Bypassing planets?

[TheWordWillSetYouFree]

Seems to me that bypassing planets is rather easy after the initial clearing process?

Normally there is a world which I want on the other side of a rather useless world that I have no use for. So I clear the (useless)world of all ships and guard posts and usually the warp gate. Great, because I can now get to the world that I really want to get, but the thing is the bypassed planet doesn't do anything after that. There is some random reinforcement but that only hinders ships that want to get from home planet to the one that I really want. After getting the planet that I want, the world offers no resistance at all, as there is nothing going to and from that world. The only problem for me is getting the colony ship to the planet that I want, after that it's plain sailing.

Was thinking that the AI would build another warp gate or some other interesting structure on bypassed planets that would hinder you in some way without being a massive pain?

Maybe some planets would have reinforced warp gates that have the same HP as the train stations? These gates would call in defensive warp waves to defend itself? Making warp gate raids more of a challenge.

An AI node of some kind that increases the AI progress relative to the number/power of the ships attacking the planet?

What I'm really asking for here is for the planets to be harder to capture/bypass in different ways than just (more ships/ better ship types/ forts). Something like the attrition emitter in principle.

[Velox]

     Well, given enough time, the AI will amass a fleet numbering in the thousands just around the command station, and eventually you'll have a good chunk of that coming knocking on your door in a cross-planet raid.  Even a mostly-depopulated world is still something to keep an eye on.

[TheWordWillSetYouFree]

     Well, given enough time, the AI will amass a fleet numbering in the thousands just around the command station, and eventually you'll have a good chunk of that coming knocking on your door in a cross-planet raid.  Even a mostly-depopulated world is still something to keep an eye on.

That can't happen as the unit cap on a planet that has lost all of it's guard posts is significantly less than a thousand.

At most there would be a 100-200 ships there and not all of those would be released in a cross planet attack anyway.

[Velox]

     Well, given enough time, the AI will amass a fleet numbering in the thousands just around the command station, and eventually you'll have a good chunk of that coming knocking on your door in a cross-planet raid.  Even a mostly-depopulated world is still something to keep an eye on.

That can't happen as the unit cap on a planet that has lost all of it's guard posts is significantly less than a thousand.

At most there would be a 100-200 ships there and not all of those would be released in a cross planet attack anyway.

     In the game I'm playing I had just this happen, though - I guess it varies by difficulty level/AI type maybe?  I'm not sure.  Huge masses of ships built up around the cmd station and wormholes and some 1700 of them came knocking in a CPA, but perhaps it's just the way my map was going/playstyle/etc.

[x4000]

It has more to do with how many wormholes there are, and to a lesser degree the difficulty if I recall.  There is something like 500 units supported by just the command station itself, and then each wormhole also counts as a guard post, so you get a larger cap from that, too.  I've had significant difficulty keeping planet paths clear in most diff 7 games.

All of that said, there are a lot of new specialized AI weapons in the expansion, some of which do some similar things as far as causing extra raids (Raid Engine), or causing extra cross-planet attacks (alarm posts), or some of the future stuff which causes other various effects, more along the lines of the attrition emitter in general.

[TheWordWillSetYouFree]

Ok, that sounds good. Well I have been playing diff~7.6 and after I clear a planet I have no trouble with getting ships through it practically unharmed.

[x4000]

Sure, for a short while -- that's why you clear the planet.  But within a few minutes, I tend to have them breathing down my neck again, especially if my forces are more split.  Of course, if you have a very low AI Progress, or if the AI has a lot of potential reinforcement points based on where you have been expanding, that might dilute the effect somewhat...

[TheWordWillSetYouFree]

So reinforcements going to a planet that has been cleared are free straight away?

I am really stunned that most of you guys seem to be having this problem while it hasn't happened to me at all!

[dumpsterKEEPER]

It might be interesting if you posted the savegame to show the situation. That would probably reveal if it is a combination of play style, AI type and map type that is causing this to happen, or if there is something else going on.

[x4000]

So reinforcements going to a planet that has been cleared are free straight away?

I am really stunned that most of you guys seem to be having this problem while it hasn't happened to me at all!

They aren't free, they'll be constrained to the wormholes and to the are around the command station itself.  Generally when I neuter a planet, I then find that the wormholes crank out reinforcements at an increased rate, so that if I go away for 5-10 minutes and come back, there are 20-some guys at each wormhole, and maybe a hundred at the command station (though it varies by game and situation).  If I leave for more like an hour, when I come back I'd better have a sizable force unless I'd stationed some of my ships (and an engineer) at the wormholes I'd wanted to keep clear.

I agree it's odd that you've not seen this while others of us have, but then again differing play styles, AI types, and so forth can vary widely.  If you are playing against super aggressive AI types (vicious raider and the like) they get really impressive raids, but really terrible reinforcements in general.  But if you play against a turtle, it would be twice as bad as what I'm describing.  Perhaps you are playing against something more on the aggressive end, where you have an easier time moving in their territory, at the cost of larger waves against yourself?

[TheWordWillSetYouFree]

They aren't free, they'll be constrained to the wormholes and to the are around the command station itself.  Generally when I neuter a planet, I then find that the wormholes crank out reinforcements at an increased rate, so that if I go away for 5-10 minutes and come back, there are 20-some guys at each wormhole, and maybe a hundred at the command station (though it varies by game and situation).  If I leave for more like an hour, when I come back I'd better have a sizable force unless I'd stationed some of my ships (and an engineer) at the wormholes I'd wanted to keep clear.

I agree it's odd that you've not seen this while others of us have, but then again differing play styles, AI types, and so forth can vary widely.  If you are playing against super aggressive AI types (vicious raider and the like) they get really impressive raids, but really terrible reinforcements in general.  But if you play against a turtle, it would be twice as bad as what I'm describing.  Perhaps you are playing against something more on the aggressive end, where you have an easier time moving in their territory, at the cost of larger waves against yourself?

I haven't really seen massive reinforcement at wormholes, just the odd turret and a couple of units. Maybe I'm too good      probably not! I will go ahead and play more games, see if it happens more with the turtle AI's...........

[arthurp]

(I know I'm resurrecting a thread but I think this belongs here, tell me if I'm wrong)

I've had the problem of bypassed planets coming back to kill me (900 units can do a lot of damage and I think I'm gonna loose an advanced factory to them. :-( ). And I have been starting to regret bypassing them. So I was starting to think about just taking every planet on the way to my target. So I was wandering what more experienced players think about this. Which is better?

1. Bypassing planets so as to reduce AI progress but risking bad cross planet attacks.
2. Taking those planets and increasing the AI progress so as not to risk the build up of enemy units.

[Lancefighter]

bypass planets quickly, and build up defenses. Always defend your home gates, and always defend any adv stuff especially.

Also of note, it might be an idea to place turrets on bypasses planets, to keep the population down. Turrets will never shoot at a AI progress item (nothing will ever intentionally shoot those, unless they shoot first from what I understand), and small reinforcement waves periodically cant take down your turrets (make sure you have countersnipers though)

Or, EMP the hell out of the planet and blow up the wormhole guard posts.

[arthurp]

I basically did that. I had a lot of sniper turrets on the planets, but that only does a small amount of damage. I did not have the nerve to place MLRS or standard turrets near enough the command center to kill the reinforcements as they spawned. I will do that next time.

Another thing I think I made a mistake on is that instead of maintaining a standing military on both sides of the patch of enemy territory I was shuttling ships back and forth fairly often. I'm pretty sure that was a mistake. I should have made both part of my area self sufficient.

And yes I'm aware I should have defended the advanced factory better. ;-) It's my first game so I'm getting all the big mistake out of the way.

[Lancefighter]

I'm partial to laser turrets myself - long ranged and fairly cheap knowledge wise (500 for mk1), and good damage.

If your lucky, a single ball of them can protect 2 gates, and even luckier, the command station.. Couple with an engineer mk2 or 3 on free roaming defender mode as far away from the other stuff as possible (note; make sure they have a countersniper near them too)...


Or at least, thats how I would do it.