I have yet to see anyone even use them. I haven't used them except when I played against the AI, when I first got this game. They only do 20 or 23 planetary damage, have weak shields and armor, and are quite pricey. It seems like you would have to devote too much resources to buy enough to make them useful. Even then, they are too easy to kill.
From what I have been reading, it seems like they had a pretty big nerf recently. I don't think making them expensive with a high fleet supply is a problem, but the way they are currently just doesn't seem to work. I would like to see them be more of a heavy planetary bomber that does more planetary damage and is quite a bit tougher than the current version. Only then, or by making them cheaper, can I see them being viable.
Any thoughts from you vets who know more than I?
P.S. I know there have been some discussions about sieges but I didn't see any directly talking about if they are useful for what they are intended to do, planetary bombardment. Hence, I made this posting.
Really only useful if your caps are needed elsewhere.
I will say this however: AI seige rushes were really annoying early game before the nerf.
try to reroll to 1.0 and see how they used to be
I'm more concerned with how they are now rather than how they used to be
Well, it used to be they were able to send about 20 of them in and be able to take out a planet, or at least all it's civilians, and retreat before they could be destroyed. It would take a medium sized fleet devoted to defending each planet from such AI seige rushes.
Waste of resources IMO.
They really should reduce the fleet supply cost for sieges. Say, 10 or 12, depending on race. That would allow them to be mixed into fleets a little more. Could you spam them? Maybe. But they are so damn weak and they make great targets, always heading right for the planet straight into your defenses.
You can turn auto-attack off and just micromanage them and they really don't belong in contested gravity wells, anyway.
I think they're fine the way they are; otherwise they could end up being overpowered. They definitely have their uses.
Perhaps if they had a more robust haul that would make them more viable. Maybe nerf their ship to ship wepons damage to even it out, make them strickly useful againt planets.
Not sure if any changes needed though, but it is true they almost never appear in MP games.
Maybe when you play as a team you could manage it. Could be a winning stratagy actually. Your teammate covers you while you build a fleet of them, then go wipe everyone out.
Feasable?
I recently got the game, and got a similar impression about siege frigates. They seem way too expensive and too fragile to justify investing in them. Maybe if your opponent doesn't scout, and has multiple undefended fringe worlds, then they'll be a useful part of a small harassing strike force, but I've found that even a tiny amount of defense (like, the amount you put in to damage passing scouts...) can ward off unsupported siege vessels, and even if those siege vessels have backup you'll probably lose several before the defenders are neutralized, buying time for reinforcements to arrive.
Five siege frigates will cost you more than a capital ship. Personally, I'd rather sink a little extra to get the upgrade and just bring out a battleship or dreadnaught type which can not only bombard planets, but also kill whatever is defending them.
siege is it used? yes. often? no. I only use siege when i rush the guy next to me and need to move on but want to kill his planets
they really arent useful in any other sitution
Too expensive (cost & supply wise). Too fragile. And while you got your Caps, who needs 'em?
that is not true if you have killed the guy next to u and need to move on to someone else than you will need your cap so leave like 3 siege behind and your good to go
SF? Too expensive, weak, mostly defenseless.. tend to charge ahead to their doom. An almost useless specialist ship. I only use it if i need my capital ships elsewhere... but 99% of the time i dont bother.
idea ..
What i would like to see are some way to invade planets.. you could have the choice: bombard or invade.. bombarding is a lot quiker but blows up all infrastructure, population and upgrades.. and is long and costly to re-build and colonisation might fail if ennemy culture is too strong
Invading could give you part of the upgrades (like everything drops 1 or 2 levels) on the planet, takes much longer, it kills ennemy population only (as if pop = ground military force) and will succeed even when ennemy culture is strong..
I don't think new features are needed, the unit just needs to be stronger. It's expensive enough that a siege rush isn't viable, which I agree is a good thing, but if you're going to pay for a force of these wickedly expensive units you deserve to have something that's a threat. Really, just a survivability buff would be great. Keep 'em weak to bombers so hanger defense counters them, but otherwise they should just take a lot more beating before they go down.
Siege ships weren't a viable game ender in 1.0, and they're nearly entirely pointless now. Use capital ships. They live longer, hit harder, and some have special abilities that will put infrastructure to shame.
Seems to me that if you invest in 20 (twenty! We're talking about an investment of about 15k!) siege frigates and your enemy doesn't scout to see that AND your army is still comparably strong enough to survive the counter-attack, you deserve to take out multiple planets. Attacking civilians should be a valid, if morally reprehensible, strategy.
Wow 20 siegies, that's like giving your oponnent a free lvl 6 cap, all he has to do is catch them with his cap ship and his carrier fleet. 65 xp x 20 = 2600 xp lol
Isnt the reason why Sieges will remained nerfed is because in singleplayer the AI over-builds them ? Just sort it out that in Singleplayer the AI doesnt over-build Sieges (so nubs who lose to AI dont percieve sieges as op) , and we can finally have a balanced Siege frigate that works well as a different type of strategy in multiplayer. Its time the siege was used for more then a mop-up tool.
A couple hangar defense can easily take care of those random SF attacks the AI does.
Imo, SF should be a half heavy cruiser, and a half bomber. Keep the low planetary damage, leave the supply cost alone, but make their shields/hulls tougher and double their useless non-bombing damage. Or, at least, make them hit harder on the structures, OR able to host 1 squadron of bombers (only bombers).
The good example of how a planetary bomber should be (in a smaller scale ofc) is the vulkoras desolator. Can hold his own vs other caps, not the best tho, but has bombing + structures abilities to assign.
I must say having siege ships store a squadron of bombers does tickle me in a fancy way
Me I said ti before and will repeat seiges did need a nerf but they were over nerfed. To unover nerf them i would only cut down the cost to produce them. They are very expensive for the limited role they play now, makign them cheaper would make them more commont and a more viable option, but not game breaking like they were.
Buducles instal a fresh retail copy of sins, no patch no updates just fresh out of the box. You will be the game breakign i am talking about.
Im gonna try adding a squadron of bombers to siege frigs and see how it works out in SP.
I played against the AI (hard) before I patched, and while I found siege frigates a persistant danger that required careful defensive planning, they weren't gamebreaking by a longshot. Now, I haven't seen what a player can do with 1.00 siege frigates, but powerful does not mean gamebreaking. Personally, I'd rather they'd have buffed the planet hit point upgrades (maybe making it add 2500 at each level rather than 1500) than nerf siege frigates into the ground.
I don't like the idea of adding bombers to siege frigates, personally. The problem right now is that they're not fulfilling their role because they're too fragile and deal minimal damage, so it doesn't matter how much backup you send with them as a result. Giving them a bomber squadron just gives them more backup, but doesn't change the problem that they're too weak to benefit from that backup.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
