Planetary defense strategies?

[x4000]

I tend to place turrets on the perimeter of my territory, at all hostile wormholes.  This is often all I will place on those planets unless a raid is announced there, in which case I move some defender ships to that location in FRD mode.  I also keep a lot of turrets and a standing fleet of a hundred or two ships on my home planet, which has saved the game for me more than once.  I mostly just have a few turrets at each wormhole to start out with, and so tend to bolster those as major waves are announced.

In general, I tend to lose a lot of harvesters this way, but I keep my knowledge expenditure down regarding turrets, can defend a really strung-out territory, and keep 80% or 90% of my fleet mobilized for attacks instead of defense.  All of my alpha testers have really different methods of playing, though, which makes it an interesting mix in our group games.

W-why don't I ever see you on IRC!?  Though I assume you have far too many games and much to do to play with everyone you know, haha.

I'm not generally on IRC.  I pretty much just play with my core group of three other alpha testers, who have been helping me to test the game since it was a week into development.  A.k.a., my dad, my uncle, and my uncle's colleague. You're absolutely right, there are just too many games and I can't delve into that without it looking like favoritism (and I hardly have time for even the game with my alpha testers, some weeks, as it stands -- I've missed the last two in a row).

[nullspace]

I'd been using exoshields just because I don't like rebuilding the harvesters.  You can't rebuild the harvester as soon as it is destroyed, you need to wait until the enemy moves away or is eliminated, and my harvesters were having a lot of down time before I remembered to do that. 

When the resources are shielded, the command center is like a magnet for the AI ships.  This is great for drawing them all to my turrets when there is no choke point (The wave can appear from several wormholes, and there are multiple wormoles to adjacent systems of mine).  Actually, why does the AI hate command centers so much?  If the command center is providing supply to something vital, it is important, but otherwise they're fairly cheap and easy to replace. 

[x4000]

Actually, why does the AI hate command centers so much?  If the command center is providing supply to something vital, it is important, but otherwise they're fairly cheap and easy to replace. 

Well, there is a big economic hit to the players from losing a command center, and it prevents a whole lot of buildings from being built on that planet.  Generally speaking, unless you have a fleet of colony ships on hand, command stations are one of the slowest and most costly structures to rebuild.  Granted, at some point I'm looking to add more variance even than currently exists into how the AI plays, and part of that will revolve around changing how it weights the command stations sometimes, especially when players do something tricky like what you describe there.

[darke]

I've never really bothered with the harvester shields. For some reason the AI seems to beeline straight to my command centres all the time.

Either that or fly straight past into the wormhole to my undefended adjacent planets to cause me a great annoyance.

[RCIX]

Unless you managed to capture an Ion cannon then all the ships that attack that planet go at that.

[Ktoff]

Say, does the AI attack advanced factories too?

In my current game, the two most well defended spots are the entrance to my home cluster and the advanced factory, but somehow the AI hasn't shown much interest in it(,yet?).

[Grok]

It does attack advanced factories

[Volatar]

In fact, the AI REALLY likes to attack advanced factories 

[Ktoff]

So my instincts were right :-) I feared that this might be a waste of resources, but it looks as if i was simply lucky up to now.

[Haagenti II]

So my instincts were right :-) I feared that this might be a waste of resources, but it looks as if i was simply lucky up to now.

Forcefielding the factory and gate-raiding its neighbors are prudent strategies. That or always having recent savegames

[Spikey00]

I thought constructing a Command Station itself costed nothing but time.

[x4000]

I thought constructing a Command Station itself costed nothing but time.

Yes... but also there is a lot of opportunity cost lost there.  Command stations generate resources, and let you build other ships that generate resources, so none of that is happening while you are building the command station, etc.

[Spikey00]

Then... my Colony Ship masses will have already devastated the AI armies by that time.

[x4000]

[laxrulz777]

I've had a lot of luck recently with sniper nests headed up by a light starship. If the system has multiple entry points to defend, I can build one of these and have it take out strays fairly well.