Interesting Late Game Tactic - Ship Catapults

from Stardock Forums
Having spent some play time on huge and gigantic maps, I have noticed that the ability to project military force over large distances in a timely manner can be crucial to success. To that end, I have experienced with a ship catapult tactic that seemed quite amusing to me. I basically designated one sector in the heart of my empire as a launch zone, and filled it up with starbases that contained nothing more than Stellar Wake and Reverse Tractor Beam upgrades. It wasn't long before I could catapult all units passing through that sector far into deep space.

If there is no limit to starbase bonus stacking, I will soon be able to send my ships through 12 sectors of space in one turn. Although this may look like a waste of constructors, it does allow me to reduce the size of my standing army significantly and alleviate much of the auto-moving ship clutter towards the end game. Give it a try if you're bored :)
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

LOL Za H: Could you post a screenie of this one. I would love to see it. It would look someting like what Dearmad has made in the general forum.

Asmodean

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
hey thats a great stratigy! how much would it cost and how late into the game would you need to wait so you have the tech it would not need to leave your boarders underfended. btw how many star bases would you need in the secter to send the sip just 4 secter in a turn.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I did it in one game where I was pursuing a tech victory and wanted something more interesting to do than continually hitting "next turn." It isn't expensive, 3 constructors per SB, for a total of 18 constructors per SB. Theoretically, the max bonus you could get would be +288, assuming that I remember correctly that a sector is 12x12 spaces. That would be enough to throw a starship 24 sectors :)
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Might be useful combined with TerrorStar/Party palace tactic. Someone declares war on you, assimilate their entire population in 5 turns...

Another thing, if you're making that many starbases, you could put some of the slow down enemy ship upgrades too, so you create a black hole effect and protecting all those SBs.

I'm really beginning to think SB stacking should be nerfed to some extent. But there is another thread on that.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
haha nice idea, sadly the tedium of building that many Starbases would probably be worse for me than having to mop up 10 or 15 planets lol. Also, doesn't the speed increase only work in the sector you have the Starbases in? Didnt realise you could use the bonues to move into other sectors.

~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I think the speed increase is only meant to work on the sector the starbase is in. Meant to and does are different things, of course. :)

~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
It would be nice to have a technology that was specifically intended for moving ships long distances, like a new and improved star gate.

~SDC~
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Sorry, but I don't have a nice screenshot of a sector full of starbases yet. The way the speed bonuses work is such that any ship which makes a stop in the affected sector will gain the speed boost upon it's next turn. So for example, if a sector had a +10 speed bonus, you move a 5 speed colony ship there, end the turn, that colony ship will then have 15/5 movement points on the next turn. I made a mistake in my math and forgot that each starbase would grant +2 instead of +1 speed bonus, so Popup is correct in that one ship catapult would suffice for your whole empire on a gigantic map. It takes 3 constructors to create one +2 speed starbase, so it's really not too much work in retrospect.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
I guess you could build a network of sectors and then you could bounce your terror stars around like billiard balls. ;)

Bill

~SDC~
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
I must preface my comments by pointing out I've only played 3 games and sub-normal is the highest opposition I've been game to try as yet so I haven't ever needed to get to terror-star technology :)

How many constructors does a party-palace terror star take?

1) Move those constructors into your launch sector.
2) When someone declares war on you (or you want to declare war on them) launch all the constructors to the relevant point and build the star.
3) Forget about ever bringing it home :notsure:
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
'I guess you could build a network of sectors and then you could bounce your terror stars around like billiard balls. '

Terror Stars aren't affected by speed bonuses.

~SDC~
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Also, yet another typo, that was 3 constructors per SB, or 18 constructors per sector of range, not per SB again. :p
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
while u can't speed up terror stars, you can just pile up fleets of constructors and launch them across the screen and put up a terror star (or regular base) right there. Same effect :)

~SDC~
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
So... is this something the AI could pick up on if players use this strategy and submit it to the metaverse?

It'd be interesting if you're playing in Gigantic, the Drengin on the other side of the galaxy declare war, and the very next turn they have ships in your core sectors.

~SDC~
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
I doubt it. It *is* a bit cheesy, but boils down to the fact the a ship is assigned its MP at the start of a turn. A good fix would be to recalculate a ship's MP when it exits a sector, but the could be messy and CPU-hungry, I guess.

~SDC~
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
I think they'll just cap starbase bonuses instead of teaching the AI to be cheesy like us humans ;)
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
i think it's just clever... let the AI do the same thing. We all know the AI is not a finished product as the team will always be improving it.

~SDC~
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
Yeah I had a problem with moving my battle ships, when one of the races surrendered to me cuaseing me to have a devided empire. So I sent battle ships to reinforce my new positions only to have them all intersepted while traveling through space between the two parts that is out of range to them :( Then I got angryand used my surveyor ships which now was beyond invulnerible and tactically whipped my opponent out one ship at a time. Havign a speed 2x greater than all his cpital ships made for some intresting space fighting.
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks a lot for this tactic - it's a really fast way to dominate galaxy!

~SDC~
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
Getting anywhere in a Large galaxy is a bit of a pain (I've nearly completed my first Large game). I can't imagine what travelling through a gigantic one will be.

I agree with #18... get the higher-end AI to do this also. Once I get into a Gigantic galaxy, I'll be setting up a Core sector for catapulting my frieghters. I haven't gotten my financial strategy down to a point yet that I can survive without early trade routes.

~SDC~
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
Heh. Just realized it won't be a good early strat since these aren't early game techs. :p

~SDC~
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
In a gigantic galaxy, starbases and range techs are key.

I had the fun experience of declaring war on the Drengin when only two systems were in range of my ships (and wouldn't extend range to the rest of the Drengin). Of course, I was also researching some tech that would extend range, so it was only a short time.

Still, gigantic has quite a few strategic concerns that don't come up so often in smaller galaxies.

~SDC~
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, it is definitely clever, but it's also cheesy as hell, and I hope they nerf it. It ruins the entire military strategy aspect when any amount of ships can be anywhere at any time. When it takes significant time to move on the map then you have edge strategies: forward defense, dealing with races on your borders, using border races to screen against races further away, etc. Infinite range ship movement eliminates all that, plus it would require a lot of new AI code which (IMO) is time spent better on something other than cheesing up the AI to compete with human cheese. ;)

I want this to remain a strategy game, not a Monty Hall Twink Festival game.