Poll: Worst Unit Of The (time interval) Award (VIII)

[keith.lamothe]

Nominations from this thread.

(note: The AI did catch some of the nominations that didn't follow directions, but it probably selectively omitted some of them.  There's always the next poll )

So, who's next?  3 votes per person this time, and I'll try to do something with the top 3 results (excluding anything which fails to do better than the "None of the above" option), but probably not more than that because "processing" the results tends to significantly bog down if there's a ton of winners.

Thanks for the feedback

[Kahuna]

Behold the Teleport Raider! The worst unit in the game!

[keith.lamothe]

Behold the Teleport Raider! The worst unit in the game!

Now you see it.

Now you don't!

[Aeson]

I voted for the Counter-Dark Matter Turret, because I can't think of anything in the game that uses Dark Matter ammunition that is scary enough for me to want to spend knowledge on getting a Counter-Dark Matter Turret.

I also voted for Spire Gravity Rippers, because they seem like a waste compared to Spire Gravity Drains or Zenith Paralyzers, which perform roughly the same role as the Gravity Rippers and are more effective at it.

My last vote was for Zenith Power Generators, because I've not seen any significant reason to go for one ever since the energy rebalance. Before the energy rebalance, I'd consider building one for myself despite the economic hit, or taking a planet that had one even if that was the only benefit of the planet, because 200,000 cheap energy was worth quite a bit for my economy. Now, that's barely more than a planet provides free of charge, and I can build an energy collector and a command station far more cheaply and far more quickly than I can build a Zenith Power Generator, and I can also choose to take a relatively safe planet (or a planet that makes some other part of my empire relatively safe) rather than being stuck with wherever the Zenith Power Generator happens to be in the galaxy.

[Lancefighter]

i feel like so many of these actually need buffs

and at Aeson - Theyre a huge holdover from when trains were a requirement in every game. Thankfully, we finally got rid of those.. >_>

[Aeson]

and at Aeson - Theyre a huge holdover from when trains were a requirement in every game. Thankfully, we finally got rid of those.. >_>

Yes, I know. But even with trains on, I don't really feel like I need to have counter-dark matter turrets, since it just changes where I put my defenses rather than what I unlock for my defenses. Instead of intercepting as much as possible at the wormhole I just move the command station out to the edge of the system and set up my defenses to keep ships away from that rather than trying to intercept stuff at the wormhole.

[Lancefighter]

iirc their main goal was protecting valuable things (mk4 factories, etc),that used to spawn on wormholes, more than your actual turrets/buildings.

[Wingflier]

Where is Regenerator Golem? That was mentioned several times by several different people.

[Faulty Logic]

Agreed on the lack of regen golem.
Also, why are there so many high-cap ship types without a "high-cap ships" option?

[keith.lamothe]

Agreed on the lack of regen golem.
Also, why are there so many high-cap ship types without a "high-cap ships" option?

Eaten by the regex monster, I assume.

I'll clarify next time around that you really, really want it to at least be on a line after "*Nom" if you want it to show up in the poll   I figured it would take a time or two to get used to it but in previous polls it's taken so long for me to get the list of nominations from the threads that it's slowed things down.

So there are things missing this time, but next time shouldn't be long from now.

[unclean]

and at Aeson - Theyre a huge holdover from when trains were a requirement in every game. Thankfully, we finally got rid of those.. >_>

Instead of intercepting as much as possible at the wormhole I just move the command station out to the edge of the system and set up my defenses to keep ships away from that rather than trying to intercept stuff at the wormhole.

How do you manage it? in my experience moving everything away from the wormholes doesn't work at all without a black hole generator. You just end up with really insecure borders, and it's a death sentence against exos or stealth ships.

Anyways counter-darks are definitely niche, but it really depends on the map and the ai types you're up against. I've had a couple of games where some stations were just way too hard to get to and take out, and counter-darks were worth it just to stop hemorrhaging money on repairs.

[Hearteater]

In my experience, Astro Trains require no effort to counter.  Not even Counter Dark Matter.  Just ignore them.  They do nothing besides act as mobile tachyon emitters.

[Ricca]

In my experience, I had astrotrains that went right past my home command station and enjoyed blowing up my resource convertors and space docks.

That was fairly annoying, I have to admit.

[Aeson]

Instead of intercepting as much as possible at the wormhole I just move the command station out to the edge of the system and set up my defenses to keep ships away from that rather than trying to intercept stuff at the wormhole.

How do you manage it? in my experience moving everything away from the wormholes doesn't work at all without a black hole generator. You just end up with really insecure borders, and it's a death sentence against exos or stealth ships.

If I have Astro Trains on, and do not have Fallen Spire on, then I am not likely to try to build a fully contiguous empire, so when I take a world I either remove the train station if I don't want trains running through that world (and may try to remove other train stations if they would cause Astro Trains to run through my system frequently enough to cause me concern), or I just pick a spot to defend in the system, and put enough there that if I want to send the fleet to rescue the planet my command station and anything on the planet that I want to keep has a decent chance of surviving until my fleet gets there. If the world is a border world that controls access to a contiguous empire, then certainly I'm going to try to stop things at the wormhole, but aside from preventing a threat build-up, there isn't much point to intercepting everything at the wormhole in a discontiguous empire, since there (probably) aren't any worlds that would be threatened immediately by spillover from waves. Also, intercepting everything at the wormhole(s) generally takes a larger amount of firepower than defending one or two spots in the system, so by choosing only to defend whatever it is in the system that I want to keep I can economize with my defenses, especially since wave attacks tend to split up and go after resource nodes at the same time that part of the wave goes for the command station.

In fact, if I have the resources for it, I might build (or partially build) cap-less things in the system and scatter them around to encourage waves to split up more than they usually do, if I'm particularly concerned about the survival of the system. Or, if I'm not that concerned about energy at that point in the game, I might put the energy collector somewhere away from whatever I want to protect, and let that serve as bait for parts of waves.

If I have Fallen Spire on, then more than likely I'm aiming for a relatively large, contiguous empire, and so will not have that many worlds that I won't mind having Astro Trains run through. Thus the border worlds would get heavy defenses on inbound wormholes, and the next world over probably has a spire city to clean up the parts of the wave that might have spilled through, and in a Fallen Spire game it usually isn't that difficult to go around blowing up anything that inconveniences you.

[Toranth]

In my experience, Astro Trains require no effort to counter.  Not even Counter Dark Matter.  Just ignore them.  They do nothing besides act as mobile tachyon emitters.

I don't think the problem with Astro Trains it that they are too weak, or anything like that.  I think they're just uninteresting.

Imagine some more varieties of Astro Trains:
Resource Trains - Pop them like Distribution Nodes to get resources, or lose them.
Reserve Trains - Like Zenith Nodes, but of the AI's current unlock types.  Sometimes they could be trapped, and the ships that appear are hostile.
Warp Trains - Like Warp Guardians, but on a fixed travel route.
Counter-attack Trains - When destroyed, they trigger a small Counter-Attack wave.
Calling Card Trains - Every time they enter a Wormhole, they spawn a small group of AI ships to leave behind.
High-Energy Core Trains - When destroyed, they explode in a high-power, large radius AOE that hits everything (human or AI).
Prototype Trains - Drop a foldout that allows the player to build a single building (Trader good, for example) in that system.  Doesn't come for free, just allows the player to start 1 building of that type.
Translocator Train - Fire Translocation shots.  For more fun, allow them to send ships to other systems.  For even more fun, allow them to teleport turrets, too.
Teleport Train - Doesn't move normally, just teleports.
Teleport Damper Train - Prevents teleportation or translocation while in system.
"Clear the Roads" Train - Continually fires a high-power Photon Beam Cannon directly ahead of itself on the path it's travelling.
Beachhead Train - Causes the player to die when it travels through the home system.
Beacon Trains - While in Human Space, they trigger small Exowave-like spawns that rush to the Train's current location.
Planetary Effect Trains - Armor Boost, Radar Jamming, munitions boosting, etc, for whatever system they are in.
Forcefield Trains - Has a large forcefield on it, pushing other stuff out of the way and protecting AI units.
ARS Train - Replaces a normal ARS.  When killed, it drops the ARS into whatever system, as if it had seeded there.
More varieties of Turret Trains - Different shot types, different multipliers, ranges.
Data Trains - Destroy for a small AIP reduction.
You could work them in with Hybrids - That Advanced Hybrid plot?  It needs special parts to be transported to it - by Astro Train.  Find and destroy the Train before it gets to the Advanced Hybrid to (temporarily) derail the plot.


All sorts of things to make them more fun to play with.  But right now?  As you said:  Just ignore them.