KingAlan at 22:10, 17 December 2005

2005-12-17T22:10:21Z

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Leshy at 20:44, 8 January 2005

2005-01-08T20:44:17Z

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			[[Category:Forum Threads]]

Leshy at 20:43, 8 January 2005

2005-01-08T20:43:37Z

New page

== Description ==
In [[Round 3]], the [[tech tree]] required you to make a choice between [[Battleship]]s and [[Tarantula]]s as the capital ships of choice. Planetarion player annex celebrity [[Nodrog]] created a thread analysing these two ships, advising players to go for the [[Tarantula]]. However, over the course of the round it became apparent that the extremely large amounts of [[Ghost]]s present at nearly every planet, which fired with great efficiency at [[Tarantula]]s, made this a completely useless choice.

The thread became legendary, for unknown reasons. One can only speculate that [[Nodrog]]'s fame inside the game turned against him when his thread turned out to be completely wrong, despite his prediction that [[Ghost]]s would form an obstacle.

== The Thread ==
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'''BATTLESHIPS V TARANTULAS'''

<i>The most complete, thorough article that you will read ANYWHERE about these 2 ships. I would advise everyone to read this before making their choice if you are even remotely serious about planetarion.</i>

This is around the time that everyone has to make the hardest decision in Planetarion this round. “Do I go for [[Battleship]]s or [[Tarantula]]s?”

Well, ive been wondering all round what one to go for, so yesterday I actually sat down for quite a long time, analysing the stats.

Here is what I came up with (NOTE, there is a LOT of theory and number crunching contained within this article. If you are just wanting a quick answer what is best, then this guide is not for you. This guide is aimed at the more experienced player, who is prepared to analyse stats heavily. However, there is nothing in here too advanced for a newer player who is prepared to think hard, as I have explained all the theory I used)

For the purpose of this article, I am going to be using the term Resource Cost(RC). This is the cost in [[resources]] used to produce the ship. Also, I will be rounding values off. This rounding is not significant enough to affect any of the conclusions, so all values can be treated as absolute.

I will also assume that everyone chose [[Jumpgate]]s over [[military scan]]s. If you never, then I can only offer you my pity.

[[Battleship|BATTLESHIPS]]

The first thing to not about [[battleship]]s is their awesome destructive potential. However, they are also fairly expensive. 1 [[battleship]] has a RC of 74000. This makes them as expensive as roughly 10 [[War Frigate]]s (This comparison will be based on [[War Frigate]]s, as they are the only other reasonably powerful ship with the same target class as [[Battleship]]s)

Now, lets look at some battle stats :-

10 [[War Frigates]] will kill 10 [[Interceptor]]s a tick, 11.5 [[Spider]]s, 5 [[Dagger]]s, or 1.8 [[Astropod]]s.

1 [[Battleship]] will kill 20 [[Interceptor]]s, 25 [[Spider]]s, 10 [[Dagger]]s or 3.4 [[Astropod]]s.

Therefore, [[Battleship]]s are TWICE as powerful as the equivalent value of [[War Frigate]]s. This makes them ship that does the most damage per unit of cost in the entire game. However, there are 2 problems with [[Battleship]]s

*The [[travel time]]. The extra 1 hour is CRUCIAL. Giving your target an extra hour to get defence can cause your fleet to take significantly more casualties than it would otherwise. If you plan on quick roid raids, then you can forget about using [[battleship]]s. And, since you will have a lot of [[resources]] tied down in your [[Battleship]]s, you are likely to have a lot less [[war frigate]]s than a [[Tarantula]] player. Therefore, your fleet may be too weak to travel without its [[Battleship]]s, on 8 hour ETA. This makes roiding a significant problem
*Fuel cost. [[Eonium]] is going to be scare later on, due to the incredible difficulty of stealing E [[roids]]. 1 [[Battleship]] has TWICE the fuel cost of 10 [[war frigate]]s. I don’t know just how significant this will be, as im not sure just how scare E will be.
*[[Battleship]]s die FAR too easily. It is too easy to look at the table, see the 200 armour and assume that they are indestructible. In reality, this could not be further from the truth.

[[Battleship]]s are targeted by [[Destroyer]]s and [[Ion Turret]]s. Lets look at how many of each kill a [[Battleship]]

13 [[Destroyer]]s (RC-208000)
20 [[Ion Turret]]s (RC-190000)

Now, compare this to the 10 [[War Frigate]]s :-

12 [[War Cruiser]]s (RC-312000)
54 [[Plasma Turret]]s (RC-324000)

Therefore, [[Battleship]]s die almost TWICE as easily as the equivalent value of [[War Frigate]]s.

In conclusion, [[Battleship]]s have ENORMOUS damage potential. However, the fact that they die so easily, coupled with the speed, makes them very impractical. Yes, they are AMAZING at killing ships, but the question you have to ask is “Do I even want to kill ships?”. Strange as it may sound, roughly 90% of the attack you will make are for [[roids]] alone. Killing the enemy fleet is pointless, as it reduces their score, thus limiting the amount of [[Astropod|pods]] you are able to send and still get your 20%. Also, the ease which [[Battleship]]s die means that you will lose more score on a roid raid than you would sending [[frigate]]s alone. This makes [[Battleship]]s almost totally useless for attacking.

They seem to be a good defensive ship stat wise. However, the 9hr ETA means that they are likely to miss the first tick of any battle. This limits their effectiveness as a defensive ships

Throw in the HUGE fuel cost as well, and it becomes clear that [[battleship]]s are very impractical in almost all circumstances. Yes, in isolation with a quick glance they look awesome, but compared to the 10 [[War Frigate]]s, they are always going to come of second best.

[[Tarantula|TARANTULAS]]

First, the generic value – 1 [[Tarantula]] has an RC of 18500. However, it takes 16000 crystal to produce. This ENORMOUS amount of crystal required to build one is a fairly massive blow against them already. To make up for this huge expenditure, they had better be incredibly good indeed. So are they?

Well, in one word, Yes. Lets look at the stats.

1 [[Tarantula]] freezes :-

2.5 [[War Frigate]]s (RC-17500)
2 [[War Cruiser]]s (RC-52000)
2.3 [[Destroyer]]s (RC-37000)
0.6 [[Battleship]]s (RC-44500)

The only thing to say about this is… WOW. Even assuming they are going to be targeting [[War Frigate]]s most of the time, they still freeze their own value of SC. As they will be hitting [[destroyer]]s, [[cruiser]]s and [[Battleship]]s as well, it is not unreasonable to say that a [[Tarantula]] will freeze an amount of ships with a valued greater. This value alone means nothing, so I will compare it to some other ships.

[[Battleship]] – kills approx 1/3 of its cost per tick
[[War Frigate]]s – kills approx 1/6 of its cost per tick

Most other ships kill with a ratio of about 1/6 of the cost. Therefore, [[Tarantula]]s are INCREDIBLY useful in combat, being the only ship in planetarion that can neutralize ships with a RC value greater than its own. I would have no problems whatsoever with basing my fleet solely around [[Tarantula]]s, if it wasn’t for one thing.

They die FAR too easily to [[Ghost]]s (yes, even more easily than [[battleship]]s). And [[Ion Turret]]s.

1 [[Tarantula]] is killed by :-

7.4 [[Ghost]]s (RC-59200)
7.1 [[Plasma Turret]]s (RC-42500)

[[Battleship]]s are killed by 2.5x their RC. Most other ships are killed by 4x. their SC/RC. [[Tarantula]]s are killed by about 2.5x their RC as well. However, to have to remember that 90% of a [[Tarantula]]’s cost is crystal. As crystal is a lot rarer than metal, it is INCREDIBLY inefficient to have a ship that is almost pure crystal to die at the same rate as one that is almost pure metal.

In conclusion, [[Tarantula]]s are EXCELLENT. Most ppl will be operating on a metal-crystal ratio of about 2.5/3 to 1. As most ships cost about 4x as much metal as crystal, there is going to be a LOT of excess crystal lying around. There is no better way to spend this than on [[Tarantula]]s.

When you are out roiding, the objective is to lose as little ships as possible. The amazing efficiency of the [[Tarantula]] means that they can shut down entire fleets of [[war frigate]]s with ease. However, if your target has a significant amount of [[Ghost]]s or [[Plasma Turret]]s, your [[Tarantula]]s will die easily. Therefore, it is important to scan, and make sure you pick targets without these. Mass fleets of [[Tarantula]]s aren’t going to kill much, but they are going to get you the roids that you need to build your [[War Frigate]]/[[War Cruiser]] fleets. The fact that they are made mainly from left over crystal means that building large fleets of them will not significantly affect your [[War Frigate]] production.

Basically, [[Tarantula]]s are superior to [[Battleship]]s in every single way. Most inexperienced players will go for [[Battleship]]s as they “HAVE 80 GUNS AND DON’T DIE!!!!!!!!1112”. I hope that this article has dispelled this [[Battleship]] myth.

<i>{c}[[Nodrog]] 2000</i>
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Battleships vs Tarantulas - Revision history

KingAlan at 22:10, 17 December 2005

Leshy at 20:44, 8 January 2005

Leshy at 20:43, 8 January 2005