I'm playing ES for some time already... i find peace boring, so i'm rather going into fighting.

Sadly, all the stuff i find is eaither heavily outdated or for Disharmony version, and i've been unable to tell by myself what of the military faction traits are the most usefull. I wonder if someone could help me with some maths or explanation (as i don't really know that maths behind the mechanics of the game)?



I'm usually running on sheredyn affinity (used to be on the sophons, but no anymore since the removed the -50% costs on support modules... and the buyout cost+unable to rereat is pretty nice... with others buyout reductions and the pretty good economy i have, i can literaly flash-build entire fleets in a single turn) with maxed strong alloys and optimal structure, but i'm starting to wonder at the worth/efficiency of deadly weapons, optimal defence and snipers compared to those.

Usually running rocket destroyers spam in early game, rocket/laser destroyers+some support cruisers in mid game then drednoughts in late game.



So any tips, dear veterans?



KEEP IN MIND I'M RUNNING ON VANILLA

Well accuracy based traits are usually good if you are considering using more kinetics, the Hissho standard faction have the snipers trait that can greatly improve the effectiveness of kinetics to the point that they can be very hard to defend against.



Of course for vanilla with traits like deadly weapons the effectiveness of rocket destroyers is greatly improved, allowing you to maintain an effective destroyer spam for longer or possibly even indefinitely.



The are of course many other traits that have their uses, like dust recyclers that when paired with rush buying reductions can allow you to fund a war effort by wining, much like the Hissho Bushido that rewards you for winning and possibly even by losing invasions.



If you get the time, try and evaluate the traits the Hissho start with and see if they might be of use, because generally once the Hissho win once they tend to become unstoppable.

So you're saying the snipers trait will mainly be effective with kinetics, while the deadly wepons will be more effective combined with rockets; or you mean it just have a better synergy, while being effective in both cases? What about beam weaponry?



In what setup would en-game rocket destroyers be effective? From what i have seen the problem with destroyers is they have tendences to crash versus bigger fleets of cruisers/drednought that are equiped (not even specialized in) with a decent ammount of flaq with missles no being able to punch though enough to do serious damage, while the big ships tear the defenseless destroyers apart. Would deadly weapons be enough to compensate (they simply increase the damage of each "bullet" by a certain percent, right? there's no tricks in that? 33% for the 3rd level seems pretty much)?



I was thinking about the dust recyclers, as i use the sheredyn infinity. Combine the sheredyn affinity with the buyout upgrade and the monopoly on the buyout artifact, and the 90% buyout reduction (+30% reduc on overall costs of ships from militarists) let you litteraly flash-build entire fleets wherever you need them, saldy its a kind of a gamble as a drawback of my strategy is the slight focus on dust economy over other factors, what makes that i have tendences to fall behind in production and science with the mid-late game making me rely more and more on buyout, so i was considering the hisso affinity too.



Also, what's the feeling on strong alloys/optimal structure/militarists?

Done more testing and still can't tell if the ship bonuses are more worth than the weapons ones (on could argue that optimal structure let filed more weapons but on the side deadly weapons increase the damage of the weapons ending with the same effect while considering damage output, but with difference in the costs and other modules efficiency - weapons cost for the damage output would be greater with optimal structure, but on the side more of other modules could be taken in when onsidering other types of ships...)

I usually go with more research/economic oriented races but recently started a match with a Craver-style custom race. I wasnt taking the craver affinity tho so the early stage of the match I was pressed to stay alive but once I managed to build up my first fleet things started to roll. The combat traits really shined and dust- as well as research-per-CP traits boosted me through the midgame to the pole Position. I didnt go for a blitz and allowed the AIs to survive to test out endgame with this and I gotta say it outmatches my usual race a lot.

Mind sharing the setup?