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Interesting Late Game Tactic - Ship Catapults

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Interesting Late Game Tactic - Ship Catapults

from Stardock Forums
Having spent some play time on huge and gigantic maps, I have noticed that the ability to project military force over large distances in a timely manner can be crucial to success. To that end, I have experienced with a ship catapult tactic that seemed quite amusing to me. I basically designated one sector in the heart of my empire as a launch zone, and filled it up with starbases that contained nothing more than Stellar Wake and Reverse Tractor Beam upgrades. It wasn't long before I could catapult all units passing through that sector far into deep space.

If there is no limit to starbase bonus stacking, I will soon be able to send my ships through 12 sectors of space in one turn. Although this may look like a waste of constructors, it does allow me to reduce the size of my standing army significantly and alleviate much of the auto-moving ship clutter towards the end game. Give it a try if you're bored :)
3,030 views 54 replies
Reply #27 from Stardock Forums Top
It's either cap the total amount of bonuses or cap the number of starbases in a sector. Come to think of it, the second choice wouldn't be that bad an option either as the player wouldn't need to do any math to see if he hit the limit.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #28 from Stardock Forums Top
I agree SBs should be capped. The simplest way to do it IMHO is like cities in Civ or MoM, just set a minimum distance between two of them :
4 squares will limit number of SBs in a sector to 12 approx,
6 sq will limit it to 6-8
etc..
This will kill most of the cheese and is easy to code/understand/analyse :) .

Any takers ? ;)


Reply #29 from Stardock Forums Top
This always comes back to "resources."

~SDC~
Reply #30 from Stardock Forums Top
Perhaps set the number of starbases per sector as 4 + number of resources in sector. An empty sector can have four starbases, a sector with two resources (I've seen them) can have six.

The lower the baseline number of starbases, the more valuable sectors with resources become.
Reply #31 from Stardock Forums Top
Seems my 'idea' isn't particularly new, after going through that link, and the links it refers to.
Reply #32 from Stardock Forums Top
For limiting the number of starbases, X+resources (where X could be 4 or 2 or whatever) seems fine. Of course, this still also leaves the Terror Star problem.

It might work better to say "Only X starbases can provide manufacturing/trade/cultural/military benefits in any given sector." You could build 2 dozen, but only the best four will actually boost anything.

~SDC~
Reply #33 from Stardock Forums Top
How about:

Starbase Cap = Number of Colonized Planets + Number of Resources

Or alternatively:

Starbase Cap = Number of Colonized Systems + Number of Resources

Everything calculated on a per sector basis of course. Either of the above will have the effect of encouraging players to colonize low quality planets and forcing them to deal with the subsequent morale problems. That may or may not be a bad thing to shoot for, although the AI must learn to compensate of course. The random map generator may need to be adjusted so civs stuck in a corner can still get out by using starbases as range extenders however.
Reply #34 from Stardock Forums Top
I should add another one:

Starbase Cap = Number of Colonized Systems OR Resource, whichever is larger
Reply #35 from Stardock Forums Top
Both of those seem a bit low.

If you really want to limit starbases, give them a maintenance cost, based on the number of modules.

~SDC~
Reply #37 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm not sure what the maintenance should be, as the "1 for a starbase, +1 per module" that first crossed my mind still seems a bit low - of course, starbases can get a few dozen modules installed, and more than a few of those maxed out bases would end up costing as much as or more than an Excalibur to maintain.

~SDC~
Reply #38 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm going to go draconian on this and vote for one starbase per sector. My god, the thing gives huge bonuses as it is (especially at higher tech tree levels), more than one just seems too abusable. It also makes it much harder to write an AI that can decide how to handle this for its own civ (and how to handle dealing with civs that have stacks of starbases in a sector). Cut the Gordian knot: one sector, one starbase. :)
Reply #39 from Stardock Forums Top
Nope, not one per sector. 1 per resource, minimum one, at an absolute minimum. I've seen as many as three resources in one sector (right next to Sol :)).
Reply #40 from Stardock Forums Top
On the other hand, I wouldn't scream in pain (too much) if rather than adding, you only got the biggest bonus. This way you can still fill a sector with starbases, but they're only there for redundancy or multiple resource gathering.
Reply #41 from Stardock Forums Top
I have 2 SB's in a sector with Speed and Inverse Tractor on both yet my ships are getting no extra move points???? Any ideas???

bb
Reply #42 from Stardock Forums Top
Those bonuses are only applied if a ship starts its turn in the affected sector, but that condition also happens to exclude the orbit of any systems there. Let your ships skip a turn in the affected sector and they will obtain the bonus moves next turn.
Reply #43 from Stardock Forums Top
Vorlin,

I've seen the Yor AI stack production/military starbases in a single sector.

~SDC~
Reply #44 from Stardock Forums Top
I don't think multiple resources should spawn in a single sector, but that's sort of a sub-issue. Gives too much power to whoever finds the sector first.

And I still say that starbases are just too powerful to allow them to stack bonuses. But that's just an opinion, and not any more or less valuable than a differing one. Obviously I'll adjust my play accordingly regardless.
Reply #45 from Stardock Forums Top
Whether they spawn in the same sector or adjacent sectors (depending on the map size) whoever exploits them first gets the advantage.

~SDC~
Reply #46 from Stardock Forums Top
It's not a starbase number that is the problem, but the bonus stacking from modules. I've posted a few times that more same modules you have in a sector, the less beneft you get from each additional module.

/ds
Reply #47 from Stardock Forums Top
Did they nerf this in the last patch? My constructors aren't seeing a speed bonus, but my military ships are.
Reply #48 from Stardock Forums Top
When I made a catapult, I noticed that fleets didn't seem to see speed bonus, but individual ships did. If you send your constructors around in fleets, that might be why you're not seeing the bonus (note, once you get the bonus, you can join the ships into a fleet without loosing the bonus).
By the way, I think we should rename them Ship Yoyos, not ship catapults. I made one in a gigantic galaxy big enough to send the ship where I wanted it, have it beat up whatever opposition was in the area, and return to the catapult to be ready for next turn.
Reply #49 from Stardock Forums Top
Regarding fleets... you *will* get the bonus if you leave your ships separate, move them into the Shatapult Sector, wait for next turn, (see their move jump up 20 points or whatever), then merge them and move out. Works perfectly well, just remember to not form the fleet until it's time to move out.