Geoff the Medio wrote:What version are you playing?
Naively thinking the linked Installer gives the newest version, I ended up with Build 5096, so yes, my experience is based on something quite a bit out of date.
I am currently downloading the latest test builds to fix my "out-of-date"-problem
Geoff the Medio wrote:A great advantage for large ships is the opposite of yandonman's experience....
Actually, I calculated things and the comparison still holds true. What Yandonman apparently did not calculate was the matter of cost. The army of 10 flies cost - at build 5096 admittedly, but I assume it was the same during the time of his experience - 25% more than the Quantum Ship's. Accounting for productivity-increases based on tech-level and imperial expansion inbetween, he could likely have fielded at least 5-8 of the modern ship at the same cost relative to empire-production. Which would under the old system have eaten the entire enemy fleet for breakfast.
The fight was held under 10 to 1 odds, that neither cost nor production times upheld. Using two Quantum Ships would have him possibly (but not likely, given random targeting) loosing one of them, the moment he fields 3, none would be seriously damaged after the event. After the described patch, if shooting a ship that is already destroyed this turn is impossible, the quantum ship would in an absolute worst case scenario loose 136 HP fighting at 10 to 1 odds.
A titan hull takes 5 turns to build, compared to 2 for the small-fry. This means that if construction times are the limit (which they were in my games at Build 5096 so far), you can build 2.5 small-frys for 1 Titan. My usual Titan design can take a full Death-Ray V broadside from 2.5 small ships and smile - they won't like its answer though (and building those small ships with Death-Ray Vs would do interesting things to their PP-costs).
Geoff the Medio wrote:Depends on your definition of attacker, but probably no: all the ships in a battle have an equal chance to attack each combat round. Which empire owns a ship doesn't affect its chance to attack.
I was referring to the order of shooting within a turn, not whether they get to attack at all. One thing I do not know, is whether battle-damage is applied immediately, or only after everyone is done shooting for the turn.
Geoff the Medio wrote:That suggests there would also need to be refinement techs or other means to increase the power of earlier weapon types, without needing to design a new ship to get the benefit.
Either refinements, or allowing for refitting, yes. What I actually would prefer is to remove tiers from the weapons (So that there is no longer a Mass Driver II or Mass Driver III) and instead make the techs that unlocked the higher tiers of a weapon-type improve the performance of what is currently the Mark I. This could also allow for diversifying improvements (like having the "Mark II" upgrade, but also an upgrade that might reduce cost or other parameters, if weapons should acquire them). Another advantage is that it would unclutter the design menu.
Geoff the Medio wrote:Also, keep in mind that the existence of a mechanism to reduce damage from attacks doesn't mean every ship will get this benefit at no cost. If it comes from shield parts, they could be quite expensive (compared to weapons) and definitely would take up a weapon slot in a design, making a heavily shielded ship less effective at attacking large fleets of enemy ships. If it comes from hulls, those hulls could also be quite expensive compared to contemporary options.
Cool with me. But if you want to make me feel the PP-cost (based on the outdated build admittedly), you'll need to increase costs by several hundreds of percent. Now, increasing construction times would be another thing of course...