both crap

i would put the defense platforms near my other structures, if you stick em out in the middle of nowhere the enemy can just go around them, hangers i try to just put them in the safest spot possible (near defense platforms and repair bays usually).

In the end the only sense of installed defence in a solar orbit is to hold back the enemy as long as you fleet need to reinforces the planet to KILL the enemy! Is not the job of your hangars or guns to does this.

To hold back an enemey from your planet and buildings you need to take his moving space!
It is a normal human reaktion that everyone trys to avoid ship damage. Even when he know that his fleet is not in elementary danger by the defence stations.

But if you use primary hangars you negate this effect, because your opponent cant hide for/ avoid the attacks of the strikeforce and so it doesnt metter for him if he go directly to your plannet to bomb it/ hunt for your labs or if he stands away from them! For shure some buildings are primary targets in every case (e.g. jumpinhibitor), but no defence is able to prevents this. Not guns and not hangars... so it is useless to consider this fact.

Another negative aspekt of using primary hangars is that they have two attack points. You can kill them directly or you shoot down the fighters. In the last case he can ignore complety the buildings and is able to consider them NOT by choosing his moving direction.

so far.....

There is no better option. There is only a lesser of two evils. For this discussion, I'd say turrets, because they require no overhead to build (I.E. research). Your main defense should always be ships, no matter what.

Ships can both defend and force the cesation of an offense. If your fleet isn't big enough to beat his fleet, then why not raid his planets and force him to chase yours down? His lost economy to your raiding will hopefully mean your economic advantage, which will eventually lead to your victory. Him chasing your fleet effectively negates the usefulness of his fleet.

Of course, I'm probably just blowing hot air right now. I still see noobs build about 20 gauss turrets on one lonely roid while I fly past it and bomb your homeworld to dirt.

I make a lot of defense platforms on only my key planets. this way there is only one way in, through the platform planet. I have taken down many fleets doing that. especially if there is one other way to a specific planet.I could never see a use for my hangars.I did try them but they were not significant.

He who defends everything loses everything.

Thats pretty much how I play, I might build a hanger or two on a planet that is in a danger zone but I prefer to use fleets as protection. Defense platforms I might make if I didn't have the money to tech up to hangers at the time but thats the only time that I can think of.

I will even go a bit farther by saying that: the only usefulness of DP and hanger is to fend off pirates. So if you don't want to assign a fleet to defend your planets from the pirate, build 1 hanger and 2 DP. The two DPs will hack away at the pirates, whom will try to chase the fighters. Note that this scenario DOES NOT happen all the time, especially when there is a trade post in the gravity well, pirates will always go after the trade ships first, but your planet will be safe.

the best defense is always a mobile fleet. in SP u can use def platforms to stop the AI for a while, but in MP they are only useful to defend your structures. so in MP i would use hangars with fighters in it to stop enemy ships scouting your planets.

yatxhee, better put 2 repairs to repair each other, in rest it's fine
keeping chokepoints against the AI works great

In general I've found that a combination of hangers and repair platforms works wonders. I usually stick 4-5 hangers, 2-3 repair bays, and maybe a phase inhibitor on a choke point if I can, unless I plan to have a good sized fleet there on a fairly long term basis. Then i build a bunch of repair platforms.

Repair platforms are truly amazing. I had a battle where I'd forced the AI to take a stand in a system I'd just taken a few minute previously (it was the only jump between their last three gravity wells and their last desert planet, which had an artifact). It was a late game battle, with both of us having about 1/3 or so of our fleets fighting over an asteroid system. I started off losing the battle, until my repair platforms started coming online. By the time I was done, I'd gone from losing the battle to routing the AI, despite being slightly outnumbered and lacking capital ships (they had six, all between level 6 and 10, and both my capital ships were driven off before the repair platforms came online). All I have to say is this: 7 repair platforms + a phase inhibitor = slaughter.

I like to use a combination of Hangers, Defense Platofrms and Repair Stations. I somewhat group them up in this order:

P DP H RS

P = planet; DP defense platform; H = Hanger; RS = duh

I like to place the defense platforms closer to the planets to help mitigate possible siege frigates. I don't use this *exact* placement in relation to the distance from the planet although I relatively stick to it. Basics of my approach are DP's closer to planet, Hangers slightly further away, Repair stations out far enough to allow a fleet engaging hostiles the abillity to do a minimal repositioning to recieves the repairs.

As stated, the Warp Inhibitor helps a lot, but do multiples stack? It shows a 700% time dilation on enemy ships attempting to flee regardless if there's 1 or 3 Inhibitors.

I like hangers w/ Fighters (when playing against the AI) as they totally own pirates, leaving me to concentrate on other matters i.e. taking out the AI opponents with my fleet(s) which are not otherwise distracted.