Planet Busters

[Ned]

It has been a very long time since the AI has used one on me. Is it because I never build one - or even have one in my design queue? (I have the autodesign off.)

I remember when I first started playing the game, I would get wacked often. But then I had autodesign on and may have actually built a few.

Regardless, I now largely ingore PB's.

[Method]

i've never seen the AI use a PB with the charter in place. could that be it perhaps?

[Flubber]

Could it also be that you have gotten so much better than the AI that they never get the opportunity??

I have never been PB'd by the AI but they have built the weapon. Its just that I would track them and kill them if they ever came into range of my bases--

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

My guess is likely what Flubber is suggesting.

Likely your game style has evolved such that you have commanding leads and are either so dominating when going on the offensive that the AI is not capable of producig PB's or are running a builder game.

My expereince is PB'ing is usually in done in the throws of a hot war. The AI is in desperation mode and throws its PB arsenal at you. If the charter is in effect that is. My guess is your wars are now reaching the stage that they are short and sweet and the AI has no real chance to become prolongedly desperate.

[waab]

Has never been hit by a PB, happy that it so to

But then I don't remove the charter whery often

[sevencubed]

In all my games the AI builts PB's regardless of it's style, always. It starts building them as soon as it gets the required tech. But, it has only used it when both of the following were true :
1) the charter was off
2) the odds were that it would loose the war, so it was a weapon of last resort

[Alinestra Covelia]

I've played a PBEM game where my brother and I watched the AI Drones conquer base after base of the AI Datajacks. They negotiated an uneasy truce on the edge of a large peninsula, with the DJs cornered in three small bases.

We evidently didn't keep a good watch on them, because one turn, my brother hit ENTER and watched as not one, not two, but THREE planet buster notifications came up. The DJs had somehow managed to build 3 planet buster warheads in their crippled economy and launch them - all hit former DJ bases with conquered secret projects in them.

Needless to say my brother and I cancelled the Charter fairly fastish and used the situation to our advantage. It's probably the first game we ever played where the final opposition city was wiped out by PB, not by conquest.

[Ned]

The AI will use PB's even with the Charter. (Actually, I have never played a game with the Charter repealled.) I used to be a target, but that also was a time when I still used the automatic design feature so that PB's would appear as a design.
In a game last week, one of my submissives PB'ed another AI faction.

From my experience, all AI factions will begin to build PB's when they get the tech. In virtualy every game that I play, the AI has PB's. I usually end up destroying them when at war.

As I said, the only thing I can think of that has changed about my style of play from an era where I routinely got hit 'til now is that now I never even design them, let alone build them.

[CEO Aaron]

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Planetbusters, though I have never been hit by one built by the AI, mainly because I'm very thorough about checking AI production queues. I've popped one or two with probe teams, either in production or in launch.

One I've tried when I'm trying to get my PB arsenal built quickly is start several bomb prototypes concurrently, preferably in bases with Skunkworks (not an issue for Santiago). Then, Crawler upgrade and complete ALL of them while they're in prototype. This is a great trick for Morgan, or any other faction with a sizable cash surplus.

[Haon]

I remember one game i played, I was the uni in the middle continent and the hive had the ENTIRE big continent on the right (planet map) we had a cold war rivalry, which i lost. by the end of the game the hive had:

-About 50 Oribtal attack satelites, which made my PB redundant.
-about 250 isles of the deep all over the map which completely destroyed any chance of naval superiority
-a damn good economy and military, lots of alliences
-and I think in one war they did actually use a PB on me, infact I have been PB before that.

In the end I lost because they trancended before me.

but in end i can conclude that the AI does use PB and well.

[Datajack Franit]

The AI seems to use PB only in two cases:

- AI losing the war so badly it cannot do anything about it
- AI was an atrocity victim and don't care about committing more

[Jac de Molay]

Saw Yang hit me once as the PK's. Never saw a PB in action before, and watch in sheer horror as my 4 SP, size 17 base was turned into crater lake.

Came back later and and turned the Hive into a sea base civilization.

[Lefty Scaevola]

I have had both Yang and Dedrie fire PBs at me, both with the charter still in place, and without any atrocity upon my part.

[Alinestra Covelia]

I've had PBs launched at me by Miriam and Deirdre, but in both cases the availability of ODPs nullified any real threat from them. Once you have the tech to make them, PBs pretty much become useless since it costs so much less to make the defense than it does the offense.

[Ned]

Yang! I have had serveral games where I had extended struggles with this gentleman. I am in one now in my current game. I am not winning.

But as to PBs, losing big time has nothing to do with it. I know, since I have completely destroyed many factions that had them.