Conquer a planet 4 hops away?

[HellishFiend]

But I do like having 15 Dreadnoughts...

[x4000]

To answer the one question, yes, warp gates to call in reinforcements to the planet they are on.  So, I'd consider it a wise move to destroy it, although some might argue you could avoid it in that sort of situation.  I never try to, though.

Regarding dreadnought rebalance, I'd really prefer that sort of thing to be put into the balance tweaks forum so that I'll actually see it later on.

I think they could stand some rebalance, though -- not having multiple shots makes sense to me, because they are really designed to be hard-hitting artillery and anti-starship ships from a distance.  Having them also sort of do double-duty as "crowd control" like the fleet starships makes them worse at both jobs.  I don't intend to lower the number of dreads that can be built, but I will tweak their balance some to hopefully make them a little more focused and distinctive from the other starship lines, and thus hopefully more useful in their niche.

[Harry]

Thanks for the reply on warp gates.

also make a point to have supply on any mk4 or core planet I attack..

Hmm, I've read conflicting advice on this.  Some people say it's best to do a deep raid on a core planet, because once the AI is aware of you, it gets much much tougher to beat.  To get supply there, you have to conquer an adjacent planet, right?  That makes the adjacent planets "aware of your presence," boosting their reinforcements, no?

Right now I'm inclined to use my ship-laden transports, but I'm still 12 hops away from the nearest AI in my current game, so I have time to ponder this. 

[x4000]

I'm with you on that, Harry, but opinions do vary.

[Temper]

X4000, I just hope when everyone notices how wonderful Arcen Games are, and you become a multi million dollar game corporation, that you still take the time to gratify the consumer.  I am very much impressed with how you take consumer ideas and implement them into your games.  I hope to see that continue far into your famous days.

[x4000]

X4000, I just hope when everyone notices how wonderful Arcen Games are, and you become a multi million dollar game corporation, that you still take the time to gratify the consumer.  I am very much impressed with how you take consumer ideas and implement them into your games.  I hope to see that continue far into your famous days.

If that happens, you can bet I'll still be taking this same approach.   Of course, if there are then millions of customers rather than a few thousand, that will significantly change the logistics of the whole thing because I won't be able to directly respond to everyone -- really, I already can't -- but I'll still be a presence and we'll work out some sort of filtering mechanism so that the popular ideas can risk to the top through group discussion, and so on, and we can still get feedback through.  Really, that's sort of what already happens, and it seems to be working pretty well overall.  Even if we get big and famous, we'll still always be a small company -- under 10 people, if possible -- because I think that's ideal for a lot of reasons.  I guess extra money would go to charities, and/or I've thought about starting a fund for other indie developers if we ever hit that stage.  Right now we're just trying to make sure we can fund ourselves, of course.

[Harry]

Add me to the chorus -- your support of this game is amazing!  And the game design itself is downright inspired.  This is the first RTS game that I've really ever played for any extended period; the strategic elements really overcame my natural skepticism about the genre.

One more question about pouncing on those final AI planets.  If I stay two hops away, that won't alert it to my "presence," right?  I ask because there are a couple juicy planets just 2-3 hops away.  I want those planets (Adv Lab is on one), but I don't want to make the AI's core reinforcements skyrocket.

[x4000]

Many thanks, Harry.

And no, being 2 hops away from any planet won't tip it off.  However, if you bring a large fleet (larger than around ~300 ships) to a planet, then that planet and adjacent planets will be on alert.  So even if you don't capture a planet right next to the home, for instance, the AI will go on alert if you start attacking the neighboring planet with any significant force, or when you start attacking the home planet directly.  That would be the main consideration in your current situation.

[Harry]

Ah, thanks for letting me know.  So maybe I should be using more of a "surgical strike" for some of my data raids...

[Lancefighter]

The thing about having supply vs going in quicker is that there is usually a low-level AI planet next door with defenses running in the tens of ships. If your lucky, you can catch that planet, nix the command station, and use mk2 engineers to conjure up a impromptu fort.
From there, merely spam turrets until you are happy, and send your fleet next door as fast as possible.

This especially goes for core planets imo - i could not imagine taking down a core planet without supply. So much of my attacks rely on the ability to pull damaged ships out of the fray and repair them... Granted doesnt always happen when we are talking core planets.. but on core planets, I tend to also have an entire fleet yard as far away from the gravity well as possible. This allows me to replenish lost ships /on the spot/ (as well as drawing away hostile ships now and again).. Actually, this is probably more perma-mine related, as its a pony to get anything across perma-mines.

[soMe_RandoM]

electric shuttles or spiders will make this possible. yust transport the shuttles across to the entrence and also escort the conoly ship with bulk of defences. if spiders dn use transports and try to tease out the other side of the worm hole and get them to the otehr side. electric shutles yust wham then bam repeatly. in then out every reload