Nebulas

[kjn]

With RBO 13, a question that has been nagging me for a time reared its head again: how do you determine if a planet is in a nebula?

If you're attacking it, you can check it from the combat screen (if either the opponent or you has shields somewhere, and you have a battle scanner), and you can keep track if a planetary shield gets built on a planet of your own, but is there any other reliable way? One usable for any planet you have scouted, before you are in combat?

[Sirian]

...is there any other reliable way? One usable for any planet you have scouted, before you are in combat?

Not that I know of.

It takes time to plan an attack, assemble your fleet. Worst case, you send a new scout (with shields). ... But really, the shieldless nebulae targets are so juicy (as are ultra poor planets with inadequate bases) that you should be eying them up early and often, and know long before crunch time exactly where they are.


- Sirian

[RefSteel]

(Note: The images below are from an old challenge I played on the Civfanatics forums, but this applies in all cases I've ever encountered). No way I know of outside of "combat" ... but you don't actually need a scanner or shields (on either side) to find out. The difference is in the stars that make up the background for the battle. At a normal star, they're tinted blue, thus:



And in a nebula, they're tinted purple, thus:



This has the advantage of working even when it's just a Scout on Scout "battle." In any case, I hope it helps!

[Sirian]

What an excellent observation! Well done.