Bombers (Engine/Speed)?

[Pravus]

I have some questions about bombers. When you first gain the ability to build bombers they come fitted with an impulse engine and has a blazing fast base speed of 4000, but if you read the description you find that once your hyperspace drive reaches level 8, the bomber is then refitted with the hyperspace drive, giving it the super blazing fast base speed of 5000. According to research descriptions, impulse engines gain 10% speed per level of research, so at level 10 you would receive a 100% increase in speed. Hyperspace drives gives a 30% increase in speed per level, meaning at level 10 you would receive a 300% increase in speed. Now, here is what Im wondering... It says that at level 8 hyperspace drive the bomber is fitted with the hyperspace drive, so Im assuming that it no longer falls under the impulse engine reasearch/speed but hyperspace instead. Does the bomber become a hyperspace driven ship once hyperspace engine research reaches level 8? If so, does it fall under the rules for hyperspace engine research and gain 30% speed per level? If so, at level 8, with a base speed of 5000, plus 30%/level increase for level 8 which would be 240%, the bomber should be at the awesome speed of 17000. Unfortunately this isnt working, and Im not sure how the speed is being calculated, but my bombers speed is only 14600. If the base speed stays 4000 @ 30%/level @ level 8, you would get 13600, so I have no idea how this is being calculated, but its driving me crazy. I calculated the speed of all of my other ships and then deployed them to actually test the speed and all of my calculations were right, except for the bomber.

So, if anyone knows what the deal is with the bomber and can tell me if Im doing something wrong in my calcualting or if its a bug, please post a reply and let me know. Thanks ahead of time to anyone who can help me with this.

[unit43]

My solution: dont build bombers (or small cargo)

[Pravus]

My solution: dont build bombers (or small cargo)

I think bombers are great. Excellent attack, shield, and armor, the speed just isnt the best. If that can be increased then problem solved, Im just not sure at this point what to do to increase the speed. I did research my impulse engines to a higher level and that didnt help, so Im assuming that Ill have to research hyperspace engines to a higher level.

[Liam_Jay]

i Just Stick To Battle Ships

[Pravus]

i Just Stick To Battle Ships

Dont get me wrong, you know how I love my battleships, but the bomber is a great ship. I mean if you consider the attack, armor, and shields of a battleship, which are base of 1,000/60,000/200, compared to the bomber, which has base values of 1,000/75,000/500, you can see a bit of the superiority of bombers. Then of course if you take into account rapid fire, the battleship has rapid fire of 5 against espionage ships and solar sats, and 8 against rocket launchers. The bomber however has great rapid fire capabilities: 5 against espionage ships and solar sats, 20 against rocket launchers and light lasers, and 10 against heavy lasers and ion cannons. The only thing thats not better is the speed, which is pretty slow compared to the other ships. So do you give up a little speed for superior firepower? I guess it will take some experimenting. Personally Id put 500 bombers up against 500 battleships any day. Of course if you run it through the battle simulator it will tell you the battle ends in a tie about 95% of the time, but look at the ships destroyed. You will end up with about 300+ bombers to 100 or so battleships left (if lucky with the battleships).

I just think the bomber is a great ship that doesnt get near as much recognition as it should because of the extremely low speed and the extremely high cost of upgrading hyperspace drives.

[Gator]

I use bombers a lot. LOVE THEM. I have a fast fleet (BS and BC) and a slow fleet (Bombers and Destroyers), and my REAL SLOW fleet (RIPS). I like my slow fleet best. You can improve the bombers base speed, I increased it to the same as my destroyer speed.

[Pravus]

I use bombers a lot. LOVE THEM. I have a fast fleet (BS and BC) and a slow fleet (Bombers and Destroyers), and my REAL SLOW fleet (RIPS). I like my slow fleet best. You can improve the bombers base speed, I increased it to the same as my destroyer speed.

Yeah I think bombers are great, of course you can probably tell that by the way Ive been talking about them. And I was pretty sure the speed could be increased, but how? Do you have to level up hyperspace engines? Im also trying to figure out exactly how the speed is calculated. If you could help me figure this out Id sure appreciate it. By my calculations, with a base speed of 5000 (which from what it says in the description the bomber gains a higher speed once you get hyperspace drive to level 8) with a 240% increase (which is how much more you get for having hyperspace drives at level 8) you would get 17000 for the speed, but Im only pulling 14600. Any idea why this is? If you dont feel comfortable posting your research levels and speeds, please at least pm me or something and let me know what I could be doing wrong, this is driving me crazy

But yeah, I plan on employing bombers in my fleets just as soon as I can increase the speed at least up to what my large cargos are running. They are a mean ship, very underrated.

[Gator]

There is another drawback with bombers you have perhaps not noticed, the cargo space sucks and you REQUIRE cargo ships to go with your bombers on missions to transport the deut used for fuel.

[Liam_Jay]

Bombers Are Good . But its Not The Ship For Me i Have a Few Hundred Of Them Kicking Around There Good From Getting Rid Of Defences

[unit43]

Look at the cost of them. Outrageous.... BS top them on everything with a cost ratio. You can build over 3bs for every 2 bombers with 4:2:1 resource exchange rate.