How dumb is the AI/Are U ?

[Taz-in-Space]

Hey all you self-destructive types out there. Taz here with the newest way to cripple your Empire!
Yep, I think I have come up with a new stupid gamer trick.
First you must be at war with an opponent that is building very large fleets... 40-50+ ships
Next your defense must rely on very large arrays of satellites... 80 + large satellites
Lastly, you must become paranoid that some ships can sneak in via cloaking...so you build a detection satellite.
Now give that detection satellite some stealth armor - add it to the stack of satellites and (to prevent the detection satellite from getting harmed) turn on the stealth mode.

Can I hear you pro's groaning?

Sure enough, the next stack of ships sent your way go clean by your defenses without a problem!!!

End result : Rage 1 - Me 0

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS...

[Ragnarok]

I've done this once before also. Kinda made me feel like a complete fool.

[Suicide Junkie]

Spy sats should always be hidden far behind the front lines, in an asteroid belt or a storm.

I suppose you didn't realize that if combat occurs in the sector, your sat isn't protected anyways?

[DavidG]

Originally posted by Taz-in-Space:
Now give that detection satellite some stealth armor - add it to the stack of satellites and (to prevent the detection satellite from getting harmed) turn on the stealth mode.

Can I hear you pro's groaning?

So for us non pro's are you actaully tell me that one satellite within a whole mess of them will cloak the whole group???

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:

I suppose you didn't realize that if combat occurs in the sector, your sat isn't protected anyways?

No no, I realized that it wouldn't be protected if it was in the same sector that was being attacked. But I just usually cloak anything that can be cloaked if it's where I want it. I never thought that it would be safe if I just cloaked it.

[Taz-in-Space]

Well DavidG, any ability like cloaking or ECM will apply to a stack of satellites. I must admit that I knew this for ECM and combat sensors and SHOULD HAVE known that a cloaked satellite would cloak the whole stack. I just wasn't thinking very good just then. Also I should have realizied that being in the same sector with uncloakedthings (ships/bases) would still have the satellite on the combat screen.
So I am guilty of TWO errors! That is why it is such a stupid gamer trick!!!

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by DavidG:

So for us non pro's are you actaully tell me that one satellite within a whole mess of them will cloak the whole group???

Yes, that's true. I sometimes do this. I make small sats with just beams, another just combat sensors, another just ecm, another just stealth armor, topping the stack off with armor only sats. In combat with all sat's clumped, which everyone hates, all abilities apply until they are shot away, Last one launched is destroyed first. It's not really as cool as it sounds -- even the AI knows enough to not tangle with a monster stack of sats unless it has enough fire power. Or it just nukes the planet first than cleans up the sats.

I heard that troops also stack their abilities -- so my troops have functions too -- a front line of armored troops with one cannon, behind them are assault troops with no armor and 3 cannons, and then a command group with armor, ECM, combat sensors, maybe shields (MM will fix the bug that shields dont work on troops eventually) and maybe one cannon. I heard that troops are targeted in the order they are put on the transport -- so frontline first, then assault, then command. I may have this backward though.

I wish we could do this with fighters -- one large fighter, well armored, to provide ECM and combat sensors to several smaller beam and rocket pod fighters while some small shielded fighters provide the entire group with defence. But you can only build that fighter wing on tactical.

'Course so many people hate this clustering of abilities maybe MM might make all these tricks go away sometime.

[ July 27, 2002, 14:42: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[geoschmo]

I don't know if calling them "tricks" is appropriate. All of these methods have drawbacks as well as advantages to them. It's not as if they are perfect or (I HATE this word) unbalancing.

I suppose some people wouldn't be happy unless sats were all treated as individuals with no kind of grouping at all, but then wouldn't they be pretty close to useless? It's the safety of numbers that makes them at least semi-useful. And even then they are sufficently easy to destroy with just a little bit of planning and a few decent capital ships. They really only serve the purpose of denying your enemy what I would call "cheap" victories. That is, a one or two ship fleet being able to get behind the lines and glass numerous lightly defended planets. And they are after all static defenses. Defenses should be tough afterall.

[Fyron]

Last one launched is destroyed first

Is that true? With weapon platforms and troops, its the first built/dropped that gets hurt first.

[Baron Munchausen]

I haven't checked the troops trick lately, but the damage effect on satellites and WPs has been altered. Satellite and WP stacks seem to be like armor now, the smallest seems more likely to get hit first regardless of position. But it's fairly random, and not 'reverse order' at all anymore.