challenge, flick over to the enemy fleet, and be able to notice things like speed, which ships are targeted on what, and once the shooting starts, you’ll notice trends in weapons loadouts. If you see an enemy cruiser take a hit, then the little black smokey-thing goes away, you know that cruiser has a repair module or modules (you can even tell when a cruiser has more than one repair module, if you watch carefully). Enemy fighters that are damaged and have cautious orders will make a beeline for the closest cruiser with one or more fighter bays. And the sound of the weapons fire will eventually work its way into your consciousness, so that you’ll sit up one day and say “hey! that guy has Quantum Blasters!” or “Crap! That’s a lot of Ion Cannons!”
Good luck and enjoy the game!
RC[/i]
(-chuckle-)