War points and black holes

Jon Brave · #1 March 17th, 2001, 11:30 AM

Could somebody just give me some pointers on this (it's only my second game).

I have colonised my nearby systems. I am now separated from the rest of the galaxy by systems which have black holes and unstable, damaging (strong gravitic) warp points. I want to go out and conquer. I can now get the odd ship through the warp point, but I don't feel I can get an armada thru and/or get colony ships thru with enough support to colonise remote systems.

1. Exactly how much damage does the warp point do? Every time? Can I protect against it? I've ended up putting a repair module on a ship so if it gets thru it can restore, but I don't want too many of these in a fleet and/or on colony ships, do I?

2. The black holes slow down my ships tremendously. Should I be looking to destroy the black holes? What's the tech I need? Similarly, can I make the warp point non-damaging? Is that the same tech as creating new warp points? How far is the tech?

3. Or am I making too much of a fuss? Should these features not be worrying me?

4. While I'm at it, I've seen storms and I can create/destroy them now. But I've never seen them do anything. Exactly what's the point of me creating a storm?

PsychoTechFreak · #2 March 17th, 2001, 11:59 AM

1. up to 200 damage points, use armor or shields with more than 200.

2. Quantum Graviton Beam , SM level 6 to destroy BHs, Grav Condensor to close funky WPs SM level 3, Grav Quantum Resonator to open good WPs SM level 3 to 5 (level 5 : best range)

3. ?

4. You can hide things in it, fleets for example. Try to create a storm over one of your planets... the enemy needs scanner tech to find them !

jc173 · #3 March 17th, 2001, 12:05 PM

3 It seems more than a few people reduce the % chance of a blackhole appearing or eliminate it altogether same with odd warp points because the AI has a tough time dealing with them. Storm/nebular sectors can be useful to hide things in like secret bases, well at least early on in the game. I'm thinking about artficially creating a sun in one and then building a ring or sphere world around it to see if it's still hidden.

DirectorTsaarx · #4 March 20th, 2001, 04:24 PM

quote:
Originally posted by PsychoTechFreak:
1. up to 200 damage points, use armor or shields with more than 200.

I don't think shields protect against damaging warp points (or mines, or damaging storms). Shields are only activated during combat, IIRC...

Kimball · #5 March 20th, 2001, 05:02 PM

I believe you are correct about shields not protecting against mines and damaging warp points.

Suicide Junkie · #6 March 20th, 2001, 05:14 PM

1) Only Armor can protect you against unexpected and/or natural phenomena. Shields are only raised during battle. Just layer on the armor, and build a repair base on the other side.

2) Unless you control >10% of the galaxy or are partners with everybody, destroying black holes is probably too expensive ($$$, research points & time) for you. Better to just go for a low tech solution (armored repair ship + armored ships) If you are really serious about "fixing" your system, and have 5 years to spare, research Stellar Manip (under astrophysics) way up. IMO, a quick armor & repair then shields & weapons would be better research.

3) Somewhat. Once you know how to solve your BH problem, theres nothing to worry about. If you don't know, you better ask, or spend some time to figure it out.
I like BHs, since they provide a great buffer against powerful enemies, while you're fighting for your life on the other side of your empire.
- Low Tech soln: Armor + repairship
- High Tech soln: Quantum InVersion beam + wormhole creaters.

4) The storms you can create only hide your ships. Natural storms can have many special abilities. With a storm, you can hide planets/ships/bases/stars. Maybe not stars, but maybe.

Kimball · #7 March 20th, 2001, 05:58 PM

quote:
Originally posted by suicide_junkie:

4) The storms you can create only hide your ships. Natural storms can have many special abilities. With a storm, you can hide planets/ships/bases/stars. Maybe not stars, but maybe.

I was under the impression that all storms are random. At least that is the impression I get reading the components.txt file:

Ability 1 Type := Create Storm
Ability 1 Descr := Will create a random storm of any size.

Suicide Junkie · #8 March 20th, 2001, 06:19 PM

I spent 30 minutes making storms, and none of them were special.

DirectorTsaarx · #9 March 20th, 2001, 08:57 PM

From the v1.30 Settings.txt (these lines appeared sometime between 1.19 and 1.30):

Created Storm Maximum Obscuration Level := 2
Created Storm Maximum Turbulence Damage := 200
Created Storm Maximum Shield Disruption := 5000

So it looks like you should be able to create "special" storms...

Spyder · #10 March 20th, 2001, 10:45 PM

quote:
Originally posted by suicide_junkie:

2) Unless you control >10% of the galaxy or are partners with everybody, destroying black holes is probably too expensive ($$$, research points & time) for you. Better to just go for a low tech solution (armored repair ship + armored ships) If you are really serious about "fixing" your system, and have 5 years to spare, research Stellar Manip (under astrophysics) way up. IMO, a quick armor & repair then shields & weapons would be better research.

Wormhole Manipulators (Stellar Manipulation) is one of the most important things to research quickly, in my opinion. They allow you to make quick pathways around your airspace and they allow you to 'fix' bad wormholes by destroying & recreating them. They also allow you to isolate entrypoints into your airspace....ie, constrict the avenues of approach for your enemies to a few, defensible avenues.

As for Black holes, I deal with them until I own the system(s) on the other side and then destroy them. They are good natural defenses early on in the game. Later, they are a hinderance to traffic.

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Spyder, Chairman of the Arachnid Consortium