Supply Ship

Well, I think it would depend on what mod (if any) you are using. For Balance Mod I think supply bays are treated as cargo bays for the ship reqs of say freighter hulls. So you could use a freighter in BM and just put many supply bays on it instead of cargo bays + maybe some solar gens. For stock, I don't know, probably destroyer/cruiser's. I never play stock so don't really know much about it.

It is a typo, the component is called Supply Storage, it comes under "cargo" tech, though resupply does give you the quantum generator which creates supply (level 20 in stock IIRC). Solar harnessing is another one you might look into, the solar panels are cheaper and faster to get.

For stock, I'd say any ship up to cruiser, as they are the fast ones so the supply ship won't slow your fleet down. If you'r fleet has heavier ships, you can use similar hull. The bigger the ship, the more storage you get in relative amount (less space used for engines etc.), but if you use many small ships, you can send each back to pick up supplies when it runs empty.

As for tactic, I would put them as "don't get hurt", and put them in separate task force. Maybe few escorts but that is voluntary.

It's better to have specialty task forces within the same fleet than to have specialty fleets with just one task force. You can set the task force behaviour to match whatever you need. That's an elaboration on what LordDemon explained.

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See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.

if your ship goes 20% of supplies remaining, you will see the oil icon on the ship picture

In Settings.txt (BM 1.14a):
Ship Supply Amount for Low Supply Warning := 1000
Base Supply Amount for Low Supply Warning := 500
Unit Group Supply Amount Per Unit for Low Supply Warning := 50
And you can't "sentry" the ships low on supplies, which can be quite annoying btw...

if only it will be possible to automize process of calculating how many supplies do ship need to reach nearest RD, and when ship has this number of supplies - to send it back

weapons use supl for shoot
maybe mod has wrong describing of components
engines use supl not for turn but for move means 6*(-5)*6=180

Shield Regenerator uses supplies only when works

Supply usage happens during the turn, supply generation happens between turns so I think you'll find the supplies will return to maximum after the turn

nah.
Engine use 5 supl for one-hex move. During the turn you can move for 6 hex. each time you reach new hex you will spend 6*5 supl
Total spend supl for one turn= 6*5*6

Supply usage by engines is as follows:
Supply Use * #Engines * MovePts

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

That's what i say, didn't i?

I play the Balance Mod. Usually I use a medium hull cargo ship with max. engines, a repair bay and the rest filled up with about 1/2 ordanance storage, 1/3 supply storage, emergency propulsion and the rest solar cells. I call this a "support ship" because it fills all the needs of a long range fleet. Obviously it is totally helpless if attacked, but if it gets hit you've probably lost most of your fleet anyway.

I tend to agree with StellarRat. I don't put armor or shields on my supply ships. It will be in its own task force set to Don't Get Hurt so it shouldn't be getting engaged in the first place. Since that is so that leaves alot more room for solar gens/supply storage/munitions. Give it just enough engines to keep up with your slowest fleet ship and the rest supply storage/generating components.

I would add a bit of armor just to provide protection against damaging warp points or storms etc.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

I combine mine sweeping/supply/repair all into one ship on the medium freighter in BM and put lots of 'em into a separate task force in a fleet. It reduces the need to babysit your fleet. And yeah like Kwok said, I also put a couple units of regular armor.

Kwok, i thinked Warp points will damage ship if only they are smaller in kT in compare with ship's kT

and the number of damage equals the (ship's kT)-(warp point's kT)

Ship size limits for warp points isn't actually implemented. There are warp points described as unusual that can damage ships due to "warp point turbulence" etc.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

ok

it is now clear for me... thank you

btw, i prefer to put some shields instead the armor, because shields do not need the repairing after getting the damage. ofcourse if they not drained completely

I hadn't a about storms damaging my fleet. I guess I haven't driven through enough of them to really notice. Since the support has a repair bay it's probably fixing itself and I'm not really noticing.

BTW, Kwok since you are "here" I have a couple of questions for you:

1. How does SEV figure out which component to damage first after all the protection is destroyed? I seem to lose the same (there is only one) missile launcher on one of my designs first everytime my ship is damaged.

2. What game parameters are best to use for a challenging game against the AI in the Balance Mod? (Without blatantly favoring the AI) I'm using a small galaxy and leaving everything else at default right now. Victory conditions are kill everyone completely to win.

repairing bay repairs only components on another ships. Probably you use two of them. They repair each other and stay both undamaged

excuse me... but let me answer the first question

first you lose armor... then outer hull's component... and at last you get damaged inner hull's component

it is important in which side of vehicle you take the shot... if in the left side - the left component die first.. and so on

and there are also 'weapon damaging' weapons, which damage only weapons on your ship.. if you had only one weapon component - it will be destroyed

1. The damage order A -> O -> I slots always applies, unless armor and/or shield skipping damage was dealt. Then it's down to the actual placement order that was used during ship or unit design iirc. This is why I always make sure to place things like stealth armor last when placing armor, so that the defense bonus applies longer.

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See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.

Incorrect. Repair bays can perfectly well repair components on the equipped ship itself.

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See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.

It is directional after the armor level at least, not sure about before

StellarRat, if you want challenging, don't accept the default settings. Put it on High difficulty atleast. In BM, High difficulty only means the AI gets to use all the Ministers available. Lower difficulty means its not using certain Ministers. Plus, what I do is set it to not make neutral Empires. Neutral Empires are the sitting duck ones that never expand out from their original system. Basically, they are just plums to be picked by whomever finds them first. Get rid of those and just have real Empires. You could also just increase the number of such Empires you go against.

"Blatantly favoring the AI" would be the Bonus given and perhaps letting the AI use Team Mode against you (all of them against the human player by default).

hm... maybe mistake in manual...
It was always that way or coming with some patch?

Wow! I had no idea I was crippling the Balance Mod AI so much by not using High Difficulty. It's been playing with one hand tied behind it's back! Next game I will make sure to set this correctly. Also, no more missile launchers in the outer hull!

hm.. it is better to set life supporting components in the inner hull.. but it's all up to you)

btw.. if you put bridge, crew quarters or life support to outer hull your design die very quickly)

Kwok, I don't say things like this in isolation. I was repeating what you yourself said in another thread some time ago. I'll try to find the thread and check it again.

It's been a misconception for some time since that's how difficulty levels worked in SE4.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

To my knowledge, there is no actual implementation of the difficulty levels in the scripts (stock or mods). I've put in some basic framework to employ different difficulty settings for the Balance Mod, but they're not activated yet.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

Maybe a late responce but I found that drones make very good supply ships, and you don't need a shipyard to build them...
Or make a drone re-fueling station... solar collecter or reactors with supply storage...
( and they are cheaper and quicker to build...)