RE: How to be successful in hard mode?

Matrix Games Forums

Forums Register Login Photo Gallery Member List Search Calendars FAQ

My Profile Inbox Address Book My Subscription My Forums Log Out

RE: How to be successful in hard mode?

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> The War Room >> RE: How to be successful in hard mode?

Page: << < prev 1 [2] 3 next > >>

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 6/30/2016 5:52:09 AM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970

quote:

But, I know the AI doesn't stick monitoring stations on their mines

Some AI's do.

It is good to hear the game is modable in that respect.

That a mod does something that is a bad idea, does not make it a good idea for the player ;-)

(in reply to Retreat1970)

Post #: 31

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 6/30/2016 5:03:00 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

I mean putting long range scanners on their mine bases, not building a seperate monitoring station. I assume that's what the player is supposed to do.

Well, it's a good idea, it helps you win easier, and that is the goal after all. However sadly distant worlds requires you to tie one hand behind your back to have a decent game seemingly, because it offers you so many ways to easily have a huge advantage. So it's a bad idea in terms of challenge. However if the AI players did it too, then it would go back to being a good idea for everyone, assuming that lots of sensor coverage for all empires is considered a good thing.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 32

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 6/30/2016 6:21:07 PM

Retreat1970

Posts: 948
Joined: 11/6/2013
From: Wisconsin
Status: offline

quote:

I mean putting long range scanners on their mine bases

Again some AI's do. I don't know everybodys mod, but mine does. I think Icemanias does. It's an easy fix. In the mine templates change long range scanner from 0 to 1.

As far as difficulty goes, you can make your game as hard as you want on startup. Besides extreme difficulty, you can determine the races you play against. Imagine a galaxy full of bugs, and you're all alone against them. Or even a galaxy full of bugs set at tech 7 start, and you're at prewarp. If you can beat that, then I will listen about the game being easy.

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 33

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 6/30/2016 8:04:25 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

Well, if you have to give yourself giant handicaps for a challenge, then yes, the game is easy. That's OK, I don't mind terribly having to handicap myself so long as I don't have to be intentionally stupid, or play in a less fun way in the process. It's good to see that at least in some mods, the AI does stick long range scanners on their mining bases, meaning it's fair game for me to do so as well.

I certainly won't say that I've won the game on the hardest settings, even with other things being fair. And even if I manage to win perfectly well on extreme, there's always the AI mods, which I plan to start playing with once I get to that point.

I have also considered playing on normal, with myself on pre-warp, and everyone else at the next level. Losing the big head start the player typically gets might go a long way toward evening things out. Does anyone play that way, or are there issues with that I'm not seeing?

(in reply to Retreat1970)

Post #: 34

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 6/30/2016 8:53:19 PM

Twigster

Posts: 1023
Joined: 1/13/2015
Status: offline

quote:

Imagine a galaxy full of bugs, and you're all alone against them. Or even a galaxy full of bugs set at tech 7 start, and you're at prewarp. If you can beat that, then I will listen about the game being easy.

I honestly doubt that that one can be won.

I chuckle every time I read someone say how easy this game is... sure, it CAN be too easy, depending on your settings. Conversely, I do not see how playing certain mods with the hardest settings (and I am only talking about Extreme/Chaos, Very Expensive Research-999k- and lots of strong Pirates) starting at pre-warp can at all be termed 'handicapping' one's self. But then, apparently some people don't like playing this game for a challenge. Oh well.

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 35

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 6/30/2016 9:34:36 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

No, I wouldn't consider the stuff you listed as handicapping yourself, that's just game setup.

I was talking more about not using tax rates to the best effect because the AI doesn't, not doing custom designs because the AI is bad at it, not cancelling/re-requesting protection deals to save money and base destruction early on, not arming your mining bases to the teeth because the AI doesn't do it.

I guess you must chuckle and roll your eyes a lot around here, because from the looks of all the mods and discussions, the game is too easy, and lots of people say it regularly. That indicates they actually DO want to play the game for a challenge. But apparently some people just want to be smug. Oh well.

(in reply to Twigster)

Post #: 36

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 6/30/2016 11:43:24 PM

Retreat1970

Posts: 948
Joined: 11/6/2013
From: Wisconsin
Status: offline

I apologize Damiac. My intention wasn't to be smug. I do like reading your posts, but at times I lack a certain civility.

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 37

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/1/2016 1:15:53 AM

Twigster

Posts: 1023
Joined: 1/13/2015
Status: offline

quote:

I guess you must chuckle and roll your eyes a lot around here, because from the looks of all the mods and discussions, the game is too easy, and lots of people say it regularly. That indicates they actually DO want to play the game for a challenge. But apparently some people just want to be smug. Oh well.

LOL! Let's take a deep breath for a moment...

I have never heard of anyone who plays on the hardest settings say this game was too easy, ROTFLMMFAO!

On the contrary, there are numerous posts from people on much easier settings saying the game is too easy, and for good reason. I am also not being smug- simply observing and reporting.

(in reply to Retreat1970)

Post #: 38

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/1/2016 2:24:19 AM

Retreat1970

Posts: 948
Joined: 11/6/2013
From: Wisconsin
Status: offline

quote:

I have also considered playing on normal, with myself on pre-warp, and everyone else at the next level

That's a great idea, and it should make a big challenge. If you do it, let us know how it turns out. We need more AAR writers anyways.

(in reply to Twigster)

Post #: 39

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/5/2016 6:13:23 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970

I apologize Damiac. My intention wasn't to be smug. I do like reading your posts, but at times I lack a certain civility.

My reply was for Twigster, not you, but I was probably a bit oversensitive, something about those eye roll guys really rub me the wrong way. Oh well, sorry for the hostility there.

So I played a game on harder, trying to avoid what seems like some of the cheesier tactics, especially constantly making and breaking protection agreements to avoid building defenses early on. This changes everything, as you can't afford to keep paying protection, and defenses cost money too! (duh). So it becomes impossible to get by on 0%, or even fairly low taxes. On top of that, my medium space port was blown up by pirates at one point, setting me way back.

I recovered decently well, and after getting back on my feet, decided I could use some more income, so it was time to steal a capital. I had some nearby harkonians (sp?) and figured I'd go after them. Destroying their military was a cakewalk, and they had about 300k strength in defense. I ordered up some troops, a few troop carriers, and waited...

Well, I didn't exactly plan this out well, because the maintenance for all those troops was obscene, and before I even had enough troops and transports for the invasion, I was in the red. And it was getting worse and worse.
I jacked up taxes as high as I could, and waited a bit to see if my cash stabilized. It didn't, I ended up at -18k, and realized I needed to take more drastic action.

I realized my invasion plans were not going to work, at least at this point, so I disbanded pretty much all my ground troops, and scrapped a bit of my military. A big setback, but I was back in the green. I pushed my taxes down to where I was just barely coming out ahead, hoping to grow my homeworld a bit more, which was at a dismal 5 or 6 billion population.

Well, this was all too little much too late. I managed to capture a weak homeworld, but the Harkonians had come back in a major way after I crushed them early on. And apparently they held a grudge about that earlier conquest attempt... They and a number of their allies declared war on me. I held them off for a bit, but it was obvious I was only falling further and further behind. My empire fought bravely at the end, but it was not enough, and they were conquered.

After that, I started a new game, same settings, except I picked the lipids this time, and dropped the house rule about pirate protection. I was able to keep 0% taxes until max population, which I then realized is something I've been depending on, because with these low taxes and fast growth, I was able to afford an invasion of one of my neighbors home worlds, which I now hold.

I'm readying to invade the Harkonians, to get revenge(or is it re-revenge? I did start it after all). I have about 1,250k strength of invaders, some of them armored, and they have about 900k strength at their homeworld. I think I should win, although there seems to be more than just these numbers behind the scenes, as I've lost miserably in ground battles where I had a pretty good strength advantage.

< Message edited by Damiac -- 7/5/2016 7:30:04 PM >

(in reply to Retreat1970)

Post #: 40

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/5/2016 7:06:05 PM

Twigster

Posts: 1023
Joined: 1/13/2015
Status: offline

quote:

Oh well, sorry for the hostility there.

No probs

Hope everybody had a nice July 4th holiday (as appropriate). I am going to begin working up an AAR on my current game (it will begin at the beginning of the second century of this Zenox empire). This will be in the AAR thread in this forum.

quote:

I think I should win, although there seems to be more than just these numbers behind the scenes, as I've lost miserably in ground battles where I had a pretty good strength advantage.

Does the enemy have one or more Generals defending? How about defensive facilities? Also, is the enemy potentially landing reinforcements during these ground battles?

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 41

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/5/2016 7:29:41 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

Hmm, well I thought the bonus from generals and defensive facilities was already figured into the final strength number. I do know in the main case from memory there were definitely planetary shields, possibly a bunker as well. I can say for sure no new reinforcements dropped in.

What I saw happen was the invading force (me) had about 1,400k strength, and the defense force had something like 1,000k strength, so I had a decent numerical advantage in strength.

But when I watched the battle play out, my strength number just dropped MUCH faster than the opponents. I ended up losing half my forces without doing much of anything to the enemy forces, so I ended up just picking them back up. 4,000k of troops was enough...

It just makes me wonder how to determine how much of a force I actually need. Early on, it's generally all I can afford to put together an invasion force of 300k strength or so, so I would like to know before I try to invade if that's enough to beat a 200k strength defense planet. Is there some other factor I'm not considering? Is it possible defensive shields do more than just give a 25% bonus to strength level?

I guess I wonder, is 1,250k enough to conquer 900k? Most of the time the bigger number seems to win, but is there anything else I should look for? Would an untested troop general possibly be hiding a big bonus I won't know about until after the battle? Should I lead with a tiny force to try to get his generals to show their true strength, or would that just give his army free training?

(in reply to Twigster)

Post #: 42

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/5/2016 7:50:37 PM

Twigster

Posts: 1023
Joined: 1/13/2015
Status: offline

OK, I understand better now. I think the factor you are not considering is that the enemy is recruiting new troops during the fight... due to that, I would answer that 'no', 1250K is not sufficient to defeat 900K. Also, if you are fighting Experienced or Elite, etc. troops with lower status troops, you will lose troops faster.

quote:

Would an untested troop general possibly be hiding a big bonus I won't know about until after the battle?

Always possible.

quote:

Should I lead with a tiny force to try to get his generals to show their true strength, or would that just give his army free training?

That would just give his army free training. With the situation you are describing, if it were me, I would be invading with a 2-1 ratio just to ensure victory. I do understand however how expensive this could potentially be. I mean, one alternative would be to land a sufficiently powerful suicide force of Special Forces in order to take out Planetary Shields, etc. and then glass the planet from orbit.

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 43

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/6/2016 1:19:23 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

Well, I 'tested' it out, and found out a couple of things. My forces look like they might just barely be able to win, if I can land them all at the same time, and get my damn military ships to stay over the planet to keep the space control bonus. I really wish there was a command to make the stupid ship just stay there!

The other major problem with my invasion plans is that my troop transports don't have quite enough fuel to get to the enemy system, and maneuver to the planet. Of course, they're the AI designed ones, so they aren't anywhere near the size limit... So I'll beef those up, probably slap on a few more fuel cells and a few more troop compartments, recruit some troops in the mean time, and I should be able to take it.

Is there any reason to take that empire's smaller colonies first? If I take some of his income away, will he disband troops, or will the AI just let his money go negative?

(in reply to Twigster)

Post #: 44

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/6/2016 3:52:37 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

During invasions, I want to stop the enemy from reinforcing the colony, have space superiority, and I want to kill arrivals. How to have ships in the space just around the colony? Use the blockade order.

Not enough fuel? Refuel them. If they have to attack at long range, use resupply ships. Don't solve fuel issues by slapping on custom fuel cells, solve them by playing the game with the tools available

You should not take it for granted that the AI loses income by losing smaller colonies. He loses some forces that won't require upkeep anymore, and the lost taxes may not be all that much. But you "push him back", you probably waste some mines while going there, which may give him a little nudge in the direction of a resource shortage. One positive side effect from taking his close, small colonies, is that it pushes the borders back. It makes your former front line colonies not front line anymore. If you are lucky his next invasion is against a newly conquered colony rather than a less defended colony a bit further back. And if you take his colony, you are quite sure it is not a staging point for his next attack.

And if it is a poorly defended small colony, it is not like it is a lot of work to take it. No space defense? Just send a couple of troop transports from your invasion fleet. Abuse the fact that fleet members head back to leader when they have no order. You can have a single invasion fleet with a random cruiser/whatever leader, and a bunch of troop transport. Give single transports attack orders, and they will return to leader after dropping their load. Doing this, it is easy enough to invade 5-6 colonies at once when the game have advanced enough that having 20-ish troop transports is no strain on the economy. You just have to scout the targets to know how many transports are needed for each of them.

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 45

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/6/2016 4:43:16 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

I use the blockade order (I learned it from your AAR, thanks) and it works.... sometimes. Other times, the order seems to just vanish and the ships go back to chasing explorers and freighters.

Eh, I paid a research cost for ship size, the design tool is available, so I don't think it's wrong to put more fuel cells on my designs. I understand that a game played with the rule of no custom designs is harder, but designing my own ships is part of the fun.

For example, my warships do not have infinite fuel, however they are at max size, and I wanted more firepower and defense more than I wanted more fuel. But my troop ships have spare room not being used, it's just a waste!

Still, in the future I will probably try to be a bit smarter and build a gas mine or something, logistically this attack is pretty problematic.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 46

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/6/2016 5:37:27 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

I am not sure why the blockade order would disappear. It does of course disappear when you take control of the colony.
Do you run postures on your ships, maybe those distracted the fleet?

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 47

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/7/2016 2:28:51 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

No, I don't have any postures on my fleets, at least, nothing beyond whatever is set by default, and automation is off on both fleets and individual ships. They just seem to get bored of blockading the planet sometimes, and the order just goes away. Maybe it happens when other hostiles enter the system? I don't really understand it, it's just another thing I seem to have to micromanage a bit.

So the empire I was calling the Harkonians were actually the Pirgateurs (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). They just happened to have a very similar flag to an old enemy from the game before. Anyway, they somehow found out about my... simulation of the invasion of their planet, and decided a first strike was in order, and declared war on me. Very annoying, as I was basically retrofitting my whole military to newer designs, and I just had to sit back and watch as they destroyed some research and resort bases.

After having a number of my facilities destroyed, my fleet was finally ready for action. I had two crusher fleets of 7 ships, with about 2000 firepower, and 3 strike fleets with 4 ships each. I sent my two crushers to a gas mine near the enemy capital that I knew was being used as a staging point against me, and a strike fleet to a smaller colony to make some trouble. One strike fleet stayed home to defend against the relentless pirates on the west side of my empire, and another fruitlessly tried to hold a system with Korriban spice while I built a mine. I had 5 troop ships with 2200 capacity, which I filled with infantry and armor. I sent them to deep space near the enemy capital.

The two crusher fleets lived up to their name, destroying the gas mine and the small enemy fleet stationed nearby. They moved on to the enemy capital, and while several were severely damaged in the fighting, none were lost, and the enemy's defenses were gone at their capital system. I ordered one crusher fleet to maintain a blockade, and moved in my troop ships. I also pulled my small strike force away from the colony they had been attacking, as they had become a bit damaged, and moved them into the enemy capital system. However, I noticed at this point that my crusher fleets were severely low on fuel.

With my crushers running on fumes, I ordered the invasion of the enemy capital. My fleets were ordered to blockade the planet, which they mostly did. I ended up with 3,900k strength on the enemy planet, vs his 1,200k strength. It was a forgone conclusion, and after some intense fighting, the enemy capital was mine! I picked up a few troops, and moved to the smaller colony in the system, and took that one as well.

At this point, I figured I'd taken the fight out of the Pirgateurs, so I graciously offered to allow them the gift of subjugation, along with an end to the destruction. They callously refused, letting their pride get in the way of their survival. This annoyed me greatly, as I was just barely keeping above water financially, and I wanted to end the war and get my affairs in order. However, if they wanted to keep fighting, I was happy to oblige...

Since I now held the enemy capital, I was able to refuel one of my crusher fleets, the other had been sent home for repairs. My damaged fleets were still easily powerful enough to destroy the pathetic defenses of their remaining colonies, and I sent one troop ship to each of their three colonies. After a very short series of ground battles, the Pigateur empire was no more, in the end, destroyed by their own foolish pride. I ordered their ships retired, disbanded most of my ground troops, and looked to the ever growing pirate threat.

So now I have three capital worlds, two of them at max population. I have a regional capital at one, and I have a huge budget surplus. I have managed to steal pulse drive technology (finally!), which is a moderate upgrade to the equinox units I have been using. There are a LOT of pirate bases around my empire, and I am suffering regular raids on several of my colonies. The colonies I took from the Pirgatuer (which I didn't even want!) are being constantly targeted by pirates as well. There is also the matter of the Korriban spice I was forced to abandon during the war. I am just barely ahead on the victory screen, however I have the most population. My small colony count is holding me back a bit, but that will be easy enough to fix once I secure my borders a bit more. With the capture of the second enemy homeworld, I finally feel like I'm in position to dictate terms to the rest of the galaxy, although I would be in trouble if a few powerful empires ganged up on me. Some peaceful reputation building would probably be a good idea.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 48

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/7/2016 2:44:37 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

It seems like it is time to be at peace and hunt pirates for a while

I have not played in a while, but I seem to remember that default postures are bad for me. They allow the fleets to be creative. I believe the needed tweak is to set range to the minimum, but also possibly to make sure they are at defensive stance.

Unless I do this, I have seen them take off on their own.

Also, being very low of fuel makes any ship misbehave (they have survival instincts that make them head for fuel when low enough).

Another factor is your fleet size compared to mine. Your fleets are 7 ship strong, with AI ships mine are usually 17 ships or more. This possibly makes a difference when it comes to maintaining a blockade while enemy ships visit the system. It is hard to send a fraction of a ship to do some work.

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 49

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/7/2016 3:03:52 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

That's a good point, fleets do seem to split up in system to attack different targets sometimes. I tend to go with smaller fleets of big ships armed to the teeth, but of course when I send 4 ships to destroy 5 mining bases they can't exactly split up into 4/5 of a ship each.

True about low fuel, same when they have component damage... thank goodness for that shields 20% armor 50% setting, the game must have been unplayably frustrating before that whenever you ran into rail guns.

The system with the korriban spice is too far for me to colonize, and difficult to hold onto well enough to get a mine built. I'm sure I'll also need some defense bases as well. How would you normally secure a special resource like this? I never seem to control them in my games, and I could use any extra income/good will I can get. I know there is a respawning worm as well, although hopefully the mine and defense bases can keep that under control. Do worms ignore shields like Kaltors?

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 50

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/7/2016 4:47:36 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

With firepower present, I don't think the worms would have time to hurt you. If I could not secure it by colonizing, I would probably build 1-2 defensive bases very close to the mine (as long as they don't have area weapons). I do not make mines armed to the teeth, though. In any ways, you are at a risk of having some other empire colonizing the area, making them grumpy of you having stuff in their territory.

Fleet members react to their engagement stance, which typically is "attack system targets". This means they jump at mines after winning the colony battle. Then there is overmatch, which says "how much stronger" we should be. Which again means that your power-houses jump at separate mines, while smaller ships may go 2 vs 1. When they jump off, they should gather at the leader, which makes it a bad thing if the fleet leader is the one to jump. I seem to have registered the blockade order keeping them in place, though, but I pay some attention until the mines are dead.

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 51

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/7/2016 9:15:31 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

I'll just have to pay more attention in the future and see if I can nail down what causes it. I'll try messing with the engagement settings as well.

If I put a few weapons on my troop ships, will they give me a space control bonus?(Assuming there aren't any enemy ships nearby) Typically I don't want my transports fighting, so I strip off all weaponry, but I could just set them to only attack targets attacking them to keep them from jumping around like idiots.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 52

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/7/2016 9:39:29 PM

Twigster

Posts: 1023
Joined: 1/13/2015
Status: offline

quote:

If I put a few weapons on my troop ships, will they give me a space control bonus?

Not sure, but I doubt that it would be substantial enough to justify arming transports in the larger context, i.e. if you are fighting an enemy you don't already completely overwhelm.

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 53

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/7/2016 9:48:26 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

Well often I go into the system, destroy what's there, and only then bring in my troop ships. I keep my military in the system to fight off anything else that arrives, but it would be nice if I could just leave my troop transport sitting above the planet and get a nice 25% bonus from it. It's certainly worth the cost of a maxos cannon or two not to have to micromanage ships to sit on a planet being invaded.

What do you mean substantial? From what I can tell, space control is something you either have or don't have, and if you have it, you get a 25% bonus for the invasion.

(in reply to Twigster)

Post #: 54

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/7/2016 9:49:41 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

I prefer to have my troop ships unarmed. That way they won't end up in combat with troops on board if idling in the capital system and some pirates arrive, for instance. I don't want my troops killed while on board the transports...

To avoid losing them after invasions, I use a non-troop carrying invasion fleet leader, and leave the fleet leader at a resupply ship (or friendly colony) in the area. A resupply ship may be preferred, as a friendly colony may actually be visited by an invasion force. When I attack I order single/groups of transports to attack, and almost never the whole fleet. That way the troop ships head for the leader after dropping their load. In case I want to invade with my whole invasion fleet, I first issue the fleet order, then tell the leader to move to another system. Then the transports will head off after completing the invasion. There is no need for them to hang around in case the enemy arrive with fighting forces.

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 55

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/8/2016 12:20:09 AM

Twigster

Posts: 1023
Joined: 1/13/2015
Status: offline

Right... like others, I send in the armed ships to destroy enemy defending ships and bases. I then order a fleet or two to blockade the planet, and when the (scout-mounted) long-range sensors in-system indicated that there are no hostiles inbound, have the un-armed troop transports invade the enemy planet. That is as far as I have paid attention to what is required for space superiority bonus- total and complete space superiority in the system being attacked. Typically, the transports are are in deep space somewhere near the targeted system.

What I meant by 'substantial' was substantial enough to actually fight off enemy transports attempting to land reinforcements, etc.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 56

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/8/2016 1:26:37 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

Oh, in my experience the military ships need to be almost right on top of the planet for me to get a space control bonus, even with no enemy ships present at all. I guess that's another thing to pay more attention to next time, but I'm pretty sure they need to be right there.

(in reply to Twigster)

Post #: 57

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/8/2016 1:44:39 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

I have not payed too much attention, but my assumption has always been that "space superiority" is sitting on top of the planet without being in battle. Where "on top of" means pretty much "in the gravity zone", so being a little on the side of the planet works too.

When it comes to timing the invasion, I typically give a little head start to the battle fleet, and then order the transports to attack. If it is a heavily defended system, I may wait a bit longer. Even if the space battle is not quite over when the transports arrives, any hostile ships should be busy attacking the other ones there. But any spaceport/defensive batteries better be gone before the transports with my precious troops arrive.

(in reply to Damiac)

Post #: 58

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/8/2016 2:21:17 PM

Damiac

Posts: 73
Joined: 6/14/2016
Status: offline

What happens a lot is I clear the system, come in for invasion, and then a few freighters trickle in and distract my military guys. So I gain and lose the space superiority bonus as they move away, then come back to continue the blockade. This is pretty significant for close fights, which is why I'm considering putting a single weapon on my transports and setting them to defend, in the hope that after they drop off their troops and hang out over the colony, they'll provide the bonus without needing my military ships to sit on the planet too.

I am nervous about sending transports to attack a colony over a long distance due to the bug that happens if there's already a pirate raid going on, where you just lose your troops. So I usually order them to move to the planet, then hopefully I'm paying enough attention to tell them to attack once they arrive.

It's been a while since I've fought a war where the other side was still putting up meaningful opposition while I was trying to invade, I typically go in with an overwhelming force, destroy their capital system fleets and defenses, and then send in the troops once the system is fairly secure. That's been working so far on very hard mode, the only problem being that I have to pretty much bankrupt myself in the process, meaning it's a huge risk if the invasion fails. Now that I've got two other homeworlds I should be over that hump though.

What's the general opinion on the superweapons like death rays and devastator pulses? I got devastators in one game, I used them a little bit, but they seemed just as dangerous to my own ships as they were to the enemies. In this game I got death rays though, and I'm wondering if they're considered wildly overpowered, or not. I could certainly put one on my capital ships, and 1800 damage every 9 seconds is nothing to sneeze at, but I don't really want to turn this game into a cakewalk.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 59

RE: How to be successful in hard mode? - 7/8/2016 7:13:18 PM

Twigster

Posts: 1023
Joined: 1/13/2015
Status: offline