Re: Master Computers, Combat Movement, & Boarding
 

If you want to make a mod, you could also give the boarding parties the regeneration ability from organic armor.
You will need at least one surviving component with the ability to regenerate them, but you'd be able to make boarding attempts every few turns in combat as the parties get rebuilt.

Re: The Plague (Subverters, Boarders, and IDs, Oh My)
 

Perhaps give Plague MCs/Bridges Armor Regen too, so they regenerate. Not all comps, as that would give them a massive advantage; it essentially becomes an all-or-nothing hit if you attack a ship, but perhaps some key comps and maybe a few minor weapons, like Ripper Beams and light PD. Would give the Plague ships excellent survivability, as with real diseases, but it wouldn't make them all-powerful. Just make their ships more durable this way, and reduce their construction rate. They multiply slowly; but once they have a ship, they're going to keep it.

Re: The Plague (Subverters, Boarders, and IDs, Oh My)
 

SJ, I really wouldn't want to create them as a modded race, as I want them usable in stock games.

I think the Plague would only need to invest heavily in the occasional Plauger (battleship repair bay+boarding) as Plaugers would be used by the Plague to repair the gutted engines of the ships it captures, and repair the fleets of their boarders.

I was also thinking of giving a name to the leader of The Plague: Primary Host. Posted here for future reference.

Does anyone know if the AI can analyze ships?

Re: The Plague (Subverters, Boarders, and IDs, Oh My)
 

The Plague

Background:

The Plague was originally a genetically engineered psychic bioweapon created by the CueCappa to be used against other races to capture entire empires intact and assimilate captured empires into docile subservient societies. The original experiment got out of control, and infected the designer of the The Plague.

Known only as the Primary Host, because those with knowledge of the project have since been infected, the Plague seem to be driven to fulfil their engineered mission to fruition: the peaceful takeover of the entire galaxy by Plague infection.

Most of the CueCappa race in the nearby system were infected rather quickly, and attempts at eradication and quarrantine have been met with devastating failure as often ships sent in to contain the threat have not been heard from again. Ships that do survive encounters with Plague ships speak of the horrors of watching entire fleets succomb to the Plague in a matter of hours, often in a chain reaction that results in total capture of fleets sent in to contain the Plague.

Re: The Plague (Subverters, Boarders, and IDs, Oh My)
 

now if only there was a way to take both religious and psychic traits...

Re: The Plague (Subverters, Boarders, and IDs, Oh
 

There certainly is. See:

http://www.spaceempires.net/home/content-1.html

Re: The Plague (Subverters, Boarders, and IDs, Oh
 

my newbness shows.

well that's cool. religious talismans, flailers, subvertors, boarders, and IDs ... oh this is really my my.

Re: The Plague (Subverters, Boarders, and IDs, Oh
 

By the way, you might wish to consider taking up the Crystalline trait, for two reasons:
- Crystalline armour is a tough nut to crack, especially for the IA. If you play your cards right, you will be immune to anything dealing 149 normal damage or less, though Shield Depleters/Disruptors will still be a problem. Even then, your ships should last a lot longer against enemy fire... and if they use up all their supplies firing at you, they won't be moving around so much (and will lose their shields).
- More importantly, the Crystal Dampener is NOT broken by Master Computers. That little device allows you to shut down all the weapons of the target for X rounds, where X is equal to the amount of damage dealt. The Psychic trait has a similar weapon, but that one *is* negated by Master Computers.

And some more fun things with this trait:
- The Shard Cannon bypasses armour, thus allowing you to fire at the components "inside" the ship, and leaving armour intact. It could allow you to destroy the SDD while leaving armour intact, increasing the odds of disabling the SDD without destroying the ship in the process.
- The Crystalline trait gives a very nice facility to reduce maintenance costs in the system: might come in handy if you have a big captured fleet.

Re: The Plague (Subverters, Boarders, and IDs, Oh
 

If you add some Emissive Armor to your 10+ Crystalline Armors, that immunity goes up to 179 damage. Not even a Heavy Mount APB XII can scratch that at range greater than 3 without getting a lucky hit on the emissive first, and APB XI needs point blank. Of course, massive mounts, armor-skipping weapons, and high damage slow firing weapons can deal with it, but it's still pretty tough and a major cost saver.

Re: The Plague (Subverters, Boarders, and IDs, Oh
 

Not quite: the Emissive Armour is very likely to get hit, because of its small size, and it is *not* protected by the Crystalline ability. So, only shots actually hitting the CA components will be "negated": shots on non-CA armour will work as usual.

Of course, it will work as you say so long as the Emissive Armour doesn't get destroyed. I think a few Shield Regenerators might also help with increasing the CA's protection: if the enemy has to get through 40 more points of shielding every turn, more damage has to be dealt to start breaking down the CA, even if more than 150 damage is dealt at once.