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[Dri]

With the steep fuel consumption and the price and rarity of fuel/supplies I'm wondering if anyone has had success sustaining a large fleet (several of each size frigates/destroyers/cruisers and a cap ship). Pirate fleets are not only more rare but they also no longer drop tons of supplies so I'd imagine losing 8+ supplies per day just for crew and then something insane like 40+ units of fuel per day in hyperspace would not be something anyone could sustain as the game currently is.

I'd like to be wrong though as the most fun I've had with Starsector was playing Iron Man and building up to a large Cap fleet.

[Hopelessnoob]

I can keep my onslaught and its support ships out of the red....by never deploying my onslaught.

[Alex]

In playtesting, I was able to sustain a fleet of an Onslaught, a cruiser, and a couple of smaller ships. You're unlikely to be able to do it fighting pirates, though, since that requires lots of movement and inter-system travel. Your best bet is, I think, starting trouble with another faction, and continually attacking them in the same system. They will gradually strengthen their patrols (a lot!) in response to your attacks, providing more consistent/bigger targets. It also goes without saying that deploying the Onslaught (or another capital) should be reserved for only the largest battles. It helps to do this in a system where there's a friendly base to resupply at; otherwise you need to grab some freighters and really prepare for a longer expedition.

[bills6693]

To be fair, while I enjoyed it when you could have a cap-fleet crushing pirates, I guess this is more 'realistic'/authentic.

You wouldn't really expect pirate forces to require the biggest machines ever built to crush them, they're smaller raiders out to make money through attacking weaker targets, not battle fleets out to capture planets and destroy other fleets. If anything they're more powerful still than they would 'realistically' be although of course, its a fictional universe.

So yeah, using your capital ship fleets should be for attacking capital ship fleets, I guess...

[Zyzyx66]

I like that you struggle to maintain a capital ship - it gives them character and makes them more important (makes me feel like I'm captaining Home One). An additional, and awesome, benefit from an expensive system is that it encourages taking logistic vessels like fuel and cargo ships.

I'm not sure exactly how they work, but if they don't already, I'd suggest logistical supply vessels impact the fleet less (or not at all) - for instance, fuel transports use very little supply and fuel, and have negligible impact on fleet command costs. Something anyhow, to make them a more advantageous choice.

[Kommodore Krieg]

To be fair, while I enjoyed it when you could have a cap-fleet crushing pirates, I guess this is more 'realistic'/authentic.

You wouldn't really expect pirate forces to require the biggest machines ever built to crush them, they're smaller raiders out to make money through attacking weaker targets, not battle fleets out to capture planets and destroy other fleets. If anything they're more powerful still than they would 'realistically' be although of course, its a fictional universe.

So yeah, using your capital ship fleets should be for attacking capital ship fleets, I guess...

I agree.  You don't see real world navies deploying modern capital ship equipped carrier groups to deal with pirates.  The threat posed just doesn't justify the excessive cost of it.  Now as the game continues to be developed and we are able to build industry / take and hold stations / build our own faction and quarrel with other factions on a faction to faction level rather than a fleet to fleet level (I have no idea if that is planned btw, but I assume something on a grander scale than what we have now is going to emerge) there will probably be more times when a capital ship deployment is not only cost effective, but also necessary.  

I actually would HATE for it to be cost effective to deploy capital ships in most ordinary circumstances (like dealing with pirate raiders) because it completely trivializes most encounters after a certain point.  Cap ships are so powerful that, if they are easy to deploy and support, your endgame (ie. when you get your first capital) would consist of steamrolling around in a death ball, like so many other games degenerate into.  The cost of deploying on that scale needs to be prohibitive so you only role out your ancient juggernauts of death under the most dire of circumstances.  Even then, your infrastructure should have to be developed enough to actually house and deploy these monsters in the first place.  

Currently it might be difficult to stay out of the red with a capital ship fleet because we can't develop any infrastructure and because we are mainly operating as an individual ship or small fleet, rather than being able to operate on a grander scale, the scale of engagements for which capital ships are designed for.

I like that you struggle to maintain a capital ship - it gives them character and makes them more important (makes me feel like I'm captaining Home One). An additional, and awesome, benefit from an expensive system is that it encourages taking logistic vessels like fuel and cargo ships.

I'm not sure exactly how they work, but if they don't already, I'd suggest logistical supply vessels impact the fleet less (or not at all) - for instance, fuel transports use very little supply and fuel, and have negligible impact on fleet command costs. Something anyhow, to make them a more advantageous choice.

Agreed to this also.