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Construction 101: Engineer Ramblings |
Bardiche
Chief Marshal
Joined: November 16, 2006
Posts: 1247
|  Posted: 2012-02-22 09:08
So as people know, I love to build. When it's time to complain about the latest iteration of construction vessel X, I stand at the front-lines to underline the need for a construction vessel to accomplish goals X and Y and how they should be constructed.
But while many people stand ready to defend or offend development of ships, I don't see many people talk about engineering. DarkSpace has become a maelstrom of poorly constructed planets. I am looking to change that.
To really begin building a proper planet, we must needs first define what a "proper planet" is. F'rinstance, can a proper planet spawn a lot of infantry or ships? Is it capable of wrecking any enemy Station that dares look at it wrongly?
A proper planet is none of those. The primary function of any planet is to extend the operations range of your faction. Planets provide a base for security, supplies and shipyarding.
Before drawing up any plans for construction, consider the location of the planet and whether it fulfils the faction's need for expansion of territory or extends the operation range of combat. Then, decide the following:
- Will the planet's secondary function be to provide a relief for damaged ships, to provide a stronghold point for battle, or to provide a spawn place?
Regardless of your secondary function, your planet will be built around a single Structure (capitals denoting the secondary objective's main structure), unless it is a stronghold, in which case it focuses on deterring enemies, see further down below. Further structures serve the purpose of enabling the Structure to function, then to prevent the enemy from disabling the Structure and finally to deter enemies from attacking the planet, in that order.
To enable the Structure, you need: the Structure; sufficient energy to not only energise the Structure, but its attendant infrastructure as well; sufficient research to power the Structure and its attendant infrastructure.
To prevent enemies from disabling the Structure, you require: surplus workers to power the Structure; surplus energy to power the Structure; surplus Research to power the Structure; infantry to prevent Razing. It is not possible to stop bombs, so expect some structures to lose functionality at some point in the planet's career.
To deter enemies, you need to satisfy one of two conditions for the planet:
1) It is too damaging for the enemy to approach the planet.
2) It takes too long for the enemy to take the planet.
Regardless of which approach you take, all planets require an Interdictor base to serve either role.
Let's talk about these in order:
Approach #1:
Focus on damaging the enemy vessels as they near your planet. Your focus here is on offence bases; do not build any of the other bases. A Sensor Base is required, as enemies unseen to the planet cannot be attacked by planetary defences.
This approach focuses entirely on aggression to deter aggression. It is the primary way a planet should be structured if an attendant fleet can and will protect it. Damage is the strongest disincentive for enemy players to approach your planet.
It does not stop AI. The AI fears nothing. It is reckless. When AI storm your planet, this guide will not save you.
Approach #2:
Make it too difficult to take the planet doesn't focus on damage: build Point Defence Bases. No, not those piece of crap Defence Bases which doesn't damage enough and doesn't protect enough. By raising the defence of the planet high enough, you reduce the damage bombs do to the planet, thereby lessening the efficiency of any bomber craft.
This is a weaker method of deterring enemies from approach, but PD bases require less resources and are a cheaper way to construct the planet. By reducing the efficiency of their assault, you encourage enemies to look to other planets, or buy necessary time for your allied ships to assist.
Given enough dedication (and bombs), this type of planet will fall to a single ship. On the plus side, this planet requires no Sensor Base, as spotting enemies doesn't much matter to it.
Now that we have that covered, I sometimes/often see planets with rather awkward construction and will therefore list a number of structures which have no place in the Metaverse:
- Factories
- Mines
- Factories
- Mines
Do not build these. If your planet requires resources, point your extractor beams to the nearest surface, fetch a burger, and acquire profit. There is no excuse for hampering your planet's ability to serve its role as an outpost nor for undermining its ability to deter enemies from capturing the planet. Increasing its output of a worthless resource is not a valid excuse.
EXCEPTION: The planet is not on the front lines and not a frequent target of assault. In that case, go ahead and make it a mining planet or something like that. This guide only covers planets on the front-line anyway, why are you reading this if you're building backwater planets?
Now that you've read this, I hope you will stop building those abominable Defence Bases and begin gracing the Metaverse with planets which can adequately satisfy the faction's need of deterring enemies from assault.
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Mylith
Grand Admiral
Faster than Light
Joined: July 19, 2011
Posts: 507
From: Hivarin, CD+36*15693
| Posted: 2012-02-22 10:31
Also, for the people who build ICC planets:
If you're building something outside our homesystems, such as in kaus/R33/tetra, don't build shield domes. We're just going to lose the planet anyway and those domes make bombing hard for when we come next time.
With a few exceptions, of course.
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CM7
Midshipman
Faster than Light
Joined: October 15, 2009
Posts: 1812
| Posted: 2012-02-22 14:48
but.... But i love defense bases....
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Fatal Perihelion
Chief Marshal
Fatal Squadron
Joined: April 15, 2010
Posts: 308
| Posted: 2012-02-22 16:15
nice thread! i try to add some points:
-In the MV 1 mine per planet is enough, but in Scenario mining planets are very usefull to supply the shipyard planet.
-The biospheric condenser is the most useless building, as a tier 3 build it will likely turn inactive when the planet is bombed, this results to planets which will not recover by themself, without being managed by a player.
Therefore build Automated Hydrofarms only.
-Same with offense bases II, once the planet is succesfully bombed all defenses switch inactive. Offensebases I are more stable as they require low research.
-3 or 4 Barracks should be enough to be stable against ai transport invasions and makeit harder for solo bombers to kill all inf.
- In the MV every planet should have a depot, it is the most usefull building beside Interdictors and Shipyards.
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Talien
Marshal
Templar Knights
Joined: May 11, 2010
Posts: 2044
From: Michigan
| Posted: 2012-02-22 16:32
Defense bases are fine in combination with offense bases, a planet with 10 each of offense 1 and defense 1 will absolutely shred any AI that gets sent to it. Of course, this is really only possible on planets in binary systems unless the planet is meant to be a glass cannon.
Have at least 4-5 Barracks on front line planets, this goes a long way to preventing them from being overrun by AI transports spamming it with troops. More than 4-5 Barracks on a planet should be temporary and only used to facilitate capture of enemy planets or recapture of your own planets in a system, after which the excess should be scrapped and replaced with other necessary structures.
Shields are fine, just don't build more than 2 as they're extremely inefficient after that. It doesn't take very long at all for a Siege Dreadnought to take out 150% shields when a planet is ready to be retaken.
Mines and Factories. Yeah. Don't build them outside of the home servers.
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Princess Celestia
Marshal
Joined: July 03, 2011
Posts: 165
From: The Crystal Empire.
| Posted: 2012-02-22 16:47
 Maybe every one should go to scen more often. and i do some times remake planets to something..more usefull. though when i come back some one has replaced all the structers so i gavce up on Renovateing planets.
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jacensolo
Vice Admiral
Joined: December 20, 2011
Posts: 52
| Posted: 2012-02-22 19:06
Quote:
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On 2012-02-22 10:31, Persistance wrote:
Also, for the people who build ICC planets:
If you're building something outside our homesystems, such as in kaus/R33/tetra, don't build shield domes. We're just going to lose the planet anyway and those domes make bombing hard for when we come next time.
With a few exceptions, of course.
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Persistance there are two sides to this. I don't see the point of building a weaker planet in order for it to be weeker just incase it gets captured. "Cross that bridge when you come to it m8". (me deletes all of the 10 volume philosify books that either support or deny the meaning of the above phrase)
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Azreal
Chief Marshal
Joined: March 14, 2004
Posts: 2816
From: United State of Texas, Houston
| Posted: 2012-02-22 23:58
Biggest reason Mv planets suck from what I have seen is the lack of desire to take scrap losses to rebuild the screwed up planets. Wrong tier def/off bases,bios,excess domes etc. But this game feels the need to punish people for playing, so I don't expect much to change. And upgrading a structure is absolutely the most worthless feature now because you actually lose pres most of the time doing an upgrade.
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Hakketak
Grand Admiral
Joined: March 24, 2009
Posts: 301
| Posted: 2012-02-23 16:31
i do agree with the main thought of the thread, that is think of the purpose of a planet before building it. Just moslty there is just enough time to quick fix a planet, instead of properly building it.
also i agree that losing pres for fixing a planet can deter some people from doing so...
why was it implemented? to make it less interesting for people to perform scorched earth (delete planet structures before capture). is there any better idea to prevent this?
a timer that checks if planet gets attacked next 10 minutes, and if it does your pres buildt up in negative pres temp bank gets substracted from ur real pres, wont help because that will allow ppl to make planets get scrapped then ppl switch sides to attack that planet. if they just wait couple of minutes no penalty befalls on them.
I'd say prevent scorched earth in total. put a timer on the number of structures that can be deleted , and put a limit per day. make it like a blockade thing, just it blockades new engineer input. O wait i can see other ways to pull one's leg alrdy...
unless someone comes up with a magical good idea, current pres loss system is best to prevent scorched earth.
A lot of people stopped building properly because next day planet looks a lot different, not only in front line. I think it would be good to have a planet history tab, to see who damaged, dropped or altered the planet, ai may or may not be exluded. This way it would be easier for people to /report ppl in case something wrong, also it would be easier to communicate with other ppl who seem to have rebuild the planet to make a plan for a planet and keep it that way, instead of 3 people changing the same planet every day.
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Kenny_Naboo
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: January 11, 2010
Posts: 3823
From: LobsterTown
| Posted: 2012-02-23 19:32
I got a better idea. How abt setting the pres/construction points loss to zero once
- planet control falls under 30% or
- enemy inf outnumber yours
Tt shd preserve scorched earth tactics while penalizing saboteurs.
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Blackjack [DBL]
Grand Admiral
Faster than Light
Joined: February 25, 2011
Posts: 344
From: The land of venomous reptiles.
| Posted: 2012-02-23 21:01
Quote:
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On 2012-02-23 19:32, Kenny_Naboo[+R] wrote:
I got a better idea. How abt setting the pres/construction points loss to zero once
- planet control falls under 30% or
- enemy inf outnumber yours
Tt shd preserve scorched earth tactics while penalizing saboteurs.
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This would work for all but the high ranking guys who have so much pres and build points they could afford the penalty.
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Bardiche
Chief Marshal
Joined: November 16, 2006
Posts: 1247
| Posted: 2012-02-23 21:27
This is Tactics & New Players. General Discussion and Developer Feedback are over thatta way. If you comment, comment on general construction ideals, rather than game elements. Thank you.
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Hakketak
Grand Admiral
Joined: March 24, 2009
Posts: 301
| Posted: 2012-02-24 03:50
wopsydaisy
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DiepLuc
Chief Marshal
Joined: March 23, 2010
Posts: 1187
| Posted: 2012-02-24 07:26
Quick reminder for new players:
- Never build offense base tier II.
- Don't build mantles. If you want to have a rapid-producingr-resource planet, build deep core and factory with the number of deep core mine equal as factories'
- Don't build/keep shield on planet with shipyard.
- For planet sake, you can have population/food more than required workers, i.g a planet needs 51 workers, then have 70 population with 3 automated farm. But make use every power you give to the planet, ig. the planet needs 177 power, then give it 2 power generator tier III, 1 tier II and 1 tier I to have 180 power.
- Have more barracks than defense base.
- Have interdictor, depot & starport on all planets. The starport calls for AI transports, which act as mobile PD for planet.
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zombat87
Admiral
Joined: March 23, 2008
Posts: 13
| Posted: 2012-02-24 07:33
How exactly do factories work anyway?
Is it just simple case of:
Resource gain = (Mining * Production)?
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