Real Newbie Question

[scottypup]

I'm a AoE and AoK Player as well as Civ and Alpha Centauri so MOO3 is totally new to me. I just bought it yesterday.

My question is where can I find some sort of guide that will tell me what the difference in the types of ships is. I can pretty much figure out Long and Short Range, Recon, Colony and such but what about Carrier, Indirect Fire and Point.

Any direction or help would be greatly appreciated.

[RobNelson]

Indirect fire are missile ships, carriers are basically mobile fighter bases (think Battlestar Galactica, or modern day aircraft carriers), point defense are ships built around the whole concept of taking out enemy missiles and fighters.

There are a lot of good threads in the strategy forum that you should eventually read, and we don't bite newbs.

Good luck with the game.

[scottypup]

And missle ships are?

Also I keep hearing about fighters but have played thru about 50 turns and not seen any fighters available to build. Is there a tech I need tor esearch to build them. I've built the fighter base.

[RobNelson]

Fighters and missiles are weapons.

In the ship design screen, when you build a ship, click on the weapons tab. There are three tabs at the top of the window, one for fighters, one for missiles, one for beams (beams are the default view.

[scottypup]

ok another dumb newbie question

What are the uses for each fo the types of ships.

Of course I know the outpost and colony and recon.

[RobNelson]

Missiles and fighters are both really long range (no range limitations, so if you can see it, you can hit it), but are slow to reload.

Long and short range beams are for when you get in closer. Which of these I use depends on the tech available. Short range beams do more damage, but if the enemy is faster than you, you could have trouble.

[The Wagster]

This stickied thread at the top of the main Strategy folder should help (all of those stickied threads are very useful, that's why they're stickied)

Space Combat Mechanics Guide

This is also a great help, it's a site made by one of the old game Guru's who has now left the boards, Blaze was his name

Space Battle Guide

It might have been made by Renaux actually, or he may have just hosted the site, but he knew what he was talking about as well.

[scottypup]

Why does the manual say that an Armada is 33-64 ships but when I form one it says a max of 18 ships?

[The Wagster]

Oh dear...

The manual is shockingly bad I'm afraid. And the Prima strategy guige is just as bad. A few months before the game was released a lot of game mechanics were changed and the manual was not updated. These forums are the best alternative to a manual you'll find.

Here's some evidence of how bad we think the manual is: URL=http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=351510&]Does the manual have any value?[/url]

And if you're game for a laugh you could have a look at the new manual Atari gave us after a year of us begging for one: New Manual. Just follow the link on the right of the page

And yes, the correct size for an armada is 18 ships (unless you've installed any mods).