A MoO3 question

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-03-14 11:40am

yeah, so i beat the Guardian, and there is fucking nothing! no uber-beam of death, no free ship, no pass go and collect $200. what the fuck? Also, it was at Altair and was called the Alkari Guardian...my question is there an Orion Guardian that gives you shit when you kill it, or is this all there is?

Bartman · Post by **Bartman** » 2003-03-14 11:56am

I haven't fought any Guardians, but I thought they were guarding the 5 Xs. There isn't a Guardian at Orion though, just the New Orions, who have hundreds of tech maxed ships. All the Guardians are over the homeworlds of species that were destyoyed by the New Orions.

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2003-03-14 11:59am

I have tried to go after a Gaurdian a couple times and gotten smashed each time, are you saying that there is no bloody point?

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-03-14 12:10pm

Luke Starkiller wrote:I have tried to go after a Gaurdian a couple times and gotten smashed each time, are you saying that there is no bloody point?

the planets were pretty good, and i have found an easy way of killig it. shitloads of missiles. i went in with 9 task forces (total of 55 ships) 5 t/f's were indirect fire loaded to the gills with nothing but missiles....and i wiped it's ass in under a minute and a half...and i only lost 2 task forces.

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2003-03-14 01:11pm

That is the same general way I have been trying to do it, just on a much smaller, insufficient scale. I have a couple ship designs that only carry enough missles for one salvo, but it's one hell of a punch since they all go at once.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-03-15 01:00am

IIRC, there are 5 Guardians, but I haven't defeated any of them yet (Psilons aren't exactly the quickest bunch to develop powerful militaries, particularly when their homeworld goes into revolt for the first 15 turns

).

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-03-15 01:49pm

The Dark wrote:IIRC, there are 5 Guardians, but I haven't defeated any of them yet (Psilons aren't exactly the quickest bunch to develop powerful militaries, particularly when their homeworld goes into revolt for the first 15 turns ).

go cynoid! sure diplomatic skills are lacking but with decent tech, awesome industry and stong figting skills, who the fuck needs diplomacy. The cynoids and ithkul both are my fave's

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2003-03-15 02:29pm

Nommo! great diplomacy and good tech.

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2003-03-15 03:59pm

I sent 140 ships up against the Alkari guardian and they all got blown to pieces despite the fact they were dealing upwards of a thousand damage per shot (low estimate seeing as I had 5 dreads that could do 1400 per shot in there)

Was fun to watch though

Anyway I lost that game to a senate victory (got trapped in galactic arm by harveseter empire and by time I'd whupped em I was too far behind...)

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-03-15 04:57pm

Col. Crackpot wrote:
The Dark wrote:IIRC, there are 5 Guardians, but I haven't defeated any of them yet (Psilons aren't exactly the quickest bunch to develop powerful militaries, particularly when their homeworld goes into revolt for the first 15 turns ).
go cynoid! sure diplomatic skills are lacking but with decent tech, awesome industry and stong figting skills, who the fuck needs diplomacy. The cynoids and ithkul both are my fave's

A guy actually did calcs on what races have the most "points" for customizing. The Cynoid and Evon are tied for first, and I believe the Ithkul are third. I just like the Psilon because now that I'm 100 turns into the game, I'm ticking off 2300 research points per turn, and my diplomacy means that the Trilarians and Tadichi are fighting the Ithkul for me while I develop my Battlecruisers with Hercular Missiles, Medium Zentronium Armor, and Large Class III Shields.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-03-16 12:54am

Just beat the game for the first time. Took me 176 turns as the Psilons, won through a political victory. I knew it was a good idea to sweet-talk those Tachidi.

beyond hope · Post by **beyond hope** » 2003-03-16 01:02pm

I'm playing the Meklar. My first victory was somewhere in turn 180 or so, when I didn't realize I'd amassed enough votes to elect myself and voted myself into the presidency. I was actually quite annoyed, since I'd just been rallying the fleet and building transports for a full-scale invasion of the Imsaeis (who had been annoying me pretty much since the start of the game.) So, after shouting "F%^&! I was robbed!" I restarted from the last autosave and started my War of Xenocide. I'm now around turn 440 or so: I'm STILL fighting the damn Imsaeis (their research bonus is a pain) as well as the Nommo and the Ithkul. I've also beaten 3 of the 5 guardians, and only in ONE system did I discover one of the Antaran X's (which proved to be some new efficient governing system or some such.) The force I used to tackle the Guardians was one armada of 18 ships, loaded with Dark Energy beams, Disintegrator beams and Megabolt cannons and protected by Class VII shields (the smallest ship was a Battleship, ranging up to Super-Dreadnought in size.) Zero losses.

One thing I've learned that I thought I'd share: carriers are THE way to attack a planet that has defenses like beam and missle bases. The fighters soak up all the damage, while the carrier fleet sits way out away from the system out of the range of their guns. I was using primarily beam weapons equipped ships before I built a fleet of carriers on a whim. I quickly switched over to a carrier-based fleet at that point. Second tip: the game does not care what size of ship you designate as a "reconaissance ship" so long as it has that all-important designation when you design it. My "recon ships" are super-dreadnought sized and carry a spinal-mount megabolt cannon. The biggest ship I can build currently is the Behemoth... I'm hoping to have Leviathan production soon so I can conclude my wars with the Nommo and Ithkul and then focus on breaking those insolent Imsaeis scum.

Thunderfire · Post by **Thunderfire** » 2003-03-16 01:45pm

I always turn of diplomatic victory. Guardians aren't that hard to beat
after you got some advanced weapons. Killing a top new orion ship
is harder... I personaly prefer the ithkul. Give them the hive government
and all production boni and they will kick butt. I mostly use indirect fire
and carrier forces.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-03-16 02:46pm

I think IF and carriers are the best, because they can sit back out of the way. I haven't fully tested it yet, but I think carriers should be as large as possible, and missile ships around battlecruiser/battleship size to keep cost down and churn them out quicker.

Out of curiosity, how much do you specialize your planets? Do you have a planet of JUST industry for building ships, or do you spread the infrastructure around your Empire?

Thunderfire · Post by **Thunderfire** » 2003-03-16 04:20pm

I specialize when it makes sense.
IF + Carrier = max size with a small system drive
Escort+ Recon 2 size categories smaler than IF+ Carrier
Escort get a few fighters and mostly beam weapons.
Recon get most specials and 1-2 beam weapons.
Escort & Recon should get top speed.
Always have atlest one pure escort TF at hand. They are
nice decoys and take away the heat from your expensive ships.

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-03-17 10:51am

I got the game on the weekend, and noticed this:

A game review said that the AI doesn't attack you. I'm on my second match (easy setting), and so far the AI has yet to attack one of my planets. The review said the difficulty level didn't change this fact, can anyone else confirm this? Right now its pretty sad, I build defenseless colonies right next to the enemy during full scale war and they don't do *anything*.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-03-17 11:05am

Zoink wrote:I got the game on the weekend, and noticed this:

A game review said that the AI doesn't attack you. I'm on my second match (easy setting), and so far the AI has yet to attack one of my planets. The review said the difficulty level didn't change this fact, can anyone else confirm this? Right now its pretty sad, I build defenseless colonies right next to the enemy during full scale war and they don't do *anything*.

I've come under attack on the easy setting, hell they even landed transports full of mobiles...which my battleoids made into pretty scraps of metal. funny, the game is still going for me, i'm on turn 300 something and i control 35 systems (large cluster) with 60 or so planets and i'm still slowly advancing through the Sakkra's. but get this, there are two seperate sakkra empires. odd. anyone get two empire of the same race?

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-03-17 11:11am

Has anyone tried the highest difficulty setting, whatever it is?

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-03-17 11:24am

Col. Crackpot wrote: I've come under attack on the easy setting, hell they even landed transports full of mobiles...which my battleoids made into pretty scraps of metal. funny, the game is still going for me, i'm on turn 300 something and i control 35 systems (large cluster) with 60 or so planets and i'm still slowly advancing through the Sakkra's. but get this, there are two seperate sakkra empires. odd. anyone get two empire of the same race?

Well, I really wish they'd attack, it would give me a reason to build defensive structures. For my second game, I'm playing in huge 3 arm galaxy, I've built nothing but colony ships and claimed a large chunk of it. I think I'll just sit in my little corner of the galaxy and taunt the enemy until something happens. They seem to attacking each other, but not me yet.

Does anyone know if one ECM system works for all ships in a task force, ie. Have one "countermeasures ship", or do I need to stick it on each ship. Same question for ECCM systems.