How do you take over an empty colony?
 

Eme... I've been playing SEIV for a whole year but I've never encounter something like this before. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif There is an empty enemy colony that I'm trying to take but my fleet just wouldn't drop troops on it with the "attack order". I can't get them to drop with the "drop" order too. What can I do?

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

Hmm. I've taken over zero-pop colinies with troops before. Of course that was long ago in a different patch, and I was playing in tactical. I take it you have the ship/ fleet strategies correct for planet capture. Are you able to take colonies *with* population?

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

Yes I've no problems with "normal" planets. Taking over everything takeable is my trademark strategy, http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif but yea, I'm having trouble with an empty undefended enemy colony. What an irony! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

Another incident happened with my troop ship in the latest turn. I was on the attack again and there was this occupied planet with an empty moon. The troop ship approached the planet in such a direction that the moon was dead in the way, and my transport got "stucked" next to the moon and wouldn't drop! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

Yes, there is a problem with AI combat navigation. I've seen it launch drones 'behind' a moon that was quite close to the launching planet and the drones weren't smart enough to go AROUND the planet. They just sat there while my ships fired missiles at the planet and when it was reduced I just closed in and shot the drones with normal direct-fire weapons. The problem with fleets getting tangled up with themselves because the leader cannot move and troops ships getting clocked by the rest of the fleet is another symptom. Something definitely needs to be 'improved' in the AI combat navigation routines. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

Umm hi im getting SE4 Gold tonight but ya to take over empty colonys dont you have to drop population on em? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

cshank2, as I said before, the "drop" order doesn't work, no matter what you are trying to drop.

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

Instead of trying to drop troops, just use the "Transfer Cargo" button. I do that all the time with population transports. I have no idea if that works with troops, though.

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

Eh sorry guy. Need sleepy now bed time good (Been up since 11 AM yesterday

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

I've never tried to "transfer" troops to an empty enemy planet, but I don't think you can transfer anything onto any enemy planet!

I think the inability to "capture" a zero pop. planet (in simultaneous mode) must be considered a bug. For now I believe you must slag it then colonize it.

Kim

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

Can't you just attack it with a troop transport?

If you can attack it with ships, surely the transports can capture it...

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmm.... Give the troop transport 1 weapon, set strategy to point blank. When the transport is adjacent to the planet, maybe it will drop the troops. Worth a try. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Kim

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

No, that doesnt work. If you set your transport to point blank he charges in and zaps the empty colony. Doesn't even try to drop troops unless the strategy is capture planet. And doesn't seem to register there is a colony there if there is no pop and the strategy is set to capture planet. Runs for the corner everytime.

Works fine in tactical, but definetly a bug for simultaneous combat. Has anyone emailed this to Malfador yet I wonder?

Geoschmo

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

You might be able to get the owner to give or trade it to you, especially if it's an AI.

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmm.... Give the troop transport 1 weapon, set strategy to point blank. When the transport is adjacent to the planet, maybe it will drop the troops. Worth a try. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Kim</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">There's a similar problem if you create a "troop transport" with neutron beam weapons (pop. only damage) and low-tech troops. Once the ship reduces the planet population to 0, the combat will generally end, even though the colony still "exists", because the combat engine doesn't account for 0-pop colonies with intact facilities. You can force the issue in tactical by attacking a second time and manually dropping troops, but I don't know a way to force the issue in strategic.

Re: How do you take over an empty colony?
 

Some new info, fresh from one of my PBW games. I sent a "capture" fleet in blind to take a planet in another system. As it turned out, the planet had 0 pop. ... but I captured it anyway! There were two other empty colonies in the system so I tried to capture them the next turn and was successful on only one of them. Still, two outta three ain't bad.

So what did these two colonies have in common? ..... Facilities! Of the third planet, I have no idea, but it seems quite likely it had no facilities. This evidence is thin, but I think a colony needs either population or facilities to be eligible for capture.

Oh, BTW, although my fleet took NO action against the third planet, merely passed through, no combat log, it is now uncolonized and open for recolonization. Weird.

Kim