Space Empires 2 and warp point defense

Sinapus · #1 September 12th, 2002, 09:03 PM

Mines can become effective again if you raise the numbers high enough.

(360 in my current games. 200 for satellites.)

(And AIs like the Pyrochettes do build up some very nasty minefields...)

Tezzezar · #2 September 12th, 2002, 09:22 PM

Ugh. Their annoying enough.

Good point though.

Ragnarok · #3 September 12th, 2002, 10:04 PM

Yeah, I wish the AI acted like it did in SE2. With the WP defense it had back then. Not only did they sit like ALOT of dreads on the WPs but they also built like ALOT more starbases. You would seriously have to have a fleet of 100 ships or more to punch your way through. And that figure is only if there were like 80 total ships on the WP. If they had 150 (I've seen it done) on the WP you'd have to have close to 200 ships be able to win. It was great, and it'd be awesome if someone could make it like that in SEIV.

Mephisto · #4 September 13th, 2002, 01:36 AM

Unfortunately, in SE4 there is no way to teach the Ai to defend warp points with fleets.

Rollo · #5 September 13th, 2002, 01:47 AM

Yeah, not with modding. But Aaron could teach them. The AI is supposed to use some percentage of its fleets for defense. These fleets could guard warp points between 'secure' systems and contested systems or try to cut of enemy reinforcements to contested systems. This would be a step towards a better strategic behavoir of the AI.

Rollo

DirectorTsaarx · #6 September 13th, 2002, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rollo:
Yeah, not with modding. But Aaron could teach them. The AI is supposed to use some percentage of its fleets for defense. These fleets could guard warp points between 'secure' systems and contested systems or try to cut of enemy reinforcements to contested systems. This would be a step towards a better strategic behavoir of the AI.

Rollo

Makes you wonder if Aaron specifically chose not to set the AI up to defend warp points in SE4. Maybe it was an issue of balancing planetary defense and warp point defense.

I'd also like to see the AI build bases in "uninhabited" systems, i.e. build bases in asteroid field systems, nebulas, etc. As long as it knew enough not to build in a black hole system

But the AI has never been good at that, not even in SE2 or SE3 (at least not that I recall).

Mylon · #7 September 13th, 2002, 04:48 PM

Am I the only one that sees guarding warp points a little silly? I can understand in the early game, but what good is a fleet of 20 starbases sitting on a warp point when another one opens somewhere else? I'd much rather park those starbases over my planets. Sure, it's riskier because enough suicide ships can rush the planet and blow it up, but at least they help to some extent.

That, and the maintenance cost for starbases seems awfully high, even with the 50% reduction. Each battlestation practically requires a tiny planet just to provide the maintenance.