How many facilities to build?

[Bromley]

From when I played this before, I remembered that you need lots of Shipyards on the same planet to crank out capital ships in a reasonable period of time. However, I think I made a mistake in my last game by applying the same philosophy to Construction and Training facilities.

 

I've got a couple of questions. Bear in mind that this is for single player only, so you don't have to worry as much about intelligent enemies .

 

1. My perfect Shipyard planet has two GenCores, one LNR and an Ion cannon, then 10 yards and I try to build one per sector. Any comments Should it be 12 & 2 defences or even 14 and a load of fighters/troops?

 

2. Assuming not, should I ditch the Ion cannon for another LNR/GenCore and does the Ion cannon allow the yards to continue manufacturing even if blockaded? What about missions like Research & Jedi - are they uninterupted if an Ion cannon is there? I use the same 4 defence structures on all of my production planets. Also, I build 2 GenCores per non-production planet and, for the Core non-production only, a LNR. Does all this sound about right?

 

3. What's the ideal number of Training and Construction facilities per planet and per sector. As I said, I've probably been overbuilding as I've been building the same set-up as for the SY planets - one per sector at 10,2,1,1. I think that 6 might be best, but I've done no testing on that.

 

4. There appears to be a minimum time to build the first of a building/troop/ship order and subsequent ones are then cheaper if you have enough facilities. I don't notice this for capital ships, as they're so expensive, but I do for troops and buildings. With reference to your preference in (3), do you build your production planets to take advantage of this or do you just build them to the level that gives you the minimum time on the first build in a queue?

 

5. I seem to be running out of manufacturing ability well before I run out of maintenance, thus slowing my projects down. Is this normal? How do you avoid it? I'd assume that you build less and try to expand your mines/refineries, trying to maintain a 1:1 ratio. Also, I often scrap mines/refineries to make way for my main production planets. Is it this clearing out of 3 of the largest (13-14 each) planets in each sector that's creating the problem?

[Ric]

Here are some thing I do, It could be helpfull.

 

1. What i build on the core planets is one construction facil. one troop training and one shipyard. The rest will consist of refineries and mines. I usualy don't use defenses like shield generators and LNR. What i do have for defens are let say about 30/60 fighters and about 6/10 troops. But not on every planet. I also have one fleet in each system to take on enemy fleets.

 

2. I also have about 3/5 planets whiche have 15 shipyards, but i don't have those for the contructionyards and the troop training centers. But I do combine these. let's say 8 construction, 6 training and 1 shipyard to make fighters. That gives a total of 15. I think it not praktical to have 15 constructionyard or troop centers. Becaus the build time for them isn't that high. Oh and these planets are in the unexplored systems. This means i don't have to scrap mines or refineries. And the defens is the same as whit the core planets.

 

3. And then there are some planets that have a higher purpose. Like coruscant, the rebel headqaurters Yavin and one or two prison planets.

each of these has one construction, troop and shipyard. And these are the only planets that haven planetairy defenses. so that are 3 spot and the rest is filled whit shield generators, LNR and ion canons. Plus these planets have their own fleet and of each fighter is representen with 30, that's 120 fighters. and about 10/20 troops. And ofcourse these planets have generals.

 

That's how i do it. So it gives me al the resourses i need. and yes in the beginning i don't have enough raw material and stuff, but when i'm up and running the IA is history.

 

So ok I have to admit it doesn't avoid a planet being captured. But the fighters give a great fight.

 

I hope you can understand every thing I sad, and have fun.

 

Greetez Ric.

[glandry]

The AI is soooo stupid.

 

This is what I do. For production planets (need at least 13 energy), I put 3 gen core II's and then 10+ shipyards, construction yards or training facilities. Usually, I like to have about 5-6 of these shipyards, about the same in construction yards, and only one training facility. Each of these planets will have 9 troop regiments (dark troopers or sullanstans), with the highest detection rating. Early in the game I may also put a general there to reduce sabotage missions. I use 3 gen cores rather than 2 so that I have a buffer in the event the AI does sabotages one. All other planets (except Coruscant and Rebel HQ), get nothing in terms of defenses. If AI takes them over, I just send a fleet there to bomb the troops and the planet reverts back to me (I always make sure that my popularity is close to 100%).

 

The most important thing early in the game is construction yards. The first player to get a decent amount of maintenance points typically wins the game.

[glandry]

Oops, something else I forgot to mention. Early in the game I set up one planet with 3 gencores, a general, 9+ troop regiments, 2-3 shipyards, construction yards, and training facilities. I do all of my research there. I often do a lot of my recruiting at that planet.

[Bromley]

Nice - thanks guys.

 

I like the multi-purpose fortress planet for researching. I also like the thought of all those fighters, as they'd provide a reserve and stand a chance of killing raiding ships.

 

I was reading though some of the Usenet posts on Rebellion and someone actually costed this out. I'd never thought of it this way, but of course two GenCores cost 24 maint plus the 50 in lost mine/refinery pairing. 74 maint gives me 24 Imperial fighters or 18 Reb fighters.

 

My average defences were 3 per planet, so that's 106 maint. That's 35 Imperial or 26 Rebel fighters. Of course, the problem is producing them fast enough .

[glandry]

The other thing to consider is that fighters will get decimated, either quickly or slowly, and it is difficult to manage. For example, if the game gave you the ability to preset x number of fighter squadrons or troop regiments on a given planet, that would be fine, but because you have to manage it to make sure you always have enough fighters. You run a greater risk of losing a strong production planet.

 

With three gen cores, the AI just passes over the planet. They might blockade it for a turn, but then they move on. The AI seems to build fleets with a lot of troops and try to invade.

[glandry]

The other thing to consider is that fighters will get decimated, either quickly or slowly, and it is difficult to manage. For example, if the game gave you the ability to preset x number of fighter squadrons or troop regiments on a given planet, that would be fine, but because you have to manage it to make sure you always have enough fighters. You run a greater risk of losing a strong production planet.

 

With three gen cores, the AI just passes over the planet. They might blockade it for a turn, but then they move on. The AI seems to build fleets with a lot of troops and try to invade.

[glandry]

The other thing to consider is that fighters will get decimated, either quickly or slowly, and it is difficult to manage. For example, if the game gave you the ability to preset x number of fighter squadrons or troop regiments on a given planet, that would be fine, but because you have to manage it to make sure you always have enough fighters. You run a greater risk of losing a strong production planet.

 

With three gen cores, the AI just passes over the planet. They might blockade it for a turn, but then they move on. The AI seems to build fleets with a lot of troops and try to invade.

[Ric]

Is every thing OK glandry, you repeated your message 3 times.

 

Well for the research and the recruiting I use Yavin, Coruscant and the rebel headqauters. These are also the places that the Jedi training happens.

 

So what the IA attacks your planets, just take them back and you will see your popular support in the system will improve. It a great to take over the system.

 

But you will have to take care of the enemy fleet becaus if you don't take it out it will bombart your planets. That's the only side affect I discovert.

[SPARTIAN300]

I like to have 3 to 4 construction yards in every sector. I like to defend them with three shield generators and one LNR or KDY V-150. If playing the computer, if one shield generator goes down your planet is still protected. You will have time to replace before the computer sends in ships to see if he can capture a weak planet. I also try to have three troop facilities on a planet per every other sector. As far as shipyards go, I try to have 6 or 7 on Coruscant if playing the Empire or the same for the Rebel headquarters. I am playing a large galaxy now as the Empire and my largest shipyard is located on Coruscant with 6 shipyards. On Uvena, I have 1 shipyard. Its task is to supply fighters to Coruscant. Coruscant supplys the big ships for the battles ahead. Next largest shipyard site has only three shipyards located three sectors away. It doesn't serve much of a purpose. The main hub is Coruscant. That is where my protection is needed most. If I capture a whole sector, I normally destroy all shipyards in the sector if playing the computer. I wouldn't recommend that if playing a human. As troopers go, I put 6 to 9 Stormtroopers or Darktroopers per planet until I capture the whole sector. Once I have a whole sector, I will go down to 3 troopers and 1 Imperial Army regiment or 6 Sullustan and 1 Army regiment. I normally have three to four fleets with the fourth fleet the weakest. I use it to take over planets on the outer rim. The first fleet which is pretty strong guards the headquarters. the second fleet which is my strongest is attacking enemy strongholds. The 3rd fleet is used for hit n run tactics. All of this changes if playing a human, because u can't predict their moves or intentions.

[wrath0fb0b]

 

 

(1) Research fortresses are unnecessary. Your production facilities should be protected enough to protect 1 researcher (ie: spread them out a bit so the loss of that one planet doesn't jeapordize them all). You'll want them all on different missions anyways (and i've never heard of a bonus putting them on the same planet).

 

(2) LNRs and KDYs are useless. Gencores are the only useful defense, and 2 is almost always enough (except the HQ . . . ). Past that, it's better to invest in high-detection/high-defense troops and a general.

 

For general strategy, think of it as a balancing act between the benifits of concentration (ie: faster) and spread (less vulnerable). As it stand, the Empire has advntages doing concentration:

 

Better protection in the Sesswana sector

More expensive/powerful units take long to build

Stormtroopers! <- Rebs don't start with a good defense/high-detection unit

 

The rebellion, however, can benefit from more spread:

 

Less vulnerable to Imperial counter-force

Can slowly build fighters and escort carriers in separate places

will acquire a few from diplomacy anyways.

 

 

FINAL NOTE: Because of the refined-materials crunch in the midgame, you have to be careful about scrapping your mines/refineries to make room for mega-facilities. Try to find planets that have 6 energy free (after 2 shields) and built up the complex slowly. When you have idle construction resources, look at refined materials and remember that scrapping mines/refineries for production facilities is a TRIPLE whammy to refined materials:

 

(1) You produce less

(2) The consume more

(3) You just spent a whole bunch building the production facility.

 

The only exception to this is the early-game when you need to build up construction-facilities ASAP.

 

I've seen players with 12 shipyards that produced an ISD in 300 days!!! Don't let that be you!

[JasonTL12]

the most important thing to me is construction yards. every sector has a system with 8-10 construction yards for mines and refineries. without the maintenance and materials, you cant build your ships. i also build a super training complex early because you get the ATF first and you can build all your troops (i do some planning and i try to streamline my military power, especially with the minimum troops i can get away with to have what i need to build fighters and fleets). keep it, when you need it you can build things quick. it can also be a good idea to have one training facility with your contruction yards to quickly build more special ops for that sector. its always good to have one advanced shipyard at those sites too, they can help build/replenish your fighters and it greatly helps if you have a combat fleet that's taking some damage. get it to the nearest shipyard and let it repair. i also usually build one "fighter base" with about 6-10 shipyards and protect that as my back up to my capital ship building complezes, 12 shipyards and 2 gencore IIs. always a good garrison and a general on those. i also like the 2 gencores, 1 LNR. 1 KDY setup on my sector bases. i always have a general on those systems in the core, but there's not enough people to go around for all of the rim sectors, so a bunch of sullstan regiments in the core is cheap and effective. building too many super complexes has gotten me in trouble. sure you can build things fast, if you can keep your maintenance points and your refined materials up, but its easy to go overboard. that's why i first concentrate of getting all of my troops out of the way and getting those construction yards working on mines and refineries. i don't defend my "maintenance" planets (the ones with only mines and refineries. if assaulted, a good ship with some y or b wings in it takes care of those garrisons quickly, and you have a massive construction yard there to quickly build anything that has been damaged in bombardment or sabotaged.

[Jerjerrod]

hmmm...

 

When I first started playing this game years ago, I did alot of experimenting, and unfortunately I have forgotten alot of the data that led me to my current methods. Somehow I figued that having more than 6 construction/training/shipyards in one system is inefficient.

 

What I do is:

 

Every sector has a planet with 6 construction facilities (I consider this the "capital system" in the sector), a planet with 6 shipyards, and a planet with 6 training facilities.

 

For defense, each system has 2 gencores. As soon as I have the ability for Gencore II's, I phase them in to replace the I's...I put two II's of course. Usually they are phased in as the I's are sabotaged.

 

Also, each system has 6 storm trooper regiments stationed on it. The system with shipyards will generally have 30-60 TIE-type fighters, or mix of fighters and bombers to help guard unfinished fleets. The only other system to have TIEs stationed on them are coruscant, and any other system that is getting alot of harassment. The system with the troop training yards will generally have a large stockpile of stormtroopers, mainly as a reserve force to be further distributed. The "capital" system will usually have some extra troops. Overall, my defensive scheme is basic, repetitive, easy to manage, and efficient. The "hit" I take on build times is transmitted to more slots for mines and refineries.

 

I am still able to build fleets in a decent amount of time, and troops and buildings aren't much of a problem anyway. The most important set of buildings are the mines and refineries in my opinion. Nothing worse than having systems blockaded and getting pushed into the negatives on maintenance points. I normally maintain enough mp above my current needs to crank out a death star if I wish.

[Darth_Rob]

Nah. The more the merrier. If you have like 10 shipyards on one planet, you'll be poppin' out TIE's like it's nobodys business. As for me, I rarely have one system with two different facilities on it. Except when I have control of one lone planet in an entire sector. Then I try to put in like 2-3 of each facility and make it harder to take over.

[Zer_Teron]

Always spread out your characters, he he. Once i had just gotten through recruiting with all my characters on Coruscant, then a huge Rebel fleet showed up and crushed mine then assaulted, killing every single character and capturing Palpatine and Vader.

[DarthTofu]

Yeah, well, if they took Coruscant and Palpy and Vader... Well, then the games over egardless of who the heck you had there in the first place... And loyalty falls at a ridiculous rate... You were playing on "Hard" weren't you? had that problem before... stupid lack of an ability to produce a krytos virus... Personally I just put a fleet in position above my production planets, usually some good stuff. If I'm Imps and in relatively calm phase I'll crank out a Super Star Destroyer, Two Imp Star Deuces (Chalk fall of interceptors, of course) plus an interdictor for good measure. And if I'm Rebs, usually three Dauntlesses with A-wings and a CC-700. Then i just build every slot full of whatever i'm making. If you still want security against the AI, then just build an LNR I or II and they won't bombard... EVER! Give it a good garrison of Mon Cals/Dark Troopers and you're golden.

[Zer_Teron]

Not always, the AIs as random as the Fleets. Ive had them show up and lose their fleet bombarding a planet with 1 GC, and 10 LNRIIs. Another they sat in orbit above it and sabotaged everything then bombarded

[DarthTofu]

They stole my strategy... Those bastards! Ah, well, I guess I need to progress to the "Hard" level sooner or later to see what ahppens (Assuming that my head isn't handed to me because the AI starts out holding every planet but Coruscant and has a fleet consisting of three mon cals and eight Nebulan Bs all full of fighters in-system already. That has happened before. Don't know how, just did. )

[AdmiralToguroAni]

hard mode is still pretty easy. Don't be afraid to assault early in the game, and sabotage is your friend.

[Jerjerrod]

Oh, well, I looked at the RebEd file and I guess I had sped up production times on production buildings to make the game faster. Good news is, I only need 6 to get a great build time.

 

Bad news is, those rebels crank out fleets like you wouldn't believe. Now I know why.

 

I havent played in a long time and I didn't realise the settings I had.

[E-vader]

Toguru is correct. Early in the game, if you are able to muster up the troops, go assault the nearest planet that has the most useful facilities and take that bad boy over. I've noticed its easier to do this as the Empire, as you generally get more ships capable of transport and attack and usually within a few systems of each other. Make sure however, you are able to immediately supplement your assault fleet or planetary defenses lest you fall victim to AI reprisal.

As the Rebellion your best bet is sabotage where the empire is weakest; if you are able to time the preliminary espionage, and then the following sabotage missions correctly, you will either A. Get that planet and some if not most of the other planets in the system right away, or B. Have some of A. happen and bag yourself an enemy character sent to deal with the uprising.

[Baron_Soontir_Fel]

My core sectors usually have planets that have either 6 CYs, 6 TFs or 6-9 SYs along with defenses. I usually devote super-duper SYs to the Outer Rim.

[Stellar_Magic]

Well there is a second approach which few people use in the game, I've only used it a couple of times.

 

First off I'll ask you some questions...

 

1. Is it more efficient to build 10 shipyards on one planet or 1 shipyard on ten planets?

 

2. Is it riskier to have 10 shipyards on one planet or 1 shipyard on ten planets?

 

The answers may surprise you.

 

1. Because production times are simply the amount of refined material divided by the processing capacity of the shipyards on the planet you can build 10 ships in the time it took to build one at that planet -But- while they may be individually battle ready in more time those ten shipyards scattered across ten worlds can build the same number. It's just that they'll all be launched at about the same time and be scattered.

 

2. By building 10 shipyards at one planet you've made that world extremely important strategically, against a human opponent this also makes it risky. Loss or blockade of the world could be a damaging blow to your war machine. Fortunately you can concentrate your forces in defense of world and hold it in most situations. Conversely the decentralized and scattered nature of the second option is both beneficial and a detrimate. Loosing one or even a number of planets will not deliver a stunning blow to your strategic resources, you'll still be able to produce ships. On the other hand you can't possibly deploy your forces across all those worlds and expect to repel an assault.

 

If you're weak a decentralized structure is the way to go because it will allow you to loose worlds without being knocked out of the game, if you have the upper hand centralization may be you best bet.

[Master_Xan]

Call me crazy, but I think you people are nuts. If you're playing against the computer, you don't need any of that. Put around 3 basic troops, say stormtroopers or Alliance regiments on normal planets, with 6 on production planets and 9 on HQ or Corescant. Put a shield to prevent bombardment, or if you're really doing things right, don't even bother with the shield. You don't need any more then one or two planets with 10+ shipyards, and you'll never need more then 6 training facilities on one planet. I rarely have more then 4 planets with training, and each has around 3-4 facilities.

 

When the game starts up, hit the computer. Hard. As Alliance, take down the Imp planets that have strong garrisons. As Imps, simply do military bombardments on Alliance planets until the entire sector joins you. If you manage to get one (two on a large galaxy) sector(s) this way, you'll have the computer trying to catch up for 100 days or more, giving you all the time in the world to get ahead. After that, it's all over but the crying.

[Kearsley]

I start out by building more constrution yards get 3 to 5 on a planet then start to build some shipyards get 3 to 5 on a planet. don't really worry about troop centers until I start building my fleets up and I get the advance troop center then I build up 3 to 5 on a planet. this is all in core worlds on the outer rim I build 12 adv shipyards on two planets and 10 adv constrution yards on three planets and 9 adv troop centers on three planets. as for defense I don't waste time with defense batteries I stick with just gen II's at least 2 at each and have at least ten troops on each with 15 to 30 fighters on each.