A few planetary questions

[Rex_the_Hex]

I have a few questions dealing with planets.

1) Is there a why to see what facilites are on a planet owned by an ally. I would really like to know which of my allies planets have resuply depots.

2) Is there a why to see what facilites are on a planet owned by an enemy. This would be nice for prioritizing which enemy planets to attack first.

3) Is there a way to set up your strategies to capture a planet in strategic combat that involves a lot of ships on both sides? I know about having troops and setting those ships to capture the planet, and I have been successful in capturing planets that have few to no ships defending. But, when I attacked this players home world, I totally blew away all the ship and the planet before it ever got to the ground combat screen. True, I could have run a tactical battle blew away just the defenses and then moved in the troopers, but I did not feel like sitting through 1/2 to an hour of moving my ships around and watching the computer move his.

Thanks

[Chronon]

1) You can see a partner's resupply depots if you go into the "Empire Status" window - the button at the top with the crown - and click on the Empire Options button. From there you will get a list of things to toggle on and off, and you'll want to toggle on the option that says "see resupply depots..." Once you've done that and exited back to the systems window, you will see little letters just below and to the right of your planets and your partners' planets. "R" stands for resupply depot, "Y" for space yard, and "S" for spaceport.

2) Not that I know of, but there may be an intelligence project that will do this for a targeted planet.

3) Planetary capture can be tricky in strategic combat. I have had some success with fleets set to "capture planet" as their strategy. But it's important not to have overwhelming firepower, or you will glass the planet with your first shot. Theoretically, once all the weapons platforms are destroyed, the fleet will stop firing and the transport will drop troops. But if all the population is killed in the first volley, there is nothing left to capture. One other thing is to avoid missile ships in the planetary invasion fleet. What might happen is they fire and move away, meanwhile your direct fire ships destroy the weapons platforms, and a turn later the missiles come in and wipe out the planet.

[Slick]

1 & 2) Aside from what Chronon said, the only way to see ally or enemy planet facilities (or building queues, etc) is using offensive intelligence projects against them. Read the descriptions of the different projects and choose the one(s) you want. That won't make the other guys happy.

3) Yes. Although some ship designs are easier than others. If I were to venture a guess, I would agree with Chronon and say you are using missile ships. They are very hard to capture planets with. The idea is that the AI will stop firing when the planet's defenses (Weapon Platforms) are gone. In the case of missile ships, even though the fleet stops firing, it may have many missiles already in the "air" and this glasses the planet. Try with beam weapon ships. The default "Capture Planet" strategy works pretty well unedited, but you can tweak it to optimize it for your fleet. Only way to do this is with some trial and error. Look at tweaking damage percentages and what you or do not attack.

Slick.

[ April 25, 2003, 16:19: Message edited by: Slick ]

[Krsqk]

IIRC, you can also see St and Ft for ship and fleet training facilities on planets of Military Allies or Partners.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Krsqk:
IIRC, you can also see St and Ft for ship and fleet training facilities on planets of Military Allies or Partners.

You can see everything in the Empire Options window that has a toggle for those allies in that section (Resource Converters, Fate Shrines, etc.).

[ April 25, 2003, 19:27: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]