so what did you set your engineers on? and why?

[Backbone]

as the initial research phase is over in the beta I am curious how you set your engineers orders.

mine are war/production/construction

because
-I want my ships to fight better
-I want to be able to build ships so that they are ready in case I get attacked
-I need more constructions!

[Gerbie]

Research, because I want to be able to improve my attacks etc.
War, for the actual battles
Mining, to increase my income

I had security for a while, might do it again if I get bored with attacking and want to do some serious co-op attacks.

I can set production whenever I need as my engineers are ready to change status.
Same for construction: If i get structures destroyed I can switch to get them rebuilt faster.

[Tactitus]

War, Research, Mining.

Originally posted by Gerbie
I had security for a while, might do it again if I get bored with attacking and want to do some serious co-op attacks.

Does the Security priority really help on the offensive side of covert ops? I believe the Engineering page just says it helps defeat covert ops (not that the documentation is always good/accurate/reliable of course).

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally posted by Gerbie
I had security for a while, might do it again if I get bored with attacking and want to do some serious co-op attacks.

I was under the impression that an engineering priority of security was only defensive, like the role of the security centres, and so putting in security would do buggar all .

As for me, i've still got mine as Research/Construction/Mining, because i'm a lazy buggar and i dont often log in. I'm doing my CR research right now .

For the record, however, If you have 'Production' set as a priority, build some ships and change the priority to something else, the time bonus is lost. ie, i had it set on production and i built some 500 frigates (Paladins methinks). it said that it would take 9 ticks. I then changed my priority to Mining again (i like the cash when i'm not loggin in that often ) and now they'll take 12 :\. Please note that this doesnt happen with Research/constructions. Most annoying .

[Gerbie]

Originally posted by Ultimate Newbie
I was under the impression that an engineering priority of security was only defensive, like the role of the security centres, and so putting in security would do buggar all .

As for me, i've still got mine as Research/Construction/Mining, because i'm a lazy buggar and i dont often log in. I'm doing my CR research right now .

For the record, however, If you have 'Production' set as a priority, build some ships and change the priority to something else, the time bonus is lost. ie, i had it set on production and i built some 500 frigates (Paladins methinks). it said that it would take 9 ticks. I then changed my priority to Mining again (i like the cash when i'm not loggin in that often ) and now they'll take 12 :\. Please note that this doesnt happen with Research/constructions. Most annoying .

According to the manual you are correct as it says only 3 things influence the chances of success of an operation, neither of which being your engineering setting.
The comments on the Covert ops page however says:
' You may be able to gain a higher Stealth Level by setting Security as an Engineering Priority.'
Oh well, I'll just wont touch it any more then.

Even if you are lazy, you should be able to change the priorities after you pressed a research and construction. It's not that much work.

Hmmz annoying indd. I hadn't tested that. But I only set production when under attack, so I won't have that problem for 48 hrs.

[dabult]

If i recall correctly...Spinner mentioned that having engineers going for security leads to faster re-gain of stealth, not a higher max stealth. So who to trust, Spinner...or the manual.

I could be wrong though..5am does weird things to you sometimes :P

[Tactitus]

Originally posted by dabult
If i recall correctly...Spinner mentioned that having engineers going for security leads to faster re-gain of stealth, not a higher max stealth. So who to trust, Spinner...or the manual.

That is a tough call. :/

[Cochese]

To start, I set mine at Research/Mining/Construction.

Mainly because I played Terran and needed to research Capital ships ASAP...I don't attack much early on, so I can leave production times high in favor of building infrastructure a bit more quickly.

I'll usually change the Construction setting to War after I've done 10 mines and have my factories built.

Once I have Capital-class ships and completed Traveltime tech, I'll move to War/Production/Mining so I can shift my focus on attacking/building ships, while slowly working down the Scan branch and adding in Wave Amps and other infrastructure slowly.

[Makhil]

War/Mining/Production

Production : really important to be able to build fast (when you're under attack and to convert quickly your resources into score)
Mining : more resources = more ships = more score
War : not sure of the effects but better to have it

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally posted by Makhil
War : not sure of the effects but better to have it

Supposedly meant to make your attacks better = more score .

[General Martok]

Originally posted by Ultimate Newbie
Supposedly meant to make your attacks better = more score .

Mining > war.

War 1st priority gets you 10% extra firepower. Mining gives you 15% extra resources = 15% extra ships (roughly). Now tell me what's the smarter choice

[Tactitus]

Originally posted by General Martok
Mining > war.

War 1st priority gets you 10% extra firepower. Mining gives you 15% extra resources = 15% extra ships (roughly). Now tell me what's the smarter choice

Mining is clearly better--now that we know the percentages, of course.

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally posted by KraKto$is8
Where did you get those percentages?

They are listed/described in the beta.

Thankfully for us non-beta people, they are also listed here: http://pirate.planetarion.com/showth...hreadid=169309

[KraKto$is8]

Originally posted by Ultimate Newbie
They are listed/described in the beta.

Thankfully for us non-beta people, they are also listed here: http://pirate.planetarion.com/showth...hreadid=169309

Yeah, I found that thread seconds later and deleted my post...

[Envious]

Originally posted by Tactitus
Mining is clearly better--now that we know the percentages, of course.

Well war increases your impact at same value, mining increases your value. Higher value has a few side effects like more resource loss to thiefs, less score from battles, less targets/larger possible attackers etc. Therefore it's justified to make mining effect a little stronger than war effect to make up for that. Whether it's completely balanced now depends on your playing style and personal opinion ofc.

[Narziss]

In the beginning I set my priorities to: Research/Mining/Construction cuz I'm playing Xan and I have to speed up my researches

After the start-period I set my priorities to: Production/War/Mining to increase the amount of my fleets as fast as possible and to kill my enemys in combat

Maybe I'll test some covert ops...then I'll add security to my priorities but we'll see

[General Martok]

I think productions is mostly a waste of engineering. If you wait 6 ticks longer you have the same ships ready, and you can do mining of war more to the front. And don't forget, research will STAY important, not just in the beginning...

I started on res/con/mining , whiched to res/mining/con around tick 90 when i got a dozen constructions, and I will soon swich to res/mining/war or res/war/mining, not sure yet which...

[furball]

I started with mining/research/construction

I now have mining/research/production

mining = good
research = very good
i hate waiting ages for ships...

[-=Zyth=-]

I started on res/mining/cons

I am terran and this is the best way to get ahead.

However. I started off medium factory and HCT4, changed them to:

Cons/production/mining

4 tick cons for mines

6 Tick prod time

5% bonus

Soon i.e. 10 refineries of each

Mining/War/res

Mining = more res
War = Better kills
Res for HCT5+

[General Martok]

Originally posted by -=Zyth=-
Soon i.e. 10 refineries of each

Mining/War/res

Mining = more res
War = Better kills
Res for HCT5+

Without researching you can only have 10 mines TOTAL (at least, working mines), not 10 of EACH

[Hala]

Originally posted by dabult
If i recall correctly...Spinner mentioned that having engineers going for security leads to faster re-gain of stealth, not a higher max stealth. So who to trust, Spinner...or the manual.

$100 says they're both wrong...

I'm sticking to Research/Mining/Construction for another 48hrs, then I'll probably swap construction for war.
There is so much to research that I can't see myself switching it for another 4-6 days at the earliest.

[Telest]

research-mining-construction

or

security-mining-construction (if I have a long research coming in, so that I can switch back to research as I get it.)

[Gerbie]

I switched to:
security/mining/construction
as well.

Don't need research any more, I have all the technologies I need. My researchers are idling.

security: I get my resources from cov-ops;
mining: well, I have 3 roids and no refineries, but what the heck;
construction: just in case someone destroys one of my wave amps or security centers.

[Andy_r]

Originally posted by Tactitus
Mining is clearly better--now that we know the percentages, of course.

That's true if you are aiming for pure Value gain, but Score gain involves the ratio of your planet's value to that of your target, and the ratio of your ship losses to your target's ship losses. To optimise this, I think it is worth sacrificing some of your value in favour of combat efficiency, with War prioritised above Mining.

I'm currently using War/Research/Mining (and switching to War/Mining/Construction whenever I am one hour into a long (over 48 hour) research)

[Lockhead]

Originally posted by Gerbie
I switched to:
security/mining/construction
as well.

Don't need research any more, I have all the technologies I need. My researchers are idling.

security: I get my resources from cov-ops;
mining: well, I have 3 roids and no refineries, but what the heck;
construction: just in case someone destroys one of my wave amps or security centers.

Are you the #1 guy, 5:2:5?

[General Martok]

He is

Ehm and I think we cant kill him

[xtothez]

Does anyone know if the War damage bonus applies to structures, or just ships?

[mikay]

I find it hard to see research as anything other than #1 priority. If you have CT-4 you need CT-5 etc... and that's discounting any other tech which is still a struggle.

War just doesn't seem that useful. If I'm roiding I don' really care what I kill and usually with defence they don't even land if they are getting owned plus dogfighting does way more. I'd much rather have the extra ships from mining at this stage.

I'm probably gonna be res/mining/security soon.

[Beeblbrox]

I think you *do* need to be worrying about what you kill, as that I'm pretty sure is what Scoring is based on. Comparative planet values is not it, I'm very sure it's comparative fleet values (the fleets in the actual combat). I've heard too many complaints about people attacking larger planet values but losing score as there were either 1) allies with them, making a larger fleet value or 2) the defender mostly wasnt home, so the enemy fleet was tiny.

Could be utterly wrong, but this is just what I've heard. And if so, read my second post in this thread for what I think is happening.