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'Stars in Shadow' Turn Based Space 4x being called 'moo-2 like'

Galdred

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Missiles vs monsters is a good point, but I find that unless you field an overwhelming number of them, they don't have enough volumes to get through Point Defense, and the limited ammunitions makes things even worse.
I honestly find this to be untrue: It generally takes more PD, or dedicated PD, to stop an equivalent missile boat, so against an equal force, you will always get hit by missiles. It takes at least 2 or or 3 dedicated PD boats to shut down an equivalent missile barrage from a dedicated missile boat...although what constitutes a "dedicated missile boat" can be a bit weird. An Ashdar "Missile Cruiser", for instance, has an inferior missile throw (5) to even their Light Cruisers (6). With a missile boat, throw weight is everything: It's about getting as many birds in flight as possible. Ammo capacity is irrelevant, by the time you can fire more than one or two volleys, it is no longer a missile duel.
It will be hard to test given that the game doesn't support MP, but primaries and fully modded Turbolasers seemed pretty devastating to missiles when I tried.

I prefer fighters to eat PDF fire for my shuttles: by the time you get shuttles, you should also have fighters available
But I want them alive! No disintegration!

(why tech carrier otherwise?).
I actually attack with Assault Transports. :P I don't need to tech carriers for this, as it does not appear that the size of the shuttle bay increases the number of assault troopers carried.
Good point about Assault Transports. I had to use assault carriers because I was playing Yoral most of the time. Their main advantage is that they have a high troop count (300).
Have you managed to make good use of the humans? They are designed as the capture faction, but I find their start too rough.
These really help to remove the ships you cannot take over or the planetary bases without exposing your fleet.
Missiles are actually very good at planetary bombardment, too. Planetary bases have weak to nonexistent PD and can easily be overcome by missile barrages, which have the benefit of arriving at their destination FASTER while you run screaming from the counterfire.

It is true that AI planetary bases don't have point defense. The starbase usually do, but not to the point of making getting close attractive :)
 

Norfleet

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Good point about Assault Transports. I had to use assault carriers because I was playing Yoral most of the time. Their main advantage is that they have a high troop count (300).
Dude, you're playing Yoral, and you're NOT SATISFIED with the absolutely ludicrous missile throw weight on those Yoral Torp Destroyers? Do you KNOW how many missiles a Yoral Torp Destroyer can sling? Those things are ridiculous. Taking one of them intact is hard as fuck because you need at least 3 PD cruisers just to protect your assault ships, and this much force arrayed against them will usually cause them to run for the hills. Yoral DDGs will destroy absolutely everything before they even get the chance to fire at you. Those things are INSANE.

Have you managed to make good use of the humans? They are designed as the capture faction, but I find their start too rough.
Human starts are very chance-dependent. If you dont' have a good planet near you and you don't find it quickly, you are fucked. Being able to actually produce SPESS MEHREENS which give a significant boost to crew size when loaded onto ships is handy, but they aren't atually the best at capturing, because of several deficiencies.

1. Poor strategic mobility: It's hard to get your fleet to where it needs to be, in ONLY the quantities you need to be. You inevitably arrive with a force that's either too small, and therefore cannot get the job done, or a force that's too large, which scares the enemy away completely.
2. Human ships are too good. Human ships are actually very good, and simply don't have a NEED to engage in such shenanigans despite their innate bonii for doing so. Even lowest-rank human cruisers pack devastating missile throws.

With that in mind, the best capping race is, from my experience, Ashdar Imperials. Why?

1. Ashdar ships are utter garbage. Every single one is outclassed in its role by another race's ship. Even their signature carriers are outclassed by the equivalents of other races, which have more gunports, launch bays, hitpoints, etc. The Imperials do not get the fighter bonus of the Colonials, so are additionally no good at the fighter combat that is so dominating in destructive warfare. The fact that Ashdar ships are so utterly shit means that you actually WANT to steal other people's ships because they're just so much better than yours. It doesn't really feel like too much of a loss when you blow up an enemy ship, if they're trash and you could just make better ones for yourself anyway, but when YOUR ships are utter garbage, you FEEL those losses.
2. Superior, unparalleled strategic mobility allows you to get your (shitty) ships to where they need to be in exactly the quantities they need to be: Not so few that you can't successfully cap the enemy fleet, but not so many that you scare them off completely. That same mobility lets you quickly haul your prizes back to your primary dockyards for refit to service.

Unrelated note: Assault Transports are very good capping ships for another important reason: They aren't very intimidating. You send a battle carrier in, the enemy's going to run like fuck. But he's not scared of a bunch of shitty TRANSPORTS.

It is true that AI planetary bases don't have point defense. The starbase usually do, but not to the point of making getting close attractive :)
Even if they do have planetary PD, it'll never be good enough to overcome even one or two missile boats. I've never seen an AI world capable of defending itself against even one torpboat, let alone two. As starbases are not particularly exceptional, you probably have no particular desire to take them intact.
 

Galdred

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Actually, I have found that capturing ships is much easier when you attack a planet, because the AI will usually fight hard to prevent it, especially if the said planet happens to have defenses.
I have seen AI fleet remains against overwhelming odds to protect a colony with a base on it.
It is true that the base or planetary defense will make capture harder, but I usually delay capturing until both are gone.
 

Arrowgrab

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A question: is there a guide to the game anywhere that's actually useful?

I mean, I'd love to see a document or something that describes the relative strengths and weaknesses of various races' ship designs, a comparative analysis, if you will. Or things like the fighter bonus to Ashdar Colonials, which I wasn't even aware of until two posts above, and I still don't know what it actually is, because none of this is actually written down anywhere in the game as far as I can tell.
 

Galdred

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I tried the Tinkers and their starting missile boats, and it takes an awful lot of them to get things blown up. But maybe it is because they are very cheap (and I only had fusion missiles, but you keep them until quite late in the game).
However, their ability to recreate missiles and fighters is awesome.
Their larger ships are painfully slow and don't maneuver well, which made the shuttle carriers a pain to get in position.
The Ashdar Imperials are easy mode indeed. It is the only empire that can react to a Harpy raid.
When it comes to shuttle pods, each one provides 50 crew, so having a carrier loaded with assault shuttles is not that bad. It gives you a crew of 300 (150+3*50), and 3 ground forces to assault planets.
The main advantage of the Assault transport is that it is much easier to tech, and the smaller price means you can produce them at remote planets. But you need 3 to match an assault carrier.
 

Galdred

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I retract my statement about the ship design being too constrained. I have just noticed that you could put engines on a starbase (but not warp drives). With assault shuttles, it can turn into the stationg into an unstoppable (but very slow) boarding platform.
 

Norfleet

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Actually, I have found that capturing ships is much easier when you attack a planet, because the AI will usually fight hard to prevent it, especially if the said planet happens to have defenses. I have seen AI fleet remains against overwhelming odds to protect a colony with a base on it.
The AI will never retreat warships from the defense of a planet, no matter how hopeless the odds. If you attack a random podunk planet with the AI's fleet in orbit, the fleet will defend it, and will not retreat. Noncombatants will still run, so if you want those, you gotta move quickly. Those are best ambushed in open space.
 

Jinn

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This is on the deepest sale I've seen it at.



Maybe time to get it finally. It's really gud, right?
 

Galdred

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Maybe time to get it finally. It's really gud, right?
While you can grab it for dirt cheap, I'd still consider it money wasted simply because there's little point to play it over, say MOO2.
That is true, but after you tire of MOO2, this one is different enough to be worth a few plays IMO.
I found it better than the games that try not to be too close from MOO2.
 

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