I... don't build tractor beams. I don't find them to be useful because they're expensive and always seem to die way too fast. Though, I have made some playstyle changes since I made that determination that may change my opinion, so I guess I should go try them out again. With the turret clustering, it shifts importance from tractor beams to forcefields. If turrets around the command station don't work for you, they don't work, that's fine.
This is also why military command stations work well with this, since it disperses ships (though you often do waste a lot of firepower as your turrets fire at something that then gets teleported away).
I also don't care about losing my command stations at all, most of my planets are lightly defended, with the exception of my homeworld and a wave planet if I have one. Military mk3 if it's on a dangerous border, mk2 if it's on some other border, econ otherwise, usually no turrets or forcefield - 5 of each turret and a mk1 only if absolutely necessary. If I have fortresses unlocked, I'll toss one on my homeworld just-in-case, one on my wave planet, and the other three on dangerous border-worlds.
It really depends on how the game is shaping up though, since the various AI types, galaxy layout, etc. can have a huge impact on things. Say you end up against (horror of all horrors) a speed racer with eyebots (those are immune to tractor beams, I think?). 200 speed eyebots. Wormhole defenses just aren't going to cut it in that case, though it is a pretty extreme case. On the other hand, unlocking counter-missile turrets will completely neuter eyebots (and thank the devs for that - I see eyebots, and that's one of my first unlocks).
You know, this is why I liked old AI War more.
The more changes keep coming the less and less viable certain tactics were and the more and more there becomes only One True Tactic.
I do not like sandbox games with One True Way.
Would you be saying the same thing if turrets around the command station were not viable, if tractor beams were not completely necessary? Of course changes are going to come with such huge re-imaginings of the game. I also never said you HAVE to use a new strategy, merely suggested one that I have had success with, since you've expressed discontent with yours. I used to be a wormhole turret-clusterer, back before the turret changes in 4.0 where they were all made 5x as powerful or so, and then when I stopped having success with that strategy and saw someone suggest the command station clustering, I tried it, and it worked (roughly), so I refined it. I do agree with your tractor turret assessment - that's what drove me away (as I said above), they seem to die way too fast even though they tractor 3x the ships now (old mk1 used to be 10x tractor). I think it's because all the units have had such a major, major increase in base damage from before - infiltrators used to do 40 per shot, and now do 1,080. When fighters were updated to do 3000? That was unheard of - I think they used to be something like 300 (though I can't remember at all).
The thing is, there isn't "one true way". From what I've read, if you ask Suzera she'll tell you to take Space Tanks and deepstrike from half a galaxy away, and that's that. Fleet (I think it was) hates fleet ships and basically spends the first two hours building starships. I've jumped through many phases, but I always come back to doing an absolute ton of landgrabbing (though it usually eventually leads to stalemate or demise).
Defense is just a microcosm of this - I defend two or three worlds extremely heavily, and don't mind losing outposts so long as they don't have critical infrastructure on them, but Bob sounds like he tries to defend every single world to the death, and he has a different defense strategy that works for him. Tech uses a mix, defense in depth (not sure whether that's on every planet).
I also think turrets are very useful and effective (heck, I even like the mk1s - I don't think they're underwhelming at all compared to what they used to be!), but if you don't think turrets are useful, there are other options. Consider selecting Bulletproofs, Tachyons, or Muniboosters (yes, they can boost turrets more than 1.2x - they boost turrets at a .1 penalty I think, so mk3 normally boosts at 2.1x, so turrets are 2x, last time I checked) as your starting bonus ship, and run a more mobile defense operation that can handle the bomber waves. Maybe build some flagships to go with your fighter swarm if you don't have muniboosters, or consider investing in military command stations - if you don't like the teleportation, drop some logistics stations and abuse the extra speed/enemy slow abilities. Use your environment - if you find a nearby AI planet with a grav drill, take it, load it up with a military command and a pile of turrets, and divert all your waves to it. Same applies for armor suppressors. Maybe research grav turrets instead of spiders. Or just fast-tech to mk2 turrets and skip building mk1 turrets at all in the beginning.
Be creative, try new things - AI war is a living entity, unlike a lot of other RTS games that tend to settle down into an "optimal" build because they don't get updated, let alone, re-imagined every so often.
(6 posts were made while I was typing this, so I haven't gotten to accommodate all the new discussion!)
