Obviously there are many different types of fleeters. Some are absolutely all in on fleet, some keep their mines on a high level while building fleet etc...When exactly an account is considered a fleeter is a subjective decision. Important is that, when investing into a lot of fleet you want to use it to make resources. That is what fleeting is all about: Making resources by attacking or defending planets/moons and by that either receiving a lot of plunder or harvesting big debris fields.
==Requirements==
- good and safe fleet save
- account managing and math calculation
- work with phalanx
- knowledge about ACS
- knowledge about observing a player
==Basics==
=Safety probe=
When going for attacks on active players you basically always want to delay your fleet and use a safety probe. Even when doing rather small attacks it is always useful to do so. By delaying your fleets arrival time you get the chance to scan possible defenders on your target location before you hit the planet.
How does that work?
Imagine you attack an active player on a planet or moon. Your fleet is scheduled to arrive at 08:00:00. It is possible that your target might be online and started asking friends to defend him. To make sure you do not run into their defending fleets (even if they are timed pretty well, like 7:59:58 arrival of defending fleets) you want to delay your fleet by adding a probe via ACS to your attack fleet. This probe is allowed to delay your fleet by a maximum of 30% of the fleet's remaining flight time.
Example:
Defending Fleet Arrival: 07:59:58
Your Fleet Arrival: 08:00:00
Remaining flight time: 3 Minutes
Now add a probe on x% (depends on distance) that takes 3 minutes and 30 seconds to reach your target. It will delay your ACS to 08:00:30. By doing so you have a decent amount of time to react and adjust to possible defending fleets. Since you are arriving at a later timing now you can send a spying probe on your old arrival time. This probe will see the additional defending fleets in its spy report. You now have 30 seconds to recall your fleet to not get destroyed. A good defender might hold on several times to trick you (e.g. 07:59:58, 08:00:10 ...). More information about that later.
Exercise delaying your fleet by ACS on inactives if you have never done that before.
=Observing a player=
When attacking a player several things come into play. Is that player online? Is that player hiding something from me? Where is he going to fleet save? Can he defend against me alone or does he need help?
=Tracking player activity=
To track someones activity you need to watch on his planets and follow activity indicators. Those activity indicators will tell you when is/was player online and making activity. More about which actions can trigger out activity indicators you can read at: <<Activity guide>>.
Writing down times when activity indicators were triggered will show you player online time.
=Tracking when is player doing Fleet Save=
To find out when is player doing Fleet Save you will need lot of probes. First thing what you need to do is to find out on which planet/moon is he hiding his fleet. After you found out where is his fleet, you will need to spy continuously that planet/moon every 15-20 mins. After his fleet disappeared with all his resources you will know that he has done Fleet Save. Tricky part is to find out, how is he doing Fleet Save, is it Deployment, Harvest or Colonization. So after his fleet disappeared you will continue to spying but now not only that planet/moon but all his planets/moons. If the fleet returns to same location than it is probably Harvest or Colonization Fleet Save, but if it shows up on another planet/moon than he is doing Deployment Fleet Save. Best thing is to write down when he sent Fleet Save and when it has returned, because you will need those times later.
=Combination of tracked Activity and Fleet Save time=
Once you combine watching the activity and probing a planet, you can determine player's online times and Fleet Save times.
You can attack players planets while he is offline or you can try to get his whole fleet when it's returning from Fleet Save with blind hit.
To do blind hit, you need times of his online time and times when he is doing Fleet Save. First thing is to watch if he is logging before his Fleet Save returns, if not, you have big chance that your Blind hit be successful. You will need to send attack on him which will arrive before his Fleet Save returns. You just need to spy few minutes before attack and if his fleet is not arrived you just need to slow down your attack, repeat this process as many times as long his Fleet returns.
=What does each ship do? How can I use that?=
Small Cargo - Extremely fast, can be used as Fodder (used to decrease firepower efficiency of strong ships e.g. Destroyer/Plasma) especially in late game situations.
Light Fighter - Fodder (used to decrease firepower efficiency of strong ships e.g. Destroyer/Plasma)
Heavy Fighter - breaks cruiser's rapid fire on Light Fighters, good against small cargo fodder
Cruiser - Death of Light Fighters and Rocket Launchers (anti-fodder)
Battleship - It deals high damage on one target, so you want it to shoot a big target (e.g. Destroyer, Rips..deals more one hit damage than the Battlecruiser). Battleship needs fodder support and is bad against fodder.
Bomber - good against defence (except Plasma Turret), can be used to kill Battlecruisers as the bomber is stronger in a one on one Battle. Apart from that no great use due to being slow and expensive
Destroyer - strong against Battlecruisers and Rips. Weak against any kind of fodder.
Battlecruiser - efficient ship! Can sustain a lot. Good for hunting down Battleships or Cruisers. Weak against Light Fighters.
Deathstar/Rip - Can be used against anything. Good to minimize losses and costs. Maximum damage. Good against Defense without Rip support. Can be combined with some fodder to decrease damage taken by your Rips.
Example 1 - Speedfleet
It emphasizes on fast and mobile ships, that can be used to hunt down other fleets fast. You will need
- (Small Cargo) (4-5)
- Light Fighters (20)
- Cruisers (4)
- Battlecruisers (1)
All these ships are fast and comparatively cheap in usage. Your Light Fighters will absorb most of the damage, so your cruisers and battlecruisers stay alive. Maybe you want to increase your Battlecruiser count in relation to the other ships in later stages so you can use battlecruisers only for attacks.
Example 2 - Allround - efficiency when fighting an equal fleet
- (Small Cargo) (60)
- Light Fighters (300)
- Heavy Fighters (60)
- Cruisers (60)
- Battleships (5-10)
- Destroyers (10)
- Battlecruiser (20)
- Deathstars (0-1)
In later stages of the Universe you want to increase your Deathstar count. This composition is really good. If you split it well it is extremely powerful against fleets of equal size.
Example 3 - Ripfleet
- (Light Fighter) (x*1000)
- Deathstars (x)
Fleets with anything but deathstars can be extremely strong and efficient. On the other hand they are pretty slow. You can add fodder to your Deathstars (optional). How many Light Fighters per Deathstar is up to you. Value is just given as example.
==Fleeting==
Different ways of making resources
=Inactives=
As a fleeter you basically want to make resources as fast and easy as possible. There will be times when you can barely attack any active player as most of them are online or saved their fleet. That's when you want to farm inactive players. The reason for that is, that inactives - most of the times - do not have any defense and are not likely to come online. So you are pretty much guaranteed to make the estimated resources. Farming inactives is not as suspenseful as attacking active players however it is a good way of working around time consuming attacks. To be efficient you want to use small cargos with high speed.
=Mines=
Fleeters tend to forget about their mines, however all resources in an OGame universe are produced by mines. So never forget that your production is a significant part of the resources you make. Higher mines mean more resources without having to work for them!
=Farming actives=
Since some players cannot log into their account frequently they amass a lot of resources on their planets (mine production). These resources are often protected by defense. The usual farm-attack focuses on taking these produced resources. Most of the times you get more resources out of this than from inactives but you also have a risk. Your target could log into his account and save his resources or even worse try to defend your fleet. Due to the defense you had to send more ships that cost more fuel. To be efficient with this type of attack you have to know when your target is online and when he is offline. You also want to check that there is no defending fleet lurking for you. So keep in mind to use a safety probe or your phalanx.
=Fleet combats=
This is the champions league in fleeting. You can categorize fleet crashes into two types. You either have to attack a standing fleet or you try to intercept it after it returned from save. Fleet crashes promise an extremely high win, since the debris field and the transported resources can become huge. On the other hand fleet crashes can be dangerous and you have to invest into a lot of fuel and time.
Attacking a standing fleet
You find a standing fleet by spying possible targets around your positions or by knowing that certain players tend to forget to save their fleet. When you find a possible target fleet you need to check if the player is online or not. If he is offline you can try your luck. During the attack on a standing fleet you want to observe the target player. It is extremely important to notice if your target is logging into his account because that means that your chances of success have dropped dramatically. You can still try, but be warned that you can fly into a trap. Most fleet crashes are attacks on standing/idling fleets.
Intercepting a saved fleet
This is where it gets tricky. How do I find possible targets? You basically try to find them like idling fleets, however every time you see that fleet you notice that the player is online. Before you can crash someone who is saving and watching his fleet you have to find out how, when and where the player is saving his fleet. To do that you have to observe the player. If the player is saving without moons it's easier to intercept him as you can basically rely on your phalanx alone. But when it comes to intercepting fleets saved from a moon it gets time consuming. Depending on how the player saves you have to destroy his moon(s) to be able to phalanx his fleet.
Target saves without a moon:
As long as it is not a deployment save just phalanx his planet, find out when the fleet is returning and time your attack shortly after the return (1-3 seconds).
If it is a deployment save you can try to attack the fleet just like before but your target could be recalling his fleet. To know when the fleet was recalled you have to phalanx the destination planet regularly (every 1-3 seconds). If the fleet disappears out of your phalanx you know that it has been recalled. Memorize the time! Now you have to start calculating when the fleet will return on its origin planet. First of all you want to find out how fast the fleet has been saved (10%? 20%? 30%? etc.). You simply do that by using a flight calculator that tells you how long flight x on y% would have taken and then you exclude what is not possible or did not match what you saw in your phalanx. When you found out how the fleet was saved you now calculate when it is going to be returning:
Time of Recall + flight time - (Difference between estimated arrival time (seen in phalanx) and time of recall).
Example:
Estimated Arrival (seen in phalanx): 6:00:00 am
Time of Recall: 5:00:00 am
Original Flight time: 10:00:00 Hours
=> Time of Return on starting planet: 5:00:00 am + (10:00:00h - 1:00:00h) = 2:00:00 pm
Now you can send your fleet on 2:00:01 pm.
==How to stay alive?==
- Always fleet save
- Split your fleet when attacking players (ACS with yourself)
- Do not attack on 100% speed all the time. Due to splitting you can use 90% or 80%.
- Do not use recyclers on 100% speed when active fleeters are watching your target too
- Make sure to check for stronger fleeters who try to defend against you
- If you are up late and you want to sleep for 2 hours until your Deathstars arrive at their target location make sure to fleet save during your nap
==Requirements==
- good and safe fleet save
- account managing and math calculation
- work with phalanx
- knowledge about ACS
- knowledge about observing a player
==Basics==
=Safety probe=
When going for attacks on active players you basically always want to delay your fleet and use a safety probe. Even when doing rather small attacks it is always useful to do so. By delaying your fleets arrival time you get the chance to scan possible defenders on your target location before you hit the planet.
How does that work?
Imagine you attack an active player on a planet or moon. Your fleet is scheduled to arrive at 08:00:00. It is possible that your target might be online and started asking friends to defend him. To make sure you do not run into their defending fleets (even if they are timed pretty well, like 7:59:58 arrival of defending fleets) you want to delay your fleet by adding a probe via ACS to your attack fleet. This probe is allowed to delay your fleet by a maximum of 30% of the fleet's remaining flight time.
Example:
Defending Fleet Arrival: 07:59:58
Your Fleet Arrival: 08:00:00
Remaining flight time: 3 Minutes
Now add a probe on x% (depends on distance) that takes 3 minutes and 30 seconds to reach your target. It will delay your ACS to 08:00:30. By doing so you have a decent amount of time to react and adjust to possible defending fleets. Since you are arriving at a later timing now you can send a spying probe on your old arrival time. This probe will see the additional defending fleets in its spy report. You now have 30 seconds to recall your fleet to not get destroyed. A good defender might hold on several times to trick you (e.g. 07:59:58, 08:00:10 ...). More information about that later.
Exercise delaying your fleet by ACS on inactives if you have never done that before.
=Observing a player=
When attacking a player several things come into play. Is that player online? Is that player hiding something from me? Where is he going to fleet save? Can he defend against me alone or does he need help?
=Tracking player activity=
To track someones activity you need to watch on his planets and follow activity indicators. Those activity indicators will tell you when is/was player online and making activity. More about which actions can trigger out activity indicators you can read at: <<Activity guide>>.
Writing down times when activity indicators were triggered will show you player online time.
=Tracking when is player doing Fleet Save=
To find out when is player doing Fleet Save you will need lot of probes. First thing what you need to do is to find out on which planet/moon is he hiding his fleet. After you found out where is his fleet, you will need to spy continuously that planet/moon every 15-20 mins. After his fleet disappeared with all his resources you will know that he has done Fleet Save. Tricky part is to find out, how is he doing Fleet Save, is it Deployment, Harvest or Colonization. So after his fleet disappeared you will continue to spying but now not only that planet/moon but all his planets/moons. If the fleet returns to same location than it is probably Harvest or Colonization Fleet Save, but if it shows up on another planet/moon than he is doing Deployment Fleet Save. Best thing is to write down when he sent Fleet Save and when it has returned, because you will need those times later.
=Combination of tracked Activity and Fleet Save time=
Once you combine watching the activity and probing a planet, you can determine player's online times and Fleet Save times.
You can attack players planets while he is offline or you can try to get his whole fleet when it's returning from Fleet Save with blind hit.
To do blind hit, you need times of his online time and times when he is doing Fleet Save. First thing is to watch if he is logging before his Fleet Save returns, if not, you have big chance that your Blind hit be successful. You will need to send attack on him which will arrive before his Fleet Save returns. You just need to spy few minutes before attack and if his fleet is not arrived you just need to slow down your attack, repeat this process as many times as long his Fleet returns.
=What does each ship do? How can I use that?=
Small Cargo - Extremely fast, can be used as Fodder (used to decrease firepower efficiency of strong ships e.g. Destroyer/Plasma) especially in late game situations.
Light Fighter - Fodder (used to decrease firepower efficiency of strong ships e.g. Destroyer/Plasma)
Heavy Fighter - breaks cruiser's rapid fire on Light Fighters, good against small cargo fodder
Cruiser - Death of Light Fighters and Rocket Launchers (anti-fodder)
Battleship - It deals high damage on one target, so you want it to shoot a big target (e.g. Destroyer, Rips..deals more one hit damage than the Battlecruiser). Battleship needs fodder support and is bad against fodder.
Bomber - good against defence (except Plasma Turret), can be used to kill Battlecruisers as the bomber is stronger in a one on one Battle. Apart from that no great use due to being slow and expensive
Destroyer - strong against Battlecruisers and Rips. Weak against any kind of fodder.
Battlecruiser - efficient ship! Can sustain a lot. Good for hunting down Battleships or Cruisers. Weak against Light Fighters.
Deathstar/Rip - Can be used against anything. Good to minimize losses and costs. Maximum damage. Good against Defense without Rip support. Can be combined with some fodder to decrease damage taken by your Rips.
Example 1 - Speedfleet
It emphasizes on fast and mobile ships, that can be used to hunt down other fleets fast. You will need
- (Small Cargo) (4-5)
- Light Fighters (20)
- Cruisers (4)
- Battlecruisers (1)
All these ships are fast and comparatively cheap in usage. Your Light Fighters will absorb most of the damage, so your cruisers and battlecruisers stay alive. Maybe you want to increase your Battlecruiser count in relation to the other ships in later stages so you can use battlecruisers only for attacks.
Example 2 - Allround - efficiency when fighting an equal fleet
- (Small Cargo) (60)
- Light Fighters (300)
- Heavy Fighters (60)
- Cruisers (60)
- Battleships (5-10)
- Destroyers (10)
- Battlecruiser (20)
- Deathstars (0-1)
In later stages of the Universe you want to increase your Deathstar count. This composition is really good. If you split it well it is extremely powerful against fleets of equal size.
Example 3 - Ripfleet
- (Light Fighter) (x*1000)
- Deathstars (x)
Fleets with anything but deathstars can be extremely strong and efficient. On the other hand they are pretty slow. You can add fodder to your Deathstars (optional). How many Light Fighters per Deathstar is up to you. Value is just given as example.
==Fleeting==
Different ways of making resources
=Inactives=
As a fleeter you basically want to make resources as fast and easy as possible. There will be times when you can barely attack any active player as most of them are online or saved their fleet. That's when you want to farm inactive players. The reason for that is, that inactives - most of the times - do not have any defense and are not likely to come online. So you are pretty much guaranteed to make the estimated resources. Farming inactives is not as suspenseful as attacking active players however it is a good way of working around time consuming attacks. To be efficient you want to use small cargos with high speed.
=Mines=
Fleeters tend to forget about their mines, however all resources in an OGame universe are produced by mines. So never forget that your production is a significant part of the resources you make. Higher mines mean more resources without having to work for them!
=Farming actives=
Since some players cannot log into their account frequently they amass a lot of resources on their planets (mine production). These resources are often protected by defense. The usual farm-attack focuses on taking these produced resources. Most of the times you get more resources out of this than from inactives but you also have a risk. Your target could log into his account and save his resources or even worse try to defend your fleet. Due to the defense you had to send more ships that cost more fuel. To be efficient with this type of attack you have to know when your target is online and when he is offline. You also want to check that there is no defending fleet lurking for you. So keep in mind to use a safety probe or your phalanx.
=Fleet combats=
This is the champions league in fleeting. You can categorize fleet crashes into two types. You either have to attack a standing fleet or you try to intercept it after it returned from save. Fleet crashes promise an extremely high win, since the debris field and the transported resources can become huge. On the other hand fleet crashes can be dangerous and you have to invest into a lot of fuel and time.
Attacking a standing fleet
You find a standing fleet by spying possible targets around your positions or by knowing that certain players tend to forget to save their fleet. When you find a possible target fleet you need to check if the player is online or not. If he is offline you can try your luck. During the attack on a standing fleet you want to observe the target player. It is extremely important to notice if your target is logging into his account because that means that your chances of success have dropped dramatically. You can still try, but be warned that you can fly into a trap. Most fleet crashes are attacks on standing/idling fleets.
Intercepting a saved fleet
This is where it gets tricky. How do I find possible targets? You basically try to find them like idling fleets, however every time you see that fleet you notice that the player is online. Before you can crash someone who is saving and watching his fleet you have to find out how, when and where the player is saving his fleet. To do that you have to observe the player. If the player is saving without moons it's easier to intercept him as you can basically rely on your phalanx alone. But when it comes to intercepting fleets saved from a moon it gets time consuming. Depending on how the player saves you have to destroy his moon(s) to be able to phalanx his fleet.
Target saves without a moon:
As long as it is not a deployment save just phalanx his planet, find out when the fleet is returning and time your attack shortly after the return (1-3 seconds).
If it is a deployment save you can try to attack the fleet just like before but your target could be recalling his fleet. To know when the fleet was recalled you have to phalanx the destination planet regularly (every 1-3 seconds). If the fleet disappears out of your phalanx you know that it has been recalled. Memorize the time! Now you have to start calculating when the fleet will return on its origin planet. First of all you want to find out how fast the fleet has been saved (10%? 20%? 30%? etc.). You simply do that by using a flight calculator that tells you how long flight x on y% would have taken and then you exclude what is not possible or did not match what you saw in your phalanx. When you found out how the fleet was saved you now calculate when it is going to be returning:
Time of Recall + flight time - (Difference between estimated arrival time (seen in phalanx) and time of recall).
Example:
Estimated Arrival (seen in phalanx): 6:00:00 am
Time of Recall: 5:00:00 am
Original Flight time: 10:00:00 Hours
=> Time of Return on starting planet: 5:00:00 am + (10:00:00h - 1:00:00h) = 2:00:00 pm
Now you can send your fleet on 2:00:01 pm.
==How to stay alive?==
- Always fleet save
- Split your fleet when attacking players (ACS with yourself)
- Do not attack on 100% speed all the time. Due to splitting you can use 90% or 80%.
- Do not use recyclers on 100% speed when active fleeters are watching your target too
- Make sure to check for stronger fleeters who try to defend against you
- If you are up late and you want to sleep for 2 hours until your Deathstars arrive at their target location make sure to fleet save during your nap