A couple of questions

[brianc]

Hey guys, couldn't think of how to word this so sorry if it is something searchable!  But anyways, I'm wondering if there was a way to mark a ship type as not selectable when selecting military units.  I know there are a few options in the controls settings that allow it but I like to use certain troops, or a segment of them at least on defense; I'll put tackle drone launchers around my stations to create a makeshift military command station, I'll keep younglings as defensive units usually at my home planet, etc.  Thanks for any help!

On a side note, am I the only one that thinks research centers need a boost?  I tend to run in to the problem that a plasma seige will hit my shielding unit with my important stuff in it one hitting my research center.  While giving them low hp seems inconsequential I run in to the problem of forgetting to rebuild them or not noticing I lose them and since one needs to be available to upgrade I question why they really need to die at all.  Now, if the AI actually focused on them (not sure why they would to be fair) I could see them being necessary to protect but they only seem victim of splash damage throughout my games.  Thanks again everyone

[Bognor]

I don't know the answer to your first question, but I think I can help with the research centres.  I guess you're referring to Science Labs, which are the mobile ships that generate knowledge that you click on to research new techs.  I think the easiest solution would be to build a Mark II Science Lab, and keep it outside any forcefields.  Mark II's are a little more expensive, but they have cloaking, which will generally prevent AI targeting, plus they gain knowledge faster.

[brianc]

Ahh, didn't realize mark II had cloaking, thanks!  Hopefully someone can still help with the first because it would really cut down on my micromanaging

[Vyndicu]

For the only one mark type you may want to reference to this paragraph from wiki.

http://www.arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Minimizing_Micromanagement

You may also wish to subdivide your existing selection once you have a selection:
Using the selected units button at the bottom of the screen:
You can left-click to just select a specific type of ship from the current selection (for example, all of the Mark I Fighters).
You can hold Shift and left-click to just select a specific class of ship from the current selection (for example, all of the Fighters in general if you shift-clicked any one of the fighters in the list).
You can right-click an entry to remove that type of ship from the list (holding shift keeps the selected units listbox open, so that you deselect multiple types quickly).

[Bognor]

Ahh, didn't realize mark II had cloaking, thanks!

No worries!  Another possibility, and what I generally do, actually, is just make a bunch of maybe 6-8 Mark I's.  They'll collect all the knowledge fairly quickly, and can then be safely stashed in a transport, ready to zoom to the next planet you take. 

[brianc]

Thanks Bognor, I never considered putting them in to transports and moving them around in such a way!

@Vyndicu thanks for the advice, I actually was aware of that, my problem is that there are a number of ships I just find useless in general combat because they are too specialized and while I try my best to weed them out of a larger group I also hate pausing so in the heat of battle I often forget to right click them out.  Specifically, any unique ships I reclaim or neinzul clusters I leave completely on defense since they are irreplaceable and when I lose some on accident due to a stupid mistake I also try to save-scum as little as possible because I find it to be cheating.  It isn't that I don't save-scum (Can't wait till I get good enough that I can go a whole run without it and I wish there was an Ironman mode of sorts that augmented score as a reward for playing it without tricks like that) but I tend to say oh well I just lost a few neinzul bombards but over the game it adds up and I kick myself in the long run.  Thanks for the advice though!

[Vyndicu]

There is a way to select BY ship type.

You can pause the game then click on the ship icons on the right until all you want to move is in your selection. You may also want to set a control group so if you see it lose a ship you can tell in the top right (it will look like circle around 2 with 85 or something next to it). Sometime I would find myself missing a few ship and I don't know which one it was then I would click on each icon in turn and it will join my selection.

I often have a group on 2 that are make up of hardy ships (think ship with lot of immunes or just plain straight up hp) to act like a deep strike force. For example, If I want all fallen spire ship in a group I would click on spire frigate, cruiser, and etc...

[tadrinth]

You can assign control groups to units.  Ctrl+1 makes the current selection group 1, hitting just 1 selects them, ctrl+shift+1 adds currently selected units to group 1, ctrl+alt+1 removes current selection from group 1.

Space docks can be assigned a group but are never selected when you select the group.  Everything they make will be in their control group, though.  I usually make my primary space dock group 1, which makes my primary military strikeforce group 1.  You could make a second space dock that makes whatever units you want to defend with, put it in group 2, and have group 2 be your defensive group.

[doctorfrog]

Space docks can be assigned a group but are never selected when you select the group.  Everything they make will be in their control group, though.  I usually make my primary space dock group 1, which makes my primary military strikeforce group 1.  You could make a second space dock that makes whatever units you want to defend with, put it in group 2, and have group 2 be your defensive group.

  I either did not know of this, or completely forgot about it.