Stupid AI, drop the damned troops!!

[CW]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rollo:
I think dogscoff is right. You have to destroy the weapon platforms first. The troops will stay behind until this is done. Once the WPs are finished the warships stop firing and scatter (actually run for the corners!, pretty silly isn't it?) and the troops move in for the capture. Works really well for me.

About the Kamikaze attack after the warships are dead: I don't know. I have never seen this, but here is what I suspect: The troop ship in a mixed fleet will wait until the defenses are finished (that I know for sure), BUT if there are no warships it tries to capture the planet anyway (that is what I assume). If this true, you might turn it to your advantage. Try to capture a planet with troop ships only. Use two or three of them and shield them. Hopefully one gets through to capture the planet even with WPs intact. Might be worth a try (if you try this and it works, let me know). It might also be a good idea to put some point-defense on the troop ships to kill the sats, because they will fire on the planet after the capture. In one of my tests with an AI that captures planets, a planet was glassed only moments after the capture by the sats that were still in orbit.
I hope I could be of some help.

Rollo

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Emm... the reason why I'm not using a full fleet in the first place is because I'm so poor and time constrained that I DON'T have a full fleet to start with, let alone 3 or 4 filled troop ships!

It looks like I'm force to give the AI some planetary napalms to play with, even though I really don't feel like it. I've tailored a ship with just enough bombs to take out the WPs, but that means I need to refit the ship for every planet I attack...

I could have been smarter and thought of using fighters, too bad but I don't want to wait, so I will use my ships this time and build the fighters for next time.

[Rollo]

quote:

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Originally posted by CW:
Emm... the reason why I'm not using a full fleet in the first place is because I'm so poor and time constrained that I DON'T have a full fleet to start with, let alone 3 or 4 filled troop ships!

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Okay, then a have a solution to your problem using just two ships. All you need to do is some tiny little refit. I did some testing this afternoon and found out a lot of interesting stuff. First of all my assumption about the Kamikaze run was correct. If there are no warships (better make that "ships with no troops") left then all troop transports charge for the planet. All you need to do is refit your high shield dreadnought. Put in one cargo component and fill it with troops. Make a fleet with only the dreadnought and a troop transport. Since both ships have troops now, they will both charge for the planet right away. The dreadnought will soak up the fire and the transport will capture the planet. It works, I've tried it. Just make sure both ships have the same speed so one doesn't arrive ahead of the other one when charging the planet. Now it all depends on the staying ability of your dreadnought and the fighting of your troops .
One nice thing: After you capture a planet with weapon platforms intact. They will start firing right away for your side (no reload time added after capture).
Hope this will help .

Rollo

[Suicide Junkie]

Big Q here:
Are the platforms on the planet armed with either PDCs or sat-targetting beam weapons?
Or, alternatively:
Can the planet + WPs destroy the SATs on their own?

If your fighting warship gets a cargo bay too, you can avoid ruining your transport's strat, and hopefully save the planet from some damage...
You did say that you'd tried it in a tactical sim, but not using the same planet IIRC.

[CW]

Rollo, tried your method, but it worked only part of the time. The problem comes from another of the AI's strange behaviour. I converted the gunnery DN with more shields and a cargo bay, and put a single troop on it. The two ships (that converted DN and the troop ship) would move in together, but if the DN drops its troops first the problem starts. Obviously the single troop would lose the ground battle, but then instead of dropping its uncommited troops the troop ship would turn around and head for the corner!

I've to admit the AI in this game is one of the worst I have seen.

[dogscoff]

What happens if you use Rollo's method but with *no* troops on the DN?

Would it make a difference changing the fleet leader and/ or formation? (ie make sure the troop ship gets there first.)

Failing that get some more troops on the DN and hope they can take the planet.

Or... reduce the shields of the dreadnought so that it's just tough enough to soak up all the enemy fire, but gets damaged / slowed down / destroyed before reaching the planet and dropping it's troop. (Getting desprate now)

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"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"I think so Brain but, if you replace the P with an O, my name would be Oinky, wouldn't it?"

[Rollo]

Yes, I know. From the situation you described I assumed the dreadnought would not live long enough to drop its troops. My bad. Besides that you should set the troop transport as fleet leader. This way it will move first and will probably drop the troops before the dreadnought. Also you should put a small weapon on the transport to get it to stay and finish the sats after the capture(only PD will cause it to run away). After the planet is captured and the DN still lives and has its troops still loaded, do not expect it to battle the sats. It will run away, because it is a "troop transport" .

quote:

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The problem comes from another of the AI's strange behaviour.

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Actually this behaviour is consistant with what I have mentioned in my earlier post. After the dreadnought drops its troops it is not a troop transport anymore, but a warship again. This will cause the "real" troop transport to go into hiding and wait for the weapon platforms to be destroyed...

Rollo

[Rollo]

Whoops, I was offline typing.