Re: massive shield depleter
 

"Religious needs something more to help it on the 'offensive'."

*cough* TALISMAN *cough*

Phoenix-D

Re: massive shield depleter
 

Sure, the Talisman is great, but can you survive long enough to research it? I've yet to manage that in multi-player. (Although the fact that I was fighting Askan in two of those three games had a lot to do with it.)

Re: massive shield depleter
 

The Talisman just means that whatever direct fire weapons you carry will always hit if within range. The default weapon for the Norak is the Meson BLaster, which has a range 2 less than the APB and many other direct fire weapons in the game, not to mention various seekers. This is not such a big advantage as you might think, though it can be nice in certain situations. Popping through a WP to find a bunch of Talisman-equipped ships waiting for you is NOT fun! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif But they can still be easily out-ranged and they still have to break down any shield/armor in order to do serious damage to an enemy. I've changed them to research the PPB and that does make them more dangerous. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ 29 April 2002: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]</p>

Re: massive shield depleter
 

Don't picture the AI races for balance- picture a human player. APB, Wave Motion Gun.. engage at max range. Max range on the APB is 8. That means against a fully defended opponent (ECM, stealth armor) with combat sensor III, you have about NIL chance to hit.

+65% (CSIII)
-60% (ECMIII)
-15% (stealth armor)
-15% (scattering armor)

= -25%. Since range 8 = 20% chance to hit and SE4 rounds, you have a 1% chance to hit. Compare this to the Talisman player, who hits EVERY time.

The WMG is better of since it has an inherent 30% bonus. And of course you must hold the range open.

Phoenix-D

Re: massive shield depleter
 

Ya, I have seen talismans deployed in player-vs.-player games and they are up there with the Ark of the Covenant in effectiveness. You can also put them on weapon platforms, satellites, starbases... but even a half-dozen battlecruisers with APB's become able to devastate dozens of opponents and emerge unscathed (and having done so, will become even more invincible thanks to experience).

As for the stock Norak run by the AI, well, ya, I'm sure they need all the help they can get. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

PvK

Re: massive shield depleter
 

Very recently, in a hotseat game, the Norak are at war with everybody.
One of their main planets had a rebellion occur, so my brother demanded their surrender and send his fleet of baseships to secure the planet against the true Norak fleet. (He's got a battlemoon, working on a Dyson Sphere, and is wasting $500,000 in radioactives due to storage overflow per turn)
It should be noted that his baseships are all heavily armored with BioCrystal Armor. They are all quite fast.

They denied him.
They vaporized his fleet.

Large Platforms, Talismen, and five Range 13 Massive Meson BLasters each.
They had a quite a few of them, and as soon as he was in range, the planet blew his ships apart two by two.
Those ships took an incredible beating, about 4000 damage points before they finally crumbled, but the planet just kept firing and firing.

The planet apparently took 3% damage, but I believe that was from losing its fighter force, and not from any damage to the planet itself.

I am currently designing some BattleMoon based heavy troop transports to try and penetrate these heavily defended worlds.

Re: massive shield depleter
 

It's fun to play MAX tech games and mix-n-match racial abilities. A talisman with physic subverter + computer virus can be devastating.
All three can be added to SATs for worm hole defense.
Just add OA3 to the SATs to make them more durable, and create a storm that negates shields.


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