The Planet Buster

[uptons]

D'ya always build'em? If you see a way to reach Orbital Spaceflight (D6) early, do you make a beeline for it? Do you build a Fission reactor one straight away or wait a bit longer for Fusion ones?
And most importantly, do you USE them (with or without the Charter)?

[MississippiJ]

quote: Originally posted by uptons on 02-08-2001 02:26 PM do you USE them (with or without the Charter)?

One game. Built a bunch of them. University was so strong on defense I couldn't touch him....regular missles just exploded overhead. So I nuked him until he glowed in the dark....I had never done it (had it done to me once) and wanted to see.

Since then I never even build them; waste of time and money.

[Skanderbeg]

I build at least one in every game, so nobody can use me as an easy PB victim.
But I wait building them until I got fusion, because the fission PB is to expensive.

And I like to use them, when I am safe from revenge and strong enough to fight against all other factions.
(I don't revoke the charter.)
When I have some def orbs, flechettes for my best bases, and updated my PB's to singularity,
then it's "atrocity time", and the factions who pissed me off will pay for their sins.

[Sith123]

I use 'em all the time

Like the game I'm currently playing, I beat morgan down to 4 bases and left him to shrivel and die on an island. But miriam was committing piracy all along my coast, so I made a pact with the university....and took her out. Then by the time this was done I had 2 fusion PB's. Let's just say morgan's island isn't there anymore

Then overtime I stocked up 9 more (and discovered I can send PB's to friendly bases, just like planes)

With the gaians, I finished off the spartans and now it's all of us against yang. Just to be safe, I repealled the UN charter and when on a nuke spree.

9 PB's took out 10 or 11 cities, and turned yang's one large island into a small island chain....god I love my job

[Flubber]

I generally don't use them. IN SP I will conquer the world atrocity-free with choppers and drop units long before anyone gets the PB ability. I also had never been Pb'd before.

However in a MP game I am playing, I am about to eat two fusion PBs and have three of my own underway. The other player has about 60 crawlers so he can build the things real fast. I have retaliated with gas choppers and am capturing my oppents bases at a reasonable rate. I figure that this is a weapon of last resort and that this is an attempt even out the war.


Generally though, I like to avoid Pbs if possible and this is the first MP game in which they were built much less used

[Lefty Scaevola]

one more time.....

Planet Buster baaaaadd! Short sword goood! Stick short sword in enemies belly and twist. Out gush blood and guts and little bits of liver. Goood! Very Good!

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Flubber,

Opponent with 60 crawlers. Good thing he already prototyped the PB's. Elsewise he could start builds all over his base sites and cash in his crawlers for an instant PB fleet.

Or perhaps I've said too much......



Og

[Cybergod]

I love bulding them but never actually use them, unless I get nuked myself (then it's time for revenge), but that has happened in only three games in all my SMAC life. And I never bother with nerve gas (except when I had SMAX and just gased and gased those buggers) because I just love to make research monkeys out of my submissives!

The Gaians have turned out to be my favourite faction to play as now and I usually swarm up enormous amounts of Demon Boils and concentrate on Neural Amplifier and Dream Twister. I really stop carring about advanced weaponry once I get those two SPs! I usually run Demo/Green/Knowledge or Wealth/Cybernetic and then, with a total of +5 PLANET ( ) I go to my quest... atrocity free of course

[Shai-Hulud]

I have occasionally used PBs in SP games. I like to have them, but they're not that useful in SP game and far too expensive. It's actually a shame that AI can't make much use of PBs, though I've seen few intense missile strikes by AI against other AI, about 5 missiles each . They were pretty done for after that.

I haven't played much MP yet so I can't say lot about PB's role in human vs human games. But I wonder if not every faction capable of building Planet Busters have few of them. In MP PBs are a sure way to say: "We're superpower, you can't take us down without taking yourself down". I mean, in the real world, anyone who can will build nukes and they are a very useful tool of diplomacy.

[mrdynamic]

Re: The Planet Buster

Planet Buster,, I always build at least 2 in different bases. Seems like if I don't the Hive is more inclined to used them against me once he gets desperate. Although it could just be my imagination.....Ya know, I would not be so paranoid if everyone wasn't trying to kill me !

[Sith123]

Well I just went and continued playing the game I was in (I've been playing it for like a week now), and just used 2 more PB's.....(I couldn't help myself, I had just got quantum reactors)

I had also finally built a space elevator and dropped a LOT of drop pods into yang's territory, but some bases were proving a pain to take, so I used the PB's....the best part was not only did the PB's take out the bases I wanted them to, but they also each took out 2 more

so now it's 11 PB's used
17 cities nuked
4 more under construction
And one damn big hole in the northern hemisphere of planet

god I love my job

[mrdynamic]

What I like about PBs. 4 of Santiagos units, my pactmate, 2 squares from of Yangs base. I PB Yangs base, Santiagos units vaporize with the base .. She declares no Vendetta ! Cool.

[Sith123]

casualties of war man...

If she's at war with yang too, she won't care...a few units for a few of yangs cities....a good trade if you ask me.

In some of my nuke strikes I even vaporized some of my own units...ah well


One question though...how come the PB's take out cities...but they don't take things like the tidal harnesses etc. out also??

[GeneralTacticus]

Originally posted by Sith 123
One question though...how come the PB's take out cities...but they don't take things like the tidal harnesses etc. out also??

If they're in the blast, they are destroyed but I think you're referring to things just outside the blast. My explanation would be that if you hit a base with a big shockwave, the housing and stuff will be smashed open and people will die in the atmosphere, to say nothing of explosions, fires etc. while farms and whatnots will be lower and so less vulnerable. Doen't seem to explain Yang's bases though...

[Shai-Hulud]

I like PBs in general, they are most useful and realistic weapons of mass destruction in TBS genre. Nukes in Civ/CTP are bad jokes, we've already built nuclear weapons that are far more destructive. You wouldn't need many of the biggest nukes to take out whole continents...they probably wouldn't be vaporized though . What's the problem with PBs is that they make the game a lot easier. Because AI doesn't really know how to use them - you've won the late game for certain, if you're willing to use PBs...and it seems that most of you are