Mercs

[Trandrin]

I would like to know a number of things with the mercenary ships you can make. How much exactly of a larger cap do they possess, and how often do players actually use them?  I only use them sparingly at best. Most times when everything else I can build is capped out. Also what was the thought/idea/design point on including them in the game, just curious on my part.

[tigersfan]

I know I don't use them very often, ships there are EXPENSIVE!! As for cap, I don't believe that there is one, but, if you make very many, you won't be doing much else, as the mercs will very quickly tap your resources.

[x4000]

Actually, I seem to recall that we introduced a cap a while back, even though they had not had one in the past.  I don't remember what the cap is offhand, as I don't use mercs often either, but it says it in-game.

The thought on including them in the game is to give players something they can build... when they're capped out on resources but aren't ready to attack the enemy yet.   That's pretty much it.

[Trandrin]

My curiosity got peaked on them a bit... Current game I am making fleets of them every now and then. Gogo spire city spam. Normal games might see me make some of the parasite mercs if I can scrounge the money together. I like stealing ai fleet craft.

[BobTheJanitor]

They do tend to be a lot more useful in fallen spire games, when you're playing in high power mode and taking a lot more territory than you normally would. I think in my last FS game I managed to build a full cap of every merc ship type eventually, just because I had to keep finding new things to funnel my metal and crystal into. When I wasn't building massively expensive spire structures, that is.

[Coppermantis]

The only merc ships I use often are fighters, because compared to the other mercs they're very cheap and useful against bombers, especially in the early game. Mk. IV fighters against Mk. I-II bombers is doom for the bombers.

[NickAragua]

Like many others, I'll build mercs if I have a buttload of resources, but nothing to spend them on. The ship cap is pretty huge (something like 400 with high ship caps), and since they're so bloody expensive, you're not likely to reach it. If I do build them, they just go in my general blob.

Also, if you're planning to use them, adjust your "engineers auto repair" threshold, otherwise engineers will ignore these guys.

[Nalgas]

The only merc ships I use often are fighters, because compared to the other mercs they're very cheap and useful against bombers, especially in the early game. Mk. IV fighters against Mk. I-II bombers is doom for the bombers.

The fighters are nice for that.  In resource-heavy FS games (the main time I use any merc stuff at all), I also like the bombers, just for something else to chew through large targets and serve as a meat shield for my Spire ships in an emergency.  There's no such thing as having too many bombers.  Even if their cost is ridiculous (which doesn't really matter as much with FS income), having three times as many mk4 bombers as I normally would makes me happy.

[mindloss]

Yep, I think they're mostly to blow your money on once you've capped out everything else (otherwise that would force you to rot at 999,999 or, God forbid, do something useful with the fleets you have ). Cap is ~200 for the three main types at least, don't remember the rest offhand. When I do "have to" build mercs, I usually go for whatever ship type a) costs more in the resource I have an excess of, and b) I don't already have, but that's just me.

[Nethris]

Yeah, like most of the others here they're mostly something I queue up some of if I have a full cap out of every ship I plan on using, I don't have other construction projects to burn resources on at the moment, and my resources are capping.  Fighters usually since I think they're the most cost effective (both mercs and just period), bombers if I need to burn off metal, etherjets for crystal (they have a polycrystal bonus + tractor beams, more bomber defenses are always good).

If I do build them, they just go in my general blob.

Mine usually sit as defenses on my homeworld though, I'll deploy them to help my defenses when I need to but since I can't really replace them very often I'd much rather have them as a "just in case" defense that doesn't take away any of the cap for my offensive ships.  If I get auto-bombs or the youngling version of bombs the merc enclave starship does support my fleet along with the 2 mk 1 ships I can build.

[relmz32]

I tend to use small groups of mercs to take out AI Eyes and such, since just a few dozen mk IV ships is almost always very powerful. 
Otherwise i buy a couple Parasites early to zombie ships for extra (read: free) offense when attacking enemy worlds, and the others as needed or when i have excess resources lying around.