Strategic use of Translocator?

[TheVampire100]

I'm curious what benefit it brings. Most of the time I find it rather annoying instead of being useful. If you use it in your defense you will not know where the enemy ships pop up, making it more difficult to defend an attack. They could even show up suddenly right over your command station.

In offense you could maybe use it to temporary remove stationed ships so it's easier to raid an especially nasty guard post (good for destroying eyes?). But besides that it get's also a little annoying. You have to chase teleported ships across the entire system, making it harder to capture it.

How do you use it? Or do you avoid it?

[Kahuna]

Park the translocators between your Command Station and Turrets and let it translocate the attacking AI ships. Combine it with Military Command Station, Gravitational-, Tractor- and Spider Turrets.. and bbooom!

[Toranth]

Park the translocators between your Command Station and Turrets and let it translocate the attacking AI ships. Combine it with Military Command Station, Gravitational-, Tractor- and Spider Turrets.. and bbooom!

I think he's talking about the Experimental Translocator fleetship from a Fabricator, as opposed to the Spirecraft Translocator or the Starship Translocator.  The Spirecraft and Starship, you're correct - they make excellent abusive knockback turrets.
On the other hand, the fleetship version is terrible.  I've never figured out a good use for them.  It'd be better if they had the same sort of knock-back translocation instead of the random teleport version.

[Kahuna]

Experimental Translocator fleetship from a Fabricator

Oh that one.. yeah it's pretty bad.. thanks to power creep perhaps?

[TheVampire100]

Yeah, I meant the fleet ship.
Okay, so you agree that they are useless...

[Toranth]

Yeah, I meant the fleet ship.
Okay, so you agree that they are useless...

I've gotten some good laughs out of them.  Does that count?
One of my favorites was when a system containing a Translocator Fab was attacked by wandering AI Leech Starship.  I unleashed the full capacity of the Translocators against the starship... and won!  But it took well over an hour, and each time the Leech Starship fired, a few Translocators were reclaimed - and Translocator vs Translocator battles are hilarious.  It was like watching a tank be attacked by confused children wielding fluffy pillows.

[Kahuna]

Yeah, I meant the fleet ship.
Okay, so you agree that they are useless...

I've gotten some good laughs out of them.  Does that count?
One of my favorites was when a system containing a Translocator Fab was attacked by wandering AI Leech Starship.  I unleashed the full capacity of the Translocators against the starship... and won!  But it took well over an hour, and each time the Leech Starship fired, a few Translocators were reclaimed - and Translocator vs Translocator battles are hilarious.  It was like watching a tank be attacked by confused children wielding fluffy pillows.

rofl

[Captain Jack]

So what this thread is telling me is that during the next "pls buff/nerf poll", Translocators will win if anyone remembers they exist.

[Radiant Phoenix]

What if translocators punted their victims to random star systems? >D

[Chris_Stalis]

Bring the translocators into the fight after your main fleet has engaged.

The value of the translocator is that it can temporarily create a buffer around your main fleet against ships that are a real threat to it. Needing to send in bombers to take down a force field? Pop in your translocators to harass the fighters. Worried about the overall DPS of the fleet you're going up against? smash the fleets together, then let the translocators sort out warping things around under the cover of alternative targets. It doesn't kill anything outright, but it does provide a decrease to the incoming DPS rate, which might give you the few extra seconds you need to actually get the job done.

It's a micro-oriented ship. If you don't like to micro much, it's not going to ever be useful. If you do, you can find a number of instances where it's handy, though I struggle to think of any where it would be individually necessary. I think that's why it's only unlockable as an experimental fab, because a mark I-IV version wouldn't balance right with the rest of the fleet.

[gia]

idk, teleport their shields/other support units away?

[Toranth]

Bring the translocators into the fight after your main fleet has engaged.

The value of the translocator is that it can temporarily create a buffer around your main fleet against ships that are a real threat to it. Needing to send in bombers to take down a force field? Pop in your translocators to harass the fighters. Worried about the overall DPS of the fleet you're going up against? smash the fleets together, then let the translocators sort out warping things around under the cover of alternative targets. It doesn't kill anything outright, but it does provide a decrease to the incoming DPS rate, which might give you the few extra seconds you need to actually get the job done.

It's a micro-oriented ship. If you don't like to micro much, it's not going to ever be useful. If you do, you can find a number of instances where it's handy, though I struggle to think of any where it would be individually necessary. I think that's why it's only unlockable as an experimental fab, because a mark I-IV version wouldn't balance right with the rest of the fleet.

My problem with them isn't their micro, it's the uncontrolled part.  They do no significant damage, and have no significant HP, so their special needs to be something good.  Unfortunately, with uncontrolled teleportation, you can't even guarantee that whatever you try to get rid of will actually go away.  In many cases, it doesn't teleport far enough away.  On defense, it's not unusual to teleport stuff CLOSER to what you are trying to protect.  That's the big reason Mil stations were changed from Translocator shots to Knockback shots a while back.

Now, if it worked on non-ships (Guardposts, FF Generators, etc) that'd make it flipping awesome.  Still niche, but it'd be a powerful way to break some nasty AI combos.