Advent Superweapon

Yeah, I actually find that just setting a bunch of the deliverance engines on auto-fire = win if you can defend them long enough, whereas the TEC come close but the planets, after a while, can still be recolonized.

Also, the info card indicates that friendly ships in the targetted gravity well get a damage bonus(similar to the Vasari fighting under their own culture). That shouldn't be overlooked during a pitched battle.

Hopefully someone can confirm the exact percent bonus from the game files.

15%, it's on the infocard for any ship in the affected gravwell, unless your talking abou the vasari, in which case it's on the culture tech infocards.

Thanks, I couldn't remember at the time I posted the last message.

wait... the deliverance cannon and the other super weapon can't fire between stars can they?

they can fire between stars but there EXTREAMLY SLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW it takes like 10 mins to go from on star to another

They can fire between stars, but you have to be very careful. The rounds travel much slower than ships passing between stars, literally to shoot across a Large Multi-System map you can be looking at 10 to 15 minutes transit time.

For the Deliverance Engine or the Kastura Cannon, this won't matter much since hitting the wrong spot, or a spot you already colonized won't negatively effect you. But the Novalith will kill your own colonies if it hits them, so if launched an attack after you fired the shot but before it arrived, you have to be careful (I had an ally nuke one of my own planets that way).

About the Deliverance Engine.

I find it less useful than the Novalith, since it generally will not turn the tide of a battle (if you are a real pain with multiple ones even an enemy can turn up the number of Broadcast Centres and avoid losing worlds fairly easily). But the Deliverance Engine is a wonderful support weapon, like the Kastura Cannon, and allows you to get your mitigation bonuses wherever you are, as well as eliminate the dreadful wait of driving back an enemy culture. So it allows you to fight with stronger ships and progress faster, it generally won't help you if you're losing a game, but will speed a win.

... delete this dude this website dosnt like my internet... it takes forever then says somethings wrong

Hmmm... I always though they sould only shoot in their own star... serves me right for not testing it out. I guess I'll be placing a pair deliverances on a couple of my planets in my ongoing 5 star game with 6 against me...

Anyways, I was just wondering about how the Advent are kinda economy strapped in the late game and there seems to be a consensus that they have weaker ships, which should be the case since they specilize in culture and that sort of stuff. But I was just think that if the advent had instead of the experience thing for their cap ships, which is useful sometimes but not always, something that allowed them to leech resources of any planet in their culture or touch their culture. I figure, culture gets kinda shafted since it's so easy to fight it back even if the player has desert planets maxed out with culture temples, it'd be nice if you got something from those frontier planets that are touching your culture...

This would mean that mose frontier planets would be feeding them resources and credits while a series of Deliverance engines on auto fire would not only slow down another players economy but provide a small boost to the advent economy. It would also make it a quite a useful tech to have in longer, entrenched games.

another thing could be to make culture give some resources from uncolonized planets in the culture too. It'd also be an interesting stratagy to maybe get culture out and spreading faster on the advent if they could get some resources from uncolonized planets in their culture. Of course, this doesn't really help much early since it'd probably be a 8th level tech since something like this is really quite a powerful tool.

I know it's wierd to get resources from "uncolonized planets" but surely some of them are bound to have inhabitants so if your culture is there maybe they'll give a small tribute or something. I can't see this really making a difference since if you have researched an 8th level tech you pretty much shouldn't be running into too too many uninhabited planets unless it's a huge map and there isn't much expansion by anyone else.

Edit:
Maybe steal like 10% of the income at maximum? Since that seems small enough to not break the game while still providing a significant amount of resources and credits. And I like 10% since that's the same amount of "extra" allegience that the advent get from the allure of the unity thing.

On second thought, maybe this could be tacked on there instead of removing the free capship levels since that is already a harmony tech instead of a military tech like the free levels.

The deliverance engines effect is very distributed, thus it looks very weak. I think its still underpowered thought.
* 15% damage bonus for my (friendly too?) ships in orbit.
-- the effect doesnt last very long thought.
* reducing allegiance of the planet, thus reducing income of the opponent. IF the engine goes up to 0.07% allegiance change its like 10% the other guy loses but it goes up again afterwards so he might lose 5% incone over time on that planet as long as the weapons has a effect.
* it makes the culture spread from this planet to other planets. Which kinda improves the effectiveness a bit. If the opponenets culture is weak you can reduce his income quite effectively.

downsides:
* its easily countered with 1 or 2 media hubs.
* damage bonus doesnt last long
* 0.07% change is kinda low
* effects doesnt stack 0.07% is max
* planets do not flip ownership

wondering if you gain any shield mitigation bonus at enemy planets under the influence of your culture?

IT DOES NOT FLIP PLANETS. the planet just gets stripped of the colonisation. Which is kinda crap cause
1. all orbital structures still work
2. a recolonised planet start of with a more than 0% allegiance, which is weird cause you just conviced everyone on that planet that you are the good and they are bad.
Under some circumstances the planet is not colonisable cause cultural influence is too strong, BUT it seems that as soon as the planet dies the effect of the superweapon wears of instanly and the enemy can recolonise... which is kinda crap again. Planet should be cleansed and recolonisation should be only able for advent.

I played a game once and build six of these things. It just doesnt work. Opponent can just build a few media hubs and its stopped. Yes you can probably still affect border or remote planets of his system but thats it then. You strip the colonisation after like 10min of waiting for the allegiance to drop zero. But then because of all his media hubs, the allegiance you gained is pushed back again and he can recolonise. He doesnt even lose orbital structures etc.
All in all the isolated effect of the cannon is a dent in the opponents economy.

Although using this weapon as a support weapon is kinda different. Fighting in orbit of a planet bombarding it with the cannon and gaining the damage bonus can give you the edge. It pushes back enemy culture so YOU actually can colonise the planet after bombing it to ash. This really supports advents rapid expansion abilities. combined with a mothership you can raise that planet for cheap and move on to the next by the time your cannon has recarched ( given you can bomb the planet quickly and strip orbital strucutres away. )

Anyone know if reasearch centers in a orbit around a stripped planet still give research level???

One weakness is the prerequisites on the tech tree. TEC at least get damage for their LRMS. Advent gets what? Culture spread. It sounds like something you put on bread.

Actually used the love cannon a few days ago, and my info cards were telling me it's 15%. Not earth shattering, but a significant, worthwhile tactical advantage.

The strategic economic effect takes a while to kick in, but can be devastating. Also, with appropriate tech, the love cannon will also give you vision of the enemy's systems, so it's a good intel tool.

Much more subtle than Novalith or Kostura, but not as crappy as is believed by some.

With enough research, you can also use it as a spy device. Enough research, of course, being the... thingy that lets you see things under your culture. And enough of them (ie, 3) can fairly rapidly (fairly rapidly in Sins time (this is the same as geological time)) flip a planet if fired repeatedly, even if that planet has a number of broadcasting station of their own.
Probably the best thing about the "Love Me device" is that it affects multiple planets in an area, damaging all of their economies.

And seriously, how is a culture gun not awesome?

I am still in the process of testing this out, but it seems to me that the ability to bombard planets in different systems with culture could be exceedingly useful when operating a colonizing fleet deep in enemy territory. Normally, it takes too long to actually capture the planets, and the best bet seems to be to keep moving and surgically eliminating the enemy's economy

But it seems like with one or two of these, and some good timing, you could quickly establish a foothold in an enemy-occupied planetary system.

I once built one, and it just sat there. It did nothing. I selected it, and it had no abilities or attack or anything. It was 1.00, if it makes any difference. I haven't tested it since I upgraded yesterday. Overall, it sounds pretty good, but still deserves a buff.

Edit - Now that I think about it, culture OVERALL deserves a buff. Far too easy to counter. I was playing an Advent this morning and it had *powerful* culture heading to an asteroid. So, 1 media hub. Poof, no more problems for culture there. I was VASARI, they were ADVENT, the masters of culture-stuff. So how was I able to deflect their culture with one media hub and no culture upgrades? Really needs a buff IMO.

If you use the deliverance engines to support an expanding fleet that is setting up culture centers in its' wake... It gets real nasty. Maxed advent culture is more powerful then any other races culture, if they aren't suppressing with cap ships then a deliverance engine + friendly culture centers is going to dominate.

Also, hit/run tactics with bombers to beat down the enemy culture stations on your borders helps the process along a great deal. About 10-15 squadrons can smoke a broadcast station pretty dependably, assuming your not attacking a planet that has a few flak frigates on hand. Once you've flipped a planet and removed any broadcast centers in its orbit, chances of a non-advent enemy reducing the culture to colonizable levels are pretty slim, especially if you have deliverance engines pounding neighboring planets. At the least, it forces him to employ a cap ship or two to suppress culture, and that means you're controlling the movement of his fleet.