I agree, of course, you do have the capital ships (Marauders) that act the same way. 

How would you suggest balancing them? 

The Love cannon should get some kind of take over ability, or at least planet vision.

no but kostura destroys not only one planet.. just send a decent fleet 10 jumps from frontplanets into enemyterritory and its GG... u need only one shot ..

so how about

2 hits from 2 love cannons = planet takeover with population.. still structures remain hostile ?

i dont know maybe weaken the other 2 superweapons a bit

cuz in a 100+ planets game with 4 players the kostura is absolut the best ever ..

in addition the vasari allready have an outstanding defense with the phase stabilizer

this cannon takes the whole idea of "Frontlineplanets" away there is nosense in building the +10tactical slot research

i suggest all the 3 races get a defensive phase stabilizer..or something similar cuz right now its really really unfair on huge maps where u need at least 30minutes from one end of your empire to the other..

and the offensive phasestabilzor combined with a migrator who builds a starbase wich has ha permanet phasestabilazor would still be rockin..

its just way too strong atm you could send a fleet right to the home planet destroy alot of researchlabs build a starbase in 30s in this system while your second third or even more kosturas send multiple migrators to enemy planets where u just start building a phasegate into the starbase and all the enemy planets are your home now...

thats just something thats really terrible wrong with the balance .. even if the advent "SUPER"(crap)Cannon would do anything usefull..

i mean if this phasegate could be established on the second nearest "front"planet i think it would be ok but think about a chain of 15-20 planets from your fleet away and u got a "little" suprise vasari fleet at the backdoor.. u cant do anything against it even if u had build defense on every planet they just send in a decent fleet - not even a real big one just 2-3 caps 10-15 transporter some hc's and so on and of course a migrator for the offensive starbase oO.. u wont hold em long enough until you lost very important buildings (lab's, 9 tradeports on deserts ..) or even the whole planet 

"offensive starbase" is a nother thing i really dont want to see

u shouldn't be able to build in enemy territory a starbase.. on neutral systems like gas giants wormholes ok.. but not in a occupied system ...

so i dont really know how to balance the superweapons and i really like the idea of the kostura update its creative and brings in some new tactics but atm its just not really balanced..

maybe if only a handfull ships could fly to the bombarded planet.. and no caps/or migrators ^^

but atm u can send your entire fleet right threw it into the heart of the enemy's empire where no one has defense ..

edit: maybe let a small fleet right threw it and make it something like tec's civic ultimate where pirates raid your systems

but a little bit better for your cuz u decide the planets where the raid takes place

for advents super weapon it could be a tax loss on this planet say for a certain duration of time the whole income on this planet would go to the advent player .. credits, metal, chrystal just everything and u cant build or scuttle anything in this system for the duration (1minute?)

after the time u regain control of the system also u could shorten the duration with caps in this system like culture repell rate ?

well i don't knowjust some thoughts i got after a really enjoyfull 6h game until it was ended by a full spread vasari kostura+migrator invasion..

everybody left flamin and i dont think we will be playing entrenchment+superweapons soon again

without em everytime ^^

test it with some friends with no rushing rules (peace time like an hour) and then see the full might of the new "I WIN BUTTON" (seriously on a huge map its even better than RA back in the days..)

and the research costs are nothing compared to the costs of building a full defense to EVERY F' PLANET +8upgrade Spacestation just on ONE planets is it more resources that the whole research tree to the cannon..

ok the cannon it self costs also 8k credits and some metal crystall but compare it to the

1800credits 250metal 200crystal? x8 on just one starbase + decent repairstations hangars and pointdefenses..

and imagine that on every planet of your 30+ planets empire...

and even then a big vasari fleet just jumps into your heartland and ravages 3-4 planets until your fleet finally catch up with them.. even if u win the planets back - it took you about 20-30minutes to get there and fight while your flank now is mostly undefended.. so after the fight u get back in position while in theses ~40 minutes just one kostura could have fired 6-7 new wormholes into your planets anywhereelse..

yeah mines ...without a Ai its ok cuz people usually dont spam them that hard ^^

I assume you are tlaking bout Entrenchment? What's the Kostura upgrade?  And yes AFAIK the Advent super weapon is pretty crap. 6% mitigation anywhere on the map does not do you too much.  Kostura is pretty good as is, too bad you can't target your own planets with it cause it would help

Nova was always sweet! Kostura I only used few time sin MP. But every time it was super effective.

i would like the option to disable access to superweapons while in the game creation screen... sometime i want to fight a fleet battle, not interstellar-sniping.

And yes, the advent superweapon is pretty much a joke, its more like a cumbersome utility tool at best (with cultural vision, and making a system buff your fleet for a time), it doesnt win games. it would be nicer if planet alegiance would get a sudden drop of like 25% plus the current effect.. (so weak places drop on the spot, stronger ones take longer)

InfiniteVoid: in entrenchement the tooltip of the kostura cannon says that the attacked target planet also becomes a phace stabilizer node for a brief period of time - the time is however really pretty short ~1-2min i think. the shipüs can travel everywhere unless the planet is a colonized planet.

with the kostura i was able to manage 2 pretty good human players at once without much of a problem. i think this utitlity is awesome as a vasari player and hell of a nightmare for advent and tec - however, it can be beaten but not without some planet loss. and of course any other tactical moves of the oppostite player is disrupted some time.

BUT you also have to say that the fleet you're sending into enemy terretory is much like a suicide mission cuz there is pretty much no easy way to get support to these ships.

so finally some tewaking needs to be done with the kostura imho... but personally i think the idea is really nice. maybe the devs should consider some affordable counter options.

The thing i hate most about Sins is the lack of a frontline defense. Ships and fleets can easily bypass your heavy defenses and jsut hit the less defened one's you almost need a defense fleet and defenses at max at all you planets and with 10+ planets that starts draining economy.

Kostura even makes it harder. There really needs to be a superweapon that blocks phase jump at a planet. Maybe for advent it could be cheaper Ex: 1500 credits and 300 metal and 200 crystal but something to make a frontal defense so you don't have HIT AND RUN FLEETS OF DEATH. I hate building up a big defense just to have someone run around it. Phase stabilizers aren't expensive but building at every planet along with defense gets sort of annoying.

Is this new phase stabilising ability on the Kostura in Entrenchment or basic Sins 1.12?

I liked the idea of giving TEC / Advent a building to counter the Vasari game over button, a building that would stop the phase jump.  Several cannons firing on the same planet will just about wiped out most frigates, when these fire before an invasion or as an invasion arrives its over.

The whole point of the expansion...Entrenchment is to stop the other players from running around your set-up defenses.

its not a suicide mission... just take Antorak Marauder or simple a migrator with your fleet to the homeland of your enemy build a starbase (build a phase stabiliz0r into the starbase oO) and your enemy faces a 2 front war.. or 3.. or 4.. or... zomfg this ability pisses me off vasari allready got best defensive mobility so why give them this total overpowered offensive ability oO

as said above this total destroys the point of entrenchment... theres no need for starbases with huge defenses if you could easily pass the enemys defences not by just ONE planet but all

just straight to enemy's homeplanet and have fun destroying lots of not very well defended planets(yeah whole planets)

until the fleet of your enemy reaches back home you could have easily taken a planet and build your own defences there.. oh well vasari .. just build a phasestabilzer there and send all your ships around on the map as u like..

and the "verygood" "oftenoverseen" bonus of the lovecannon is total useless when someone kills your planets alot faster than you cuz he dont needs to go the supposed (well defended) way..

guess if this makes it to the final release we will only see vasari players on "huge/long" games everything else is just pointless... its rush the vasari or die... and there are some players that don't like rushing games..

if i want to play 30mins RTS i play wc3.. not a "EPIC RTS ON UNRIVALLED SCALE"

How about making phase jump inhibitors an anti-Kostura Cannon. Negating the Kostura's ability to allow ships to phase jump to that system.

I also agree that the advent deliverance super weapon is uber crap! I want a weapon capable of damaging planets deep inside enemy territory without having to use my fleet.

Has anyone ever seen the AI build a super weapon?

You might as well not have the "Stabilise Phase Space" effect then.  I mean, every planet usually gets a pji anyways, to slow down raids and scouts.

The best bet is to not let your enemy scout your inner world(s).