questions concerning a few things

[cpbeller]

If this is in the wrong forum, i apologize...i think it should be in either here or the help forum....just let me know....

my situation:

somewhere around turn 35, have finally finished building my very first military ship, the first one i designed at the beginning of the game....

my delimma:

I seem to be building much too slow....granted, i am not sure of the "pace" of the game....does it normally take this long to build military ships? if so, then cool, i am not doing much wrong...but if it should take less time, then i need to know what i am doing wrong. what do i need to put more money in or whatever.

my other delimma:

This first ship i have finally made, is a 1st generation long range attack ship....since then, I have updated my designs two more times....this ship that i finally have, is 2 generations older than my current designs...PLUS there is no way to refit....by the time i am able to get another ship build (a 3rd generation long range ship), that new ship will be several generations behind....

my pondering:

It appears that technological breakthroughs seems to happen much too quickly, or it takes much too long to build anything....again, i may just be getting things not set too good or something....i notice that the AI's military strength is some behind me, some ahead....the strongest military strength i have seen so far is the Grendarls....the weakest so far is the Silicoid race that continues to declare war on me every other turn...

my asking for help:

Could anyone help me figure out how to get military ships out sooner?

Also, just two more questions:

1. How do you build fighters? and are they worth it? i know in SE4, fighters didn't seem to be much of a factor....

2. How do i keep my science funding %'s locked....i lock them, but then the very next turn, all my %'s are all mostly balanced out....with the school of science i mostly want dropped in funding by 20% or more....I thought by clicking on the lock next to each school on the main tech screen, locked it in place so the AI doesn't touch it....

Thanks

[Corentor]

Turn 35 is relatively early in the game. You simply do not have the production base at this point to build ships quickly unless you put in a significant portion of money doing it early on and you don't want to do that since it sets your economy back.

Your going to have to accept the fact that your ships will not always be on the cutting edge of technology. Especially early on when techs come out very quickly. As you go up tech levels, the pace of discovery will slow down so don't worry.

But if you really want the ships as fast as you can build them, set your finance policy to Limited War or higher and that will get the Planet AI to spend more money.

2. Fighters do not get built. They are a weapon system that you put on a ship just like missiles or beams. Once the ship is built, fighters automatically are in the ship and will replace themselves automatically if fighters are lost in battle.

3. I can't answer this one sorry. I usually keep the sliders floating and let the AI handle it.

[Main_Brain]

It depends on your Race ( Industry mostly) hjow long you take to buold shipos and also your funding,
have you chosen peace through strength as policy?
It kinda speeds things at the beginning
Also yoiu can always manually transfer more Funds into military que. speeding production I remember my first eagle attack ship took 3 turns at my homeplanet but then.. I was Bugs ;=)

I tend to make new Designs only in quite a while. you mustnÄt forget to mark the older ones obsolete.
Then those already in the buildings queue will be build but nomore after.
As it tends taht most Players/races have no real topoftheart fleets thtats okay... quantum momentum I call it ;=)
who can stop 100 Eagle Attack ships? *g*
1)
I only build carriers for SysDef so i cant really tell.
only that they get shot down just as missles but last longer and deal quite a punch if they survive and get close enough.
2) The AI will change according to its needs
People Starving=> watch bio raise
but then I run social at zero percent and ai never touched this.

[Crostoneman]

If you keep building up your economy and have plenty of industry DEAs working at 100% or above, you will be able to build military ships quickly. One of my planet had around 600 production points and have around 61K AU. Putting the slider at 5% created around 2000 manufacturing points and built a cruiser at around 4 turns.

[canamrock]

Carriers are useful, and even moreso when combined with SRA vessels. The latter helps draw fire from the weaker fighters, and allows them all to last much longer. Meanwhile, an LRA or IF squad can punch through the opposition's defenses. Carriers are also cheaper than most other ship types of equal size, so they are easier to produce from your less industrial worlds.

Early in the game, you should not have to worry much about military vessels. Mobilization Centers will let you pump out large forces at any equipped system under your control. Wait until you're beginning to shore up borders with your opposition before you produce a major military buildup... the technology advantage will be worth it, and you can save your early resources for Colony Ships.

Having a single Eagle Attack ship on turn 35 is far less important than having 5 colonies by turn 50.

[Main_Brain]

Having a single Eagle Attack ship on turn 35 is far less important than having 5 colonies by turn 50.

Í think the Silicoid begged to differ *evil grin*
to have a second developed planet like anothers Race's Homeworld is also nice and speed upo colonizing ;=)