Favourite weapons and ships (MoO1)

[tonic]

Indirect info can be gleaned from other threads here but since this is one of the major addictive features of the game, I thought it woud be interesting to compare preferences.

I like beam weapons which halve enemy shields eg mass drivers and particle beams. From the calculations in the FAQ they seem the most efficient.

For me in the endgame when the highest levels (50+) have been reached, a maxed-all large ship with deathrays, particle beams, scatterpack Xs and Omega-V bombs equiped with high-energy focus, blackhole generator and neutron stream projector is great all round performer.

[DaveV]

Early game, I build planetary defenders with a beam weapon and nuke and/or hyper-v missiles. Their job is to make invaders retreat so the planetary batteries can get in a few extra rounds. I like to build missile attack ships to harass the bad guys; they shoot from long range and retreat. They can gradually wear down enemy planets and fleets, often without taking any damage.

Mid-game, the defenders add heavy beam weapons, repulsor beam, automated repair, and maybe warp dissipator. Sometimes I'll build small/medium bombers, with lots of speed and no shields.

I stop equipping missiles once I have high energy focus. My typical late-game ship is a huge ship with two weapon slots containing Death Rays, and the other two with a bunch of Gauss Autocannons. Specials are high energy focus, automated damage control, and repulsor beam. Gauss Autocannons are a very effective ship killer, and the Death Ray kills planets better than bombs or missiles. If I have subspace teleporters and an opponent doesn't have interdictors, I'll build some small teleporter ships with gauss autocannons, and maybe a bomb.

A trick: if half or more of your ship designs are small or medium, the computers will equip their ships with streaming weapons. They often can't even get in a shot against a ship with repulsor beams.

[vmxa1]

Many designs will work, but at the hard level on small universe this is my method.
Early - no ships other than colony, just build and research grab any planet you can hold.
Mid - Once all planets that have normal atmosphere are colonized and all that have allowable tech are too the AI will start to come after you. Here I use a small missle ship to ward fleets off while the bases whack them. One ship per planet , maybe two types if they are coming with more than three fleets. To grab a new planet and hold it just before this time, I will build one or more large ships with my best armour and beam weapon, no missles (can only fire up 5 times). No repulsor as it uses to much space. Once I have the means to make large ships in 6 or 7 turns, I start cranking them out so I can either take a planet or swoop in to grab one that is in dispute. This ship may need a bomb, depends on what defenses they have.
Late - High Energy Focus and a multiple firing beam (auto blaster and the like). Once I get pulse phasor (if I do) that is my weapon coupled with a bomb. The bomb is replaced by Maulers if I get them. Never waste space for death ray, not need.
This works fine at impossible level as well.
Now I stat to eliminate the smaller civs. Once that is done, bust the best planets on the other civs and capture them. Once all tech researched, go to Orion to get more tech. I leave it to the then as I want a chance to get a tech I otherwise will not have.

[MattyBoy]

Towards the end of my last game, an opponent's ships would come close to my ships/planets and give off a burst of white light that would strike for quite a lot of damage to all adjacent opponents.

What was that thing?

[vmxa1]

Sounds like Ionic Pulsar. I never use those type, but they give off a ring of white charges that hit ships in an area of about 6 squares. They come under propulsion tech.

[tonic]

As I am still on the learning curve of MoO1, the tips from DaveV and vmxa1 (you obviously like that star ) are very helpful. Now I'll know how to use missile-only ships!

On a related issue - how often do you use manual as opposed to auto in the Combat Screen? Although one has most control in manual, I find that full fleets on both sides (ie 6 stacks vs 6 stacks) can be time-consuming.

[vmxa1]

ALWAYS! Well, maybe if it is a no way to mess up, I use auto. Note that one thing the AI will do even on a easy fight: I have a ton of ships and the AI comes with a fleet of weak stuff. So weak, one of my High Energy Focus ships can wipe it out in a couple of rounds. If I select auto, it will sometime whack a few ships and then retreat to the corner, letting the attackers leave. If you want to kill all of the ships all of the time, you will need to control the fight. IN countless test I have seen the AI lose ships and even battles, that I would have not even lost a single ship. IN the early fights to defend a new colony I have managed to have one or two ships fight to a stand still (50 rounds), where the AI would have lost quickly (bye bye planet). I love the game but the AI can not fight.

[DaveV]

The AI does some incredibly stupid things on the tactical screen (like retreating away from missiles that wouldn't even penetrate its shields). And it will happily do these stupid things with your ships if you let it. I almost never use the auto button, but I remember a game where I had the late-game ship described above (death ray and high energy focus), and couldn't shoot at a planet on my first move (even though my ships were in range). If I switched to auto, the computer would blast the planet.

Moral of the story: this game has a few strange bugs in it, and the auto button might be useful to bypass some of them. On the whole, though, you'll get much better results from fighting your battles yourself. It can be time-consuming to fight out the battles, but I think it's worth it.

[tonic]

Yes, I can also vouch for the stupid retreat from puny missile ships!

BTW do you both have tips for the which stacks you attack with your stacks based on the features scanned? This would be the answer to my original comment about the manual process being "time-consuming" because it's still taking me some time to master the whole combat strategy.

BTW I've just realized why the Gauss Autocannon is such an effective weapon (fulfilling both the muti-firing and shield-halving criteria). In a ship with a High Energy Focus special, it's quite awesome. Pity that one can't always research it in every game!

[vmxa1]

First priority is ships that can do the most damage. Early that can be ones with bombs and or bio bombs. Then I look to see which move the fastest. If I know (I have played around 2000 games) I can handle the bombs then I will go for the shooters. In a tough fight, I may have to use the wait to get in a postion to isolate one fleet and hit it twice. The main thing is to prevent lost of planet. Usually I will drive off the toughest stack first with the missle ships (wait to last minute to get the most time). If they have repulsors and you do not have any 2 or more range weapons, then you need to setup so they must come to you, then you get the defensive round in. Many variables, easy to see, but harder to cover.