Atrocities?

[Tommar]

Originally posted by cal_01


Actually, obliterating a base is quite useful, imo. Most of the time, you don't plan on holding enemy bases in the offensive meta-game unless it has a bunch of good facilities already built; it just takes too much time to rebuild the social net and you're better off just using a few key bases as "command points."

"Social net"?

It doesn't take much time to build if you have plenty of cash, which is pretty much par for the course in the "defensive meta-game".

My biggest problem is remembering that I need to "spend the money", since it's the only reason why I took the major military hit.

[Straybow]

Originally posted by Lazerus
Managing to get a ship to alpha centauri would be a bigger challenge then making that weapon

No, at lower energy levels the PB can't be made, period. At lower energy levels the trip to AC takes centuries instead of decades.

[cal_01]

Originally posted by Tommar



"Social net"?

It doesn't take much time to build if you have plenty of cash, which is pretty much par for the course in the "defensive meta-game".

My biggest problem is remembering that I need to "spend the money", since it's the only reason why I took the major military hit.

Social net as in the facilities of a base. I think that's what the game calls them when you capture a base?

[GeoModder]

No, when conquering a base some energy is allocated from the net.

[cal_01]

Really. I always thought that it was from the destruction of facilities due to a capture, since some bases would have an odd assortment of facilities built.

[Chaos Theory]

Facilities tend to be destroyed when you conquer a city with force. I think the number destroyed depends on how long the battle has been raging, but I'm not sure how.

[cal_01]

Weird. I thought the mechanic was similar to the Civ2 one.

Then again, did Civ2 even have that feature? Or was it just my imagination?

[Kirov]

I remember a game where Hive (AI) nuked a Miriam's base called 'Gift from God'...

Anyway, as to atrocities:

- nerve stapling - only prior to the first contact. NEVER after that, it's just not worth the commerce hit.

- nerve gas - only against aliens. I like to have Submissive Pacts too much.

- obliteration - only in PBEMs at special occasions. Otherwise it's better either to assimilate a base in question into your empire or give it to your AI Pact brother.

- PBs - never used it, but sure as hell would use it in PBEM if need arrives.

[Lazerus]

No, at lower energy levels the PB can't be made, period. At lower energy levels the trip to AC takes centuries instead of decades.

But it didn't take centuries

[Straybow]

That's because there was a rift in the fabric of the genre, causing a Star Trek© (Sub)Space Anomaly™ to extend into the Sidiverse, allowing the primitive rocket to traverse 4½ light years in a few decades instead.

[Frankychan]

Ok, why is nerve stapling more despicable than nerve gas or PB's? Sure, nerve stapling is used against your own people. I can see that.

BUT

If they are rioting, there is the possibility they can destroy valuable base facilities or even take over the base and join the Free Drones. Simply put, they are the worst kind of threat to your faction...an internal one. And if they were loyal citizens of your faction then they wouldn't be rioting in the first place, hence the absence of nerve stapling.

Besides, they're only Drones and Genejacks.

[Frankychan]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron
I voted 'Buster Away' because I certainly have used atrocities amply in the past, and have no compunction about using them, but upon reflection, I really can't say I use them that often.

First of all, they're a very good way to get every faction on the board pissed off at you, unless you revoke the charter first. And if you're able to do that, odds are you don't really need to resort to such shenanigans anyway.

Second, most of them aren't that much more effective than normal 'ethical' play. Exceptions for PB's on concentrated enemy defences and gas on pesky aliens. Stapling, for example, usually doesn't wind up being THAT much more effective that using a couple of doctors, rushing a rec-commons, bringing in police, etc. And wiping out bases is just idiotic. If you're really dead-set on moving a base, having it crank out CPs faster than it can replenish pop works just fine. If you don't think you can hold the base very long, sell off the improvements and grant it to an allied or neutral faction. First, it makes them like you, second, it pisses them off at the recapturing faction.

Being a devout Morganite and unrepentant Free Marketeer, I find it's very important to keep at least some of the AI factions on your good side, the trade income is more than worth the trouble.

And I tip my hat to the CEO. Even though we're practically polar opposites, I can respect one that is loyal to one faction. It's hard to find players that usually stick to one faction these days...or at least can identify with one particular faction anyway.

[Lazerus]

That's because there was a rift in the fabric of the genre, causing a Star Trek© (Sub)Space Anomaly™ to extend into the Sidiverse, allowing the primitive rocket to traverse 4½ light years in a few decades instead.

Not everything has been discovered and not all theories survive through the ages. Don't discount so easily a new method arising in a few hundred years time.

[Straybow]

Perhaps, but in the meantime, where are the ordinary nukes that wipe out units and devastate cities without leaving a crater visible from orbit?

"Oh, that... we forgot."

[GeoModder]

Well, orbital spaceflight must be re-invented and infrastructured again, remember?