Best End Game Battleship Design?

[Kryndude]

1. Pentration comp: great against heavily shielded/armored ships but very short range (60). 100% accuracy.

2. Alpha Stirke 1: Massive initial damage from long range to soften enemy fire power. 90% accuracy. (decoders bring it up to 100)

3. Alpha Strike 2: Same concept, different comp. Since XL weapon hits first this comp seems less optimal than the other, but I haven't done any real testing so idk for sure. 85% accuracy. (95 even with decoders)



Against regular AI empires Penetration comp seems to lose ships more often since it has to tank some of enemy fire before it gets close enough to shoot. But against end game factions idk which ship design would be better.

Also, I've noticed using various mods to buff the AI actually makes it quite competant even in the late game. If only the AI used proper ship design/comp and didn't split its fleet I might have lost a game that I thought I had it for sure. (I was declared an 'end threat' war even though I was a regular empire, in the middle of another war that I started, so I was forced to status quo and come back to defend my home territory. And it was the right move for the AI cuz I was about to become unstoppable if it weren't for the attack. Really enjoyed that game).

Anyways, so what's the best BS?

 

[Slynx]

i though it's 3NL+1KA+Giga or 3KA+1NL+Tachion
otherwise you've listed 3 vest types of BB. with 2 and 3 being roughly equal. and 1 is great vs crisis and some FE

do mind that psionic shields, dragonforged, enigmatic and dark matter are very rare techs. so it's not for everyone. (and it's a pain to obtain it for single empire in 1 game)

 

[Kryndude]

i though it's 3NL+1KA+Giga or 3KA+1NL+Tachion
otherwise you've listed 3 vest types of BB. with 2 and 3 being roughly equal. and 1 is great vs crisis and some FE

do mind that psionic shields, dragonforged, enigmatic and dark matter are very rare techs. so it's not for everyone. (and it's a pain to obtain it for single empire in 1 game)

Is the first comp far better than the rest when facing crisis fleets? Or is it pretty much the same? Also, how do two comps perform against one another?

 

[Cronos988]

Well in theory, design 1 will get better and better as the game progresses due to repeatables. So it is the optimal "late game" design.

Pure penetration builds cannot integrate with mid-game fleets though, necessitating a complete fleet replacement. If you can absorb the costs of that, chances are the exact efficiency doesn't really matter to you.

 

[Adolf - Finite War]

I expect repeatables for hull-strength, please?

 

[Volapyk]

I've used design 3 with great success even against the end game crisis and fe/ae empires, if you have enough of them you can alpha strike their entire fleet which is kinda fun.

Spoiler

Remember one game with maybe 100 battleships just standing in a system killing the unbidden one fleet at a time, wanted to let them grow and actually eat up a big part of the galaxy (was fanatic purifier so seemed appropriate to watch the galaxy burn while enjoying a nice cool drink), sadly they kept sending every fleet they spawned in my direction so they never actually purged that many of the xenoscum

 

[OnyxAbussos]

Tachyon Lance
Neutron Launchers

Shield Capacitor Booster
Regen Tissue

The damage values on the neutron launchers and Tachyon are high enough that you don't need to worry about the Shield penalty.

Repeat Tech = Energy Weapon damage & Hull Strength

 

[Bouchart]

I expect repeatables for hull-strength, please?

It exists in the game code, but Paradox dummied it out. If you really want hull strength repeatable techs go into 00_eng_tech_repeatable.txt and remove the hash marks from the following:

#tech_repeatable_improved_ship_health = {
#    area = engineering
#    cost = @repeatableTechBaseCost
#    cost_per_level = @repeatableTechLevelCost
#    tier = @repeatableTechTier
#    category = { voidcraft }
#    ai_update_type = military   
#    levels = -1
#    prerequisites = { "tech_battleships" }
#    weight = @repeatableTechWeight
#   
#    weight_modifier = {
#        factor = @repatableTechFactor
#    }
#   
#    ai_weight = {
#        factor = 1.0
#    }
#   
#    weight_groups = {
#        repeatable
#    }
#    mod_weight_if_group_picked = {
#        repeatable = 0.01
#    }
#   
#    modifier = {
#        ship_hull_mult = 0.05
#    }
#}

 

[Kryndude]

Does anyone know if any of the above weapons have travel time, especially Neutron Launcher? Or is the animation just cosmetic?

 

[KingAlamar]

I understand that energy weapons are all instant. The associated animations are cosmetic.

 

[klingonadmiral]

I'm a big proponent of long range artillery firepower, so my "ideal" build is something like this:

Artillery Combat Computer for maximum range.

I prefer Arc Emitters over all other spinal weapons because they are overall the best at taking out enemies from afar, while Neutron Launchers benefit from the same repeatables. Only against the Contingency I would switch them out for Kinetic Artillery.

 

[Zenopath]

The kinetic XL mount seems best option to me, because they hit first, they will strip out shields, then the NL will deal massive damage. Since it will almost always be case that the XL mount hit first, having them do bonus damage to shields just makes most sense to me. Also NL have better hull damage if i recall...

 

[klingonadmiral]

The kinetic XL mount seems best option to me, because they hit first, they will strip out shields, then the NL will deal massive damage. Since it will almost always be case that the XL mount hit first, having them do bonus damage to shields just makes most sense to me. Also NL have better hull damage if i recall...

Arc Emitters are the best, for example let's look at the Unbidden where you would think that Giga Cannons would be the best without question:

Revenant (Battleship)
Evasion: 15%
HP vs Arc Emitter: 3000 / 85% Accuracy
HP vs Giga Cannon: 7200 / 60% Accuracy

Every Arc Emitter shot does an average of 850.5 damage, if we divide that by its accuracy we arrive on 722,925 damage per shot. Thus we can expect a Revenant to die for every 5 Arc Emitters.

Every Giga Cannon shot does an average of 1750 damage, if we divide that by its accurcy we arrive on 1050 damage per shot. Thus we can expect a Revenant to die for every 7 Giga Cannons.

-> Arc Emitters win

And even though hull percentage slightly rises for smaller Unbidden units, Giga Cannons never pull ahead of Arc Emitters.

 

[Kryndude]

Arc Emitters are the best, for example let's look at the Unbidden where you would think that Giga Cannons would be the best without question:

Revenant (Battleship)
Evasion: 15%
HP vs Arc Emitter: 3000 / 85% Accuracy
HP vs Giga Cannon: 7200 / 60% Accuracy

Every Arc Emitter shot does an average of 850.5 damage, if we divide that by its accuracy we arrive on 722,925 damage per shot. Thus we can expect a Revenant to die for every 5 Arc Emitters.

Every Giga Cannon shot does an average of 1750 damage, if we divide that by its accurcy we arrive on 1050 damage per shot. Thus we can expect a Revenant to die for every 7 Giga Cannons.

-> Arc Emitters win

And even though hull percentage slightly rises for smaller Unbidden units, Giga Cannons never pull ahead of Arc Emitters.

But then all your L weapons now have to chip through the defense on their own. Does the alpha damage Arc Emitters inflict outwieghs the anti-synergy?

 

[Secret Master]

Nobody likes shield capacitors against some types of enemies? Interesting.

 

[sillyrobot]

That's why the L weapons should be cloud lightning. They may be worse per-shot, but they completely stack their damage with the arc emitters and render shield and armor advances meaningless. The same repeatable also improves both weapons.

 

[klingonadmiral]

But then all your L weapons now have to chip through the defense on their own. Does the alpha damage Arc Emitters inflict outwieghs the anti-synergy?

For a decently sized BB fleet, to take a good chunk of the enemy off the field before they can fire a simple shot is invaluable. Your L guns will also get at least one salvo off before the enemy can open fire, which will inflict another round of significant casualties on the enemy.

That's why the L weapons are cloud lightning.

Too short range for my taste.

 

[Kryndude]

I wish there was a way to test different ships comps against each other. Also it'd be possible to know which Titan aura is the best that way.

 

[sillyrobot]

You can spawn fleets and set them against each other using the console. It's how a lot of the testing gets done.

 

[Adolf - Finite War]

The Humanoid ship design with all guns lined up really hurts. At least get some superfiring going

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe..._from_bow.jpg/440px-Minas_Geraes_from_bow.jpg