Sniper ship and starbase ship assist upgrade questions

from GalCiv2 Forums
I've done some foum and wiki searching, but cant find any info on either of my two current questions... questions that bug me because I have no idea how they work in the game, and may be entirely missing out on something kewl. On to the questions:

1: Military Starbase "ship assist" upgrades (Example: Missile Launch Pad- ship assist (missiles) +1). how do they work? I'm guessing that maybe any ship of yours under its area of effect gets the bonus in any battles occuring in that area... with the above example meaning that a beam weapon only ship, near a starbase with missile launch pads, now has a str 1 missile attack added as well?!?! Is this right? do the bonuses stack?! WOW that would make a fortified homeworld a tough nut to crack, if every ship was under 4-5 military starbases, each one granting +1 to all attacks and defense and so on....

2: Sniper. Ive seen that word twice so far, and havent figured out what it does either.. once I saw an enemy ship whose classification was "sniper ship", and another is a starbase ship assist upgrade (like the ones above) = Sniper turrets (mass driver) +1 attack. Now does THIS mean that its a mass driver assist system, helping out ships from a distance, by adding a mass driver attack to the battle? and can this be carried on a moblie SHIP??!!?? Again; if so, then WOW!! imagine an invasion fleet escorted by many sniper ships in completely different fleets, all pumping fire into any battle that may take place... or imagine a weird setup; a large ship packed with defensive systems charging enemy fleets, only to survive enemy shots, while distant snipers do the actual shooting!

Both of these questions have conjuecture attchedto them, and maybe my guess is indeed how they work. I havent found an AI cooperative enough to test any of this out, nor is there any help hotkey for starbase upgrades, or right-click civilopedia, ir an online searchable answer..so, here I am!
5,572 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
1. They work as you have guessed. And yes, overlapping Military Starbases can make even a humble 1 attack 0 Defense fighter into a force to be reckoned with.

2. The 'sniper turrets' for Starbases are just the Mass Driver version of the 'attack assist' options for Military Starbases. They are identical in function to the Laser and Missile versions, adding +1 to the Mass Drive attack of friendly ships in their AoE (Area of Effect).

As far as I know, 'sniper' ships just have a cool name. They have no special abilities just from what they're called.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

1. They work as you have guessed. And yes, overlapping Military Starbases can make even a humble 1 attack 0 Defense fighter into a force to be reckoned with.


I thought the ship it'self had to have at least 1 point worth of whatever was being assisted for this to work? (i.e. starbase assisted missiles require at least 1 missile on the ship, starbase shield assist requires at least 1 point of shield on the ship), no?
Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I thought the ship it'self had to have at least 1 point worth of whatever was being assisted for this to work? (i.e. starbase assisted missiles require at least 1 missile on the ship, starbase shield assist requires at least 1 point of shield on the ship), no?


no, as long as they have 1 of any offensive skill to get all offensive bonuses. same for defense, if i remember correctly
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm not sure and I would love it if someone could confirm, but I was sure that
no, as long as they have 1 of any offensive skill to get all offensive bonuses. same for defense, if i remember correctly
only worked pre 1.1 as in the last game I played (it was a while ago) I seem to remember that it didn't work like that when I expected it to from my other games.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
the "Sniper" ship if i remember correctly has mass drivers as its weapons, again just with a cool name and to denote its a mass driver ship, like the missle boat, it just has missle attacks.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
1) Yup you nailed it! A ship must have at least one point in any attack class (beam, missle, gun) to have acces to a starbases assits. The same for defense, it must have a least point in the defense catagory to enable assists.

2) The "Sniper" is merely a name of one of the core class ships, its not very good and is in way related to the sniper assist module. This module functions the same as any other starbase assist module...

Hope that helped!
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Its one thing to for a starbase to assist, but if you look at it's area of influence, and compare that to how far a ship moves in a week, the starbase must have to fire it's missles, bullets, and lasers weeks in advance in order for it to reach a star skirmish between ships. Do the starbases have the power of precognition? How do you target something weeks in advance when you didn't even know it would be there? It would be pretty hard to sniper something like that.