Making the Most of your Cap Ships

from Sins Forums
Most of the time, when you tell a capital ship to attack something, it'll bring its most powerful weapons to bear against the target, which is just fine. But while it's doing this, what are the rest of its weapons doing? The Kol, for instance, will fly to the edge of its range, stop, and engage with the forward batteries, but unless you push it in further, the port starboard and aft batteries remain unengaged. Same goes for the other classes of ships in all three races.

Does anyone else out there like to throw their cap ships into the thick of the fighting to get as many weapons as possible firing?

On an almost completely unrelated note, where it says "Average [weapon] damage" for each type of gun, is that on a per mount basis, or overall?
strategy
5,409 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
I believe that number is overall. Otherwise they'd be doing ludicrous damage (tm).
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
So, capital ships are large enough that they have multiple weapon systems. Lets take the Radiance Battleship in this example.

The radiance has three main weapons, forward beam, forward plasma cannons, and lasers on both sides. The lateral guns -cannot- fire forward. This is a good design for what I believe the ship's intended purpose is - tearing apart massed fleets. Because these lateral guns are its highest numbered weapon in 'average weapon damage' when a radiance finds itself against a larger fleet, able to bring all its weapons to bear against multiple targets, it will be able to rip apart three targets at once. One with its main guns, and two others with its side mounted weapons.

The reason your Kol stops at the range of its main guns is so it can save its secondary weapons for frigates or cruisers that close distance with it. So if you focus fire on an LRM, that Kodiak that intercepts up alongside it will also get battered. These ships are doing what they would in a real situation: Splitting their fire to deal progressive, disruptive damage to multiple targets.

Average weapon damage is, I think, that weapon's base damage, subject to target modifiers depending upon its class and armor type.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
It depends. Early on in the game when I'm clearing panets of local malitia to conolise them the Cap ship brings all its weapons to bear. Later in the game when your cap ships are part of a fleet, its long range weapons are brought to bear because usually I'm hitting other Cap ships from maximum range and my Cruisers and Frigates are doing the close up combat. So it really just depends upon the circumstances of the combat.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah, late in the game I'm not sure it's worth it to have your cap ships charge in all guns-a-blazin', because late game there's so much incoming damage from a decent sized fleet even an upgraded cap ship can be focus fired down pretty quick.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I think this goes wothe the thread but it's not about firing distance but more about cap ship utilization. I have been playing SoaSE for a couple days now and find that caping the first couple of systems can be rather daughting at the same time you are trying to build your economy?

Is it better to build a cap ship right at the start to take systems rather than fleets of small corvettes?

Lots of peeps seem to be saying in these threads that that's the way to go. If i could set up 4-5 core systems quickly before AI starts invading me i think i might be better off.

The other option is to change AI to easy....but....
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Lone BB can take out asteroids, vulc and even ice by itself (but it'll take hull damage for the ice). Desert and terran you'll need to either kill half/retreat/heal or bring along help.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
s it better to build a cap ship right at the start to take systems rather than fleets of small corvettes?


Considering the first one is free, I generally build it first before any other combat units, even.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
For those first worlds, depending on the militia, it can be rather difficult to just take with Light Frigates at the start, and it can be an expensive proposition.

Many gravity wells (asteroids usually) just have that very standard one Siege Frigate and one Light Frigate militia, which around four Light Frigates can take out without losses last I checked. For worlds like that four Light Frigates isn't a bad way to go at times.

But if you're lucky enough to have a nearby Terran world in particular, those places tend to have fairly fierce garrisons, but some planets will have one or two Kodiaks, several LMRs, Light Frigates, Flak Frigates and Siege Frigates. Trying to take these places with Light Frigates alone leads to a ton of losses, a Capital Ship really is needed to do it efficiently.

The "free" Capital Ship puts you back the cost of the Ship Yard, 1000 Credits, 250 Metal, 100 Crystal and 50 Population Cap for the actual ship on the field. For that Credits and Metal, you can get 3 to 4 Light Frigates depending on the faction and for no Crystal cost and significantly less population cap.

There's also the side-issue of veterancy. The Light Frigates clearing systems will get none, but a Capital Ship doing so can often get up to level 3 or 4 just by clearing nearby gravity wells. The player with a level 3 or 4 Capital Ship against a fresh new one will have an advantage if the two ships actually meet. Light Frigates however are liable to take casualties, which makes those credits and metal melt away, while Capital Ships are rather adept at soaking up damage.

For my money, the first Capital Ship early is definitely worth it, and the two strategies of Frigates and a Capital Ship aren't mutually exclusive. I like to use a small group (4 or 5) Light Frigates to clear lightly defended systems (the ones with three ships or less) while the Capital Ship goes and clears the more heavily defended worlds, since nothing short of a world with multiple Kodiaks can hold off that first Destroyer. The Colony Ship will just be waiting behind whatever group is about to finish clearing a system to move in, colonize, then go to the other one (unless the map is giant and warrants two Colony Ships).