Thanks to everyone on the forum who have contributed to my sincere enjoyment and growth in the game. I'm making progress and am now able to take on 180k bounty fleets with no losses and 300k bounty fleets (three capitals and a bunch of cruisers) with only the loss of a few destroyers. I'm still on a steep learning curve and I'd like to ask a couple more questions about fleet sizes and controlling fleets during battles.
I'm not interested in piloting my own ships, though I would like to make sure I am giving the AI the best possible direction.
Yesterday I discovered there appears to be a hard cap of 240 recoverable CR on fleet fights, or at least the ones I have encountered. I do have my game set to 400 max fleet size and I did increase the RAM available to the game up to the max 8 GB, per the recommendations by the mod community. I've looked and so far I have not found a utility mod that will increase the fleet fight size, though I would assume one of the larger mods has already taken the liberty to include such a desired feature. Have I missed the mod I'm looking for or is that just the current state of the game and the modding community? Does it even matter? Will the game simply not allow fights larger than 240?
I've experimented quite a bit in my somewhat limited game time with regards to directing my fleets and what seems to work best (least number of causalities on my side) is to "C" capture the closest two points and then take a guess at where the enemy is heading and "A" assault the third point. My fleets seem to be too spread out if I try and capture all four. So, that's the first part of my successful battles, then I look at where the bulk of the enemy fleet is and I change the assault order towards the capture point closest to the enemy blob.
This strategy works well for the first 1/2 of the battle with my ships tending to take out a horde of smaller ships and thin the heard quite a bit. The second half of the battle (300k bounties) usually results in three enemy capitals on grid and few support ships. This is generally when I will select a group of four or more ships and right click to assault one of the capitals. Once a couple of them have gone down, then I usually "Full Assault." How do you direct your ships?
My current fleet comp is against the meta, primarily since I'm still Alt-Tabbing to the Wiki nearly every time an enemy ship dies so I can see what actually left the battle. Yes, I'm familiar with the basic ships like the Condor, Mule, Falcon, and Atlas II, so I don't have to look them up, but there are quite a few ships in the game. My fleet has three capitals plus four or so heavy cruisers and two of my favorite, the Apogee, along with some lighter cruisers, a few destroyers and maybe two frigates. They don't all get deployed, since there's a limit of 240 recovery points, so I usually start with two capitals (Onslaught), both Apogees, some Eagles, a Champion (another favorite), a Falcon (maybe) and a Mora. The Mora is fitted with three Warthog squadrons and has yet to die in an engagement. It's able to kill a Falcon in a one-on-one and it moves around the battlefield unlike a Condor which just sits in the back. I don't have access to better ships, though I have the thread "A Noob's Insight on Ships" bookmarked and I keep that one open as well when I play.
I should point out that I have the Detailed Combat Results Mod installed and I rigorously evaluate each battle, along with what I observe from an AI piloting standpoint. Results from this mod have taught me that ranged weapons are a good investment along with a hullmod that further increases the range.
I also have had very little luck with the AI piloting phase ships in the current build, at least the frigate size which is all I have experience with. They do pretty well in the very early game, but they die very quickly in the hands of the AI when running against these bounty fleets. I know the cruiser size is considered OP, though I've yet to run into it.
Also, I've only had steady pilots, and even then if I take an Onslaught and right click on an enemy too early in the battle my ship may take a terrible beating. The steady pilots appear to make relatively wise decisions and do manage to whittle away the enemy over time under the capture and assault capture point commands.
Thought from you vets on any of these observations? Suggestions for controlling my fleet with the in-battle commands? Thanks!