magic9mushroom wrote on Mon, 28 April 2014 03:46

I believe it's Engine -> Weight (+Cargo) -> Overthrusters (+WM) -> Energy Dampener.

This fits my observations, with one addition: the 2.5 max is imposed before the Energy Dampener is applied. Therefore in a battle with an ED, the max speed possible is 2.0.

Since the max final speed is 2.5, the ship designer will only show 2.5, even if you add extra MJ or OT to add "extra" movement.

When battle occurs, Stars subtracts movement for extra weight before imposing the 2.5 max. Therefore if your ship had enough "extra" movement to compensate for the cargo weight, you can still have 2.5 movement when fully loaded.

Quote:

I've heard stories about the Enigma Pulsar's thruster being before weight, though.

This I don't know about, but I don't know how/why it matters.

magic9mushroom wrote on Fri, 25 April 2014 01:29

B-17 Bomber and Miner. B-17 Bombers can't survive a minehit and can't be gated, so they're the worst bomber.

I do like the mini-bomber, but the B-17 has a few advantages:

1) It has two different slots for bombs. This means you can field your standard-lbu mixed bombing fleet without using two ship design slots.
2) It costs less per bomb than the mb. Building four mbs (to get 8 bombs) requires about 13% more iron than one b-17, just for the hull, and you also have to build four engines (instead of just two for the b-17), which adds even more to the iron cost.
3) The b-17 has a scan/elec/mech slot. Adding a fuel tank gives each b-17 a capacity of 650mg and a weight of 472kt (assuming Fuel Mizer engine), while four mbs can hold 480mg and weigh 540kt (276kt for two cherry mbs, 262kt for two lbu-74 mbs). This makes the b-17 more mobile "in the field" where fuel supply can be a challenge.

These advantages often convince me to accept the 9% loss rate of sending the b-17 through 300/500 gates. Even with that loss rate I can gate my b17s twice and still spend less iron per bomb than I would be spending for minibombers.