Now that Ive seen the late game, Im trying to figure out some better strats on building ships. My current strat involves somewhat of a zerg strategy: fleets of 22 destroyers, loaded with extra tonnage, damage mods, 1 weapon type (representing 25% of the total weight, but changing types based on their defense loadout), and the remainded (66%) spread evenly across the 3 defensives. This was working well in the early game, except against missiles where I would 1 ship for every ship my enemy had missiles on. I tried adapting to this by reducing beam defense (since enemy wasnt using beams) and upped missiles but kept losing 1 for 1 vs missile ships. I finally started surviving when my Flak reached ~900 (with Camoflage Card). After dominating for quite a few turns, the AI of course changed to Beams, and I of course changed as well - but lost much of my fleet before I could upgrade my ships. Then I started facing mixed fleets (AI adding back in missiles and kinetics) and it started to get pretty ugly.



Questions:

1) How much defense is generally needed to survive a given attack type (enemies typically have 3000-4000 of 1 type weapon)?

2) Is there a mixed defense setup that would help me survive a more varied set attacks?

3) I rarely see phase 2 of combat (win or lose), does that mean Ive designated too much tonnage to weapons and not enough to defense?



This game is starting to be fun, I just wish I had more control over my starting hero's since I seem to lack the important class at the beginning of the game.



Thanks for suggestions.

from ur post,the main problem is ai changed his weapon style from missile to beam,there's simple tactics to avoid it:design ur ship with 10 beams,1 kinetic,1 missile(or any weapon u like and 2 others weapon must have 1),stupid ai will think u have all 3 weapon,and don't know how to reaction then ai will decide use its original style.in ur case ai will still use missile ship.

could be different now with ai improved.

eqronis wrote:


Questions:

1) How much defense is generally needed to survive a given attack type (enemies typically have 3000-4000 of 1 type weapon)?

2) Is there a mixed defense setup that would help me survive a more varied set attacks?

3) I rarely see phase 2 of combat (win or lose), does that mean Ive designated too much tonnage to weapons and not enough to defense?



This game is starting to be fun, I just wish I had more control over my starting hero's since I seem to lack the important class at the beginning of the game.

Thanks for suggestions.

1) From my experience, you need around half the defense to survive untouched. So if the enemy has 4000 missle ships, use 2000 flak defense. Granted I haven't played the game for weeks, so I may be wrong.



2) It would be helpful. In the early game, you just want to focus on one kind of defense, but by mid-late game, you can begin having mixed defenses. It all depends on what your enemy is making.



3) Pretty much. If you are not seeing phase 2, then buff the flak defense. If you intend on using beam weapons, this is pretty important. Though if you are using missle boats, just worry about killing the enemy before phase 2.



As for heros, yes it is annoying, but so long as you don't get rushed you should be fine. Even without admin heros, it's still possible to be competitive by the mid game.