To survive Planet Busters?

[dnzrx]

Is there a way to make a city survive a direct planet buster blast?

And do Planet Busters have a range like standard missiles?

I getting sick of people nuking my capital on Transend level!

[Gelion]

There are military satellites that protect your cities from planet busters. The more you have the greater the chance that the missile won't hit. Aerospace building might also add positive effect. I am not sure.
As for the range, IIRC busters do have the same range as missiles.

P.S. Have you been playing with the Planetary Assembly? Nuking enemy cities is considered an unforgivable atrocity.

[Flubber]

There are military satellites that protect your cities from planet busters. The more you have the greater the chance that the missile won't hit. Aerospace building might also add positive effect. I am not sure.
As for the range, IIRC busters do have the same range as missiles.

.

The satellites are Orbital Defense Platforms which have a 50% chance eac h to destroy an incoming planet buster. The protection is empire wide so you need to monitor how many PBs the opponent has.

If I deploy 6-8 ODPs I am generally safe. Imagine an opponent has 3 PBs and fires them all in a turn. . Each ODP has a 50% chance to stop a PB and just by chance it goes something like this

PB fired
ODP 1 fails
ODP 2 fails
ODP 3 succeeds PB destroyed
ODP 4 fails
ODP 5 fails
ODP 6 fails
ODP 7 succeeds PB 2 destroyed
ODP 8 succeeds PB 3 destroyed OR ODP 8 fails and the target of the 3rd PB is destroyed

Once an ODP fires at a PB it is unavailable for the remainder of that turn to fire at other PBs. In the above example I gave the defender some bad luck. I know that personally I like to habe enough ODPs to minimize the chance of a successful nucleur strike


Unfortunately though PBs often come before you can get an ODP in nwhich case there is really no defense other than defense in depth. That is, you need to control all the tiles within range of your capitol (16 for a missile IIRC)-- This will no prevent an outpost getting nuked but thats essentially their role

[vishniac]

I am not an expert at getting nuked (happened very rarely...except when I play too much with nerve gas) but I think that a unit able to stop a missile attack can stop a planet buster.
That means something like veteran infantry with neutronium armor and AAA capability, Aerospace Complex + Tachyon Shield. That should do it.

[Petek]

I am not an expert at getting nuked (happened very rarely...except when I play too much with nerve gas) but I think that a unit able to stop a missile attack can stop a planet buster.
That means something like veteran infantry with neutronium armor and AAA capability, Aerospace Complex + Tachyon Shield. That should do it.

I set up a scenario with the parameters that you specified (actually created an elite neutronium AAA defender in a base with Aerospace Complex + Tachyon Shield). A fission Planet Buster obliterated the base. A Buster has nominal attack strength of 99, but I think the game treats this as an "infinite" strength. The only defense is as noted above, except that a Flechette Defense System also supplies defense against Busters.

Petek

[vishniac]

Strange. I was sure I had already stopped a buster without Orbital pods and flechette defense.
Perhaps not. After all, it's more logical like that.

[molly bloom]

I have in the past brought down a planet buster with a flechette defence system and a geosynch pod and without any orbital defences (thanks to a timely solar event leaving me without my satellites of lurve).

[vyeh]

From the Alien Crossfire Manual on the disk:

Flechette Defense System (FDS)...Also, each FDS within two squares has a 50% chance to knock out any ICBM (Planet Buster, Tectonic Payload, Fungal Payload) before satellites are used.

From the manual:

Orbital Defense Pod. Each undeployed Orbital Defense Pod has a 50% chance to prevent a Planet Buster attack against any of your bases. Defense pods may only deploy once per turn; when no undeployed pods remain, a Planet Buster can only be stopped by sacrificing one of the already-deployed pods.

So I think in Flubber's example, the third target would not be destroyed. What I don't know is whether an already-deployed pod has a 50% chance or a 100% chance of destroying a Planet Buster (or whether the description in the manual is accurate -- maybe Petek can run a scenario).

[CEO Aaron]

Don't repeal/break the charter and you won't get nuked. I generally save the game and let busters fly then reload if I get the urge to see my opponent's continent turn into a series of crater-lakes.

[Flubber]

From the Alien Crossfire Manual on the disk:



From the manual:



So I think in Flubber's example, the third target would not be destroyed. What I don't know is whether an already-deployed pod has a 50% chance or a 100% chance of destroying a Planet Buster (or whether the description in the manual is accurate -- maybe Petek can run a scenario).

I think you are right and that ist 100% chance by sacrifice but I had completely forgotten about the sacrifice option in my prior post so take my comment with a grain of salt. All I know is that I have never been successfully nuked when I had ODPs up

[chuft]

Don't repeal/break the charter and you won't get nuked. I generally save the game and let busters fly then reload if I get the urge to see my opponent's continent turn into a series of crater-lakes.

lol, sounds like good therapy at the end of a stressful day.

I should keep a save lying around with 20 busters armed and ready to go, just for this purpose.

[CEO Aaron]

Oh, it totally is, I highly recommend it.

That aside, I have NEVER seen the AI unilaterally break the U.N. Charter. And I've played a LOT.

[chuft]

You mean with planet busters?

In my mod I have some nerve gas units in the #Units list so the AI will build them, and they gas each other all the time. I see the sanction messages float by, lol. It's irritating though if one of my trade partners does it because I lose the treaty/pact income when they start gassing an enemy.

[gwillybj]

More than once I have had the (AI) Believers or Hive violate the Charter on their own and PB me, especially if I am playing as Morgan and sometimes as the Gaians. What a mess it makes -- and more so if I decide to respond in kind.

[AoA]

My best game ever was Yang PB'ing my capital the turn before I transcended. The next turn I removed all evidence of him from the face of Planet. I guess he didn't know I had 2 Singularity PBs in every one of my remaining bases.
Three turns later, every spot of land except for my continent was gone, my LoC's controlled everyone else's bases and I suddenly had a military victory.