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Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 3:34 pm
by ghealy
A number of times recently I have encounter a problem in attacking a planet. I have plenty of firepower, but I just can't seem to zero out the planet's defense.. With reference to the attached screen shots, I have no problem attacking with either plasma or death ray weapons and zeroing out the planet's shields. But the pesky defense value never seems to go below 11. And often this is enough to wipe out any troop ships I bring in to take over the planet.

Is there a weapon I should be researching that will effectively zero of the defense levels?

Thanks in advance fro any suggestions.

- Gene

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 5:04 pm
by Dilvish
If the defending planet has advanced defense techs as they do in your screenshot, then their defense can have a significant regen every single turn and you wouldn't ever see it hit zero.

Build tougher troopships.

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 5:39 pm
by ghealy
Thanks, Dilvish. Appreciate the suggestion. Only problem I see is there is only one type of Troop ship???? :)

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 6:54 pm
by Oberlus
ghealy wrote:Thanks, Dilvish. Appreciate the suggestion. Only problem I see is there is only one type of Troop ship???? :)
You can design your own troopships. I usually use robotic hull (1 slot armour, 3 slots troops) or organic hull (depending on which tech lane I start with) and later on energy frigates (again 1 armour and three troops) that are quite fast without extra engines.

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 8:14 pm
by ghealy
Thanks, Oberlus. I did figure out I could use a camouflage asteroid hull. Will also check out your suggestions in case they are faster and cost less to produce.

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 8:06 am
by Oberlus
Problem with camouflage asteroid hull is that you can't put armour in there (only interior slots), so system defense mines can take down your troop ship in a few turns even if stealth is high enough to remain unseen.

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 9:49 am
by MatGB
Oberlus wrote:Problem with camouflage asteroid hull is that you can't put armour in there (only interior slots), so system defense mines can take down your troop ship in a few turns even if stealth is high enough to remain unseen.
Yup, but if you're leaving it in orbit for several turns you're essentially asking for trouble, the advantage of a stealthed trooper is it can arrive with the battlefleet and it's got enough base structure to survive even the best PD for the turn to invade (remember if you keep a warship in orbit troop numbers don't recover so you don't need to wait for everyone to arrive at once).

There are 4 troop designs in the premades, we decided against adding more, the Troop Ship and Small Troop Ship are there right at the beginning, the Flux Troops and Flux Heavy Troops are there because I personally use them so often that it doesn't feel like clutter: they have the advantage that the Spatial Flux drive gives a small amount of stealth so can be used with an assault if you time it right.

Beyond that, making your own designs is part of the game, saving them for reuse is recommended and overcoming challenges like this is part of the fun.

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 1:10 pm
by ghealy
@Oberlus: Agree about shields. Mind you with a structure of 45, they were able to withstand one turn of planet defense and successfully invade. And if I wasn't filling the fourth internal slot with an engine boost such as Improved Engine coupling or N-Dimensional Engine Matrix, I could use shields to give a bit more protection.

@MatGB: Your love of Flux Troops and Flux Heavy troops is because of the added speed of the spatial flux drive? Does the added stealth factor really gibve it that much more advantage?

FWIW. I finally completed the game that caused me to start this topic. 510 moves Basically a day & half of play time. I was playing solitaire waiting fro turns to complete so I could play again. :D I did discover many new technologies hat I never knew existed. Fun, but I certainly hope I don;t run into too many games like that.

- Gene

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 3:40 pm
by defaultuser
Flux troop ships are also cheap as dirt. They are my go-to troopers until planetary defenses make them unworkable (if ever). Their structure, with reinforced hull, is only 8, so once planetary weapons get to 9 you start losing some in battle. When mines get up there, then you just have to go to heavier, more expensive, slower options.

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 6:37 pm
by ghealy
@Defaultuser: thanks for the feedback.

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 7:43 pm
by MatGB
defaultuser wrote:Flux troop ships are also cheap as dirt. They are my go-to troopers until planetary defenses make them unworkable (if ever). Their structure, with reinforced hull, is only 8, so once planetary weapons get to 9 you start losing some in battle. When mines get up there, then you just have to go to heavier, more expensive, slower options.
Pay attention to their new stealth bonuses though, while I'm not sure I've got the balance right I'm really pleased with the mechanic, hint: research stealth parts.

If you can get them to the target in a single turn they don't need structure.

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 9:01 pm
by defaultuser
MatGB wrote:Pay attention to their new stealth bonuses though
Yeah, well, "new" and I aren't playing together at this time because of #676.

I'm back all the way to 0.4.5.xx. Which sometimes is fun. I had a game the other day where I had a decent area around the homeworld that was then totally cut off by the Experimenters. Not something that can happen in newer games, as I recall.

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 10:49 pm
by ghealy
Thanks MatGB

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 11:12 pm
by Dilvish
defaultuser wrote:Yeah, well, "new" and I aren't playing together at this time because of #676.
That's quite a nuisance to be stuck at 0.4.5. Just brainstorming here -- perhaps the flicker might be caused by some vagaries of how the frequency of FO internal drawing/refresh is matching up with your screen refresh rate-- perhaps try adjusting the latter.

Re: Question.Re: Planet defense

Posted: Tue May 02, 2017 12:29 am
by defaultuser
There was a fairly lengthy thread with a few people that had the problem:

http://www.freeorion.org/forum/viewtopi ... 28&t=10256

I can try that, but it seems like the main culprit is Intel integrated graphics. I could pull the graphics card out of the old computer, but I'm reluctant to do that. I have pledged to take one more troubleshooting pass it, so anything that contributes to procrastinating is bad.