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How to Fleetsave


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Why Fleetsave?

 

If someone crashes your fleet, 30% of the metal and crystal that went into building each lost ship form a debris field (DF) that floats around your planet/moon until someone recycles it. The larger the fleet, the larger the DF, and the more tempting the target. In addition, approximately one half of the resources on your planet/moon will be taken by the attacking force. If the attacker uses multiple waves, most of your reseources can be taken.

 

If you don't want the hassle and expense of fleetsaving (it does cost deuterium to move your fleet), you can build defenses in order to make it unprofitable. But that too can be very expensive, and as your fleet grows, so too must your defenses and your anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs) if your defenses are on a planet. You can't use inter-planetary missiles (IPMs) against moons. In addition, you will need to know the size of neighboring fleets in order to determine if your defenses are sufficient to make yourself unprofitable.

 

Think this is enough defense?:

 

R.Launcher :: 34,627

L.Laser :: 6320

H.Laser :: 3066

Gauss :: 1003

Ion C. :: 824

Plasma :: 200

S.Dome :: 1

L.Dome :: 1

 

Think again.

 

How about this?:

 

R.Launcher - 24,172

L.Laser - 25,000

H.Laser - 8834

Ion C. - 150

S.Dome - 1

L.Dome - 1

 

Nope.

 

Remember, defenses are about the only expenditure that does not have any potential to increase your wealth.

 

Types of Fleetsaves

 

Moon to Moon:

The absolutely safest way to FS is a deployment mission from one moon to another. You simply send a deployment mission from one moon to another and no one can phalanx either end of your journey, nor predict a return time as there is none. If you are online when your fleet arrives, even if an attacker was able to guess when your fleet would arrive based on narrowing the departure time through probes, etc. AND guessing your flight time based on past experience, then you could simply recall and they would never know when you recalled and therefore when your fleet would return to the originating moon.

 

Moon to DF:

The next safest FS is moon to DF. In this case you send a recycling mission to a DF. The only way an attacker can hit your returning fleet is through a blind-phalanx. To do this they get a window on when your fleet left, watch the various DFs, and gauge speed and thus duration based on when the DF disappears. To avoid this do one of the following:

 

1. FS to an invisible DF around a planet where no visible DF can be made. If the planet (and moon) have no defenses and no ships, then no visible DF can be made. This is especially true of inactive (I) players. Or, if there is an invisible DF around a banned (b) player or destroyed planet.

 

2. FS outside of your solar system, preferably several SS away when there are visible DF closer to you. Doing a blind phalanx outside of the home system becomes increasingly complex the farther away the DF is from the moon. Mind you, Beowulf hit maxx on a 4 SS moon->DF FS, so don't think it is impossible to do.

 

3. Send your resources seperately from your fleet, and load your fleet to capacity with resources so that the DF does not disappear.

 

4. Send a dummy recycler (rec) 10-40 seconds ahead of your main fleet to the same DF. The DF will disappear and the attacker will not be able to replace it before your full fleet arrives. Therefore, they will only get a time on your decoy and will send their fleet ahead of yours. In addition, your fleet may land in time to hit their followups. :whistle:

 

Moon to Colony:

If you are short on deuterium or don't have any acceptable DFs in the area, you can also send your fleet on a colonization mission. A few notes first. You can only have nine (9) planets -- not moons, planets. If you have nine planets and send a colony ship on a colonization mission, the colony ship will reach the destination slot, create an unnamed planet without a username, and only (iI) where the username is supposed to go. The colony ship, and any other ships in the fleet, and all resources will return to the sending planet/moon. After a couple of hours, the planet will disappear. There is an activity counter on this "planet." However, the oGame activity counters are not extremely accurate. They are usually off by as few as 10-20 seconds or as much as a couple of minutes. I have not tested to see if a Colonization mission creates an activity timer if there is already a planet in the slot.[updated 19 Nov 2007]

 

You cannot send a colonization mission to a slot in which there is already a planet, destroyed planet, or (iI) planet. However, you could send two colony ships to the same slot and the first would create a colony or (iI) colony and the second would just bounce. This is a good trick if you wish to use this FS method safely. Otherwise, like with a blind Moon->DF hit, an attacker could watch for the new colony and hit your fleet on the return. You cannot be phalanxed as there is no planet to phalanx.

 

Planet to Planet (deploy):

If you do not have a moon, or your fleet is not near one of your moons, the safest FS is a planet to planet deploy. Simply deploy your fleet from one planet to another. It is vitally important that you be online well before your fleet arrives. If you are not, it is easy for someone to phalanx your fleet. If you are online and you see an incoming fleet, you can recall. Unless the attacker is watching you on their phalanx, refreshing every 5 seconds, and knows at what speed your fleet was traveling, they won't be able to hit your fleet when it returns to the originating planet. You can also deploy normally and then recall at a somewhat random time. Again, it is very difficult for someone to hit a recalled deploy.

 

Planet to Planet (attack/transport) or planet to DF:

This is the very best way to lose your fleet. Simply send your entire fleet on an attack, transport, or harvest mission from a planet. Make it a really long FS so the attackers have plenty of time to line up in order to hit your return. It does not even matter if you recall, because your fleet will still show up on a phalanx. If you are gone long enough, someone might even hit your return with RIPs and take no losses. Then you will feel extra special. On the plus side, you may get a moon and some valuable experience with why not to FS this way.

 

Which Fleetsave to use

 

How best to fleetsave is very much dependant on your own situation. The bigger your fleet, and the more interested your larger neighbors, the more careful you need to be. At the time of my retirement, my fleet was worth approximately 400MM and in terms of numbers, was in the top-100 in Uni 9. I had seven moons, six with jumpgates (JG), spread widely throughout five galaxies (G), and two of the moons were in the same solar system (SS).

 

I was only occasionally probed, and the accounts big enough to take out my fleet profitably were mostly ~20-40 SS away. Despite this, I took my FSing very seriously. Sometimes I did a FS to a local DF with Deathstars (Rest In Peace or RIP), sometimes I did a moon->moon FS, sometimes I did a moon->DF FS (in system or out of system), sometimes I was up in the middle of the night and recalled my fleet, and sometimes I split up my fleet and did different FSs from different planets. As a general rule, I was always online when my fleet(s) came back, or within an hour at the most. Thus not providing an attacker with sufficient time, even if they probed my fleet just as it returned, to get their ships to my moon in time.

 

If you have a moon, far better to FS from your moon than from a planet. I have seen people doing planet->DF FSs from a planet with a moon around it. If they did the same FS from a moon, it would be practically untraceable and unhitable. But from the planet it is an easy mark.

 

How much deuterium you need, where your fleet starts and where you want it to end up, whether a lot of people ping you, whether or not someone seems to have taken a special interest in your departure time, how many moons and JGs you have, if there are DFs available, and other factors all play into a decision on which method to use.

Edited by Ike
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Well done there :) Very nice guide and the best part: I'm mentioned! I'd be glad to help with other things in the event that you want/need help with something. I figure this may partially be your Ocrack therapy so I'd hate to take any away just yet :whistle:

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Help is always appreciated. :) And how could I have an evil guide and NOT mention you:)

 

I was planning to write another couple/few guides. One on attacking, one on ninjas, and perhaps something on planet/moon placement and development. I'd write something on moon destruction, but it wouldn't be very long and would end badly. :whistle: Comments, thoughts, and ideas welcome!

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