Ship Design

This section was written by a friend of mine, Padre; if you like them, it's because I taught him everything he knows; if you don't, it's because he never listens to me. :-)

Section 1: The Ancient Debate: Large or Small?

Before you build a ship, you must first decide what it should do, then how big it should be. This is not a question to be easily answered. Obviously, you need a ship that will do what needs to be done, but it's not that simple.

Large, behemoth-like ships have many advantages. These Battleships have more hit points and will take better advantage of new armor and Damage Control technology. They are able to carry more weapons for a bigger punch and shields and ECM to keep them from getting KOed. However, they are much more expensive, which means less ships that are hard to replace. They are also easy pickings for missles and torpedoes and easy to hit with a beam. Missing one is akin to missing a barn with a sawed-off shotgun at point-blank range.

Small ships, however, are nimble. With ECM and good manueverability, they are almost impossible to hit. They cannot carry many weapons until massive miniaturization has taken place, but they are cheap and easy to replace, almost negating that problem. Once you hit them they are easy to destroy, and armor and damage control don't help much.

There are historical precidents that show smaller ships better than larger ones, and larger better than smaller. The Humans' ancient sea battle of the Spanish Armada against the British fleet was a David and Goliath story. The bigger numbers and size of Spanish ships were systematically picked apart by the smaller, nimble British ships. However, the Americans won their war with Japan using some of the largest battleships around.

My suggestion? Keep youur fleet a good mix of small and large ships to keep negatives at a minimum and positives at a maximum.

Section 2: A Few Designs

Fighters:

Fighters tend to be small and numerous, overwhelming enemies with superior firepower.

Generally put good engines and ECM on them, and the best maneuverability available. Put one or two of your best weapons on them and group them in fleets of 300-1000. Once you have Pulse Phasors, don't put anything different on your small ships.

Don't bother with shields, armor, or damage control. They are bulky and won't matter much.

Missle Boats:

Also known as Raiders by some, the name is correct in saying that they are missle carriers. Put on good computers and engines, but don't bother with maneuverability or ECM. With these, you fire off your missles (generally a x2 shot weapon) and retreat. These are good medium ships. Once again, don't bother with shields, armor, or damage control, as you will be gone quick.

Archers:

Archers are torpedo throwers. They stay back and rain on targets with deadly energy every other turn. They need good engines and computers, but little ECM, maneuverability, shields, or armor. They are usually medium ships with stacks of 100+.

Pulsars:

Pulsars have good engines a subspace teleporter or good maneuverability, and of course a pulsar. Most effective against small ships, but will severely damage large ships if you have enough. Good shields and armor are important, as they will be taking hits. medium is a good ship size because you can get a large stack together - just don't fire with your fleet to close.

Battleships:

Large ships, they will ave a lot of firepower and a toy or two, such as a Black Hole Generator. Put your heavy weapons, such as Stellar Converters and Mauler Devices, on this baby. Good engines, maneuverability, armor, shields, and computers are important, too.

Behemoths:

Huge ships, they will have almost anything put on them. Fill up your banks with various weapons and the best armor, computers, engines, maneuverability, and nice shields & ECM. Put a surprise or two in the specials, and don't forget damage control, as it will be very effective now. Easy to hit, hard to destroy. Not to mention fun.

My Favorite Ship:

My favorite ship is one I call the Starfighter. It is a small, technically advanced fighter with a Subspace Teleporter and a Pulse Phasor or two. They can destroy up to three stacks at a time, more if you have two banks with Pulse Phasors. Give them the best computer and engines, put 1000 in a stack, and start rockin'.

Keep a good mix of these types of ships, and you will be on your way to being a master ship builder.

Section 3: Shields, Specials, and Stupid Ideas

Shields are a good idea at the beginning on the game, when they can stop most of an enemy's weapon. Later in the game, however, the damage of the weapons will overwhelm any shield, and they become useless space-takers and should be dropped from most designs.

ECM is good for bombers, which should have the best. Don't bother putting it on much else.

Computers should be kept up-to-date on every ship except bombers, because bombs don't need computers [Ed. Note: this is incorrect; bombs can miss!].

Armor is important for large ships. Don't bother using armor with small ships, and never use Armor II [Ed. Note: Armor II actually becomes plausable when you have Neutronium at around lvl 70+ or so, but only then].

Keep the best engines on every ship.

Good maneuverability is important, unless you have sub-space teleporters.

Inertial Nullifiers and Stabilizers look good on bombers, bad on ships with a sub-space teleporter.

Battle Computers are nice, but not really needed.

Repulsar Beams go great with heavy weapons or a High Energy Focus.

Keep all of this in mind while designing ships, and you will be well on your way to becoming the Master of Orion.

If you have any ideas, comments, or strategies, email me at wmswitzer@juno.com.

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