Tactical Combat

[OzzyKP]

Am I the only one too lazy to bother with building ships and refitting them and going through the motions of actual combat?

Granted I'm still fairly newbieish, but playing on tactical combat seems to be a waste of time. I'm not looking to break any records, or get to the top of any MP ladders (or play MP at all really), so am I alone in the wilderness turning off tactical combat?

[Aabraxan]

Probably not. Surely there's been at least one other soul out there, somewhere, at some point, who didn't design or refit his ships . . . But I'd wager that you're clearly in the minority.

That said, please bear in mind that the following comments come after years of not turning tactical combat off. To be honest, I'm not even sure I've ever played a game without designing my own ships. The ships that you design on your own can be much, much more effective than the stock designs. Designing your own ships allows you to tailor your ships for a more effecient use of allowable space. For example, as long as my targeting computers stink, I use missiles. I may have mass drivers, but if my comps suck, the mass drivers just take up space and are unlikely to hit their targets. So mirved missiles are just a smarter option in that case. Additionally, if I'm in a bad situation and can't kill the enemy fleet all in one battle, tactical combat lets me pick my targets. I can decide whether to kill their cruisers, their battleships, the starbase, or simply pound the planet with missiles and decimate the population. If I have to, I can kill the starbase, retreat, return and kill some ships, retreat, return, and repeat as necessary.

All in all, I'd suggest turning that tactical combat back on, and read the threads here on techs and ship design. Some very good advice has been posted there in the past. Good luck!

[OzzyKP]

Also the other night after browsing through the forums here I tried a "blitz" game on impossible. Loaded up ships with nothing but 2 shot nuke missiles and within a few turns using hit and run tactics I was able to conquer the whole galaxy.

Where's the fun in that?

It seems as though tactical combat gives humans an unfair advantage over the AI because we know how to build, use and customize our ships better. We all know the AI is gonna make the same balanced ship design, by turning off tactical combat we all make the same ships and it puts us on an even footing.

Plus, of course, if you're lazy like me, its less to worry about.

[vmxa1]

Tactical combat is the only way really. Most felt we waited long enough to get the ability to refit ship from Moo1 to not want to do it.

There is not much fun in the blitz type game IMO. It is just one other thing that yo do once in a while as a change of pace. It
is interesting to see how fast you can do it, but not to do it very often.

[OzzyKP]

Ah, but by turning off tactical your ships refit automatically.

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
Ah, but by turning off tactical your ships refit automatically.

I don't know how this works, but I suspect that they may not refit in the most advantageous way. For example, if you get plasma cannons, your ships may be automatically refitted with plasma cannons, when the smarter refit would be to use modified phasors. Out of curiosity, is it an instant refit?

[Whoha]

Yep, as soon as you discover the tech, all your ships get it.

[siron]

I agree with Ozzy.

The AI simply runs into (mirv) missiles. That is no challenge at all. When I include AI in my games I play also strategical combat.

But when you play against humans: They have approriate counter measures with a point defence fleet. Additionally, the battleships move first to their corners to gain further combat rounds to shoot down missiles.

The Combat system works fine there.

[OzzyKP]

Good, i'm not alone.

[OzzyKP]

Wow, another really bad problem with playing tactical combat. I just tried one today, and there isn't a point at which you can call off an assault really. Like if you launch your missles at the planet to take out its defenses and end up being too successful and destroying the entire planet. Crap, that sucks. Especially since I'm telepathic, I just lost a really nice planet. Grrr.

[Zoetrope]

Close all open vBcode tags

In my earliest days with MoO2, I used to play "strategic" combat, but the results of the battles were nonsensical: time after time, I'd have clearly superior forces yet lose. The dice were loaded, there was no fun "in" strategic combat, so I have preferred tactical combat ever since.

More recently I learnt (courtesy of Mukhametov's OCL editor) that the weapons have different strengths in strategic vs tactical combat.

One day I might try strategic again, but redirecting my research accordingly, just as an experiment.

As for destroying planetary installations and populations, some weapons seem more destructive than others.

Missiles are, I agree the most likely to devastate worlds contrary to the firer's intentions: perhaps the techs that redirect missiles when their target's destroyed are not really desirable!

Beams don't suffer from that enhancement, which is one reason they're better for planetary assaults.

Missiles are suited for defence and for engagements in neutral systems, because then one usually does want to destroy all enemy assets.

An exception is a boarding race, especially a Bulrathi/Elerian hybrid that can turn ships against the foe, then bring them back for scrapping. Of course one wants to customise the AI (using Melting Pot, for instance) to make their techs worth capturing.

[siron]

Re: Close all open vBcode tags

Originally posted by Zoetrope

More recently I learnt (courtesy of Mukhametov's OCL editor) that the weapons have different strengths in strategic vs tactical combat.

You should also try LordBrazens OCL update for his 1.4 patch. He extended it a bit. You can also alter Planet Maint and MaxPop Values.

http://lordbrazen.blogspot.com/2005/10/new-build-of-ocl.html

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
Wow, another really bad problem with playing tactical combat. I just tried one today, and there isn't a point at which you can call off an assault really. Like if you launch your missles at the planet to take out its defenses and end up being too successful and destroying the entire planet. Crap, that sucks. Especially since I'm telepathic, I just lost a really nice planet. Grrr.

Yeah, that's a pain in the butt. I haven't played telepathic in some time, and I don't tend to allow other species to remain on my planets. So I don't worry about it too much. There's pretty a good chance I'm just gonna liquidate them anyway. Obviously, though, playing telepathic changes that equation dramatically.

[GePap]

I never play blitz games, I am a slow builder, and like building large empires slowly on huge galaxies. I always play tactical combat because I find it more fun. That said, after the structural annalyzer and the achilles targeting unit fleet battles are very one sided. But before that, I have had some epic battles that were very exiting- a 30 minute battle as your main fleet and their main fleet mix it up is one of the best experiences I get from MOO2.

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by GePap
I never play blitz games, I am a slow builder, and like building large empires slowly on huge galaxies.

Same here, but that's probably because I stink at blitz games . . .