Master of Orion 2

[RK47]

Anyone beat the Antarans yet? I have a fleet capable of rolling over Orion in a turn or two but when meeting the Antarans, we couldn't even inflict a single casualty before the whole fleet goes boom.

What sort of tech level do we need to beat these guys? Considering I can just destroy other race civilizations at will, this is pretty infuriating. I've unlocked the Dead Ray, and Plasma. Short of working up till Stellar Converter, I've loaded the Titans with Structural Analyzer, Battle Computer, Rangemaster, Reinforced Hull giving around 1200 pts of hull. And still they go down in 1-2 volleys from the massive Star Fortress!

 

[Malakal]

Just send a massive fleet. Why limit Yourself to just few dozens warships?

Or research endgame techs. Three doomstars with stellar converters/time warp devices should be enough.

Or build Your ships in a SMART way and exterminate them.

Cheese is always optional too. Antarans arent hard really.

 

[Raapys]

I've easily beaten them with one or two ships. Doom Star filled with continuous plasma, that thing which gives you two shots with beam weapons, +50% beam weapon damage and possibly some other stuff. Sub-space teleporter comes in handy, since plasma damage decrease with range.

That was post-patch, pre-patch it was even easier since I think they made plasma cannon require more space or some such. They also greatly nerfed the time manipulator thingy which gives two turns; before you got your second turn right after your first, post-patch you get it after the enemy's had his turn. Only real problem is the stupid reflection shield, which can kill your own ship when you try to attack the star fortress; might be better to save a stellar converter ship for the base alone; think 3 or 4 SC beams should take it out.

Anyway, plasma cannon ships are so ridiculously overpowered in the game that a single one of them can practically take out like 15+ enemy doom stars.

 

[Lightknight]

I'm kinda interested, is there an actual limit to the fleet size of AI ? If you can survive long enough, will it build 10000 doomstars ?

 

[Malakal]

I'm kinda interested, is there an actual limit to the fleet size of AI ? If you can survive long enough, will it build 10000 doomstars ?

The worst it attacked me with was in 600+ range when I tried playing a peaceful buildup game. Didnt end well. Bigger than that I havent seen. Still there is the maintance cost and it rises quickly when exceeding the supply limits so, unless AI plays by different rules, 10k should be impossible. But on huge maps seeing 2000 I suppose could happen.

 

[Destroid]

Orion techs help a lot. And Steller Converters.

 

[Lightknight]

Still there is the maintance cost

Thats kinda the point. Or rather, i'm interested if AI gets bonus to fleet points, commerce bonus, or both. It seems to be able to get fleets 5-6 the size of my own, while owning empires only about twice as large. And if i level a few colonies quick enough, he cant support all those ships. But is it because i killed his population, or his starbases ?

 

[Malakal]

Still there is the maintance cost

Thats kinda the point. Or rather, i'm interested if AI gets bonus to fleet points, commerce bonus, or both. It seems to be able to get fleets 5-6 the size of my own, while owning empires only about twice as large. And if i level a few colonies quick enough, he cant support all those ships. But is it because i killed his population, or his starbases ?

Are You even taking the fleet points perks in race creation? Many races got those due to government types (feudal is an excellent example) and being warlords. And since AI plays with pregenerated races its not suprising it can field large fleets. Unless we are talking psilons here, but from what I remember big fleets belong to those races that should have them.

 

[Moray]

Are You even taking the fleet points perks in race creation? Many races got those due to government types (feudal is an excellent example) and being warlords. And since AI plays with pregenerated races its not suprising it can field large fleets. Unless we are talking psilons here, but from what I remember big fleets belong to those races that should have them.

Yeah, but with all the extra tech Psilons would get, their ships are potentially substantially better than what other species are going to field - that is, if essentially used by the player, that is.

Personally, I've always been partial to using phasers (with the ability to cut through enemy shields); then of course using the various +beam weapon system add-ons, particularly of note the one that allows you to do extra damage when penetrating shields. Smashes the shit out of even Antarans, despite their reflection shields (note: you will get some reflection, but I find nowhere near the same as when using other beam weaponry).

 

[SCO]

The challenge is CAPTURING a antaran ship.

It is possible if you're quick enough. They normally have 1 or 2 unique techs that you wouldn't otherwise find (when you scrap the ship at a planet).

I could only do it to the smaller ships though.

 

[SCO]

I'm kinda interested, is there an actual limit to the fleet size of AI ? If you can survive long enough, will it build 10000 doomstars ?

The worst it attacked me with was in 600+ range when I tried playing a peaceful buildup game. Didnt end well. Bigger than that I havent seen. Still there is the maintance cost and it rises quickly when exceeding the supply limits so, unless AI plays by different rules, 10k should be impossible. But on huge maps seeing 2000 I suppose could happen.

Fuck, play MoO1. That's the endgame : 5k+ fleets flying around hitting ass and leg. It's abstracted, 1 type of ship is treated as one ship (but the weapons aren't treated as one weapon don't fear).

 

[RK47]

What's the latest version of MoO2 anyway?

 

[Destroid]

Don't know, but the stock version has horribly overpowered plasma guns.

 

[Raapys]

Fuck, play MoO1. That's the endgame : 5k+ fleets flying around hitting ass and leg. It's abstracted, 1 type of ship is treated as one ship (but the weapons aren't treated as one weapon don't fear).

Did anyone else just end up using the smallest ship class in MoO1? Seemed to me that was easily the way to go; even teching out completely, i.e. Advanced blablabla Tech 10 in every category, the smallest ship type was always the best for its cost, by a huge margin. With some decent tech level you could fit like 5-6 auto cannons, best computer & drive, adamantium, subspaceteleporter, a bombard weapon, and still have room to fill up the remaining special slots with whatever you liked.

Granted, there were weapons which did huge damage on groups of many crafts, but with the AI so bad and the small and fast ships getting first move, that was never a real threat.

 

[SCO]

What's the latest version of MoO2 anyway?

Version 1.31 official,
Version 1.40b24 (Unofficial Patch)

 

[RK47]

OK. That's the latest version....considering the amount of crap you need to beat Antarans, what's the point of fighting them if by that point, you SHOULD be able to wipe clean the whole civilization and won on domination victory?

 

[SCO]

For the lulz. Plus it gives a different ending.

 

[Destroid]

Often it's easier to beat Antarans than the biggest rival civ.

 

[Malakal]

Often it's easier to beat Antarans than the biggest rival civ.

And FASTER. Mainly faster.

 

[Raapys]

End-game in the MoO games has always sucked. Unless you're on the losing side, which is pretty much impossible at higher tech levels, it always ends up with the eventual mopping up action after taking out their biggest fleet; they're never able to come back again.

 

[Fowyr]

The challenge is CAPTURING a antaran ship.

This.
They unbelievable tough in boarding and always have Quantum Detonator.
Still it is possible.
Also Cloaking Device (or something)+time thing what give you additional turn was iddqd of Orion 2.

 

[Raapys]

Hmm, I seem to remember having little trouble capturing them. I definitely remember having an entire Antaran fleet myself, with at least like 3-4 titans. Maybe something changed in a patch somewhere. Needed to kill the crew though, using death ray or some such.

 

[Lightknight]

Are You even taking the fleet points perks in race creation? Many races got those due to government types (feudal is an excellent example)

What the hell are you talking about ? Government type doesnt grant any fleet point bonuses.

and being warlords.

Yeah, one extra point per colony. Not that big of a change.

Personally, I've always been partial to using phasers

Except their complete inability to get through planetary barrier shields...

The challenge is CAPTURING a antaran ship.

Really ? As soon as i get assault pods, it takes 3 of the second sized ship class with battle pods and assault pods to capture antaran scout. Quantum detonator is a pain, but overpowering antaran marines isnt hard.

 

[Malakal]

Are You even taking the fleet points perks in race creation? Many races got those due to government types (feudal is an excellent example)

What the hell are you talking about ? Government type doesnt grant any fleet point bonuses.

Imperium gives 50% bonus for starbases. Good job actually playing the game.

 

[RK47]

Hahah yeah, but I always play poorly when doing low-tech rushes. I really liked default human race with its good governor heroes charming power. Seems so cheap that some of these guys give free techs too like Imperium and Terraforming.