Astro Trains

[GhoulMX]

Hello gang.    I was wondering how these units work. They sound intresting. Although I read their tooltip , I still can´t quiet understand what I can or can not do to them.   Although I know it might not make a great difference since the AI can still kill me.  I hope to know what they do    .

[keith.lamothe]

They might be better described as "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here" Trains

Here's a good example of the !!fun!! they (and many, many other nasty things) can bring: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,15435.0.html


To answer the question, basically:

1) The game seeds a bunch of train stations on AI planets at the beginning

2) At various train stations a group of trains will spawn

3) When a group is idle it picks a new station and paths there

4) If they path through your planets (or in some cases through a planet you're attacking) they can be a ton of pain.  Most of them provide planet-wide buffs/debuffs like munitions boosting or gravity or supply interdiction, etc.  On the higher intensities there are EMP trains and even Nuclear trains.

5) There are also cargo trains, which I intended as the most innocuous kind since they don't attack you directly, but each station they reach they contribute to that AI's building of something special, like a superfortress or an exo to send after you.  This can often be the most dangerous part, ironically.


Basically if you're prepared to get seriously trolled by the trains they're fun, otherwise it's best to leave them off   I do plan to revisit them (again) but there are more pressing things for now.

[GhoulMX]

Woah that link has a lot of info I love info!   Well Hmm wow, Now I heard all the nasty things they can do I must get prepared... mabe slowing them down and ambushing?  Hmm Ill have to try and get creative.    I beleive then, after hearing this, that if I can master handle Astro trains to put it in a way,  then I must do it in a way to keep them at a distance from all of my activity.   I'm sorry I am new still.    >D

[x4000]

Generally my design goal with their stations was to make it so that you could find the stations and thus predict possible paths.  Then you raid just the stations on certain planets to kill them and thus cause the train routes to shift to no longer intersect your stuff.  That way there are still trains out there, and you have to deal with them on various hostile planets (or forward beachheads of yours), but you don't have to deal with them on your core planetary defensive areas.

I always loved these things, but I was in a minority -- especially once The Zenith Remnant added the more nasty variants.  Earlier astro trains didn't do nearly so many varied things, they mostly just shot at you.  Actually the planet-wide changes are pretty over the top for me, too, come to think of it.  Anyway, these were one of the earlier features in the game dating back to alpha, along with special forces guard posts, etc.  I felt like there needed to be a lot of overlapping systems all doing their own thing on their own schedules, and this was one of the core ones.  It's since been relegated to a rarely-used option, but many many other things sprung up to take their place.  Cross Planet Attacks, Carriers, Exo-Galactic Strike Forces, and a bajillion other things.  AI Eyes.  Guard posts in their modern form.  Etc.

[Cinth]

To give an idea of rarely used as an option, the last time I had trains enabled, the devourer golem was killable.

[chemical_art]

To give an idea of rarely used as an option, the last time I had trains enabled, the devourer golem was killable.

That was a barrel of laughs, because it was once very hard.

Then the spire came in then...then nothing was safe (devourer included, for a short while)

[Cinth]

To give an idea of rarely used as an option, the last time I had trains enabled, the devourer golem was killable.

That was a barrel of laughs, because it was once very hard.

Then the spire came in then...then nothing was safe (devourer included, for a short while)

I'd always do it with fixed defenses on a chokepoint planet.  What made it challenging and fun was you had to do it on one pass (most times).  One trip through AI space would heal him to full.

[GhoulMX]

Well I just saw one today , and I got relly exited. I think it wasnt  a too dangerous one.  I am going to loose the campaing ... mabe it is because of the trains haha. I will at least take out one station before this huge incoming attack.

[Misery]

Huh.  Hadnt heard of these things yet.

They sound hilarious.

Well, by my warped definition of the word, anyway.

[x4000]

Huh.  Hadnt heard of these things yet.

They sound hilarious.

Well, by my warped definition of the word, anyway.

You and I share that particular definition, yes.  And they are TOTALLY inspired by the Transformers character, incidentally.

[TheVampire100]

Huh.  Hadnt heard of these things yet.

They sound hilarious.

Well, by my warped definition of the word, anyway.

You and I share that particular definition, yes.  And they are TOTALLY inspired by the Transformers character, incidentally.

Huh, I always wondered if you meant the transformer but I thought it was just coincidence.