Best Race.

[ravagon]

MM. Your last post in that thread states that the damper field blocks both death rays and neutron blasters. This isn't actually true. Neutron blasters are completely blocked as the damage they inflict, modified by the damper field means that any hit inflicts less than 5 points of damage hence no marine loss. Death rays, however, are still vey effective. Hit an Antaran small/medium ship at reasonably close range with a heavy, or two std death rays and you will see all of the marines onboard wiped out. A boarding action just waiting to happen.

Also, I've never noticed any problem with damper fields messing up transporters? They don't really seem too effective (unless target is death-rayed first ) but I always attributed that to the superiority of the Antarans ground forces over my own.
Do assault shuttles work that much better?

[The Mad Monk]

I'm fairly certain about the kill negation from dampers and xentronium--let me check my notes...this might take a day.

[ravagon]

Actually, something I forgot to mention. This wasn't using the patch (I like creative for only 6 picks ).

[Master Marcus]

Nothing can negates a Hv plasma cannon, nothing. it's 3 times cheaper than a Death Ray, AND more powerful at close range. The AI can't stand the enveloping ability even equipped with Damper Field at the end of a game. It doesn't block completely a Death Ray also. But it is a very powerful defense to have on the larger hulls, many times better than the shields - and at a cheesy low space cost. That will be tampered otherwise in MoO3 believe me.

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Master Marcus
Nothing can negates a Hv plasma cannon, nothing.

\

Agreed. Its just such a shame that ground batteries/battlestations get rid of their plasma guns after disruptors are researched. Planetary defenses go from virtually invulnerable to weak as a kitten in one fell swoop.
I've also found that std plasma guns are devastating against missile volleys (assuming I don't just target an enemy ship hoping for a core breach ). Target a 5 missile volley and its gone with only a gun or two fired. Anyone know why this is? Something to do with the enveloping effect I'm guessing.

[The Mad Monk]

Alrighty--on the damper field front, the description says that 'transported' troops have a 50% chance of dying passing through the damper. I don't know if this is in the same sense that missles have a 50% chance of destruction passing through a lightning field (it always appeared to have a higher kill ratio in my games), but I remember looking at the boarding screen and noting that I started off with 25% of the troops I sent. I have to dig up an old game and invade antares, just to be sure.

I think I was mistaken on xentronium--although it did have some special feature. Maybe nullification of the 'armor piercing' abilities of certain weapons?

[pchang]

With the patch:

Damper Field negates the special killing effect of Death Rays. Normal marine deaths due to damage still applies

Transporters have only 25% chance to succeed when transporting through a damper field. Expect 75% casualties. This is why I always use assault shuttles.

Xentronium armor negates armor piercing capabilities of weapons. Sometimes it is better to have a double hull instead of double armor.

[The Mad Monk]

Thanks for the confirmation, pchang!

Right now, I'm playing something a bit different than my usual:

Cybernetic, +2 industry, Subterranean, Charismatic, -10 (ship offense, ship defense, ground combat, and spying), and Poor Homeworld.

Note that leaves an extra point--which is used, along with the four from evolutionary mutation, to acquire Aquatic.

I spawned in a five planet system, including a rich, heavy gravity water world and only one gas giant. I love 5 planet systems.

First race I ran into was the Silicoids--I hate that. Fortunately, the nearest Silicoid world was promptly over-run. By the Darloks--I hate that. I also soon discovered repulsive Sakkra to the left and pacifist Psilons to the right . The Darloks proved to not only be non-repulsive (surpise, surprise), but amiable tech-trading partners. Between trading with them and leaning on the Psilons, I didn't really miss creative at all. Since I was shooting for the mutation fairly early on, I had several high-lvel techs in a field nobody else was hitting (lots of good trades).

Anyway, this is a fun 'build', and a nice change of pace.

[jdlessl]

If you want to get _really_ high scores, then here's the race you design. Play as Lithovore, then when you get Evolutionary Mutation, switch over to Cybernetic. You end up with 10 leftover picks, which basically doubles your score. Got 6000 points on an Impossible map that way. Cheap, yes, but effective.

--
Jared Lessl

[pchang]

In my games, I expand very quickly and get a huge tech lead. If I am not creative, I miss a lot of techs. This is because there is no one at my level to trade with.

BTW, I have never tried capturing the Orion Guardian. I think you can't. Can anyone confirm this?

[jdlessl]

As I recall, the Guardian is considered a monster, like the Eel, so you can't board it. Pity.

--
Jared Lessl

[The Mad Monk]

I can confirm that the Guardian is unboardable.

I can also confirm that the Antaran homeworld is unraidable--conquer, yes, capture ships and leave with them, no.

It was a fun attempt...

[pchang]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
I can confirm that the Guardian is unboardable.

I can also confirm that the Antaran homeworld is unraidable--conquer, yes, capture ships and leave with them, no.

It was a fun attempt...

You only get to keep captured ships if you win the battle. If you win at Antares, the game is over.

[The Mad Monk]

I know...I was trying a workaround that didn't quite 'work around'.

I took a 'telepathic' pick, which allows immediate use of captured ships, on the theory that if I warped captured ships out of there long before my other ships left, I should get to keep them.

I remember it woking with non-Antarans; at least, I don't think I would have made the attempt without testing it on 'lesser' races first...it was quite a while ago...

In any case, it didn't work...

[Thue]

People seem to like heavy-duty defensive systems on their ships. But I found that (at least in end-game) a much better tactic was just making the ships fast (hard to hit) and then using the extra space for more weapons. You then get first shot.

Doing that I was comfortably destroying fleets 3-5 times my size. (I did have a slight edge in tech)