MOO2 Questions.

[Teeks]

Could anyone tell me the minimum fleet size and ship types needed to destroy those pesky space monsters. I.E the Guardian, Eel, Crystal, etc.

Thanks,
Teeks

[Urban Ranger]

It depends on your technology. The eel is the easiest, then the amoeba, the crystal, the dragon, and the Guardian is the hardest. You can take out the eel quite early with a couple of battleships and, say, mass drivers. Of course, this also depends on whether you have decent shield and armor.

[Teeks]

Thanks for the info, man. It's just so incredibly annoying when you send a fleet over to kill a monster only to have it put down like a group of little girls.

--Teeks

[The Mad Monk]

I prefer battleships. Wait until you can MIRV nuke missles, load up a couple battlewagons with 'em, and make a running battle of it.

To maximize the number of missles you can launch at one time, give most launchers a magazine of two missles.

Have at least one ship mount a single beam weapon--in case the monster is incapacitated but not killed, and your ships are out of missles.

The best strategy for this ship design is to open fire, then move away from the target. Missles move on their own turn, but also move when the target moves, so by keeping your distance, you both keep out of the monster's range, and cause your missles to take effect quicker.

[Bkeela]

I usually wait until I have the Pulson [?] missle researched, and re-enforced armour and Shield I at the least. I send in about 3 Battleships, and by the time they have a chance to attack me, they are vapour
If another empire defeats and/or colonises the usually lush systems that these monsters haunt, I merely ask them to surrender that system to me, otherwise I invade.
The Guardian is another matter, and you need a pretty advanced fleet to defeat it. I always attack the Guardian before anyone else, because you get valuable technology, and a Titan with a very good pilot.

Bkeela.

[Kyle]

I have a question of my own. Is it true that the difficulty levels got mixed up (in the fresh install, no patch), where the easiest level was really the hardest?


When I played that game, I was completly outclassed and it just seemed wrong.

[Urban Ranger]

Teeks,


Yeah, you don't want to send in anything smaller than battleships with Heavy Armor and Reinforced Hull, and definitely in groups of two or more. Also the Space Hydra should have roughly the same degree of nastiness as a Crystal.

Kyle,


Not that I am aware of, but I can't remember since now I always install patch 1.31 before I start. If you don't have it, someone could e-mail it to you.

Everyone,


I know the Amoeba's spittle (or is it the Space Hydra's?) is similar to a Plasma Web. What about weapons on other monsters? Any comparisons?
[This message has been edited by Urban Ranger (edited December 25, 2000).]

[Urban Ranger]

The Guardian has death rays. Not sure if it can capture ships though, since everytime I'll bring in overwhelming firepower.

[Garth Vader]

The Eel has a couple of pulsars on it. It's real easy to kill you can do it with lasers, as long as they are continous and you use the battle computer. The eel is hard to hit.

The Ameoba, as you said fires the plasma web. It can also be taken out with lasers (Note, when I say lasers they should be HV, AF, CO, NR and you should have the battle computer). You need to use enough ships to use maybe 8-10 lasers on the ameoba. Armor is irrelevant because the ameoba will never be able to hit you first.

The Hydra fires the Mauler device but it easy to hit. Same firepower as the ameoba, but you should have at least tritanium armor and one of reinforced hull or heavy armor. The Hydra will fire first in the early game and can do a couple hundred points of damage.

The Dragon fires plasma torpedoes and I believe point defense phasors. You will want a little more than the hydra in either numbers or tech. It is fast and so fires first for quite a while. It can do maybe 2-300 points of damage.

The Crystal fires the death ray and has the ability to capture ships with no crew. I recommend taking no chances and taking maybe twice the firepower as for the other monsters. I have had ships captured too many times to take chances.

I forget the complete complement of weapons the guardian has, but it has class 5 shields 800 armor and 800 structure, particle beams and the achilles targeting unit and the automated repair unit. You will want to destroy it quickly. I generally use heavy phasors or heavy plasma cannons. I also take a titan and a number of battleships.

[Patriqvium]

The easiest way to blast the Guardian is to research Stasis Field ASAP and equip two Battleships with one of them, as much bonus armor as possible and 20< of you best cannon (heavy modification). Then, drive close to the Guardian, shoot, place Stasis. Next turn, release from Stasis, shoot and place Stasis. As the Guardian cannot retaliate this way, you'll win it quickly.

[Urban Ranger]

But you'll need to have a very high initiative.