FYI - Novalith kills your own colonies

aka - DOH!!

from Sins Forums
just a little FYI for all those who aren't quite as clueless as me... if you play the TEC, shoot the incredibly slow and rather expensive novalith cannon at a enemy colony but destroy the enemy colony and establish your own colony at that location before the novalith warhead hits, you will take the full damage of the warhead up to and including the destruction of your new colony... did I mention that the warhead travels rather slow?

in the final stages of a huge map game vs AI - have more cash & resources than know what to do with but am just killing time toying with strategies and learning the game when I found out about this little possibility.  good times - had about 8 different upgrades/constructions qued up as well... so much for those resources
strategy
8,991 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah, this is a well known, but still amusing feature. The TEC military/industrial companies are marketing that way at least!
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
i actually found amusement in it... until I did it AGAIN...

and as always, this proves I'm an idiot...

doh!
Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Happened to me as well in a multi-star map, when I had multiple cannons with auto fire on. Initially I wondered what the heck was going on, thinking that the AI had built their own Novalith Cannon, but soon realized that I was shooting myself. So I had to auto-fire off all of my cannons, but even then, I had so many cannons, plus the slow travel time of the warheads that my newly liberated and colonized planets had 2-3 additional hits before the self-infliction stopped. :p

Amusing at first; annoying the rest of the way.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-SKublpoV4
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
This is actually pretty annoying in multi-star maps since the warhead does travel so insanely slow. In single star maps it's your own fault if this happens though. Take your cannons off autocast and fire them manually to avoid hitting yourself. However, they fire sooooo slow across stars that half the time it's easier just to use your fleet. I found earlier that I could have conquered an entire group of 4 planets and left by the time a novalith warhead hit something.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Are Novaliths even supposed to be able to fire between systems? The description seems to imply a single solar-system...
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I think this is also an added Feature that TEC has not made part of their marketing campaign.


In other words, it probably wasn't supposed to...but it does. Enjoy it until they change it.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
In other words, it probably wasn't supposed to...but it does.
End of quote


If you launch a nuke, and then stand under it.. should it not hurt you? :P You can't target your own colonies with the Novalith, but if it's already on the way and you colonize it, well, I don't see how it's a bug :P
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Needed: Self destructing warhead if headed to friendly colony.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
I was actually referring to the fact that it can shoot between solar systems.

Sorry, should have made that clear.


Novalith: Now with Interstellar Pwnage!


Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if that gets changed...so enjoy it while you can.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
The thing that I've found 'liths very useful for are for maps with lots of stars each with small groups of planets, running in with a few akkans and support, wasting a planet, slamming down a 'lith, and systematically depopulating every inhabitable anomaly within reasonable range. Apart from that shameless ninjasiegeing and taking potshots at pirate bases for the pyrotechnics, Novaliths seem to be more bark than bite.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Novalith's and the other megaweapons are very much support weapons, if used sparingly. The lengthly cool down time along with the speed of recovery of the targets, means that the cannon's effects will be dramatic in the short term.

Now, if you've got a LOT of them, then they become deadly and can be used as primary tools of conquest. Without a number of them...then they are just support weapons.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
I had three Novaliths going at once and realized that I had taken out one of the colonies I had just established in the enemy system. From then on I zoomed out to see if any rounds were inbound before I established a new colony and finally got to the point where I had to placed them on manual to keep from taking out my allies newly established colonies in the same system.:d
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
That's really odd, because there's such a long "cooldown" time on the recently wiped out planet to colonize it (high radiation). I wouldn't think the Novalith fired faster than that.

Fwiw, you can have the same colonize - then kill them routine if you have friendlies helping you bombard an enemy planet too.

The planet bombs are slower than crap. You colonize it, and the ten friendly (not yours) siege ships' bombs are still en route...


That's when I surround the friendly fleet with mine, then declare war on them.
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
That's really odd, because there's such a long "cooldown" time on the recently wiped out planet to colonize it (high radiation). I wouldn't think the Novalith fired faster than that.
End of quote


The issue isn't the rate of fire, it's the travel time.

If a missile takes 10 minutes to travel to its intended target, that's plenty enough time for you to capture the colony. The rate of fire only determines how many hits you will take from a given cannon.



The planet bombs are slower than crap. You colonize it, and the ten friendly (not yours) siege ships' bombs are still en route...
End of quote


The regular planetary bombardment damage is calculated at the moment of fire, not the moment of impact. This helps the TEC-type bombing to behave in exactly the same way as the beam versions. As such you can colonise a planet you have just wiped out, with the bombs still incoming, and see no ill-effects.