Problem with returning armada

from Sins Forums

Hi all, ive been playing for about a month now and absolutely loving this game! Im taking it easy by playing against the AI to develop my tactics, I have beaten easy, normal (and hard once!) I like to play with different races to find better strategies. Recently i was playing Vasari, who in my opinion are one of the strongest races in the game when i came upon a small problem with RA, i had maxed out my fleet capacity playing against 2 hard AIs, obviously i couldnt build anymore but i wanted some subverters so i tried scuttling but every time my fleet capacity went up some more ships would turn up from RA, so my question is, is there a way you can turn it off?  

strategy
6,822 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Select the phase gate in each system, and right click on it to turn off autocast on Returning Armada.  You have to do this in every system with a phase gate.  As you start to need ships, start turning them back on.  Yes, I know....potentially very annoying.

 

This problem will go away for you with the 1.1 patch tomorrow; RA will work differently.  Instead of Autocast, it you will have to pay resources for RA to be activated.  Instead of free ships, RA will give "discounted" ships.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

As of yet though, there are tricks for it:

a] if you haven't developed your fleet capacity to maximum, you can start another upgrade, then select your units you want to build, then cancel the upgrade. As soon as your negative fllet point counter zeroes (i.e. you lose or scuttle enough ships), your queued ships will start building and the RA will not interrupt that.

b] Select a group of any number of the same unit, Pause the game, press scuttle -> tab -> scuttle -> tab -> .. and so on with every ship in the group.
Unpause the game and after x seconds you will have a large amount of fleet points freed at once. Pause the game immediately, queue what you want, unpause.

And it is good the RA was changed. It is still good very good, but not as game-changing as it was before.
In 1.05 the game looks like this:
no RA -> manage your empire to have resources to build units to conquer and have more empire to manage
with RA -> move your always-full fleet to where it can do most damage, spend money on planet upgrades and Pirate bounties ;p. Don't bother withdrawing - the more damage you do now, the lesser resistance you will have to face when you rebuild your 2000 unit fleet (which is less than 3 minutes later, cause your ships are already ready ;p)

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

The pausing idea is only valid for SP. Doing that in MP would be considered poor form... (I know the OP said only playing AI at the moment, but people do move onto online play, sometime....).

Another option for Vassari is to research the tech that allows extra units (lvl 7 iirc). But you need to queue the ships when this tech is researched before more RA ships fill it :)

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Ok so you're saying my post should have sounded like this: "sry dude, I got some good tricks that could help you, but they aren't viable in multiplayer (which you aren't doing but you could someday) so I won't post them" ?
Now that would be helpful as s... .
And your idea is no different from my first one, simply using another research that does the same.

Anyway, if you're a fast clicker, you can do my b] thing without pause ;p

Or you could always turn off Returning Armada autocast on every stabilizer on every planet you own... which is a daunting task.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Aha! thanks for your help guys. RA is really good when you have about 10 of them going but when im trying to make a small fleet of subverters or overseers and ive just scuttled about 10 enforcers for them and before ive got chance to start them off another load of ships turn up before i get the chance and i lose all that fleet capacity it does get pretty annoying!! So thanks for the tips!

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Oh ive just realised, in the game im playing against to hard AI's i have my home system and then another 2 planets in the enemy system and i have phase gates there but i cant get my fleets from my home system to the other system using my phase gates. Is it not possible to use them for travel between systems or is there something im missing? Thanks again

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

you cant have everything....   in1.05  returning armada is unbeatable anyways, also make myself one rule when i host games,  nobody get's ra or i'm out, so hapyp that in 1.1 you'll finaly have to pay lots... was getting tired of people sacrificing everything just to get 1 phase gate with returning armada,   then calling themselves pro for beating 5 vs 1

phase gates cannot be used between solar systems,  tough personaly, i think they should (for that money...)  just with same speed as any other in-system jump... so it'll take super long....

then again.... if you misclick u migth lose your fleet for 15 min... ouch, maybe  a "are you sure you want to.....?"   and after clicking yes another "are you absolutly sure you want to.....?"

meh nvm , just brainstorming here >.>

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Ha ok then..... i take it you dont like RA very much, I guess its cos people on MP exploit it a bit but i thought that was just people using a strategy, is that no the aim of the game here?

Anyways is there a viable strategy to counter RA? I mean apart from blowing the living day lights out of the player before they have chance to mass it.....

Fair enough though, i bet it does get pretty annoying when people start saying they are pro just cos they managed to get RA running whilst sacrificing everything else just to get this ability up n running then beating people n claiming they are pro.... think i would have start knocking some heads together!!!

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Anyways is there a viable strategy to counter RA? I mean apart from blowing the living day lights out of the player before they have chance to mass it.....
End of quote

 

Yep, download 1.1.

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

I dont have internet just yet, im in the process of convincing my girlfriend its a good idea! So as soon as i do i will be playing MP, probably get my arse handed to me but i'll give it a go. Yeah and i will updating to 1.1 as soon as i am online

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Anyways is there a viable strategy to counter RA? I mean apart from blowing the living day lights out of the player before they have chance to mass it.....
End of quote

In 1.05 it was extraodinarily hard to fight RA once it was going if you didn't have your own RA.  The way you do it is by crippling your opponent's worlds and infrastructure while trying to hold off his fleets.  It is possible, I've done it several times, but it is not for the faint of heart.  A lot of RA players are going for the easy win, and when you repeatedly cripple their worlds, they often give up even though they still have powerful fleets.

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

Ok so you're saying my post should have sounded like this: "sry dude, I got some good tricks that could help you, but they aren't viable in multiplayer (which you aren't doing but you could someday) so I won't post them" ?

Now that would be helpful as s... .

And your idea is no different from my first one, simply using another research that does the same.
End of quote

I just pointed out that the idea cannot be used for MP as it stops EVERYONES game... And my idea IS different since you said to develop the fleet capacity. I said you could use the tech that gives you a bonus % to capacity. See how that is different??? ;)

Anyways is there a viable strategy to counter RA? I mean apart from blowing the living day lights out of the player before they have chance to mass it.....
End of quote

Its not easy to do (like Cykur said), but basically you need to kill their infra that is getting them the RA. If you can do this and then keep it down, you are in with a chance - but you need to knock that uber fleet down.... The one bonus for you is that they will have trouble with econ due to the high fleet upkeep.....