A bunch of advanced questions

[Shwates]

OK I have played through the tutorial and some more of another game and also read the majority of the posts in this forum.  I think I have figured out most things, however I have a few questions that I am hoping Cory or another knowledgeable person can answer:

1. Radiation - how do you know what type you are being damaged by?  Do different Xeno use different types?  This is important to know what type of defenses to put on your ships.

2. Shielding - does having this on your Transports help reduce the radiation damage taken during Planetary Invasion (when you select scout or invade)?

3. Close in defense - what exactly does this do, and does it defend against torpedoes only, or guns and lances too?  How can you tell the effectiveness of the different options?  For example, phoenix defense is 100 mass and twin-linked defense is 1030 mass - so is the twin-linked 10 times as effective?

4. Lance weapons - does Gun Decks and Gun Skill increase the hit chance for these weapons?  I think so but wanted to be sure.

5. Do Gun Decks matter for Planetary Bombardment (i.e. should I be putting them on my transports)?

6. Population growth - is there any way to stop it, or alternatively move population from one colony to another?

7. Espionage points - does more EP per turn mean that diplomacy happens (completes) faster?  This seems to be the case but again I wanted to check.

Thanks in advance for any and all answers!

[fallen]

@shwates - sorry, Cory is out of pocket at the moment, so I will answer the ones that I can answer and we will get the others soon!

4. Yes, Lances are considered Guns for skills.
6. Not today, but there are some treaties coming that will help with this.
7. Every turn, your EP are applied to a treaty. So, more EP = run treaties faster. More EP does not change the rate at which treaties / conficts resolve themselves (a Spy War or Trade Alliance ending), only the speed and efficiency which you can make more political moves.

[squee]

I'll pitch in with the questions that have already been answered a few times already in the forums.

1. Currently there is no way to tell if the enemy is using radiation or what type of radiation you are being damaged by. Hence protection against specific radiation types is all but useless for now. I think I remember it being said that neutron and one of the others (alpha?) are more closely tied with torpedoes. Radiation bypasses armor, and can be blocked by shielding. Apparently getting hit by radiation doubles the chance for critical.

3. Close in defense gives bonuses against gun attacks, which means Mass Driver ships.

[Shwates]

Thanks to you both for the answers. Perhaps Cory could answer these remaining questions?

2. Shielding - does having this on your Transports help reduce the radiation damage taken during Planetary Invasion (when you select scout or invade)?

3. Close in defense - confirm that it only defends again mass driver weapons? How can you tell the effectiveness of the different options? For example, phoenix defense is 100 mass and twin-linked defense is 1030 mass - so is the twin-linked 10 times as effective? How does this compare to having an equivalent amount of mass worth of armor on your ship?

5. Do Gun Decks matter for Planetary Bombardment (i.e. should I be putting them on my transports)?


Thanks in advance for the answers!

[vylox]

I am not Cory but I'll give it a go.

2: Shielding. Yes this appears to be the case. In as much that I increase this greatly and reduce the overall durability of my invasion ships. It reduces the damage that the ships take for both successful and failed operations.

3: The in close defense of the Phoenix defense and other defensive weapons for the fighter class ships is only usable versus in close attacks. Meaning only from the mass driver and colony type ships used by the Xeno. The Phoenix Defense pod is +1 Armor, the Twin-linked Defense is +4 armor. The mass is how much of your ship they will take up. And 1030 mass is a huge amount of space for +4 defense.

4: According to the description and the upgrades for planetary invasion tactics it would be beneficial to include guns on the ship. I have tried ships with and without guns for invasion, and those that have them tend to be more successful with bombardment and invasion options while ships with heavy investment into sensors seem to do more on scout operations.

[Cory Trese]

2. Yes, Shielding protects ships from ground based attacks.

3. Defense Scores from mass driver weapons and CID modules only defends against close in attacks. Mass is the cost you pay, not relevant to impact in the game. If you pay 100 Mass for +1 Defense that +1 is as good as if you got it for 500 Mass.

4. Guns for Bombard, double down on Invasion for Full Invade, Scout aided by Sensors. Invasion skill is very critical here, no matter what the action you take.

[Ji]

Hey can you explain alpha damage, theta damage as well as alpha shielding/theta shielding?

[starfixer]

Dec 9, 2014 22:19:17 GMT -5 Ji said:

Hey can you explain alpha damage, theta damage as well as alpha shielding/theta shielding?

There is damage and there is radiation damage. Enemy ships use both types of damage during attacks. Armor protects against normal damage, shielding protects against radiation damage. Radiation damage is also inflicted when attempting to invade.
There are different types of radiation damage. Neutron, Theta and Gamma radiation is inflicted with torpedoes, and alpha and beta damage is inflicted with guns. I am unsure which type of radiation is used for enemy xeno planets, but I assume all 5, with more of one type being used than another depending on enemy alien AI and specific planet.
Some AIs use certain types of radiation more than others. Some AIs are also more vulnerable to certain types of radiation than others.

[xalzx]

Still a newbie... what does one do to attack a planet? Still in the small tutorial map, been upgrading, researching, etc... and now want to attack the AI planets... any help or advice?

[khamya9]

Dec 11, 2014 15:53:32 GMT -5 xalzx said:

Still a newbie... what does one do to attack a planet? Still in the small tutorial map, been upgrading, researching, etc... and now want to attack the AI planets... any help or advice?

On the tech tree top section after ship construction 5 (where you get level 3 ships) there are three military technologies for ground combat. You need those.

Build transports with lots of HP and invasion skill. Guns help too. You will also need some ships that can refuel because ground invasions are long and slow and use a lot of fuel.

Ideally you will want two or three invasion ships to attack the same planet. The xeno recovers very fast so you have to keep constant pressure to win. 

There are three ground combat options bombard, scout, and invade. Bombard does the most damage but has a very high chance to permanently reduce the quality of the planet, even making it Impossible to colonize. Scout only kills population, but it is not fast. Invasion is balanced and while it might hurt the planet, it is much less likely than bombarding


. Ideally you want to change between two or three attacks, always using the same over and over gives reduced effect. If you need the planet for your own, mostly scout with some invasions. If you want it dead mostly bombard with some invasions and scouts.

You need a colony ship after you wipe out the xeno, you can't steal their world and buildings. And be prepared for your invasion ships to take a lot of damage if the ai world is well defended.

[fallen]

Dec 11, 2014 15:53:32 GMT -5 xalzx said:

Still a newbie... what does one do to attack a planet? Still in the small tutorial map, been upgrading, researching, etc... and now want to attack the AI planets... any help or advice?

The most important thing is to get to Military Transports, its up the Ship Construction tree.

[xalzx]

Awesome, thank you!

[Cory Trese]

Dec 12, 2014 2:07:20 GMT -5 xalzx said:

Awesome, thank you!

The tech is called "Planetary Invasion"