MOO Bugs

[Ozymandous]

Thought I'd start this so we can list the known isues and bugs in the game for easy reference, and to let those who may not have played the game extensively know what to look out for.

1. 300 pop planet bug:
- This occurs when you have a planet that will max out at 300 population and you select 'yes' for any of the 'increase planetary spending by X%" buttons once a tech is discovered.
- The planet spending slider will NOT change once the planet's size is increased, so must be changed manually or else you will potentially waste hundreds or thousands of credits worth of production.
- Typically occurs if you capture Orion and have the "Complete Terraforming" and "Advanced Soil Enrichment" technologies.

[DaveV]

2. Some strange Planetology techs are displayed on the Race Report screen (Improved Terraforming Environ, Death Environment, or Improved Eco Environment, for example).

3. If one of the space monsters (Crystal or Amoeba) attacks Orion when you own it, you will have to fight against the Guardian again instead of the monster. Whether you beat the Guardian in this bogus combat or not, the monster will slag the planet.

[barron of ideas]

Among the more frustrating events is when the pirates event (that cuts down on trade until they are eliminated) happens on Orion before the guardian is eliminated. Wasn't much point trading as 100% of the trade was taken by pirates. Wonder how they paid off the Guardian?

When the amoeba or chrystal strikes it will kill I believe 5 planets. If you have places for population to go you can send it off the target planet in waves of 50%. It takes something like 5000 hit points to kill a monster so during most of the game you can't fight it off, even with lots of missle bases. You can resettle the radiated hulks it leaves if you have the tech, and I have, and it comes back for them, so you can lose only 2 planets if luck is with you the first one it hits, the second and then it can bounce between the 2 population radiated 10 pop planets it left until it gets tired/reaches the number of planets it needs to devastate. I think it goes for the closest planet, so if you rebuild on one it hit before, it is likely to revisit it as it will be either the closest, or one of the closest.

You might be able to keep most of your population by forming a flying circus sending poplulation to say Mentar, and then Mentar's population elsewhere as the Monster's target planet's population arrives. Its like juggling, only you keep transports full of population in space until they have somewhere to land with room. Better than letting them all die in monster attacks, and if you get the planets back after the monster leaves, you can resettle them where they originally came from, after terraforming gets the poplulation max up (over 10.) Can you sell back to the bank the factories you built before the monsters attack? I don't think factories survive a monster attack. Might pay to sell the missle bases too, if they will contribute to the pool.

One of the worst things about the monster is that it is so slow. killing 5 planets takes an excrusiatingly long time, if all 5 are yours.

[Zed-F]

I've never found the Amoeba that difficult to kill, if you have decent missile launchers and a reasonable numebr of bases. The Crystal is a lot tougher as it has a lightning field; you really need a fleet of beamers to take it down effectively.

[Sirian]

The Amoeba has advanced damage control. You can't do squat to it unless you can do more than X damage per combat round. The Crystal has a lightning field and a shield, but no repair. You can take it down with higher level missile tech and enough bases. The monsters move slowly, so there's time to see where they are going and build up lots of bases, unless they just come out too early (rarely seen that). Advanced Scatter Packs will chew through both monsters.

- Sirian

[Zed-F]

For the Amoeba, you just need enough bases with a decent missile to do enough damage to kill it in one or a small number of shots. With Stingers or Scatter Pack V, you will need quite a few bases (probably several dozen) to beat it, with better missiles needing fewer bases. With Scatter Pack VII, 20-30 bases should be ample, depending on difficulty level and your battle computer tech. If you're fortunate enough to have Scatter Pack X, you'll be laughing.

For the Crystal, you can do it with bases, but you'd better have some really strong missile tech and TONS of bases, or else Scatter Pack X. Even Hercular and Scatter Pack VII missles won't make much of a dent in it unless you have a huge number of bases. I'm not sure about Zeon, as I rarely see the tech, but Scatter Pack X will work, as the missiles are high enough tech to have a decent chance of penetrating the lightning shield, and will do respectable damage for each missile that does make it. Otherwise, bring a beam fleet.

If you get the idea that Scatter Pack X is uber, you're right... at least until the enemy gets to the top of the force field tree and researches class XV shields for his ships...

[Ozymandous]

So why not just kill the thing with a fleet of space ships and be done with it without losing even one planet?

[Zed-F]

That would be the idea, assuming you have such a fleet handy...

Building a fleet large enough to take on either of these is not necessarily a trivial exercise, of course, depending on what tech you have available when the event pops.

[Caesar_Augustus]

Can anyone explain the Spending Costs for Ships in the below screenie? Is it a well known bug?


Also, seems like a good a place as any to ask a n00b question - what is the best weapon to put on a huge ship in order to eliminate fighter SODs? Black Hole Generator? Stream Projector? 99 Tachyon Beams? Or should I build my own 32,000 figher SOD?

[Zed-F]

Hmm, well I rarely have to deal with the negative fleet bug, so I can give the theory but not back it up with experience.

The big danger with superhuge fighter SoDs is if they mount bombs. If they are a beam-based attacker, they might be a pain for your fleet, but probably won't be a problem for your shielded planets.

Tachyon streams, autofire weapons, and scatter packs are all somewhat viable options, but less than ideal. It is possible to kill these things with straight firepower, but it may take some time. Ion stream projectors will speed this up some in the case of tachyon beams, but probably not a huge amount.

You might find designs equipped with appropriate specials works better. A stack of pulsar-equipped ships is a good option -- but you will liekly want a lot of them, especially if you also have to deal with enemy medium ships. Note that by the time the negative fleet bug is likely to crop up, you can probably fit a pulsar on a medium hull, so it's not too hard to build a whack of them. An escort equipped with ion stream projectors does go well with a stack of pulsar ships but isn't really needed, depending on how many pulsar ships you have.

Black Hole generators will work well, but here you don't want a lot in one stack, but several different designs working together, each equipped with a BHG. That way you can have several BHG attacks per turn. Similarly, if you have multiple stacks with stasis field generators in your fleet, you can freeze a stack or two indefinitely and slowly whittle it down.

A lower-tech solution is the good old repulsor beam. Smalls rarely mount weapons with more than one space range. This will keep them away from your ships and, if your ships are deployed around your planet, that too. This is my most common approach if I have the tech available, as my games usually end before stuff like stasis fields and BHGs are available. Similarly, if the enemy fleets are slow enough to start with, Warp Dissipators can prevent them from ever getting to your planet. In both of these cases, you will probably want more than one design, each with the relevant tech, working together.