System evacuation

minipol · #1 December 9th, 2003, 11:40 PM

My home system is pretty well defended and all WP are fully mined and satted. And then a thought sprung to my mind: "What if i would receive the star-is-going-to-explode-message?"
Man, that would be one hell of an evacuation. Building extra transports to shift the population, the weapon platforms, trying to recover the satellites and so on.
Is there anybody who has encountered this and got everything out in time?

Will · #2 December 10th, 2003, 12:06 AM

Once upon a time...

Encountered, yes. Evacuated in time... well, I didn't get everything. Emergency built transports at every SY, brought in every other transport that could be spared, and IIRC, was able to get about 90% of the population out and about half the units. Still lost a lot though...

Suicide Junkie · #3 December 10th, 2003, 12:12 AM

My Exodus Scenario (SE4 Classic) was based on just such an occurrence.
More importantly, though, the race was played as if it were a neutral for about 150 turns before the event...

When I played, I built a set of huge transports that grabbed at least half of the population plus some miscellaneous units, and a couple of colony ships.

I decided to go south. While there was only one breathable planet there, I had squandered too much time on preparations, and couldn't risk running out of resources partway through the invasion of the more distant, but bountiful northern systems.

My army of dreadnoughts pushed the 1st place Ukra-Tal out of one of the systems, but we had to glass a lot of worlds (40% loss in value).
Shortly after the system was swept, the star blew.
All but one dreadnought eventually had to be put in mothballs over the only breathable world, and my entire military shuffled between the colonies and interception missions as U-T baseships wandered by.

I filled up on mineral miners, but with only 3 planets at 50% value or so, it was a very thin budget.
I built up fighters, but between the lack of funds and the thick PD of the baseships, it was tough to keep the numbers up.

My Nature Shrine helped immensely, boosting the budget by 6% each decade, even though I couldn't afford to colonize and protect any more planets.

Eventually I was able to bring more of the ancient dreadnoughts Online again, like great mythical warriors from the depths of time.

I moved from running interceptions, to covering the three planets, to actually blockading the warppoints. Then I was able to fully expand to all of the colonizable worlds in the system, and finally see victory at hand!

[ December 09, 2003, 22:13: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

narf poit chez BOOM · #4 December 10th, 2003, 01:58 AM

had two or three systems blow within 30~ turns of each other in a small map. did a massive build-up of large transports and managed to get everybody out in time. then i rebuilt the star's and planets.

that Last sentence should give you a clue on why i managed to have the resources to do that, lose the production, and still win.

Cyrien · #5 December 10th, 2003, 06:47 AM

Had a star is going to die message in a tiny map mp with some friends, About 25 systems and 20 players 5 human rest the more aggressive AIs. My home system was my only major system with a few outPosts in two others. Everything else was pretty much filled with lots of furious action. I didn't get anything evacuated. Two turns after I got the first star message my only warp point out closed in another random event. DOH!

The rest of my Empire didn't survive for very long after the star went and took the home system with it.

Taera · #6 December 10th, 2003, 07:53 AM

reminds be back of SE3 - there i once, for RP's sake, initiated a great emergency due to the message. Transports flocked from all around my empire, all ships were being retrofitted to be able to carry population... and still wasn't enough, and i could just see force fields, with people in full armor 'filtering' those who can escape... it was fun. in SEIV, i dont usually have the resources and tme available, i just use what i have and pray i can make it out.

minipol · #7 December 10th, 2003, 09:19 AM

Wow, some very interesting stories. In my current game i have expanded like hell and this left a lot of planets and systems without ships to defend it. I'm relying solely on fighters, mines sats and weapon platforms. A big fleet could wipe out a lot of my planets. Well, if i would get the message that the star in my home system is going down it would be bigtime panic

ZeroAdunn · #8 December 11th, 2003, 01:40 AM

I have played a number of games where a inhabited systems star was going to explode, some of the more memorable ones:

I once played a game of SEIII where the map wound up being a squid shaped galaxy, with one system in the center and about six arms going off on each side. No steller manip so the system was quite valuable as anyone who had it pretty much controlled the universe. Well, I had taken the system, and as this was the only assaultable system in my empire I had almost all of my forces there gaurding the warp points. Not to mention my primary shipyards. Then boom, by by fleet. (did they give warnings in SEIII? I remember I had no idea it was gowing to blow before it happened)

However, my most memorable was when my home system was going to blow, in a proportions game! This was early proportions, where the home planet was even more valuable then it is in current, and boy, was that going to be a huge loss. (at more than 75% of my empires production) what made it even worse was, I was just barely getting by with my current resource production. Well, I flooded the system with transports (this was proportions so I had like 20-30 of them) emptied out all my carries, refitted hordes of fighting ships, and began running hordes of ships in and out of the system. I left behind like half my population, and lost about 10 ships and three starbases in the explosion. I survived (it was a game against the AI) but just barely. The wars in next few years were fairly devestating.

Narratio · #9 December 11th, 2003, 05:15 AM

I had one about 40 turns into a game once. There I was, a dozen systems explored, 3 AI races found, 3 other systems started colonization and my home system star was suddenly going to go bang.

After crying in my beer and sticking more pins in my "Aaron Hall Voodoo Doll (From Aesyrko... for people who care. Pins not provided) I built colony ships and transports and tried to get as much out as possible. Saved about 20%, the rest of the little squids crisped. Started dropping population on to the newly selected home-planet-to-be and WHAM! Planet instability!!! So we upped and moved again. Such things (apart from wearing out my voodoo doll) help develop moral fibre.

President_Elect_Shang · #10 December 11th, 2003, 07:26 AM

It happened to me once in SE3. The quadrant was shaped so that it was roughly split between me and my AI opponent. One system that I held was the key system with three warp points leading back to the right (all my systems) and one leading into the AI�s. I had built up four bases and had two planets populated with massive industry in orbit. I had even taken the time to shuttle in the max populations. Then I got the warning, yes it did warn you. I used it to my advantage though. I started a fight with the AI to provoke them into invading, as if they needed provoking right? The end result; over half the populations of both planets lost, all bases, and a small fleet I left to tempt the invading force further into the system. It worked pretty well as when I counter attacked they had few defenses and I swept about a quarter of their systems before the AI could churn out enough ships to stop me.