How to not glass
 

Which orders should I set for a carrier with fighters so that the fighter are either not launched or dont glass a planet? I have not found the solution.

Re: How to not glass
 

Go to "empires" - "strategies" -"firing" Set "do not fire on planets" true (green box during the game) for all strategies except "capture planet" Now your ships/fighters won't glass planet. If you want to capture planet, add Troop Transport with "capture planet", set "capture planet" to fleet and see how it works http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif If it does not go as you wish, play a little with strategies. Soner or later your fleets WILL capture planets.

Re: How to not glass
 

The problem with that though is if enemy ships flee for the corners or they have starbases or satellites on the farside of the planet then your ships will go chasing after them and get pummelled by any WPs on the planet without returning fire. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Need to play with those don't fire on setting abit to get some that work without having ships go out on what amount to suicide runs after unimportant ships.

Re: How to not glass
 

Don't fire on unarmed ships then. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: How to not glass
 

That only solves part of the problem. Armed starbases and satellites will still be attacked bringing ships into range of the planet.

Also the enemy could have missile equipped ships that can bring allied ships into range of the planet with the dance of the missiles.

There is no easy answer to the question. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif If playing against the computer turning planet, unarmed ships, satellites, and starbases off will probably do it. If against a human though... beware the missile ship dance.

Re: How to not glass
 

Phoh. Sometimes AI makes... shoud I say Exceptional battles in simultaneous games. In one PBW game I am playing now, I send a fleet which formation was Wall and strategy Capture Planet. Of course there was troop transport with troops inside. Planet had one weapon platform in it.

My fleet advanced in wall formation and shooted the platform away and formation stopped there. Now, my dear troop transport starts to go through planet from the edge of the battle field to land the troops. My wall of warships is between planet and transport and they are still in wall formation. Troop transport goes as near as just behind the fleet leader. It was almost fun to look at 25 turns when nobody moved, because my idiot transport had no idea how to go around my fleet. The captain was executed.

I think I'll use break formation from now on (it works also when capturing planets if you have troop transport in your fleet, tested)...

btw, does anybody know if fleet experience counts in battles when formation is broken?

Re: How to not glass
 

Yes. Fleets still retain the experience and skill of working together even when they're not in a fixed formation.

Re: How to not glass
 

Thanks, Suicide Junkie.

Re: How to not glass
 

will try that, thank you all.

Re: How to not glass
 

Pocus, please post back here if any of those ideas work. I don't think they will. I believe the only thing that will work is to set your movement strategy for both fleet and ships to "Don't get hurt". They will then cower in the corner and only fire at ships and units that come in range.

Re: How to not glass
 

I have yet to check the most advanced ideas throw here. As I play solo exclusively as of now (I'm a former stars! veteran), I lazzily (sp? i'm a foreigner) move my transports by hand.

So there is no orders to fire at a defended planet but not at the population in essence.

Also, seems like the AI always glass and never invade. Do you see that often too? A pity really, I like the idea of ground combat. I multiplied the colon defence by 25 in the hope that the AI will use troops, but I'm really unsure that they will do that. Now that I think of it, the Orks race build many troops. Do they invade?

Re: How to not glass
 

to follow on firing on the planet but not on the pop : would the 'fire on target until all weapons gone' works?

must try, where is my testbed??? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: How to not glass
 

I don't think that works for planets. I remember testing it and having the planet get glassed.

As for AI and invasions. Several of the TDM AIs will use invasion forces.

Re: How to not glass
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, Orks invade, as well as Vikings and some other TDM races. Most Proportions AI invade liberaly. :0

Re: How to not glass
 

The only sure way I know of to destroy planet based defenses and not the population is to land troops on the planet. Here's how it works in simul games.

Load up a transport with troops and give it "capture planet" as its primary movement strat.
Add it to a fleet with the same movement strat. Set every selection to break formation.
Attack an enemy planet.

The attack ships in your fleet will head to the planet and fire on it till all WPs with offensive weapons are destroyed. They will then either stop where they are or move away from the planet.

In the meantime, your troop transport, whether armed or not, has headed to the corners along with the auxilliary ships and won't come out till that Last offensive WP is destroyed. It will then head to the planet and drop the troops. (Note: Only one transport per planet per combat round will drop troops. A stalemate will allow a second transport to drop additional troops on the same planet in the next combat round.)

If the troops win, you have gained one intact, populated, facility laden planet. If the troops lose, alas, your fleet will glass the planet.

Exceptions: If the planet has a low population, say 10m or less, you may glass it anyway when the overage of the Last shot slops over to the population. Warning: Using missiles is dangerous and may glass much bigger planets.
If the planet has sufficient defenses, your attack ships may lose. The troop transport will then try to capture the still defended planet. Obviously this rarely succeeds.

The way I see it, the only reason to kill the defenses and not the population is so you can capture the planet, so why do it piecemeal; do it all at once!

Re: How to not glass
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">One exception more: If planet has enough defensive troops, the ground battle may Last several turns. In this case your fleet simply blockades the planet until the fight is over. Once my troops fought three turns over one planet until they won.

Re: How to not glass
 

Seems that there is no simple solution so.

Do you know which settings in the Ai files influence if the AI will try to form invasion forces and not glass all the time?

I increased greatly the pop resistance to bombing, so that a single fighter dont kill 30 millions pop each turn... Will this influence the AI?