"Range" in design.

[beastro]

I came back to this game after a few years break and one thing I still can't get a grasp for is the utility of long and extreme ranges in ship design.

Anyone able to break it down exactly how it works?

Short and medium I can understand as I recall years back short range prevents ships from leaving your home region thus leaving medium as the minimum for overseas work. The other two I find irrelevant though given that, if one does not have a base in a region, one shouldn't expect their ship to last into the war since any damage or or engine trouble instantly equals internment, while if one does have a base in a region then medium is good enough to get the job done.

Am I right in this or are there other factors at play here, at least since I played it majorly back in 2015?

[aeson]

Patrolling ships are supposed to get a bonus to raider interception chances when they have longer ranges, though I find medium range cruisers good enough for that and only use the longer ranges on purpose-built raiders.

Longer ranges are also theoretically useful for operations in sea zones where you don't have any bases and might help with ships getting * status in sea zones where you have insufficient base capacity, but longer ranges won't help against battle damage and if you have a big enough fleet for attacking into sea zones where you don't have any bases then you probably also have a big enough fleet to just rotate ships out when they get * status.

[dorn]

In my experience using long range status is usefull only if you want to operate that ship in areas without own bases so actually it is usefull only for raiders only with some exceptions.

I try extra long range and I cannot see difference so I did not use at anymore as it is quite expensive.

And as aeson mentioned you can rotate ships in area where you have no basis.

It is similar with reliable engines I would compare it with long range. I even do not use reliable engines any more as they are costly and raiders are usually quite cheap to have very small risk of scuttling.

[bcoopactual]

Here are the main quotes from Fredrik regarding Long Range and Reliability from the Tidbits File.  Most of it just confirms what those above have stated.

"To clear this up:

Ships with long range will:
* Have better chances to escape interception as raiders.
* Better chances of sinking merchants if raiders.
* Better chance of intercepting raiders.
* Less risk of being interned or scuttled from lack of fuel.
* More fuel when a scenario starts (rarely of importance).

Ships with reliable engines will have:
* Less chance of engine problems in scenarios.
* Less chance of needing to return to base area when at sea (getting a *).
* Less risk of being interned or scuttled from engine problems."
-----------------

"You can move [Short Range Ships] between adjacent home areas. The manual should have been more specific"

[rimbecano]

Mar 1, 2019 3:21:42 GMT -6 dorn said:

It is similar with reliable engines I would compare it with long range. I even do not use reliable engines any more as they are costly and raiders are usually quite cheap to have very small risk of scuttling.

I use reliable engines for capital ships, desired tonnage and other characteristics permitting, as I consider a reliably high line speed to be very important (and get the "high" part by cutting weight in other places).