BTW, your weapons do shoot from wherever you place them.

However, this is a visual effect and serves no practical purpose since all the calculations are performed from your attack and defense modifiers, right?

If I build this:

=================
|                                    | <- hull
|            * (gun)             |
|                                    |
=================

(a gun basically surrounded by the hull or structural pieces of its own ship)

I still get to roll all my dices?
I'm assuming there's no collision detection for my fictional space laser.
Or (jokingly) does my enemy get to add my defenses to his own defensive roll?

It's just visual.  It works precisely as you describe.

Hi!

Well, I don't really see the point of changing default battle tactics.

I see a big one. In Stars! I've been many times in situation I could not match my opponents fleet, but I could try to destroy his bombers or freighters carrying invasion troops. OFC those kamikazi ships of mine all died, but if they did their job, my opponent lost the ability to harm my planets, and had to bring new bombers in the theatre. And that always takes some time, time to get more ships in defense, evacuate the planet, open a new front... That's IMO a very valid tactics.

Now, when we have actual fleet battles, it would be nice to have that ability also here. A simple change in attack order from "most dangerous - easiest destructible ship first" to "freighters first". And the "starbase first" would also come handy sometimes.
BR, Iztok

I see a big one. In Stars! I've been many times in situation I could not match my opponents fleet, but I could try to destroy his bombers or freighters carrying invasion troops. OFC those kamikazi ships of mine all died, but if they did their job, my opponent lost the ability to harm my planets, and had to bring new bombers in the theatre. And that always takes some time, time to get more ships in defense, evacuate the planet, open a new front... That's IMO a very valid tactics.

Well, I guess than you must play first GC 2 to better see how fleets and battles work. In GC2, there is nothing like bombers. And the fleet isn't defined by all the ships that are in a particular location. You need to construct your fleet by putting ships together and your fleet size is limited by your logistics ability. And the bigger the hull of ship, the more logistic points it has.

Now, when we have actual fleet battles, it would be nice to have that ability also here. A simple change in attack order from "most dangerous - easiest destructible ship first" to "freighters first".

Given the fact that troop transport have only 1 HP, it would make sense. But I am not sure about how the majority of players will react when they see that they won't be able to protect their troop transports.

And the "starbase first" would also come handy sometimes.

Well, it is impossible to fleet starbases with ships. But you can stack fleets on the location where the starbase is. I am not really sure who will defend first when the location is attacked. In any case, ennemy miltary starbase can be very annoying if you haven't destoyed them.

The only thing that is nagging me right now is the huge range the initial ships have? Hopefully this will be sorted by the release.

I kind of thought that in the begining (seen as you only have basic tech knowledge) maybe a range of 1 square radius from the starting planet (say earth dead centre and surrounding areas only) and then increments of this as you gain more tech knowledge. But instead the 'Hero' ship can pretty much tour the entire screen even on huge setting. The above would have made it easier to understand how far a new engine could propell you rather than the current situation.
Please dont get me wrong as i really love the game already but a mans gotta have something that dont seem quite right eh

BTW, your weapons do shoot from wherever you place them

Thanks for the responce...but realy in the screenshuts it don't look like

Now, when we have actual fleet battles, it would be nice to have that ability also here. A simple change in attack order from "most dangerous - easiest destructible ship first" to "freighters first". And the "starbase first" would also come handy sometimes

a bit like the "tactical" battle in BoF and for this when you only can strike one ship per turn so it will be very intelligent to destroy the most dangerous ship at first ..all weapons of your fleet shut against only one target even there are more enemis and even the ship is destroyt the "rest" of the missels, beams, or projectils are wastet...make sence to destroy the biggest target specialy when it have weapons they hit you more then the atherones...

when you only can strike one ship per turn so it will be very intelligent to destroy the most dangerous ship at first

Not quite exact. Your ships don't fire at the same time, but one after the other. So if a ship has been killed by a previous shot, your ships will fire at a new target

Well, it is impossible to fleet starbases with ships

That's an idea - couldn't the Orbital Fleet Mgr work with starbases as well?

Considering it's impossible to have a starbase in orbit of a planet, no.