Riot Starships forcefields + another question

[nkraptor]

Still being surprised how enjoyable the game is!  As such game with a friend has caused more questions that I could not find the answer for on the wiki.

First is I started mixing Riot starships with force field modules into my ships.  When I fought a wave of missile frigates it "felt" like it was taking considerably longer to kill them in the past. 
Q:  Does the force field that Riot starships emit reduce the damage done by the starship?   Do any ships that fall inside the radius of the starship's force field have their damage reduced as well?


Next question is I took a system with an AI fortress in it, and for about 10 minutes enemies were appearing on the fringes of the space and attacking.  Are these "free" computer units, meaning they will infinitely appear?  The AI fortress was in a very rough place to kill so it took awhile to finish it off, especially with ships constantly appearing.

[keith.lamothe]

Welcome to the forums   Very glad to hear you're enjoying the game

Q:  Does the force field that Riot starships emit reduce the damage done by the starship?   Do any ships that fall inside the radius of the starship's force field have their damage reduced as well?

Nope, it doesn't reduce anyone's damage, that's one of the advantages

Next question is I took a system with an AI fortress in it, and for about 10 minutes enemies were appearing on the fringes of the space and attacking.  Are these "free" computer units, meaning they will infinitely appear?  The AI fortress was in a very rough place to kill so it took awhile to finish it off, especially with ships constantly appearing.

Hmm, were these marauders?  Or units being hit with translocating shots?  Or the result of a counterattack guard post?  I'm not sure what's going on there; there are a variety of ways units can come out of deep space, but none of them are very common.

[nkraptor]

I can only discount that it was not a counter attack.

For marauders, would they have marauders in their name?  We did not have any minor factions turned on if it was one of that.

We have it happen now and then, enemies will pop in one by one all over the sector, we have never been able to nail down what causes it.
I thought one way to prevent it was to have a large force in that system, but in the example listed, i had about 700 ships, but based on the ships the enemies were using I had very poor bomber research which led to the ai fortress taking awhile.  The whole time enemies would just appear one by one all over the place.

Also, don't suppose there are any quick ways to select portions of a group?  Right now I've only found to cut a group in half is to ball it up and drag a box over half.  Works well, but when you want to split into 3rds takes a bit more.

I find I constantly am splitting groups to make them smaller for low range units.  And since I like all the ships that give bonuses to friends around it I pretty much always do group move instead of just letting them run off to get into fire range.

[c4sc4]

Also, don't suppose there are any quick ways to select portions of a group?  Right now I've only found to cut a group in half is to ball it up and drag a box over half.  Works well, but when you want to split into 3rds takes a bit more.

When you have a group selected, pressing 'L' selects half of them. I believe if you use a modifier key it changes how much it selects but I can't remember what does what.

For marauders, would they have marauders in their name?  We did not have any minor factions turned on if it was one of that.

Yes they would have marauders in their name and yes they are a minor faction.

We have it happen now and then, enemies will pop in one by one all over the sector, we have never been able to nail down what causes it.
I thought one way to prevent it was to have a large force in that system, but in the example listed, i had about 700 ships, but based on the ships the enemies were using I had very poor bomber research which led to the ai fortress taking awhile.  The whole time enemies would just appear one by one all over the place.

Would you happen to have a military command post on the planet where this is happening?

[Kraiz]

Shift+L is the default for selecting 1/3rd of the selected forces.

Perhaps they have been sitting there cloaked?  Do any enemy ships show up in the galaxy map or overview before they appear?  What kind of units are they if not cloaking types?

[keith.lamothe]

We have it happen now and then, enemies will pop in one by one all over the sector, we have never been able to nail down what causes it.
I thought one way to prevent it was to have a large force in that system, but in the example listed, i had about 700 ships, but based on the ships the enemies were using I had very poor bomber research which led to the ai fortress taking awhile.  The whole time enemies would just appear one by one all over the place.

Literally out in the middle of nowhere, or near an AI guard post or other building?  If the latter, that's the normal reinforcement logic.  If the former, particularly if you mean literally one ship at a time, it's probably that you built a military command station and its translocating shots are sending things off to the boonies.

[Hearteater]

Stealth Guard Post getting reinforced maybe?

[Shrugging Khan]

Translocators?