Supplies - are they this tough to come by?

You can build "supply crates" - ship (not unit!!!) with as much supply/ordonance as possible. Then you transfer supplies and scrap it.

Another way is make satelite with solar colector and some supply storage and place them where you need supply. Its only small trickle per satelite, but you can have lot of them. This does not help much for sustained action, but if there are burts of need for supply, they can help. (esp. in binary/trinary ssystems)

Try upgradeing as well. In research, upgrade your Cargo as much as u can, i always do, and Storage, will help save some of the net profit we all lose each turn, by not using it all. I also build supply frieghters in systems not near the front, to bring any much needed supply and ordanance to any fleets in need. By upgrading cargo and retro fitting ships when ever possible, they carry more supplies to begin with. By keeping a couple of supply fleets at the ready, u will beable to resupply when needed. Hope this helps.

In general, you have to pay attention to generating enough supply. I try to build a supply depot on every breathable (non-domed) colony. Research and upgrade as often as you can, game circumstances permitting.

Nothing says you can only have 1 Resupply Depot per colony. Regularly building and scrapping Supply-heavy ships is also my favoured way of producing emergency supplies. For that matter, Emergency Supplies (the component) is a quick way to produce supplies too (I assume you carry repair ships around).

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

Not sure if these are available in the demo but:

1) Upgrade your Resupply Depots. At max level they produce 26,750 supplies and ordnance for ships in the same sector and distribute 27,250 to ships elsewhere in the solar system.
2) Research engine tech. Higher level engines hold more supplies.
3) Research Stellar Harnessing tech. Solar collectors generate supplies.
4) Research Resupply tech. Quantum reactors generate supplies.
5) If you have an Organic race, research organic tech. Ordnance Vats generate ordnance.

I remember playing the old 1.25 demo before I got SE V, but I don't remember fighters using up supplies that fast.

But then again, I never had fighters flying around in the demo.
They usually stayed parked on planets or were carried on a ship with Fighter Bays. Either way, they usually auto-launch during battle.

I personally would not be flying fighters around without a good reason if they were wasting supply that fast. Besides, they are best carried on ships with fighter bays and supply storage, especially if they are wasting supplies so fast.

Iirc, in the old demo, unit supplies might not be 'transfered' properly, taking supplies from ships/planets when they launch, but not returning them when recovered, causing them to have to be fully resupplied when launched again.

Solar collectors are more useful in systems with 2-3 stars.
For medium and large satellites, it is easy to have at least 1 solar collector and spare supply storage and still have them well armed/armored, meaning a satellite group at a planet or warp point doubles as a backup resupply point.

It could also be possible to build a base that has something like 20 solar collectors and 10 or more supply storage, and then build one or more at planets that see a lot of traffic, or in a system with 2 or more stars, either at a planet or using a supply carrying ship to carry supplies where needed in other systems. Just have to remember to transfer the supplies to the planet or other ships.

Things are indeed much better in the full game, except fighters are still insanely overpowered last I checked.

If you use fighters, use carriers:

Supply consumption is as follows: amount of supply used/engine x number of engines/moving object x number of moving objects x hexes moved.

Fighters have 50% more engines then ships, and have much higher numbers. Therefore they use a lot more supplies flying through systems. (and they move more, meaning more hexes too)

Make a carrier, load the fighters in the carrier, and move the carrier itself. Instead of losing 1000 supply per hex moved, you only lose about 50. Launch fighters only in combat, or the hex next to combat and move them into the combat from there. You use less supply this way, so less supply generation is enough. And a single carrier is easy to make self sufficient in supply terms even with low level solar collectors.

remember that supply storage / use distribution was changed in patch 1.44 and last one

Near a front with a lot of operations, I dedicate a lot of space to supply depots. Once you pass beyond this border, it makes a nice surplus yard for large special purpose ships to haul vast loads of supplies and ammo to the new front. This is most helpful if you can establish such a depot system at a 4-way crossroad. I also use such systems to support bases guarding warp points in 'empty' systems. Once you have the quantum generator, supply isn't such a problem, but ordinance is.

Long story short, find a low-resource system, put lots of supply depots there, and design yourself a massive 'mule' to sling the goods to trouble spots. But I think everyone has already said that!

In making your mule, don't use freighters, as I found you can't load supply & ordinance in the cargo bay (Which I don't understand, given that's where it is on planets...) Try not to empty your mule and leav it in system; if supply is tight, it'll absorb resources needed on your fighting ships. If I can't dump and vacate on the same turn, I wait for the next.

That's actually a misconception. It shows up when you look at the cargo, but if you do a transfer you'll see that supplies and ordnance have their own dedicated space separate from the total cargo allowance.

Aye, supply/ordinance is not stored in Cargo Bays, it's stored in specialised storage components. Still, using 'mules' to bring the supplies forward may be the more elegant solution, but the best is to build those 'mules' right where you need them and immediately scrap them. Supplies/Ordinance are 'created' for you when a new ship is built - naturally dump a huge ton of Supply/Ordinance Storage components, and you'll need a decent build rate.

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE