what protects ships from blackhole weop?

from GalCiv2 Forums
just played a game where tech got to end on both sides ,when i decided to war the other side came with the blackhole weopons and anihilated all my ships as the attacker shoots first.my ships had the best hardners and shields on but seems like nothing will counter the blackhole weop,or is there? ...must say i was very disapointed watching game over in 30min after days of building up...
4,591 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
you can beat those weapons in a couple ways.

attack first. yes, this seems obvious enough to be insulting. but that's the purpose of having ships with faster movement and better sensors.

you could also use extra defenses, and not bother with the ones you don't need. so if they were using the black hole eruptor (missiles), the only thing you should be putting on your ship is the areon missile defense.

but yes, i know how you feel. i don't have a huge problem with defending fleets having such a disadvantage... i'm just dissappointed to see mine wiped out so quickly. maybe if all the ships had more HP, it wouldn't seem so bad.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
(by that i meant that at least you'd get to see your ships fire off a couple shots before they blow up).
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
engaging a battle where the enemy gets the first shot is always painful with equal fleets, you always lose like 2 or 3 ships more just because of that first shot
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think what needs to happen, is that the attacking in fleet battles needs to be initiative based, instead of the current turn-based system. Each ship would have an initiative stat, just like weapons of defence, which could be increased by having certain modules installed. The higher this stat is the earlier their initial attack is and if this stat is sufficiently higher than other ships in the battle they would get to attack more often as well. Attacking fleets would get a bonus to intiative, so that the would still have an advantage going into combat, but it wouldn't be as overpowering as it is now. There could also be some new starbase modules and planets improvements that improve the initiative of nearby ships.

on another somewhat related note; It would be cool to see modules that can be installed on ships that give bonuses to the entire fleet, they could be called command modules or something similar. To prevent this sort of thing from being exploited only the best command module would be taken into account. It would still worthwhile to have multiple ship with a command module, so that you would continue to get bonuses when the ship carrying the first module is destroyed.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
think what needs to happen, is that the attacking in fleet battles needs to be initiative based, instead of the current turn-based system. Each ship would have an initiative stat,

Good idea.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Large sensor range.
Fast ship movement.
Espionage so you know what they are using.

Dont blindly send your ships out to attack.
If you have movement points, check the movement of the enemy and control the distance to them so that you become the attacker instead of the defender.
When its equal fleets, its very important to control the distance of your fleets to the enemy so that it intersects to your advantage.

-Sorael
This type of initiative works, its a player based initiative instead of a computer code initiative so player has control over the battle.
Instead of blaming it on the code or the roll, the initiative of combat is purely in the hands of the overlord player.
No more dog ate my homework defense
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You knew what they were coming with and got waxed anyway - mistake on your part, not in the way the mechanics of the game work. (Attacker has initiative - which is as it =should= be since they're the ones attacking)

The best defense is, as always, a better offense. That little bit of insulting one-upmanship outta the way the real answer to your question is Orbital Defense Management (so your defenders fight as a fleet instead of singletons) and most importantly of all: Upgraded Military Starbases.

In the early game when I'm building my first defensive ships, I'll alternate with a Constructor and get those bases built. A single Military Starbase positioned properly and religiously upgraded can bolster the defensive abilities of multiple planets in multiple star systems. The kicker is that when they've got 12+ upgrades they become quite dangerous in their own right - so much so they become tripwires for your advancing enemy fleets. If they don't attack the base they take hideous losses attacking your planets within its influence. If they do attack the base they take major losses just tryiing to tackle it - and most importantly of all by attacking the starbase they position the enemy fleet for you to attack it yourself.

1. Don't be passive - attack.
2. Plan ahead - starbases all over the place. Upgrade them like crazy.
3. Don't be passive - attack.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Odd... I always kill the computer before they can get that far on the tech tree. I've never seen a computer get past Photon (or the Laser/Mass Driver equivalent). I play on Tough in gigantic galaxy with all 9 races, and normal tech rate.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm not really complaining that the current system is to hard. I usually kick the AI's ass quite easily. I just think that combat would be more interesting in the later parts of the game if both fleets had a reasonable chance to attack. With any of the evil weapon techs or black hole weapons the defending fleet almost never survives the first salvo. It's a little silly that I can destroy the entire armada of a race with a similar military ranking as mine without losing a ship, or sometimes without taking a single hit.
Maybe it is simply a matter of making defence techs slightly better. However, if a the AI does not expect you to attack it, with high movement and good sensor it's quite easy to surprise them, most of their ships will be destroyed before they even have a chance to think about putting the correct defensive techs on their ships.
All that I'm really asking for is that the combat resolution be a little more balanced. It's not like the defending fleet wouldn't see the attackers comming...
Unless of course they were cloaked, but that's a whole different issue.