| Insight for New Players |
Wed, 10 December 2008 13:03  |
|
|
|
Something I've learned in my multiplayer games that isn't emphasized very much to new players is the concept of gatability.
The standard stargates that people have access to in most games is the 300/500. This means that you can move a ship of up to 300kt up to 500ly away. Rounding issues with the formulas allow for a little bit of leeway before overgating damage is done, but numbers aren't exact on this yet, so you can assume that the 300/500 is set in stone.
Overgating is another possibility, but if you happen to be like me, you really don't like losing anything but chaff to the nether regions of warp-space.
My main point is that there are certain classes of ship that you really should keep gatable, and certain classes of ship where it doesn't matter.
Ships that should be kept gatable:
- Planetary Minelayers
Planetary minelayers are the ships that you use to lay minefields around your planets. The reason that you want these ships to be gatable is so that you can simply drop a gate on a new world and instantly throw up a minefield. This helps immensely when grabbing territory, because those planets which need minefields the most often aren't capable of building minelayers.
- Beam Ships
While not all beam ships have to be gatable, you really should keep at least one fleet and design of gatable beamers, as a quick-strike response team if you really need warships somewhere. This is simply more efficient than trying to keep effectively-sized beam fleets within 1 year of any hotspots that might show up (which when you think about it is really anywhere within your territory).
Ships that don't need to worry about being gatable:
- Missile Ships
In case you haven't noticed, missiles are heavy. It's nearly impossible to design a missile ship that will both get you ship-kills and be gatable at the same time.
- Transports
Unless you're IT, you can't gate ships with cargo. It then stands to reason that the only time you're going to be gating transport ships is when you're getting them to wherever they're picking up cargo. Most transports will be gatable regardless, but don't stress over it if they aren't. Overgating transports isn't going to kill you the same way losing a dozen capital ships will.
- Hell Ships
These are the ships you sneak into enemy territory to wreak havoc and keep your opponent off-balance. For reasons that should be obvious, these don't need to be gatable.
I hope this was at least partially informative to the new players in the audience, and a decent refresher for some of the old rusties. Any insight or improvements are wholeheartedly encouraged.
Report message to a moderator
|
|
|
|
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
