Sins Entrenchment Super Cannons

Ok so maybe it's just me but it seems alittle lame and non tactical to have super weapons. As far as i know there is no defense to them except being the first to build an use them. I had a huge fleet and regardless they were slaughtered because of these weapons. There should be a defense against them, perhaps a structure to weaken there effect or something along that nature. The ability to disable them would be nice as well. Just thinking of future updates Stardock. U need to implement more balance and defense against such weapons. Not very tactical having a weapon that can cripple everything and damage your fleet. Someone could send in a much smaller fleet afterwards to wipe u out. Seriously consider more balance here. Any feedback and suggestions feel free to post here. Thankyou

19,357 views 15 replies
Reply #1 Top

You can Disable them by destroying the reserach labs.

Reply #2 Top

Hmm good suggestion but alas if your not in a postion to do so your slaughter will commence regardless, there should be a defense against them. Lets just say u can't then what? You get slaughtered. And the only way u know they have them is after they've already used it. Destroying research would definately be the wise approach to any battle in this game. What ever happened to sheer firepower? Tactical warfare? It's alittle too much. Maybe tone the super weapons down a bit. To not give too much advantage. I dunno just some thoughts. Thanks for the reply.

Reply #3 Top

Entrenchment provides a counter for the Novalith in the form of Auxiliary Govt. The advent culture cannon will not be devastating outside of combat (culture bonuses aren't going to help them if they have no ships there) if you have your own culture. Vasari Kotsura...well...there isn't too much you can do about that. Luckily, it won't do too much damage to things with shields. But, yes, go destroy their labs. Super Weapons are meant to be the way they are. They require a significant investment to research/build. If you spent the effort to build such a thing, then you should be rewarded with something powerful. It is too bad that the TEC Novalith is the worst off being the hardest to research and nerfed by Aux. Govt (though understandably so).

Reply #4 Top

Does Aux govt reatian the tax and rescorces from that planet if its nuetralized? If not than that would be the use. Target high production worlds

Reply #5 Top

By late game income form planetary population should be fraction of your overall income.

Reply #6 Top

They're in the game to decrease the probability that the game stalemates and to encourage a bit of aggression so that opponents don't have the leisure to build them.  At least they're not as lame as Geisha T-1000s (see 'Shogun:  Total War').

There are other possible mechanisms, like implementing other victory conditions (holding specific planets for points, for instance, or stockpiling a certain amount of resources, or killing X worth of blah, etc),  but they're what's implemented now.

Reply #7 Top

Quoting leejaywu, reply 6
Geisha T-1000s
End of leejaywu's quote

Oh yeah

I remember those.

Beat the whole game and my brother with them ladies:cylon:

Reply #8 Top

Quoting Astax, reply 5
By late game income form planetary population should be fraction of your overall income.
End of Astax's quote

 

if by fraction you mean 1/2 or 2/5 then yeah its a fraction. a pretty large fraction. its pretty unusual for a player's income to be totally dominated by trade port income unless they're playing eco boom role in a multiplayer team game.

 

 

 

 

Reply #9 Top

It's significantly less than 2/5s. You seem to confuse Credit income with Income.  Your resoruce income is actually HUGE portion of your income, and it is not affected by this population penalty.  I had often had games where I had 10 metal per second, equivelent of 25 credits per second if I was straight up just selling the stuff.

Reply #10 Top

On the super weapons, something to think about is the cool down time.  I don't have the numbers memorized, but I know the cool down time for the Novalith Cannon is well over 200 sec.  I think it might be over 300.  Regardless, with a cool down time that long you'll have time to rebuild most everything that was destroyed. 

There is usually a warning that tells when a super weapon is gonna go off, so if you pay attention you can see where it came from and target that area with your fleet. 

Seeing as super weapons are almost impossible to build on small maps, and on large maps losing one planet, while painful, usually doesn't lose the game right there, I don't think super weapons are a deffinitive game ender.

Reply #11 Top

you could build more than one novalith?

i was playing against an AI (given, this is the beta of entrenchment) and he (Vasari) had just absolutely filled his chokepoint system with mines. i mean you couldnt even see the asteroid there were mines everywhere. i sent in i think like 300 scouts (this was an early version of the beta, so the best way to get rid of mines was just scout spam) and i could not get through. so, i built 7 novaliths, targeted his planets, and fired just about simultaneously. it was some awesome fireworks, and of course, he surrendered afterwards, but yeah, smaller maps its generally hard to build enough novaliths to win the game, but bigger maps? if you back him into a corner, so hes only got a few planets, bam, thanks for playing baby.

so, back on topic, i dont think superweapons are too overpowered. yes, the novalith erases a planet... wait 60 secs and recolonise. yes, the delivernce engine shoots culture, but like someone said, without ships, its irrelevant. yes, the kostura disables structures and ships... once again, unless theres a fleet nearby to mop up, big deal. all you have to do is make sure you have the ability to wipe out enough of his labs to stop him from firing, or, just fire back at him?

one little countermeasure i have against the kostura... once you hear its been fired, move 2 or 3 planets away. if he fires at your fleet in Gravity Well A, he cant hurt your ships if they are in Gravtiy Well B or C. depending on how surrounding systems are configured, just move the fleet away and return once the blast hits. if there are only 2 phase lanes, move 2 planets away, if there are more, pick on, the more planets the less chance he has of hitting your fleet

Reply #12 Top

None of the 'super' weapons are game enders, unless your opponent has multiples ( as mentioned ). Re-colonization and time will heal most of the damage for the TEC and Advent. Personally, I use the Novalith as an assist to planet bombardment, two or three on a large map will nuke planets in advance of my fleet. No more wasting time on bombing planets. Leave a colony frigate, and keep the heat on with the main fleet pushing ahead.

Kostura is another matter. Having a fleet pop up behind you, past your choke points is a little bit more then annoying. And with mulitple Kosturas, they can jump in and out with impunity. I really wish the PJI dis-rupted that ability.

Reply #13 Top

Personally, I use the Novalith as an assist to planet bombardment, two or three on a large map will nuke planets in advance of my fleet.
End of quote

Which actually hurts you too, since the new Novalith brings down the max planet population with each shot for quite a long time. So if you colonize shortly after nuking it, you'll basically have planets with no population for a while.

Reply #14 Top

True, but if the map is large enough to support several Novalith, then losing a planets income for a few minutes really won't hurt in the long run.  At least not against an AI.  By the time you have enough planets for this, your income level is already pretty high, even if you have a huge fleet.

Reply #15 Top

Ok, I am guessing the one the OP is talking about it the Kostura.  So, if you see the war head coming toward you, jump your ships away from that gravity well.  It's that simple.  Also, the Kostura is completely offensive in nature, so if you go on the offense at one of their worlds (or a neutral world) they cannot fire at you.  ALso, sending a suicide fleet to destroy them is a good idea.  Or the labs.  But honestly, just take out the weapons as they are a significant amount of economy.

Also, shame on you for not scouting.  Building a super weapon means he sacrified in fleet.  Also, 8 weapons labs should give it away.  Now, if he had a better fleet and the super weapons, then shame on you because your ECONOMY SUCKS.