moo3 SuperFleets..

[markusf]

In moo2 and moo1 it was possible to build a fleet of 7 or 8 doom stars. You could then take these ships around and go blow up anything you wanted with out the other side ever getting off a shot. Is this type of thing still possible in moo3 ?

[Stormhound]

There are various reasons why it would be impossible or impractical.

1) There are no more "doom stars" in MOO3, so you can't build them. Okay, in a more serious vein...

2) Space combat is real-time, so unless you are faster and have longer-range weapons and sensors than your enemy, you're virtually certain to get shot at.

3) Because of jump lanes and the need to keep your ships in supply, you'll have to be careful with a one-stack fleet. If it gets cut off from supply, it's going to be in trouble.

4) The task force system tends to promote a mix of ship sizes and types. Even if you can build a ship that can do everything, it won't likely be very good at any one of the things, and a properly designed and balanced task force could do you some serious harm.

There are probably more reasons that I could think of if I had the time, but these'll do for a start.

[Zealot]

Ship's supply? Task force system?!?
Hello!! What do we have here?

Care to explain more, Stormhound?
When you have the time, of course!

[Stormhound]

Briefly:

There will be a system for supply...this goes hand in hand with the hyperspace movement and lack of absolute limits on how far you can go (no more "fuel cells"). I'd give you details, but I'm not in possession of any. However, it will be possible to cut off a fleet's supply if they don't guard their routes as they plunge into the heart of your empire (or you into theirs).

Task forces are the basic unit of battle for ship combat. You design task forces to perform different types of missions, and ships to fit within those task forces. In combat, you give orders to each task force, not each ship, and the orders are of a general type (go here, try to do this) rather than detail of who fires every shot and at whom. Task forces are generally designed to resemble the modern naval model: an outer ring of pickets, a middle ring of escorts, and a center of heavy ships.

[Admiral]

this is probably a well-gone-over issue, but will there be any fleet size restrictions a la MOO2?

[Stormhound]

There won't be a "Command Point" system, no. It's your budget; spend as much on maintenance of fleets as amuses you.

[Rosacrux]

Re: moo3 SuperFleets..

Originally posted by markusf
In moo2 and moo1 it was possible to build a fleet of 7 or 8 doom stars. You could then take these ships around and go blow up anything you wanted with out the other side ever getting off a shot. Is this type of thing still possible in moo3 ?

...err... you mean "7 or 8 dozens doom stars", right?

[The Templar]

Re: Re: moo3 SuperFleets..

Originally posted by Rosacrux


...err... you mean "7 or 8 dozens doom stars", right?

I remember doing that . . .

Thanks for the info Stormhound! I always thought the supply system in Space Empires was pretty good, but this sounds a hell of a lot more challenging.

[Garth Vader]

...err... you mean "7 or 8 dozens doom stars", right?

I have never needed a fleet that big to take out anything.

I fought an AI fleet of 65-70 Doom Stars with about 10 ships total, only 2-3 of which were Doom Stars. Granted they did get to shoot back, but the battle was over in 2 rounds.

[pchang]

As techs move up to higher levels, the stuff you get should be better. In MOO2, the best weapon by far was the plasma cannon. Unfortunately, this weapon was at least 3 steps lower than the highest tech. This meant that as you advanced in tech, your ground bases got worse.

[Theben]

I don't recall building any doomstars in MOO1, since the largest available ship was a dreadnought. But you could build literally thousands of ships. The AI had a bug which allowed some negative ship numbers to max out- resulting in a 36,000 ship task group!

[Theben]

Originally posted by pchang
As techs move up to higher levels, the stuff you get should be better. In MOO2, the best weapon by far was the plasma cannon. Unfortunately, this weapon was at least 3 steps lower than the highest tech. This meant that as you advanced in tech, your ground bases got worse.

Actually the best beam weapons were either heavily-modified phasers (shield penetrating, auto-fire, continuous, with achilles targeting and other stuff) for ships and the death ray for planetary bombardment. The plasma cannon was awesome until v. 1.31 which made it prohibitively expensive.

[Garth Vader]

My favorite weapon was a HV, AF Disruptor. You could only get the AF mount when you had the last physics tech. Plasma Cannon gets pretty useless if the enemy has class 5 shields or higher, but it rocks on no shields or class1.

Yeah the HV, AF, SP phasors rocks too. I prefer the Disruptor for most ships in endgame because it can bombard planets as well as take out ships.

[pchang]

I guess my main enemy at then end was the Antarans. This explains my fondness for Plasma Cannons. Ground Batteries never got any of the other specials.

[Seeker]

36 000

That might not have been a bug....I remember often having to fight a Klackon stack of 25 000 obsolete fighters...(of course, this is when you need the Black Hole generator....)

Klackons seemed to do this more than others.