Quick question on PBs

[Sprayber]

Which factions are likly to use planet busters once they get them? I know Yang has used them on me before. When I see factions building them, my first reaction is to go in and eleminate them before they are finished. I guess the question is, once finished are they likly to be used?

Reason I ask is that sometimes I see factions building them when currently they aren't involved in a war.
[This message has been edited by Sprayber (edited January 12, 2001).]

[RedFred]

Any faction will launch PBs, but in my games at least, Yang is the most likely culprit.

Whether any AI faction will send a PB at you partly depends on your reputation. Stay noble and you with have less worries. Often it will take me a while to destroy the AI enemy PBs, but I seldom get one launched against me. I admit to never building PBs in single play, so it is possible that the AI faction feels less threatened by me.

[Googlie]

quote: Originally posted by RedFred on 01-12-2001 01:07 PM I admit to never building PBs in single play

............... and I'm in how many PBEM's with you???



G.

[Sindai]

Actually, I find that EVERY faction will build a PB as soon as the tech is available, regardless of their agression rating and reactor types available. Of course, considering the time involved in making them, the AI can only very rarely keep it's base focused on one long enough to complete it, it tends to change production before they finish....

[Myronides]

The Spartans used one on me as soon as they finished building it (and destroyed a base of mine with 2 SPs). I never let sauch a thing happen again. Whenever I notice any faction not pacted with me building planet busters, I do my best to conquer or mind-control the bases wich build them, unless I have a sufficient number of Orbital Defence Pods.

[Skanderbeg]

All factions will build a PB if they have the tech to do it.
But they will normally not use them until there is a "reason" to do that.
If You have a PB yourself, and a noble reputation, You will have a "nuclear patt", and the AI will not launch its PB, even if you are going to take their last bases.
But, if ANY factions launches a PB, all the AI factions will push the red buttons against their enemies.
And, if You have done atrocities to a faction, or a bad reputation, this will give the AI the reason to push the red button. Interesting in this case: Gassing the Aliens (and even genetic warfare) against the Aliens is no atrocity, and because of this, if Your reputation is noble, You can be gas the Aliens and they will not launch their PB. In one of my last games, Marr built a PB (I had built two or three), and didn't use it, although I was gassing all his bases. Finally, I destroyed the PB in one of his last remaining bases.
On the other hand, the Aliens hate the other Alien so much that they like to PB each other, and that can give the human AI faction the reason to launch.

I normally play blind research, and doing this, flechettes and defense orbs come very late in the game.
Because of this, there is only one method to protect yourself: Make your empire so strong and big, that your core bases (especially those with the SP's) are so far away from your enemy that they are out of range of your enemies PB's. Let them destroy one (or even more) of your outer bases. That will hurt You, but it will not kill You. And then pay back and PB his best bases.

[mark13]

Skanderberg,

I remember vividly playing a game as Lal on the huge map of planet - noble reputation, and Yang PBed one of my size 16 bases. The bastard.

This is, however, the only time I have ever seen an AI faction PB me - I usually manage to keep my reputation noble.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Dedrie of all people was the only one to get a PB off the ground at me. I ruthlessly maintain an antinuke policy probe teaming and counquering any AI than tries to build them. My rep was noble but dedrie lanch one as I closed in on her base where it was stashed; it did make past the hunter killer sats.

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Gaius Mucius Scaevola Sinistra
Pontificator Pendanticus
older richer & wiser than you

[karu-san]

Actually, I got hit by Deidre too. Apparently in direct condradiction to her pacifistic ways, she PB'd one of her own bases that I had just conquered and massed troops. Which leads me to question my assumption that the AI is much less likely to PB one of their own, recently lost bases. It was smack in the middle of her territory, too. I suspect that the AI formula for PBering a base never really yeilds a zero likelyhood for anybase, anytime.

Additionally, I am keen to keep an eye on all PB activity and I too maintained a swarm of probe teams knocking out all PB activity in her bases, but apparently she switched prod. after my turn and then rushed it. I AM SURE that during my turn she didn't have any PB in prod. I double checked with the auto save. Does anyone else have experience with the AI being so sneaky, so damned intent to nuke?

[D4everman]

I think the AI will nuke you depending on how desperate it is and of course what faction. And for me it was that evil bastard YANG.

I was playing the PK's and early in the game Yang declared a vendetta. He was on the other side of the world though, so he was really no problem. Every twenty turns or so he'd land two guys on my coast, I'd kill them, sink the transport and go on as usual. My usual plan with Yang in a situation like that is to build soldiers and tanks with the best armor and weapons and equip them with drop pods. By mid to late game I usually have whole bunch of bases to do this. Then build the Space elevator and drop everyone right into his territory in one turn. It always works. Yang got desperate and launched 2 busters at me though. The first was knocked down by an odp the second one hit my base with the VW in it though. YOWZA! Drone riots out of the yazoo!

Nowadays I build at least two ODP's for every base.

D4

[cbn]

I've never been PB'd but I have seen the AI build them. In each game it happened when I was unsurpassed and had at least a 12 square buffer zone from my core to the nearest AI base. In a couple of cases I won the game before the buster was built. Other than that only the Spartans were successful in building a buster (they built 2 in a single game). But our empires were worlds apart so the Spartans could not reach me without an infinite range cheat.

I ended up waiting until the Spartans moved the PBs to closer bases (still out of range of all but my fringe seabeases) and used a submissive's base as a launching point for my suicide chopper attacks. No more PBs. the Spartans immediately started another so I chop dropped them into extinction.

I have also witnessed Domai as a submissive building PBs in the later stages of a game. -- Don't know who they were intended for . . .

I do feel that I will get bustered sooner or later since the tech for ODPs seems so very far from that for busters. On the flip side I have only built busters twice -- once in the above game as a hedge against the spartans (didn't use it) and once in a very early game just to see what happened.

[Skanderbeg]

quote: Originally posted by mark13 on 01-15-2001 05:03 PM Skanderberg, I remember vividly playing a game as Lal on the huge map of planet - noble reputation, and Yang PBed one of my size 16 bases. The bastard. This is, however, the only time I have ever seen an AI faction PB me - I usually manage to keep my reputation noble.

Did You have a PB yourself to get a "nuclear patt"?

[Solver]

I do see the others AI building PBs often, but they rarely get to complete them.
I have been PBed 3 times:
First was Yang, wiping a base close to him, that I used to kepp my Gas Choppers in there. Second was Deirdre, simply wiping a big good base. Third was Santaigo, but her attempt didn't suceed because of my Orbital Defense Pods.

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Solver - http://www.aok.20m.com

[mark13]

Skand,

I can't recall that I did, to be honest....that is probably why he PBed me in the first place. Still, needless to say I went gas-happy after that...

[Hydro]

Sprayber,

I've been PBed a couple of times (Yang, Miriam, and Lal). In each case the AI targeted a city with lots of troops in it. Each was targeted on a recently captured base, since these generally have the largest mass of threatening troops.

Hydro

P.S. - The game with Miriam was memorable. She was allied with Zak ::shudder::, who was adjacent to me in the Monsoon Jungle and very big. The bastard gave her all of his tech, and I had Miriam's shard fusion needles by the dozens coming after me (Zak was 'neutral', but Miriam used his bases to strafe me - the bastard!). Finally, the AIs ALL voted to remove the charter and overrode my veto. Now the AIs started gassing each other (Morgan went down first, the fool, to Miriam). I came close to using nerve gas and PBs, but never did - I role play the Gaians, of course. I bribed the Charter back up. As I invaded former Morgan territory (in Miriam's loving hands) she PBed an advance base. Zak declared vendetta on Miriam and PBed her in retaliation. Two more nukes from Miriam against me in her own territory and her land was a page out of Dante.

[Jasonian]

I've only been PBed twice, and both times Lal shot me!

The first time I got PBed was when I had just got the game and had no clue what PBs did. I used one against Sparta Command, and my jaw just hit the floor... which is where it stayed since my fleet base was struck by a PB within the next 10 seconds!

The second time I was hit... Lal attacked me, for no apparent reason! I hadn't even been in a war with him, and he was friendly with me! Out of the blue... BOOM!

[uptons]

A Tale of two Busters:

I am a great lover of Planet Busters. No matter which faction I play, I always make Orbital Spaceflight a priority. Then I devote one secure base to prototyping a Fusion Planet Buster. In my current game as Gaians, I at one point had 5(!) Fusion PBs built. The other factions were all over each other and never had the patience to complete their own nukes, relying on the U.N. Charter to cover their asses while I was stockpiling my arsenal. Then I worked to bribe some of them into repealing it. With my submissive Santiago voting along, I managed to repeal the Charter, and as I was Governor, I could block all Morgan/Lal/Zakharov effort to re-instate it. I then built one additional Buster and gave it to the Spartans. They used it in the following nuclear combat with the Peacekeepers and University (I, with my 2nd PB managed to destroy a whopping three pop11+ University bases in the Garland Crater). Lal then managed to combine forces with everyone else (!) against me, and since he was still strong after my hammering, managed to build a PB of his own. He tried to use it against the Monsoon Jungle, but I managed to sacrifice my lone ODP to stop it. That's the biggest buster fun I've had!