Those silly satellites...
 

Greetings,

I am still fairly new to this game, so I try all kind of things. I play all my games against comps but I give the comps the hardest level of difficulties.

I researched the missiles to level 7 and equipped my satellites with them. I also built a bunch of satellites with PDC. Then I launched about 100 of those at my warp points.

They got destoyed!!! I thought the missiles level 7 would have an enough range to at least do some damages to the enemy. Am I alone to think that satellites are not very good against the comps? Or am I doins something wrong?

Thank you

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

The problem there wasn't range- it was lack thereof.

When attackers come through the warp point, they come through at point blank range. That means their point defense cannons can both shoot down your missiles AND shoot at your satellites. Not good. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

Just my .02

Sattelites as Warp Point defences IMO should have direct fire weapons on them. As you found, missles don't do well 'cause they 'release' the missles then they get shot down with the PD. Try using your highest level direct fire weapon and you'll probably have better success.

Especially since sat's can be targeted by more than just PD; most direct fire weapons can target them as well. 1 or 2 hits from Massive Mount PPB's can wipe that whole stack of 100 sat's out in 1 turn. Then the PD picks off ypour missles in the same turn! Results; not good. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/Sick.gif

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

Shields and ECM could help them survive a bit longer. Shields on the first satellites in the stack, ECM on only one satellite, preferably at the end of the stack.

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

I remember making the mistake of putting stealth armor on my warp point defense satellites. The enemy ships just sailed past my defense lines without seeing my satellites.

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

In my opinion, missiles work better as planet defense - assuming your opponent doesn't have sufficient Point Defense, planet-mounted missiles have *long* range and usually scare off most ships - or at least delay them.

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

In MY opinion, missiles are crap, no matter how and where used, assuming you are talking about CSM. They can be outgunned so easily..Then again, plasma missiles are pretty nice.

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

Quantum missles are pretty cool http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Especially on massive mounts http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

Doyou mean torpedoes?

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

Missiles suck in the middle/late game. In the earlygame they can be quite powerful, but once everybody has PD they just become utterly useless. A high-lev PD gun can shoot down any missile with a single shot. PD is your friend and enemy.

Stock PD is simply way too unbalanced. It's too powerful at too low a size and cost, both in build cost and in research. Even Escorts can be effective PD escorts, you can mount three guns on them, and if you keep them in formation you'll be completely missile-proof. PD is simply too overpowered, since it can fire on all units,so they also make fighters, sats and drones useless. A lot of mods have altered PD so that they're more balanced. In Capship I modified PD so that it can only fire at missiles, and created a "new" PD to deal with other threats. Also, I've got one or two missiles which need at least two PD shots to be destroyed, and I'm planning on adding Cluster Missiles which are really small and weak but can be launched in flights of perhaps hundreds of missiles on larger ships.

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

PD definitely needs shaking up. I went about it by removing PD cannons entirely, and forcing players to use small, normal weapons to try and shoot down missiles http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Even with overwhelming numbers of defense ships, you have to get dangerously close to missile swarms in order to shoot them, and the missiles that end up just out of range are liable to move in and hit before you have a chance to shoot them.

Combined with leaky shields and armor, everybody gets damaged on both sides of the battle, and it works great! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

Ooooh, me haves an interesting mod idea inspired on what SJ just speaked.....

Remove all weapons except seekers, add a lot of them, add really weak PD and some light fighter direct-fire weapons, perhaps also some fighter anti-missile weapons, modify drones to become superheavy missiles and voila..... Space combat will never be the same again! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif Anyone interested except me? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

Parasite Vs take two shots from a PD5 to take down.

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

Strat:
I don't see any connection there.
My idea is to remove the autofire ability. That's what makes PD so crazy; with autofire, it is like minesweepers. You kill the first X missiles for free, guaranteed

By removing autofire, your ships actually have to work to shoot down missiles, and the inefficient cooperation between ships means some of the missiles get through, even when you have tons of PDCs. You'd have shots ready, but be unable to use them in time.

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

Then again, removing autofire/point-defense ability would result in guaranted kills, since some missiles might be able to reach a ship within one turn, while the enemy would not even the chance to fire at them (turn 0: out of range, turn 1: missile has hit).
Of course this wouldnt happen in tactical where you can control your ships, but in strategical there is no way to tell your ships to keep a certain distance to missiles.

Re: Those silly satellites...
 

That sounds like something I tried to make.

And failed at, badly. I suck at mod making http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif