VG Thought

Hit me with some important thoughts.

https://rizzoma.com/topic/3303b5a52794d ... 6pl_6rt8j/
Here's the rizzoma where I put my notes. The ships and structures share the same types across the factions. It's now just a matter of gathering the specific data of each ship type from each faction and making sense of those differences. Like, what's the difference between a TEC anti-strike craft ship and an Advent one. Things like cost, crew capacity and build rate will also help with understanding what the differences between the factions are and what it means to play to those differences.

For ship stats and comparisons, this is a great resource:
http://sinsofasolarempire.wikia.com/wiki/Ship_Types

Fleets and groups are different - a fleet is a collection of ships that follows a leader capital ship. They are created by selecting a capital ship or set of ships, selecting Tactics Management in the control pane, and selecting Create Fleet (or just hitting SHIFT+F). To command a fleet, simply issue orders to the leader. Be sure to set Group Jump in Tactics Management if you don't want your ships to get separated. The game does some auto-management of fleets - for instance, once one is created, newly constructed ships arriving at the fleet's location will automatically join. An individual ship can only belong to one fleet at a time. . So far I haven't found it worth the effort.

Groups are a simpler tool that can be found in almost every RTS: a group is a player-designated set of ships that can be selected with a keystroke. A group can be created by selecting all desired ships and pressing CTRL+[#], where [#] is any number key. To command a group, simply press the designated number key to select it and issue commands as you normally would. The game doesn't auto-manage groups at all - to change the membership of a group, select the group, select/deselect ships you wish to add/remove, then redesignate using CTRL+[#]. An individual ship can simultaneously be part of multiple groups and even a fleet, so be careful with your designations. Personally, I use groups a lot - like I said, the tactics carry over from every other RTS ever.

Random tip: ALT+click a unit in the left pane tree-view to select all units of that type on that planet. After selecting the units you want to command, to issue an attack order right click an enemy icon in the same tree-view (no need to zoom in!). You can use this to quickly tell all your siege frigates to bomb the planet or all your bombers to attack a capital ship. I typically use this selection technique to designate groups - select all LRMs and assign them to 1, select all carriers and assign them to 2, etc.

Generally you won't need to give ships specific combat orders, but setting a target can be beneficial for hit and run tactics or to take down a particularly troublesome foe. I've been advocating using carriers/strikecraft, so keep in mind: to set the target of your bombers and fighters, you need to select and command the strikecraft themselves. Ordering the carrier unit to attack will do nothing except possibly moving it into an unnecessarily vulnerable position.