why build starships

[Rusty_Nail]

I should add that I am thinking of PBW here and should have said that. In single player it does make sense to build them because the AI never uses the "don't fire on starbases" option. It almost always uses the standard "optimal weapons range" which results in suicide missions against powerful starbases. But a human does not have to do this. In a way, using them in single player is taking advantage of the AI programming. The same thing applies to tactical combat. It is too easy to beat a superior AI force by "dancing" in and out with long range direct weapons and playing "just out of range". These problems could be dealt with by introducing some additional moving and firing options and letting the AI use them. I hope to post a note on some ideas on this another time.

[disabled]

Ahh... The Possum Trick.

when fighting an superior, yet slow moving/stationary, foe, just stay away from until combat ends.

Yes.

I think bases should have the ability to move in combat.

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[Phoenix-D]

That works if the Starbase is around a planet, but if you've got a load of them parked on the other side of the WP, the enemy ships HAVE to come in range. The result can be..messy..especially if you get to fire first.

My Last PBW game, I had a well-defended warp nexus. Between the sats, space stations, and starbase, it took out at least a megaton (!) of shiping..most of that AI, admittedly, but the Starbase opened fire without taking fire first, since this was a 1.41 game, I was second player, and the attacker rarely got to fire a shot.

EDIT: yup. Just checked that game, and the starbase alone had 7000kt worth of kills! So they do fire without being fired on first, IF a target gets into range..

Phoenix-D

[This message has been edited by Phoenix-D (edited 18 November 2001).]

[Cheeze]

Here's one reason why you couldn't ignore one. With sufficient range, you can probably never take a planet without risking being attacked by the base, no matter if you choose to ignore it as a target. Although if glassing the planet was your goal, then that works fine. And if you wanted to capture the planet, then you must eliminate the starbase first, or else it will attack the now-captured planet. Or, should it be directed not to attack, it still blockades the planet, meaning you received no resources, intel or research.

Perhaps it is also tied in with the unpredictability of the starbase's position in combat. In PBW, when I tell my ships not to fire on the planet, I have still lost more than a few who fly close enough to the planet for it to shoot at them while going after other targets. It probably wouldn't be any different.

While you will never see this in simulators, I have found that often when you direct your ships NOT to fire on a type of target (in my case planets), once they run out of things to shoot, they tend to just mill about aimlessly. I believe you would find in that in the warp point example, the ships would not move much at all, and many would wind up targets for an undamaged station.

You have found an exploitable situation, but not an unfair one. Starbases offer superior range and firepower compared to ships, but that trades off with an entire inability to do anything but wait for an attacker.

[This message has been edited by Lynx (edited 18 November 2001).]

[AJC]

Another tactic is to put fighters on the starbase guarding the warp pt. fighter launchers on space stations all around the starbase. This gives the starbase the ability to attack with some range after enemy ships move away.

[Taqwus]

Use Heavy and Massive mounts on your starbase, and look at the range bonuses. Then consider, say, Ionic Disperser beams (which, at those mount levels, will readily immobilize an enemy ship at a pretty healthy distance), Repulsor Beams (which will fling them back across the map), and so forth. Some of the special weapons really don't have much of a weakness *except* low range, which these mounts really, really help.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night