The Plague (Subverters, Boarders, and IDs, Oh My)

[inigma]

I'm thinking of creating two races, one called "The Plague" which does the following:

A psychic race employing allegience subverters, computer viruses, boarding parties, ionic dispersers (engine destroyers), phased polaron beams, and null space projectors.

and the second race called "The Cure" which would counter the The Plague.

Forgive my newbness, but I was curious, and was thinking about different ways someone could also prevent their ships from being subverted or captured in combat to The Plague.

How does one counter a psychic race employing null space weapons and computer viruses?

And does it make sense that in response, to put MCIIIs on ships with Bridge/CQ/LS/AuxBridge - can a ship be subverted if it still has crew AND an MCIII? The idea I'm aiming for is a countership that can withstand multiple null space hits and allegience subverter attempts while still able to maneuver effectively enough to score some of its own kills or captures.

Does it do any good to have multiple MCIIIs or multiple bridges? Like, what would be the best combo to retain movement control in a battle against a null-space allegience subverter fleet which also happens to employ computer viruses?

[NullAshton]

Impossible to have more than one computer or bridge... Although master computer plus human crew may guard against Allegance Subverters...

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Master computer defends against crew takeover; crew defends against computer takeover. Have both, and your ships are perfectly safe - Although I don't know if anyone's tested a ship designed to attack both.

[Suicide Junkie]

A destroyed computer still protects against subverters.
Adding B/LS/CQ means your ship keeps full speed after its computer is destroyed.

A self destruct device prevents normal boarding as long as it is intact.

[douglas]

Repair, just like any other destroyed component.

[inigma]

Oh, so The Plague would need their repair ships. Well, ok, that was already planned for. After all, with their primary strategy to board engine destroyed, mentally flailed sitting ducks, the other half of the fleet should consist of repair ships (albeit carrying additional subvertors or boarders).

[Fyron]

NullAshton said:
Impossible to have more than one computer or bridge... Although master computer plus human crew may guard against Allegance Subverters...

You can add as many master computers as you would like to a ship design. Bridges are hard-coded to one per ship, but that is what Auxilliary Control components are for.

Suicide Junkie said:
A self destruct device prevents normal boarding as long as it is intact.

As of 1.91, the AI will apparently attempt to board ships with an active SDD.

[Suicide Junkie]

As long as it (the SDD) is intact, yeah.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Imperator Fyron said:
You can add as many master computers as you would like to a ship design. Bridges are hard-coded to one per ship, but that is what Auxilliary Control components are for.

Only 1 Aux Control per ship. I don't know if it's the same when you have an MC onboard, but I think it is.

[inigma]

In my testing I realized you can have multiple MCs but only one bridge and one aux.

I put multiple MCs on the Neutralizers (engine destroying) and on the Depleters (shield destroying) and they survived long enough to do their jobs. The Decoys also do well with an extra MC, but I find that it isn't needed with all the armor and shields they are carrying to draw in enemy attention.

The Boarders only need one engine less than the rest of the fleet since all they carry are a single depleter and lots of boarding troops, and they need to arrive at the battle a little late so they can rush and capture helpless hulks.

I also designed simple escort-sized Subverters whose main job is to be fast flying cannon fodder when the enemy wisens up and starts using MCs.

Now if only I can figure out what AI to start from to use as its template...