MOO1 - Preventing troops from landing

[Banner]

Hello,

It's been quite a few years since I played Master of Orion - until today.

I am playing the original (which I prefer over MOO2).

There's one thing I can't recall, and which the manual does not seem to address:


Preventing ground troops from landing.


As I recall, planetary defenses can help in this regard.


Here is my situation:


1) I colonized a planet (and sent a few colonists from a nearby planet).

2) I noticed that a Bulrathi colony ship would arrive at the system a turn or two after I colonized it.

3) I sent a ship to the system to fight the Bulrathi colony ship.

4) After my new colony was bombarded for a turn, my ship destroyed the Bulrathi colony ship.

5) However, on the turn after I colonized the system, the Bulrathi launched 65 troops to it.

6) I figured my ship would stop them, or at least some of them. However, it didn't stop a single Bulrathi trooper.

The system is just colonized, so has very little production.

Also, if I put resources into defense, they go into a planetary shield, not into bases.

Even transferring funds from the general fund won't allow a shield to be built before Bulrathi troops arrive.

My questions are:


1) Is there some way I can protect the planet from a ground assault with SHIPS? Do the ships need a particular weapon type?

2) Does a planetary shield help vs troops? (not that I can complete it in time).

3) Is there some way to bypass building the planetary shield and build bases?

4) Do bases reduce the number of troops that are able to land?

5) Is there some other means of preventing troops from landing? (Once they land, I am doomed. A single trooper would likely defeat me.)


Thanks



P.S. I tried to apply Tags to this post, and received the message that I did not have permission to create new tags; I could only use existing tags.

Never heard of that.

Is there a list of acceptable tags? Or is the list of acceptable tags so long that most of the time, a desired tag is in the list?

 

[vmxa]

Not sure about the tags, that may be a function of the number of post you have made.

iirc planetary shields will be applied to invading transports.

The thing is that the AI will send troops and you need to be able to defend with either planetary defenses and or ships. How much is a function of their troops.

If a planet is in range of any AI transports I will not colonize, until I can defend. This tends to mean a decent fleet to at least be able to deal with transports. I may be willing to risk a fleet invasion and just take the loss, if they come all out.

You need to know what their armor and other troops bonus is to determine how much punch you need to kill one.

 

[scratchthepitch]

Hello,

It's been quite a few years since I played Master of Orion - until today.

I am playing the original (which I prefer over MOO2).

There's one thing I can't recall, and which the manual does not seem to address:


Preventing ground troops from landing.


As I recall, planetary defenses can help in this regard.


Here is my situation:


1) I colonized a planet (and sent a few colonists from a nearby planet).

2) I noticed that a Bulrathi colony ship would arrive at the system a turn or two after I colonized it.

3) I sent a ship to the system to fight the Bulrathi colony ship.

4) After my new colony was bombarded for a turn, my ship destroyed the Bulrathi colony ship.

5) However, on the turn after I colonized the system, the Bulrathi launched 65 troops to it.

6) I figured my ship would stop them, or at least some of them. However, it didn't stop a single Bulrathi trooper.

The system is just colonized, so has very little production.

Also, if I put resources into defense, they go into a planetary shield, not into bases.

Even transferring funds from the general fund won't allow a shield to be built before Bulrathi troops arrive.

My questions are:


1) Is there some way I can protect the planet from a ground assault with SHIPS? Do the ships need a particular weapon type?

2) Does a planetary shield help vs troops? (not that I can complete it in time).

3) Is there some way to bypass building the planetary shield and build bases?

4) Do bases reduce the number of troops that are able to land?

5) Is there some other means of preventing troops from landing? (Once they land, I am doomed. A single trooper would likely defeat me.)

Part of the reasons why I prefer MOO2.

 

[vmxa]

Not sure I followed that one. I switch from preferring one to the other all the time, they are equal to me. In any event allowing all types to be habitable with one tech at the start seems like a step back to me.

Now if you said you prefer II as it has ship upgrades, that would makes sense to me. Even more sense would be that II allows race characteristics to be change. Those are improvements.

 

[scratchthepitch]

Not sure I followed that one. I switch from preferring one to the other all the time, they are equal to me. In any event allowing all types to be habitable with one tech at the start seems like a step back to me.

If that was directed towards my comment then that is not what I was objecting to. What Banner was talking about in his points 1 through 6 is what I also objected to in the game. It's been a long time since I played, but I remember there being several things I didn't care for about MOO1 that were changed for the better in MOO2. Once I started playing MOO2, I never went back.

I agree with what you said about 1 tech for the habitable types of planets being colonized. I think most of these space strategy games require a different tech for each type and I think that is the better way to go.

 

[cantoras]

If you let the Bulrathi orbit for a single turn they will generally send troops right away. Chasing off the ship later doesn't help.

1. I am not sure, but it seems like the total firepower is important. Small ships with lasers will work well in the early game.

2. Not w/o bases

3. Don't think so

4. Yes, it depends on your missile technology and the speed and equipment of the incoming troops. Scatter pack is normally very efficient.

5. Don't let Bulrathi ships orbit your planets in the first place

 

[r16]

you can go to missile bases if you don't have any kind of shielding , though ı might be wrong as ı haven't been able to play MOO for some time . The thing ı usually do is sending a large amount of troops to take the planet back in such cases , if ı can't make the planet with reinforcements before the enemy lands . It will surely start a war and it tends to go bad , then this is the time ı start a new game ... Yeah , pathetic ...

 

[Jex]

Regarding your first question, about whether ships will stop transports, they will, but ONLY if they have enough firepower. Unfortunately, lasers don't really cut it. For example, 50 laser popgun fighters will only shoot down 5 or 10 transports, the rest will get through. In the early game, having the Bulrathi send such a large invasion force at a new colony means the planet is lost.

The best way to have prevented that from happening is just to prevent them from scouting the planet in the first place. Scout blockades work early on, but once the AI starts putting weapons on their ships you'll need some token forces at your colony prospects. 10 or 20 popguns work fine, and if the colony is out of range a few medium sized ships with reserve fuel tanks and lasers will will do. For defending important planets that you have already colonized from a more heavy attack, consider investing in a large design with a Battle scanner and 7-8 heavy lasers, maybe plus shielding.

However, losing new colonies like that isn't as bad as it may seem! As Sirian and Sulla were fond of saying, if you you're not losing planets to the AI in the landgrab, you're not reaching far enough.

 

[RaiddinnRZ]

All that matters is how much damage that you can do.

The troop transports have hit points just like other ships and you get one shot at them as they are incoming. If you manage to kill them all, then nothing will get through.

That is very hard to accomplish most of the time, though.

Most of the time armor is advanced enough and weapons not advanced enough that killing every last transport doesn't happen.

 

[DarkTemplarHawk]

The best obvious defence as already stated is not to let them scout the planet.
The obvious way is by using enough firepower. If you know that your fleet will lose, you still have one risky chance, you can threaten the attacker through the diplomacy screen, if he accept the threat he will retreat without battle even if his fleet is much superior, but you have the risk of worsen the relationship with him, or even war. But you may have already decided to recapture the planet anyway so war may be inevitable if you lose the planet.
Be advised though that a threat, even if it is accepted will only stop fleets, not transports, there is no way for the computer to stop the transports from landing once launched.
From what I have observed and read I understand the following :
1) Each transport for 1M troopers is a separate ship
2) It has hit points depending on the best armor the attacker has
3) You have a limited number of rounds to kill as many as you can (the battle is done automaticaly)
4) I think that the attacker propulsion system do has effect on how many rounds the battle will last
5) I don't know if the attacker transports has shields, but I belive that they do

Optimum defence is achieved when you concentrate the maximun possible firepower on the attacked planet at the time of the landing.
Unfortunately not knowing about the shield factor and if any special equipment do have effect, or how missiles are used it is impossible to predict what "maximum firepower" is.

Best responce is to have as early as possible every planet that is in range to produce and send through relocation (to gain 1 turn of travel) ships that has as much weapons as possible without any shielding or armour, in maximum ship production augmented with money if possible (be adviced that if you give money to a planet and the production is increased, the waste of the factories remain the same, so you can remove some percentage of production from the eco line without harm to the planet, thus producing some more ships)
Continuing to produce ships that will reach the planet after the landing will do no good, so don't waste any more production.
One other idea is to send reinforcements if they can reach the planet in time.
Finaly, if the planet is doomed and you are not willing to enter in a war to take it back, just cut your losses by transfering some population in another planet that needs it and don't waste any production in ships that will be of little use afterwards.