Ummm... not to go too far off on ORB, but there weren't that many suitable asteroids on most standard maps.
Starting MP was also a consideration, a low starting MP vs a high starting MP had a big effect, as for each map you could only add a finite amount of MP to your total.
http://www.o-r-b.com/info/Technology.as ... =TechTable
Through the *academics* research, you could get +50 manpower, at quite a cost (each level getting more and more expensive, 3,000 total)- Thats the price of 2 destroyers, or 60 light fighters.
although it was more effective than building on asteroids, and you couldn't lose the MP (though I think you should have lost it if you lost your starbase).
3,000 RUs, just to get enough manpower to field 1 additional assault carrier.
Its even worse if you did the upgrades from Repair bases to Military bases, at 1000 RU for an extra 5 mp, then its 10,000 RU to field one additional assault carrier (5,000 for upgrading mining colonies to repair bases).
Now factor in all the other ships you need: freighters, unarmed carriers, fighters, repair ships, survey ships, I rarely had enough MP to field 3 destroyers + a good fighter screen, while still having a good economy going (as like WZ, upgrades were important and expensive, and it took a lot of research to be able to produce an assault carrier, and even more research to be able to produce one with a hyper drive, and IMO it was so slow, that it wasn't worth producing one without the hyperdrive)
Consider the map Forair cluster: 1 minable asteroid near each base. 4 in asteroid belt, 2 in the center, 2 more on the outskirts.
each one yielded +10 MP for a mining colony.
If you had half the minable asteroids on the map, you had 5 mining colonies: + 50 mp.
Start with 20 MP-> you've got 70 MP.
You want at least 4 freighters: -20 MP, 50 MP left
You want at least 1 basic unarmed carrier to dramatically speed up resource collection (like a HW resource controller): -15 MP, 35 MP left
You want about 30 fighters (or 40, but you may reduce this number later): -30 MP, 5 MP left.
At least 1 repair ship -2 MP, at least 1 recon/survey ship(preferably 2-3) -2 MP: 1 MP left.
Now you actually have to completely empty the mines of resources (hollow it out) before you can upgrade them to repair bases, and military bases, not to mention military bases took a lot of research, that you likely won't get to for most of the game:
Realistically, you'd have emptied 1-2 asteroids and upgraded to by the time the game has been decided (but still not finished): +10 MP.
11 MP left.
You probably would have gotten to the third level of academics research: + 30 MP
41 MP left, almost enough for 3 destroyers (45 needed)!
Oh wait.... you need to assign MP to research, lets call that -10 MP
If covert ops is enabled (it was in most games), you need to assign MPs to espionage and counter espionage, otherwise the enemy may steal your tech if you get a tech lead, gets info on the most powerful ships you possess, and routine sabatoge will lower your available MP and slow construction, lets call that -5 MP.
41-15 = 26 MP: almost enough for 1 armed carrier....
Oh, and you need to be able to put up 5 MP to make a ship to make a new mining colony for anything you capture (though you can temporarily reduce research staff by 5).
But in your favor, I think the initial starting mining colony ship + recon ship don't count toward your MP limit (so its actually 27 starting MP for a 20 MP start).
So you spend another 1800 to get the next 2 levels of "academics" to get +20 MP, and you can now just barely field 1 Assault carrier, and you win the game.
Needless to say, with all the fighting and attrition prior to this point (particularly before all the mineable asteroids had been colonized), digging up another 13 manpower to field a troop transport, and still win the battle so you could disable and capture the last few ships/ a major capital ship (which you would still need the manpower to crew after capture), was quite a problem in many games
Although for forair, a 50:50 split in the rings and outer 2 'roids is likely, but not so in the center asteroid cluster, so add +10 to one side, and -10 to the other, as the center 2 mineable ones will only go to one side.
Although I think you could set the slider as high as 60 starting MP, and there were some maps that had more mineable asteroids with less minerals in each one. I think the mineable asteroids could also yield up to +15 MP when a colony was built on them depending on the specific asteroid and the specific map (so you could make a map where all roids yielded +15 MP).
Also, by the time you get out an Assault Carrier with Hyperdrive, you probably don't have much research left to do, and can cut your research staff to zero.
But by that point, the game was won, and there were basically no techs left to steal, using a troop transport to steal enemy ships would have no point.
The Alyssian Assault carrier was very Aptly named "Victory" : get one of those out (with Hyperdrive) before the enemy got an Assault Carrier out, and Victory was yours.
Their mass rating was high enough that a Starbase could not survive being rammed (neither could your Victory class carrier).
First thing I'd do, is jump them right to the enemy starbase.
If they had adequate defenses and the shields were failing, or I could see an enemy assault carrier under construction in the enemy starbase: Kamakaze time!
Basically, a 7,000 RU anti starbase weapon: sure it could build 4 fighters/frigates at once, had enourmous armor, shields, and firepower, could store your entire dockable fleet, and serve as a resource drop off point, but it could also exit a hyperjump directly into an enemy starbase, obliterating both of them.
Your Manpower will recover, and at that point thats just 7 loads from heavy freighters to pay back the cost, the enemy can't produce any more capital ships, and its just a matter of cleaning up.
Of course, if the starbase is only lightly defended, and all the enemy forces are at forward positions, and its not about to launch its own AC at any moment, you might as well try to take it out without losing your assault carrier, and then it can stand and fight the enemy counter attack, while your forces that didn't/cant jump advance upon the remaining enemy colonies.
(Bonus points if your AC can charge its hyperdrive before enemy capital ships arrive, and leave to attack another colony:
Being the first to get hyperdrive equipped ships rocked)