One of the big features still missing but on the list of confirmed intended features is this whole deal with defense fleets.
What is a defense fleet? Well the short answer (as far as I understand it) is that its a admiral-less c&c-less grouping of ships you can build out of your system's reserve fleet. The number of ships your system's defense fleet can hold will vary depending on how many command modules your naval base has, or if you have a naval base or not. I think that systems with no naval base will still be able to have a small defense fleet, but I don't know for sure. As currently implemented, each command module gives you 2 Command points, which, I think means you need 3 modules per cruiser and 9 modules per dreadnought you'd like to serve as a defense fleet, which is in addition to whatever the default command point value systems with no naval bases get. The defense fleet can not be moved, and I don't know if the maintence costs of ships in a defense fleet will be same as active fleets or not. I understand that defense fleets will be given options with regards as to where you place them in a system, but I'm not sure.
A defense fleet will probably not be as strong as a regular fleet of 9 cruisers unless you have a large naval base, but would have a few advantages, 1) you will be able to build system boats, which are small ships with no FTL capablity which will probably cost a lot less than regular cruisers both credit-wise and command point-wise, 2) you will be able to build defense satellites which don't count against your command points, 3) you will not need a command ship so all your ships can be war ships.
The usefulness of defense fleets will be primarily, of course, to allow you to defend your systems without taking up your valuable admirals, and additionally, i understand there will be possibility of doing other things with defense fleets like adding in police units to them to improve your planets morale.
So my question is, will defense fleets change the way the game is played, or will they have only minimal impact?
(post your opinion)
What is a defense fleet? Well the short answer (as far as I understand it) is that its a admiral-less c&c-less grouping of ships you can build out of your system's reserve fleet. The number of ships your system's defense fleet can hold will vary depending on how many command modules your naval base has, or if you have a naval base or not. I think that systems with no naval base will still be able to have a small defense fleet, but I don't know for sure. As currently implemented, each command module gives you 2 Command points, which, I think means you need 3 modules per cruiser and 9 modules per dreadnought you'd like to serve as a defense fleet, which is in addition to whatever the default command point value systems with no naval bases get. The defense fleet can not be moved, and I don't know if the maintence costs of ships in a defense fleet will be same as active fleets or not. I understand that defense fleets will be given options with regards as to where you place them in a system, but I'm not sure.
A defense fleet will probably not be as strong as a regular fleet of 9 cruisers unless you have a large naval base, but would have a few advantages, 1) you will be able to build system boats, which are small ships with no FTL capablity which will probably cost a lot less than regular cruisers both credit-wise and command point-wise, 2) you will be able to build defense satellites which don't count against your command points, 3) you will not need a command ship so all your ships can be war ships.
The usefulness of defense fleets will be primarily, of course, to allow you to defend your systems without taking up your valuable admirals, and additionally, i understand there will be possibility of doing other things with defense fleets like adding in police units to them to improve your planets morale.
So my question is, will defense fleets change the way the game is played, or will they have only minimal impact?
(post your opinion)