Starters Questions

[ali-t-akua]

All my explorers are in my home system.  With 29 worlds/moons to explore in the home system I've had no need to send them into the dark dangerous rowdy unknown.

 

I have a spare explorer on handle to my insystem hauling of drones and fighters.  Otherwise I use 500k cargo bay freighters to haul exploration finds back to the HW.

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Just out of interest, how many XEXPLs are people doing each turn? We are currently at 60.

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Hmmm. I seem to recall something about a drop in in results for orders over 40 from the old boards. I don't do anywhere near 60. 10-15 max.

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We are doing over forty per turn and we notice we get between 6 and 10 hits per turn with roughly a 60/40 split for finds/research hits. We have also noticed that research hits are all over the place with some pretty advanced techs getting hits.

[ali-t-akua]

You could skip drone racks and fighter bays on EXPL ships.  Yes, you would occasionally miss the odd fighter or drone (low tech at that) but honestly, the odds are so rare that I'm not convinced you ever recover your investment in the rack/bays.

 

Having a minimum of 25000 cargo bays, on the other hand, IS required, because let one transwarp drive hit the garbage disposal, and you will remember it 89 turns later.

 

I do.

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I have actually gotten some nice drone hits. On the other hand, I have yet to get a Fighter hit. Of course if I were to miss a good fighter or drone hit becuase i did not ahve any fighters bays or drone racks, I would probably kick myself so while there may not be the ROI to justify putting them on the ship, I view it as insurance. (I also have Earthquale insurance on my home even though the odds are pretty long of one happening - Yes I live in the Golden State .)

[Magus666]

I was under the impression that fighters or drones could be loaded into cargo space just like anything else. You need fighter bays and drone racks to LAUNCH them in combat, but a regular cargo ship without those can still CARRY them. So unless Im wrong...I dont see the need for Fighter Bays or Drone Racks on exploration ships (except to carry science drones...when I get those).

[Octus Imperium]

My current exploration design is 50k cargo, 1 drone, 1 fighter bay in addition to the science stuffie.  However, when the next generation science lab rolls off the research queue I plan on recycling my explorer into a newer, larger version probably 100k cargo, 5 fighter bay, 5 drone rack.  I've had several hits on fighters and drones that I could not load all I found.

 

Also in case of an unmitigated disaster or if I run into another Whacko...err Whapo then the explorers can be loaded with fighters and drones for defensive purposes.

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Or put onto convoy duty to ferry stuff to the front. I'm assuming that most folks arm and armour their survey vessels?

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Depends. Those which are wandering far from home have enough to trash a couple Pathfinders they may run across that laying about. Such as dropped empires. Hate to lose a wanderer to something like a Pathfinder...

 

Octus

[Octus Imperium]

All my explorers are in my home system.  With 29 worlds/moons to explore in the home system I've had no need to send them into the dark dangerous rowdy unknown.

 

I have a spare explorer on handle to my insystem hauling of drones and fighters.  Otherwise I use 500k cargo bay freighters to haul exploration finds back to the HW.

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Just out of interest, how many XEXPLs are people doing each turn? We are currently at 60.

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About forty and climbing steadily. Almost like free tech finds and the occassional treasure haul.....can't have enough fertilizer for the diplomats to deploy.

 

Octus

[Octus Imperium]

You could skip drone racks and fighter bays on EXPL ships.  Yes, you would occasionally miss the odd fighter or drone (low tech at that) but honestly, the odds are so rare that I'm not convinced you ever recover your investment in the rack/bays.

 

Having a minimum of 25000 cargo bays, on the other hand, IS required, because let one transwarp drive hit the garbage disposal, and you will remember it 89 turns later.

 

I do.

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Thanks to this board, I hope to never regret such a find being lost....THANKS!

 

Octus

[hobknob]

Fighters and drones can only be loaded into the appropriate rack/bay. You can NOT load them into cargo spaces.

 

My MEGA Explorer conducts 40 EXPL's each turn. The only cost to me on a normal turn is the movement to a new planet. Easy to keep the turn under 40 orders. It just takes a few turns to build up the 40 Explores. In my case they started at 2, then went to 10, then 20 and then 40 as engines got better. I can now build 160+ AP exploration ships, but I have no intention of making my explorers do more than 40 a shot.

 

[Hughestrog]

Well, my largest single find was 90k.  Lucky for me that my fleet had 150k cargo space. 

 

My latest mega explorer has 1M cargo, just in case I find an uber weapon of some sort.

 

 

 

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More hope, or some sort of logic involved?

 

My explorers are 25k, which is sometimes disappointing when you can't load all of a find onto them.

 

And from what I can remember, I've found drones and loaded them as cargo but not fighters.

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Looks like I'm the source of disinformation today, doh!

 

Checked my turn sheets, and I have no problem loading torpedoes and missiles. Drones and fighters, yes, you do need the required storage capability (i.e. drone racks or fighter bays).

[Eldred]

Thanks for the responses - at 60 XEXPL we haven't noticed much difference (ie hit rate) than at 40, although as some of our worlds are nearly "explored out" this is hard to gauge. Where did the information about a drop off in returns above 40 XEXPL come from? Would be interested to know as we will be up to about 70 shortly.

[Hughestrog]

Thanks for the responses - at 60 XEXPL we haven't noticed much difference (ie hit rate) than at 40, although as some of our worlds are nearly "explored out" this is hard to gauge. Where did the information about a drop off in returns above 40 XEXPL come from? Would be interested to know as we will be up to about 70 shortly.

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Is this total number of EXPL or EXPL over a planet?

[Eldred]

Thanks for the responses - at 60 XEXPL we haven't noticed much difference (ie hit rate) than at 40, although as some of our worlds are nearly "explored out" this is hard to gauge. Where did the information about a drop off in returns above 40 XEXPL come from? Would be interested to know as we will be up to about 70 shortly.

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Is this total number of EXPL or EXPL over a planet?

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Total number of EXPL everywhere each turn

[Magus666]

Drones and fighters, yes, you do need the required storage capability (i.e. drone racks or fighter bays).

 

Well, that is good to know. My early survey ships have 25k cargo, but no drone or fighter capacity. I suppose Ill have to correct that.

 

We are currently doing a whopping...ONE...XEXP per turn, that being on our HW. Of course, Im only coming up on my fourth turn, so Ive only had time to design and build my survey vessels. Next turn, they start exploring the neighboring planets.

[ali-t-akua]

Drones and fighters, yes, you do need the required storage capability (i.e. drone racks or fighter bays).

 

Well, that is good to know. My early survey ships have 25k cargo, but no drone or fighter capacity. I suppose Ill have to correct that.

 

We are currently doing a whopping...ONE...XEXP per turn, that being on our HW. Of course, Im only coming up on my fourth turn, so Ive only had time to design and build my survey vessels. Next turn, they start exploring the neighboring planets.

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Magus, a couple of thoughts:

 

1. You should be able to do 2 XEXPLs per turn as you have 2 AP. If you are using XOCs, they do not use any action points.

 

2. Unless you have scrapped your pathfinders, you have enough ships to explore the local neighborhood at least partially. I still use mine for cracking A and B class WPs and to do CSVs, GEOs, PMAP and when necessary ORBs.

[Magus666]

Ill remember that I can use TWO XEXP orders for those exploration vessels.

 

And yes, those planets have been surveyed and scanned...but Pathfinders have no cargo spaces so I have held off on the EXP orders. Dont want to find something and lose it. Right now the Pathfinders are off surveying our neighbor system. Its alot more interesting that our little, isolated home system

[Laserwolf]

Ill remember that I can use TWO XEXP orders for those exploration vessels.

 

And yes, those planets have been surveyed and scanned...but Pathfinders have no cargo spaces so I have held off on the EXP orders. Dont want to find something and lose it. Right now the Pathfinders are off surveying our neighbor system. Its alot more interesting that our little, isolated home system

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Pair them up with a 1-engine 25,000 cargo bay freighter and any grapples/universal translators, advanced science labs, etc. that you may have found.