The Plague (Subverters, Boarders, and IDs, Oh My)

[inigma]

I'm thinking of creating two races, one called "The Plague" which does the following:

A psychic race employing allegience subverters, computer viruses, boarding parties, ionic dispersers (engine destroyers), phased polaron beams, and null space projectors.

and the second race called "The Cure" which would counter the The Plague.

Forgive my newbness, but I was curious, and was thinking about different ways someone could also prevent their ships from being subverted or captured in combat to The Plague.

How does one counter a psychic race employing null space weapons and computer viruses?

And does it make sense that in response, to put MCIIIs on ships with Bridge/CQ/LS/AuxBridge - can a ship be subverted if it still has crew AND an MCIII? The idea I'm aiming for is a countership that can withstand multiple null space hits and allegience subverter attempts while still able to maneuver effectively enough to score some of its own kills or captures.

Does it do any good to have multiple MCIIIs or multiple bridges? Like, what would be the best combo to retain movement control in a battle against a null-space allegience subverter fleet which also happens to employ computer viruses?

[NullAshton]

Impossible to have more than one computer or bridge... Although master computer plus human crew may guard against Allegance Subverters...

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Master computer defends against crew takeover; crew defends against computer takeover. Have both, and your ships are perfectly safe - Although I don't know if anyone's tested a ship designed to attack both.

[Suicide Junkie]

A destroyed computer still protects against subverters.
Adding B/LS/CQ means your ship keeps full speed after its computer is destroyed.

A self destruct device prevents normal boarding as long as it is intact.

[Fyron]

NullAshton said:
Impossible to have more than one computer or bridge... Although master computer plus human crew may guard against Allegance Subverters...

You can add as many master computers as you would like to a ship design. Bridges are hard-coded to one per ship, but that is what Auxilliary Control components are for.

Suicide Junkie said:
A self destruct device prevents normal boarding as long as it is intact.

As of 1.91, the AI will apparently attempt to board ships with an active SDD.

[Suicide Junkie]

As long as it (the SDD) is intact, yeah.

[douglas]

The one per ship restriction on bridges is actually ignored if a master computer is present. Not that this really matters in stock, as there is hardly ever any benefit to having multiple bridges over having more armor or weaponry.

[NullAshton]

Really? I thought you could have only one computer, like sats.

[inigma]

Well, I wonder if an overall fleet doctrine of capturing enemy ships would work in SEIV.

I was thinking that The Plague would depend on large numbers of cheap specialized ships that would work together for the good of the boarding and subverting ships.

Has anyone ever tried boarding and subversion as an overall fleet doctrine before? Did it work well?

I ran some designs in the simulator last night, and I must say that the coordination paid off. Resource for resource, boarding/subverting was either on par or far ahead of other doctrines I tested.

Research-wise, it has its drawbacks, so a good early defense is necessary, but when boarding and subverters become available, the resource curve for boarding/subverting plateaus off versus following other doctrines around mid tech.

One thing is for sure. If I ever get The Plague perfected, they will be one annoying AI. Due to their fleet doctrine, they would practically force you to make peace with everyone else while you refit your ships valuable space with MCs and anti-boarding stations just to defend against their attack, not to mention finding a way to make best use of the remaining space for offensive operations. On top of it all, forcing you to carry lots of repair ships to fix all the engine damage when you do survive their attacks.

[Suicide Junkie]

If only you could get the AI to deconstruct and analyse those ships it captures... then the research advances would be deadly