I used this for the first time today, and my God... the amount of damage it caused was just unreal! The ships which were destroyed and the ones that survived seemed to be a bit random though... about 25% of the ships in the blast radius survived, including some relatively light frigates. So, I'm wondering if anyone knows what determines survival against 'last resort'? Is there a maximum number of ships which can be affected?
I was playing a 7v1 against the AI and was a little over 2hrs into the game, turtled into my own little empire behind a single choke-point planet (which is the only way to win against 7 hard AIs really). I had just bumped my fleet up to a point where I thought I could break out (16 caps, 50 heavy cruisers, 30 light carriers). The enemy had 3 planets surrounding my choke world, and each of the 7 had their main fleet in one of these three planets. I picked the most suitable world to attack (had 2 ~1000 FS fleets garrisoned), using virtually all my forces, and within a minute of me jumping out the AI sent in a fleet. This was soon joined by another 4 fleets who quickly worked their way through the 30 gauss turrets to get to the fully upgraded starbase.
When this happened I jumped my cap ships back in (for the experience ) and when the starbase health dropped to 3000 (took about 1 minute I guess) I hit the 'last resort' button. In a flash I anhiliated 75% of the 5 enemy fleets, of around 1000 - 1200 fleet supply each. Before the blast my cap ships were mostly level 1, and immediately afterwards the majority of them were at level 5 or 6 (!). I brought in the rest of my forces and just managed to clear out the remaining forces, as well as the further 2 fleets which jumped in from the planet I tried to break-out to. After this I had 16 cap ships between level 6 and 8 (and my original cap ship at level 10).
Anyway, I have a newfound respect for the TEC starbase! I was thinking it was a bit lacking compared to the vasari (movement) and the Advent (meteor), but what else in this game can take out 5000 fleet supply all by itself?! I know that against a human player you will never get close to that, but this could be the 'easy' way to beat massed AI opponents. Garrison a border world, then jump out (if the enemy has a large force nearby they usually seem to attack within a few minutes once your fleet leaves). Draw them in close... and then BOOM In my game the enemies never did really recover. By the time they built their fleet up again I had taken the territory of my closest rival, and now had 3 separate choke points which never got attacked by more than 2 full fleets at once (defendable with mines, SB+gauss, and ~800FS of defence force). I also got 4 starbases in the star, which the vasari enemies seemed to just love throwing their forces against.
Anyway, the moral of the story is: last resort rules!
It takes 2 or 3 seconds to build up before it blows, so if you leave it too late then you are screwed As it's building up you should see some particle-type effects coming from the starbase.
hi, it was me ^___^
Well, it says safety, doesn't it? I want my people to be safe in combat.
yeah, the "super abilities" on the sb are just like the superweapons to AI
STARBASE GO BOOM! read description plz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mcX0qukJRQ
Assuming there is not too much of a difference in the engines of Sins and Entrenchment, I have reasons for the following...
Q: Why don't the strike craft blow up?
A: There is a variable that is cantarget strikecraft. If false, that would be the problem. Change it to true.
Q: Why didn't the enemy ever recover?
A: As one goes through the game, they research fleet capacity. The farther along the game you are, the less of your income you are actually receiving. This makes it harder to build fleets so after destroying their primary fleets, they lacked the economic power to restart. Unfortunately, you can't "unresearch" fleet capacity...
Q: Why didn't it kill everything?
A: High level capitals just don't die. Period. As for everything else, there is a variable that determines whether or not something penetrates an object. For instance, by changing this to true, Cleansing Brilliance is able to punch through any target and hit things behind them. Simply put, it is awesome, but that is beside the point. Change this and it wouldn't have a "blast shadow."
Q: Could it target a planet?
A: Yes. Simply increase targetcount by one and add planet to the list which contains frigates, capitals, and structures, you will be just fine. It will hit it and damage it. That would seem more fitting and would make it a true "Last Resort." It would also open up some interesting offensive opportunities...
Q: Should I Ion Bolt it to prevent it from blowing?
A: Well, if can be interrupted, then yes. If you can't interrupt SOP, then don't even try. Sure, you could delay it, but even then, you are only postponing the inevitable. IB sucks up a lot of AM and once depleted, you wouldn't be able to. Besides, by distracting you for five seconds somewhere else, the enemy could have already detonated. If it is not interruptible, don't even try to IB it...
Q: Should I push the Big Red Button?
A: No.
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yeah, i think the devs should change it to damage strikecraft (blast shadow excluded). given, once the carriers are destroyed they are much less of a threat, but with enough of them you could still do damage after the fact.
yeah, this sucks... but, usually on large-huge maps, i finish the game with 100,000's of credits and 10,000's of resources or more. with those resources i can rebuild 100 fleets and have change for a few Aston Martins for some reason the AI seems to just give up... idn, maybe the programming somehow links building fleets with doing fleet research, and since all the fleet research has been done, it doesnt know what to do... it would be nice for it to be fixed/changed though
i like the offensive options idea... although im not sure if thats an option we want. usually, in a defensive situation, you would use it as a 'last resort' so, your own fleet is losing, the SB is nearly out of health, you have nothing to lose so you detonate your SB, hoping to take out the entire attacking fleet or as much of it as possible... if you succeed in destroying the fleet, do you really want to damage/destroy your own planet? if you place the starbase out of range of the planet then no harm no foul, but if you put it within range of the planet...
it would be a shame to have to sacrifice the planet to save it...
[quote]Q: Should I Ion Bolt it to prevent it from blowing? A: Well, if can be interrupted, then yes. If you can't interrupt SOP, then don't even try. Sure, you could delay it, but even then, you are only postponing the inevitable. IB sucks up a lot of AM and once depleted, you wouldn't be able to. Besides, by distracting you for five seconds somewhere else, the enemy could have already detonated. If it is not interruptible, don't even try to IB it...
Last Resort uses anti-matter (duh) so any abilities that destroy/damage/reduce antimatter would, theoretically, prevent the enemy using Last Resort, if used in large enough quantities...
[quote]Q: Should I push the Big Red Button?
Always =P there's nothing like 4 TEC SB's with Last Resort sucking in 2 empires max fleet supply and then detonating.... oooo, delicious =P
Ion Bolt doesn't deplete AM... it just stuns... If it was a Radiance, then yeah.. because of detonate AM or a cobalt...
i know... i didnt say anywhere that Ion Bolt depletes AM, i was trying to give the answer the question was looking for: basically, can Last Resort be prevented/interrupted
yeah, TEC and Advent LF could stop it in large enough quantities, Dunov EMP burst. i dont remember which vasari frig/cruiser affects anti-matter, but all races have a few ships that give the same desired effect
Yeah.. besides.. when writing that, I didn't even know it required AM as I don't have Entrenchment...
im pretty sure all abilities require AM. heck, you cant build a Starbase in a magnetic cloud because it disables abilities and building an SB is considered an ability =P
also, you just reminded me of something, the TEC starbase has another upgrade that replenishes health and anti-matter, which uses anti-matter. it can also build frigs and cruisers (when upgraded) as well as act as a trade port. im not sure if trade ports of the factory upgrades use anti-matter, but im pretty sure the Docking Booms (reparing hull and replenishing anti-matter) upgrade does.
so if the enemy upgraded with both LR and DB, then his AM could already be gone by the time it gets to that stage where he's going to press the button
you so should get it! you wont be disappointed
I intend to, but Impulse is buggy and won't let me...
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