Planetary Invasion Discussion Thread

[Cory Trese]

Xeno Population
The Population of Xeno ranges from 1 for a minor infestation to 20 indicating a planetwide xenomass and complete infestation of the planet's ecology and terrestrial environments.
Reducing a World's Xeno Population to 0 frees it of the Xeno infection and will allow the settlement of a Colony by the Star Traders. The Xeno Colony is also destroyed if Quality is reduced to 0.

Xeno Radiation
Xeno Radiation is produced by xenomass as a natural defense against human attackers. These radiation waves can be devestating to Military Transports, Drop Ships and Bombers. To successfully manage Xeno Radiation, carefully Scout the Xeno world to evaluate and eliminate Radiation Risks. The turns following Scout operations, Xeno Radiation will be reduced.

Xeno Defense
The Xeno Defense rating represents how aggressive and widespread the xeno ground defense is. It is important to be cautious when the Xeno Defense level is unknown. Xeno Defense can contribute heavily to damage to Military Transport ships. Use Scouting and Bombardment to reduce Xeno Defense.

Transport Design
The design of Military Transport ships is important for successful campaigns against the Xeno. Transport ships will use their Sensors, Invasion, Pilot and Shielding during attacks. Military Transport ships will use their Durability, Shielding and Armor values to defend against damage from the Xeno Colony. Military Transports will depend on Repair and Refuel.

Invasion Training
A Military Transport with higher level Planetary Invasion training will have more success when attacking Xeno Colonies. However, higher level training does consume more Water-Fuel. The Planetary Invasion training can augment Drop Ship damage and a Ship's Invasion Captain Skill. Every 10 points of damage from the weapon and training will reduce the Xeno Colony by 1 point.

Drop Ships
Drop Ships provide the workhorse of the Star Trader's planetary warfare. Capable as high-orbit bombers, low-orbit assault craft and troop landers Drop Ships provide the armor and guns for invasion. A Military Transport's damage for Bombard, Invade and Scout is based on the design's Drop Ships. Every 10 points of damage from the Drop Ship will reduce a Xeno Colony by 1 point.

[Cory Trese]

How is a Xeno Colony strength scaled?

When a Xeno Colony is attacked, Star Traders 4X generates a temporary Xeno ship based on the Xeno AI level, the Xeno AI type, and game difficulty level. That ship is not displayed on the map, but is used for attack and defense rolls on behalf of the Colony.

This temporary Xeno ship scales the exact same way as a normal Xeno ship -- so you know roughly how much damage it has, how hard it is to hit and how dangerous it might be to your Military Transport (I assume you had to fight some Xeno ships to get to the Colony.)

By using the ship spawning system to create opponents for your Military Transports, the game can ensure that the battle for the Colonies is roughly as challenging as the battle for space.

How is damage done to a Military Transport during Planetary Invasion?

A Military Transport makes an attack roll against the Xeno Colony. This is the same type of attack roll that the Military Transport ship would make if it was attacking another Ship. Transport ships will use their Sensors, Invasion, Pilot and Shielding during attacks instead of Guns, Torpedoes Pilot, and Stealth.

If the Military Transport attack misses or is counter-attacked the ship may take damage. Military Transport ships will use their Durability, Shielding and Armor values to defend against damage from the Xeno Colony.

[Kanly]

Thanks for sharing this! I think my problem was the lack of sensors on my ships.

[eternalheathen]

Thank you thank you thank you! It's time to start expanding.

[Brutus Aurelius]

So, Cory Trese, you said that the Xenomass infests a planet entirely. So, if this happens, do the Xeno start mining? Building production centers? If not, does that mean their ships are organically produced, like WH40K's Tyranids?

[resistor]

Jun 2, 2015 12:17:49 GMT -5 Brutus Aurelius said:

So, Cory Trese, you said that the Xenomass infests a planet entirely. So, if this happens, do the Xeno start mining? Building production centers? If not, does that mean their ships are organically produced, like WH40K's Tyranids?

Well there must be some reason why Xeno ships are unable to be taken by humans in ST RPG. Maybe Xeno ships are made out of metal in production centers, but covered by living Xenomass flesh things that grow on them.

EDIT: Well that is assuming the RPG and 4X take place in the same universe.

[bookworm21]

Yep they do. Although in different parts of space

[elwoodps]

Cory Trese -- Many, many thanks for this thread and the material you and fallen have added to The Library in v2.3.1.  

I think that for me (playing Hard), this new info will be of far greater and more long-lasting value than any of the adjustments this update makes to the game itself.


There are however, a couple points I hope you'll clarify for me that I think i understand, but want to be sure I'm not making false assumptions

Jun 2, 2015 9:49:28 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

.......
Invasion Training
A Military Transport with higher level Planetary Invasion training will have more success when attacking Xeno Colonies. However, higher level training does consume more Water-Fuel. The Planetary Invasion training can augment Drop Ship damage and a Ship's Invasion Captain Skill. Every 10 points of damage from the weapon and training will reduce the Xeno Colony by 1 point.

Drop Ships
Drop Ships provide the workhorse of the Star Trader's planetary warfare. Capable as high-orbit bombers, low-orbit assault craft and troop landers Drop Ships provide the armor and guns for invasion. A Military Transport's damage for Bombard, Invade and Scout is based on the design's Drop Ships. Every 10 points of damage from the Drop Ship will reduce a Xeno Colony by 1 point.

In the Invasion Training paragraph, I'm assuming that "the weapon" referred to is the Drop Ship.  Is this correct?

Both the quoted paragraphs contain the statement "will reduce a Xeno Colony by 1 point".  I'm guessing that this = "will reduce the population of a Xeno Colony by 1".  Is this correct?

[Cory Trese]

"the weapon" does mean the drop ship.

"1 point" means 1 Point of Quality / Population or Defense.

[elwoodps]

Thanks !

[koles]

I'm after 2 days of heavy testing new rules 2.3.1 on new hard game
the rim 64x64 (64 planets) with alta, maklu and zenrin (mostly to test war barge and their use of structures on new rules)

i have tested ships with higher possible lvl to get higher ship skills, captain skills set 1 repair + 10-12 invasion, all with planetary invasion 2 and heavy assault brigade
so it was:
1) lvl 2-3 (standard millitary ship and war barge); durablility 6-8, shielding 9-10, sensor 8-9; with heavy drop pods and 13 armor platings - no differences between ships
2) lvl 3 war barge; durablility 8, shielding 18, sensor 0 with Void Warding (+2 gamma shielding, +2 theta shielding) - results: takes more damages than previous
3) lvl 5 war barge; durablility 6, shielding 0, sensor 20; with 6 plating - results: takes less damages than previous, but about same amount like no. 1
4) lvl 5 war barge; durablility 6, shielding 20, sensor 0; with 6 plating - results: takes biggest damages, 3 ships explodes in third finnishing attack
5) lvl 1 war barge; durablility 20, shielding 0, sensor 4; (reactor11 - 4200mass) with low orbit pods and 22 duranium hybrid plating + warded hull (+2 armor, +2 gamma shielding)- results: takes about half damages than no. 1&3

xeno planets 16-18 radiation and 16-22 defences



ships 1-4 have do more damage to xeno planet allowing them to purge them in 2-3 turns but takes 100-150 damages in fight (60-90% of full HP)- also i need to point that 3 ships with 170hp explodes during attack

ships 5 have 400HP and have biggest armor (armor takes much of space so i needed take lower possible lvl that use less mass) but they do less damages to xeno planets - with that ships i needed to attack planets 4-5 turns to purge them out. thas ships takes less damages per attack but with bigger number of attacks in fact they takes more damages: about 150-200 per xeno planet - but - thats less than 50%HP allowing them to attack second planet (and also purge it) - so its definitely a winner

my conclusion is that armour is biggest factor when you try to prevent damages, second factor is sensor

haven't enought time to test war barge with duranium hull (32 armor armored hull) - i need more research - so i even dont know if there will be enought space on 4,2k mass reactor
i also want to test ships with 20 durability and 13 plating on reactor9 because its lower tier tech to see what happens

anyway sadly looks like there is no point to repair invasion ships even with 4 repair skill (120 hp will repair in 30 turns so its much cheaper to demolish it and build a new ones, espacially that damaged ships have bigger maintaining cost).


i think that whole idea of changing invasion rules is good, but there are some misscalculations on it. invasion ships shouldnt takes so big damages so there ware no point to repair them. also looks like ships with lower skill lvl and lower invasion equipment but better armored are much better - and thats shouldn't be

i glad to see otheres experiences

[hlo]

Agree with koles about the no point to repair invasion transports. With the big damages they take regardless of how they are built, it is far better IMO to send them for the last Kamikaze attack with a continuous flow of new ships flowing down the pipeline. Unfortunately this means none of the invasion transports will have much experience to speak of. No more 80+ exp invasion transports of the pre 2.2.17 era. It is better to build something relatively cheap that will last you 2-3 turns of invasion (scout - invade/bombard - etc.) than something costly to build and die just as quick.

[koles]

i think that previous rules ware bad - something like 80 exp immortal ships shouldnt exist especially on crazy/impossibe - and i'm glad Cory makes move to change it, but i think thats they needs more tunning

[Cory Trese]

I have a new game fully built under 2.3.1 and my highest XP Heavy Transport is 48, has successfully been in the purge of 9 worlds.

This set of rules is great, but it needs more tuning. Tuning I'm working on every day, responding to every e-mail and analyzing every saved game sent in. Trying to keep up with responding on the forum as well, of course, but sometimes it is just easier to read and take notes.

it needs more tuning ... Good thing I'm working around the clock to make these games better!

[Kanly]

My highest transport is level 10 ATM and has taken over 4 worlds. Cory Trese would you mind sharing the build on your heavy transports?