Anyone know how to take over a planet that you bomb out with deathspores?

[Croesus]

hmm, I've never used death spores, I just use bombs. I'd rather have one of those microbiotics things than death spores. It might be a bug. I've had planets with zero pop (invade and annihilate pop), and you can move in citizens (either before 0 pop or after if you are fast). In case anyone doesn't know, you never kill a assimilated citizen, only the yellow ones.

Speaking of killing pop, can you turn 'annihilate' population on after you select not to? I haven't been able to find out how, so I have been assimilating them, then moving them to a really small planet and killing them that way.

[Aabraxan]

[SIZE=1] Speaking of killing pop, can you turn 'annihilate' population on after you select not to? I haven't been able to find out how, so I have been assimilating them, then moving them to a really small planet and killing them that way.

I think that it can be done. Either that or you can stop it after starting, can't remember which, but I've done it once, years ago. What I do remember is that I did it from the colony screen (& by accident).

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by GameGeek


I think that it can be done. Either that or you can stop it after starting, can't remember which, but I've done it once, years ago. What I do remember is that I did it from the colony screen (& by accident).

Let me retract that. I thought I had done it years ago, but maybe my memory is faulty. This past weekend, I tried both starting the extermination of a population and then stopping, and declining to exterminate and then attempting to start. Neither worked.

[siron]

"This past weekend, I tried both starting the extermination of a population and then stopping, and declining to exterminate and then attempting to start. Neither worked."

stoppin annihilation works. just click at the red sentence at top of the screen (planet surface). AFAIK the other way doesnt work.

But there is no way to invade a zero-pop colony so far. It is just a bug. And it will be fixed in 1.40b19 or b20.

Some guys abused this bug. Invading small colony --> annihilate to 0 and u have a undestroyable outpost for 10 turns or so.

[Straybow]

"will be fixed?"

Somebody is doing patches for a 1996 game??

[siron]

"Somebody is doing patches for a 1996 game??"

Yes. These nice patches were published by Lord Brazen, one of the kali-players. (For example, you need his patches if you want use the dos-version for Multiplayer under XP.)

Many online players discuss with him on the chat server 246. There are still many ideas to improve this nice game.

[Widget4]

I never use them, but I sometimes have super crappy ground troops or only a single transport for an invasion. So I start bombing and when the colony population is lowered to a manageable size I halt the bombing and invade. The trouble is I destroy buildings. I imagine with death spores you have to halt your biological weapon slaughter at one or two colonists, then invade. My memory isn't absolutely clear on the game mechanics, though.

Widget4

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by siron
"This past weekend, I tried both starting the extermination of a population and then stopping, and declining to exterminate and then attempting to start. Neither worked."

stoppin annihilation works. just click at the red sentence at top of the screen (planet surface). AFAIK the other way doesnt work.

But there is no way to invade a zero-pop colony so far. It is just a bug. And it will be fixed in 1.40b19 or b20.

Some guys abused this bug. Invading small colony --> annihilate to 0 and u have a undestroyable outpost for 10 turns or so.

As it turns out, my memory was faulty. Stopping annihilation does work, as Siron pointed out.

I've not used deathspores in several years, but I'm a little confused by this. I understand that you can't invade a zero-pop colony. But I'm not real clear on this undestroyable outpost business.

If the player bombs with deathspores down to zero pop, how does it become an outpost? Does the attacking player get control of the planet without invading? Or does it become an outpost for the player whose pop just got wiped out? Can it not be targeted for future bombardment?

With regard to the invading small colony and annihilating down to zero, can the AI or other players not attack it? I recently annihilated several planets down to zero and was able to ship in population, but, then again, I wasn't using deathspores.

[siron]

"If the player bombs with deathspores down to zero pop, how does it become an outpost?"

It is not actually an outpost. But it is used like an outpost by some players.

"Does the attacking player get control of the planet without invading?"

No

"Or does it become an outpost for the player whose pop just got wiped out?"

Yes. He uses this planet like an outpost. (dunno if he can transfer there pop again.....after the opponent tried to destroy it.)

"Can it not be targeted for future bombardment?"
Im not sure now.......but this planet is undestroyable. The player can choose to bombard.......and the MP-opponent sees him invading.........but to no avail.

(Before I knew that this is a bug.....I thought my opponent were slightly stupid ;D)

[Zoetrope]

Let's summarise:

A colony's population can be reduced to zero without damaging any buildings either by annihilation after conquest or by biological bombardment. When such a colony's population drops to zero, it remains with its most recent owner, who, as I recall, can move population to it.

Enemy players cannot attack it in any way, by weapons or by troops, nor can they land an outpost or a colony. COMMENT: This is a classic example of a designer neglecting the (foundational) quantity zero.

A zero population colony gradually loses buildings because MOO2 considers them to be unmaintained. When no buildings remain, the planet reverts to unoccupied status, and then may be outposted or colonised. This is why it's a good idea to move population to a depopulated colony of yours if you wish to retain it without having to send a colony ship.

I wish that _unclaimed_ (i.e. empty) planets could be stellar converted, or degraded by weapons such as the toxic slime.

[Aabraxan]

Okay, now I see. Thanks.