MoO1: How long does the amoeba stick around?

[Minor Annoyance]

It irradiated a planet of mine and is now just sitting there. Is is going to move? Will it just wait at the planet until I set up a new colony?

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Never mind, it started moving again. The first target had few missiles bases with hyper X, the next one I built up to 20+ with stinger missiles, and 35 Abeoma class ship with 679 gatling lasers. Actually it was 21 Abeoma class with 19 gatling, 1 regular, and 14 Abeoma 2 class with 20 gatling, 1 regular.

 

[sargon0]

It stays over an irradiated planet for 2-3 turns then targets another random planet within 6 parsecs until 5 planets slagged (same as Space Crystal). It has 1,000 points per difficulty level plus ADC so regenerating 300 points per difficulty level and fires one 3-space range amoeba stream for 250-1,000 points streaming damage. It has no shields and low defence so gatlings can be effective once you can get close enough.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Yeah, I got the strategy guide so I have lots of information. The only thing it didn't have when how long it stays.

 

[Inca]

Actually the time that both Space Amoeba and Space Crystal hover over a demolished planet varies. They tend to "watch" whether you are taking any preventive action against them on your other planets. You have to take into account they move on the galaxy screen with warp 1. So they may take some time to arrive at the next system. The program tries to estimate what you might get off the hook at potential victim planets by the time the Amoeba or the Crystal would arrive there. So the program watches what you do for a few turns to try to get that estimate. If you are taking huge measures to protect your other planets that time can be quite long. I once had the Amoeba sitting over a destroyed system for some 10 turns - because I was massively upgrading my defenses on planets in the area - even pumping reserve into some. Especially when you start pumping reserve it becomes harder to estimate where you will end up by the time the Amoeba gets there. That seems to confuse the program.

Also if nobody has the power to destroy the Amoeba or the Crystal both of them have a final timeout. Then GNN gives a message like "the Space Amoeba has inexplicably left the glaxy". If you have enough population you just have to survive long enough.

The AI is cheating with the Space Amoeba and with the Space Crystal though. They need a ridiculous amount of defense to kill off the Amoeba and the Crystal - and even with that ridiculous amount of defense needed they sometimes fail to do it.

I find the Space Crystal to be much harder to defeat than the Space Amoeba - but once they get to destroy a system the Amoeba does more damage to the planet than the Crystal. After the Space Crystal has left you can just take the planet back. I usually keep sending 1 pop per turn to the planet where the Space Crystal lurks. As soon as it moves my 1 pop take the planet back. With the Space Amoeba you need Controlled Radiated to do that - and you also need Atmospheric Terraforming to repair the damage. Even with Atmospheric Terraforming available I sometimes couldn't terraform the planets back to normal. If you manage to take the planets back you can sometimes bind the Amoeba or the Crystal in an endless loop - they tend to go for the weakest planet (but not always). So if you have taken a planet back then that one becomes the weakest planet. So you kinda send the Amoeba or the Crystal to and thro until the final timeout hits. That's one way to survive them when you don't have anything that can destroy them.