The Power of Stellar Manipulation

[ckotchey]

Again, I'm still in the middle of my first game, and am just learning the components, but...

It seems to me that the Stellar Manipulation parts, such as those to create warp points and planets, seem a bit easy to reach and use, given the implicit power of what is really happening. Example: On a simple Cruiser hull, I have a planet-maker, and a repair bay, so it can waltz around making planets each and every turn (especially in asteroid belt systems) as it repairs itself each turn. Seems to me that this should not be such a casual or quick operation.
I would suggest:
- making the research more expensive, or with more tech prerequisites to reach these mammoth proportions
- making the parts heavier and costlier to build
- making the parts more "inconvenient" to use - such as slowing down ship movements containing them, rendering them uncloakabe, etc. (Q: can it be too easy to waltz these into enemy territories and wipe them out too easily?)
- making the parts destroy the entire ship upon use, rather than just the part itself burning out.
- making the parts harder to repair (i.e. must repair it for a few turns before it is re-usable)
- making the process (e.g. planet creation) take several turns to achieve once the process has started.

Since I've not actually played much, especially against other humans, I'd also be curious to hear general discussions about how easy or difficult these parts are to use, and how they affect gameplay & game strategy. I can definitely see planet & star destroyers ruining someone's day pretty quick.

[DavidG]

Actually I've always thought these components were too expensive (Hmmm so maybe MM found a happy medium?) Although most of the multiplayer games I've played have either been over or else one player has a major lead by the time these components get used.

[Lord_Shleepy]

* falls out of bed with a start

Humph! They certainly seem dashed expensive to me! The little buggers take YEARS to build... Though, I do see your point. Maybe have them consume massive amounts of supplies (due to the extreme physical requirements of such a task) requiring large ships to hold enough supplies and frequent resupply stops? You could certainly add this property yourself if you feel the need.

[ckotchey]

Heh - yeah, maybe they seem cheap to me because it's just me and one computer player left with a single warp-point separating our empires. I really have no other attack fleet built at this point, so maybe the economy of playing "real" people makes it much more prohibitive to build in the first place.

[Krsqk]

Unless you have some major maintenance reduction, then you'll spend 15-25k or more in maintenance per turn.

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Lord_Shleepy:
Maybe have them consume massive amounts of supplies (due to the extreme physical requirements of such a task) requiring large ships to hold enough supplies and frequent resupply stops?

Actually this would be no good what-so-ever. Maybe if you had the tech to make planets BEFORE you had the Q-reactor. Once you research that it doesn't change a thing as far as supplys go. So this would only help if you research the planet creator before the Q-reactor.

[oleg]

I may be missing something but was't it fixed in some patch that "destroy on use" components now require space yards to repair - repair bay is insufficient. But it was long time I used stellar manipulation - Proportions games are veery long.

[LGM]

Against humans stellar manip ships are costly and must be guarded as valuable assets. In addition, there are system shields that stop their effectiveness, so you have to use conventional weapons to take out the system shield first.

System shields are costly, but require no maintenance. Stops Stellar Manipulation cold.

Stellar Manipulation are like Wrecking Cranes. They can do lots of damage if unopposed. But they can be vulnerable ships.

[Baron Munchausen]

Not vulnerable enough in my opinion. I've increased the sizes of all of the SM components to reflect their large-scale effects. It's still a bit silly to think of a ship-sized device destroying a planet or even a star, but at least it's a bit more balanced to force the use of a battlecruiser or larger to carry a star-destroyer component.

[Lord_Shleepy]

"Actually this would be no good what-so- ever. Maybe if you had the tech to make planets BEFORE you had the Q-reactor. Once you research that it doesn't change a thing as far as supplys go. So this would only help if you research the planet creator before the Q-reactor."

Sigh...too true. I rarely use Q-reactors myself and forgot about that lil issue. although effective they are a tad unrealistic and a lot of research. I stand corrected.