So I have read through several threads and the discussions therein..



When some of you are talking about one weapon per ship design are you choosing all long range or med? Or are you choosing the most effective range for that weapon type? Most battles in my experience, especially late game are resolved in the first or second phase. I am new to endless space, so correct me if I am wrong but the first phase is long range weapons only, second phase med range and finally melee in the last phase?



I have been playing single player against AI's and doing moderately well but I was using kin, beam, missiles on every ship, along with def, shield and flak, my defense was 95% effective while my off was only 9% effective using all ships but the colony ship. For instance mid game with Sherydyn 1 dreadnaught, 1 cruiser, 1 battleship, 1 destroyer and 6 or more corvettes all with balanced setups, my fleets rarely took any damage and destroyed other fleets. My research seemed to be ahead of most other empires, maybe this is why I was winning?



Most of the other posts everyone is using abbreviations and not specifying what range they are setting their weapons systems to, so while I read some of these other threads, sometimes I was lost. I am new to the 4x genre and have only been playing this, pandora, and the last federation for about a month or so. So if anyone could help me get a better grasp on this game I would appreciate it. My main concern is combat and the ship building.. how to be effective.



Thanks!

I also realize this might be in the wrong section so if there is a mod who wants to move this somewhere more appropriate please do.



Thanks again.

*bump* does anyone have an answer here? I have the same questions as the OP

Personally, I like to focus on one weapon per ship design and mix my fleet up with them. For instance, I would create a design called M-Destroyer and a design called B-Destroyer. M would be all missiles, B would be all beams (both with the same defenses, which is kinetic block early and then shields and flak later). The missiles are always Long range - that's their most effective range, and Beams at medium for their best effect. At 5 command points, I go 3 missile ships/ 2 beams, at 8 command points, 5 missiles / 3 beams, and so on.



What I found in another post is that missiles fire once each round, beams twice per round. The Kinetics actually fire 3 times per round, but are so ineffective at long and medium range even if you choose them for those ranges. Despite firing only once per round, though, missiles are really powerful and help to take out a lot of enemies early in the fight, which is why I favor them. The beams aren't too shabby either. Big thing I noticed is that missiles don't fire if the enemy chooses to retreat, hence why I like beams as well.



If I focus on one weapon type only in my fleets, the AI actually gears its defenses all out for it. With a mix, it is a bit more perplexed and spreads it's defenses out and has less offense on its ships. So I may lose a ship or two, but I wipe out the opposing fleet. I upgrade when I can and constantly have at least one planet building ships to help replace losses and keep building more fleets. You can never have enough ships, especially when your score starts to soar and the jealousy leads to war being declared on you.

PolesInSpace wrote:
The Kinetics actually fire 3 times per round, but are so ineffective at long and medium range even if you choose them for those ranges.

So here I read that kinetics are ineffective at long range. In other places on this forum I read that consensus says that despite the intended game design, kinetics at long range are even more effective than missiles at long range. Does anyone know how to show which of these is actually true?

The latter is true. In the vanilla edition of the game, long range missiles were the more powerful option. This changed substantially after the release of Disharmony.

Speusippus wrote:
So here I read that kinetics are ineffective at long range. In other places on this forum I read that consensus says that despite the intended game design, kinetics at long range are even more effective than missiles at long range. Does anyone know how to show which of these is actually true?

Yes and No



In terms of raw stats Long Range kinetics do the least damage. Kinetics do sweet, sweet damage at Melee range . But whether you actually go for LR kinetics depends on the composition and abilities of the opposing fleet. Here's my experience with this choice (kinetic at long or short range):



If the scenario is that you're up against a swarm of smaller kinetic opponents, especially if they're optimized for Melee, I find that having LR kinetics can swat them from the sky before they get close and destroy you. Kinetic LR is certainly the way to go early game, but you'll often encounter the same "many smaller ships" in late game. A hero-enhanced fleet of smaller ships with kinetic M weapons will wreak havoc on your fleet if the smaller ships survive to unleash their fury at M range. An M optimized kinetics will mostly make pretty fireworks at LR and MR, but they'll rip you at M.



Now, if you're going up against heavy hull, armor, and maybe even repair then long range kinetics will do amazingly inferior damage and fail to bring down the opposing dreadnoughts. I was very surprised when the Amoeba AI threw some largely unarmed tanks at me and if I didn't bring my best hero-enhanced fleet against them they'd be healed up with more health AFTER the fight. In the particular case they hadn't brough siege ships, but I shudder at those large, invulnerable space hulks just shrugging my damage off while the siege ships take my planets... This is where you switch to rockets at long range, beams at medium range and melee kinetics (and make sure your melee fighters survive to get close enough to shred the opposing dreadnoughts).



Often I have several fleets with maxed out cap and different composition. If I encounter an opponent with, say, a few heavies and a swarm of smaller ships I'll pick an initial attack fleet with LR/MR kinetic/beam, and 1-2 heavies, and set to Spread Fire in order to kill off as many of the smaller ships - then I just take my losses and might keep the few heavies. Then I hit the tanky opponent with an optimized fleet (meaning Rockets LR, Beam MR, Kinetic M).



I'm a bit on the fence regarding MR kinetics, but maybe someone else can give their opinion?



Throughout the game I find myself picking the LR kinetics early, then late-game opting for more MR until finally I have some heavy guns that can survive until the Melee phase and bring the pain.