transport

[rubikscube]

i kind of don't get it, transport ship has like only 10 x more health than a fighter, i know it has shields and mine avoidance, but still at first i was expecting a little more health,

[Fleet]

The health alone may not be the whole picture, since from memory my transports have seemed to take more hits then would be required to kill 10 fighters (but it depends on what is attacking the fighter, of course)

[x4000]

Yes, they have very high shielding, which makes them much harder to hit. They are also immune to being insta-killed which is the big thing.

[Ruges]

Yea I never got transports either. They did not seem that defensable, and there speed was slow. Pretty much as slow as your slowest ship. It always seemd better to move my fleet in a blob. Sure I might loose a few ships, but I am going to kill some too.

There is only one advantage I see to using transports. Moving your fleet closer to the desired target, without the AI being aware and sounding the alarm. But my play style does not worry about this, or I work around it so transports are worthless to me.

[Awod]

In a coop game I was playing people used transports as a way to pass the permamines on an AI homeworld, We didn't take them down in the attack but we did pass the mines.

[Collic]

The other big thing is it lets you get your guys in without all of them getting hung up on tractor beams. I think they definitely have their uses.

edit: Also, they can be very handy for protecting things like research centers, mobile builders and colony ships. If theres a fleet there too, those will get prioritised which can give you enough enough time to get things under control before you let your more fragile ships out. I've found myself doing that quite a lot.