stellar manipulation question
 

in a game now.....

If i use my ship to create a storm will the storm wipe out the opponent or will it just give me astorm to hide in?

Re: stellar manipulation question
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No, storms don't destroy your enemy. It's possible if they can't take much damage. When you create a storm you get either a storm that can hide you, or a storm that causes damage. It's all random. So it will either give ya a good one to hide in or one that will damage you if you pass through it. So it can't destroy your opponent.

Re: stellar manipulation question
 

What.. the storm just sits there and doesn't move? That's stupid.

Re: stellar manipulation question
 

Yup pretty much.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Re: stellar manipulation question
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, that is stupid. That's one of the features that we'd all like to see in SEV. Storms that move and can damage ships by turn, not ones that just sit there. But who knows if MM will add it to SEV.

Re: stellar manipulation question
 

One other use is creating storms on warp points. If they're damaging, they work like unsweepable minefields--minefields which damage every ship coming through. If the storm is cloaking, it serves to hide any WP defenses you have set up (only useful wiht far-side WP defense).

Re: stellar manipulation question
 

But if it hides your defenses then the enemy can pass right through them!

And yes, damaging storms are pretty stupid as they are easily avoided - it doesn't even take any extra movement points to go diagonally around them! Now a whole WALL of storms, or storms on a warp-point...

Re: stellar manipulation question
 

"But if it hides your defenses then the enemy can pass right through them!"

Cloaked ships will still attack any ships they can detect. That means they need a sensor level equal to or higher than the cloak level of the storm they're in. Without sensors, though, they can't detect enemy ships moving into (or past) the storm.

Re: stellar manipulation question
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No, and yes. Yes for a storm, but no for a regular cloaked ship with stealth armor or a cloaking device.

If two ships are in a storm and one has sensors cabale of defeating the storm, it can attack the ship that does not. In fact it cannot avoid attacking the ship if they are in the same sector. I had an unarmed sensor ship get killed in a nebula this way once. He couldn't see me but he got lucky and moved into the same sector as my ship. My ship "attacked", but since it had no weapons and his did, and once in combat he could see me, well... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

But if your ship has a cloaking device or stealth armor you can be in the same sector with an enemy and will not, in fact CANNOT attack unless you decloak first.

Geoschmo

Re: stellar manipulation question
 

... unless you have some other uncloaked unit/ship/colony in the same location as your cloaked units/ships/colonies... in that case, the combat will involve all of your forces, cloaked and uncloaked.

PvK