Area Weapons Question

[WoodMan]

Hey guys,

Do area weapons still kill your own stuff? I never research them, ever, because I seem to remember everyone saying they are suicide weapons.

But I just found the ancient ruin with the super area weapon and as I play on automatic ship design its now fitted on all my large ships and all my defensive bases and spaceports. Whats going to happen if my planet gets attacked will the spaceport and 4 defense bases all fire off their area weapons and destroy each other?

[:-]

Something needs to be done if they weren't already fixed, because now it sort of feels like game over, because I play on auto ship design and discovered an area weapon [:(]

[WoodMan]

Anyone can explain how they work?  I've never used them.  Do you have to give an order or is there no way to prevent them firing? (I'm at war so I don't want to load my game until I know whats going to happen) [:D]

[J HG T]

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think they still damage your own ships. At least I saw AI empires defence platforms damaging their transports while I spied a war between two rival empires.

One possible solution could be to remove friendly fire for area weapons and rebalance the stats to avoid "vertix-spam". I'm personally leaning towards this.

Other idea I thought about is to make friendly fire damage reduction upgrade available for each of the area weapons.

Simply removing the friendly fire and not touching the stats would be the most simple way to fix this, but it would probably allow using of the forementioned vertix-spam tactic.

[WoodMan]

Adding a fire area weapon button to the UI would also be acceptable, as long as the AI could understand how to use it (not when friendly ships are in range).

Edit: Suggest this is moved to the tech forum, honestly this is the only time I've ever decided to quit playing since I bought DW, so its got to be worse than any issue I've encountered before [:D]

I don't want to load my save until I know I'm not going to destroy all my own fleets and defences at the first sign of an enemy vessel.

[Cauldyth]

Hmm, would be nice to be able to flag components as "Do Not Use" for the automated ship design. Sort of the component equivalent of the request for quarantining systems. [;)]

[ASHBERY76]

Are you sure they hit friendly ships? I do not think so.

[Okim]

They do. Watched for myself how defending colony with a spaceport and 3 defence platforms devastated the whole fleet of freighters while fending off my tiny raiding fleet. However AI seems to handle pretty well positioning of those defence bases as no one actually hit any other by thier area weapons. And who actually carries about some old-fashioned private crap which turned out to be in wrong place in wrong time?

[WoodMan]

And who actually carries about some old-fashioned private crap which turned out to be in wrong place in wrong time?

You could inadvertently start a war by killing freighters of another Empire.

Here is a before and after shot, this super area weapon is a game breaker for sure. You can not use it unless your ship or base is alone, it is so powerful. Its game over or switch to manual ship/base design, something I'm not interesting in doing.

Friendly fire needs to be turned off on these and perhaps a slower rate of fire to prevent exploitation, or something else needs to be done to prevent these suicide weapons, the AI would obviously kill itself given this weapon for a start.

[Grisha]

You could limit them to freighters and exploration vessels. These ships are the ones who usually get caught alone. Especially exploration.

[WoodMan]

ORIGINAL: Grisha

You could limit them to freighters and exploration vessels. These ships are the ones who usually get caught alone. Especially exploration.

But you miss my point, I play with Ship Design on auto, as do all the AI Empires.

[Gray Death]

I never let the ai design my ships, they are not very good in my opinion.

But the area weapons are really useless for common fighting and the ai should be tweaked to use it not on spaceports.

OT:

I traded the super area weapon to some of the ai empires, so far no problem. Meaning, no wars in the galaxy. [:D] 

But this game runs a bit too calm, all empires with good rep and only 1 single empire at war every few years. I thought the spreading of the devastation pulse would instigate wars, but no...
Settings are 10x10 galaxy and 700 stars, ai on hard and aggresivity on restless.

I give the devastation pulse a prototype run against the legendary pirate base, I´m quite curious about the result. The prototype is a size 500 capital ship with good amounts of megatron z4 shields and enhanced armor.

[Fideach]

Area weapons do damage friendly and neutral targets. Computer uses them on there defense bases a lot and helps me wipe out there own fleets when I attack them often enough lol.

I only research them for the EMP Area Blast weapon. Add enough EMP defense to all your ship designs, and you wont have to worry about disabling your own ships.

[balto]

Woodman, Hi.

I know you do not like designing ships/ports. Because you have found this wonderful gift, how about just this once you go into the Designer and remove the Area Weapons from the Defensive bases and break up all your Fleets and have all Military craft on independent status. If that Area Weapon is as powerful as you imply it is, those Defensive Bases may be expendable. Then maybe you could post on how that wonderful weapon did. I would love some feedback on what that thing can do. I wish I had that thing. I had the Death Ray once and I never re-found it.., damn I wish I could find that again after all I have learned since then!!!

With that said, I goofed around with Area Weapons a lot. At first, I put them on all my lone (non-Fleet) warships that were on Auto Patrol around my empire. Then I was like, "man, I am going to put these on Constructors and blow all the attackers up with private financing..," all that kind of stuff. Personally I found that Area Weapons are not worth the Research, the Size, the Energy, the collateral damage, etc.., It is ALWAYS better to invest in basically everything Except Area weapons.

But you said you found a special super-powerful Area Weapon. I wish I had that, that is something maybe you could play with and possibly cherish, maybe even redesign your whole approach.

Can you tell me how much power that takes, its size, and most of all, its attack rating, and range)?

[Gray Death]

Here the data to:

The Devastator Pulse

Size: 170
Damage: 1200
Range: 520
Energy used: 470
Speed: 125
Damage loss: 210 per 100
Fire Rate: 12 Sec.

[Gelatinous Cube]

As a fellow user of AI Ship Designs, I approve this message. As it is, I just stay away from the Super Area weapon tech. Period. I don't want to design all my ships, and furthermore what if I'm attacking along a several-sector front with dozens of fleets? Some of them HAVE to be automated, and if they have AI-Design and too much AoE? Buh-bye offensive.

That said, I'm expecting improvements on this front in the upcoming series of patches.

[Bison36]

I never even considered that my AI tech designer would utilize such an awesome weapon, which will no doubt be used at the most inopportune time by my AI fleet commanders. This is a good note to take: never develop area weapons unless designing my own ships.

[Gray Death]

A quick note for all'ya: You get the devastator pulse from ruins, so it may inevitably to get it, if you search those ruins...

[Gelatinous Cube]

ORIGINAL: Gray Carlyle

A quick note for all'ya: You get the devastator pulse from ruins, so it may inevitably to get it, if you search those ruins...

The ruins with the super-tech tend to keep the same names (I won't spoil it). If you really DON'T want a certain tech, you can choose not to investigate those ruins.

[Bison36]

Hmm...I seem to find fluffy at ruins and it scares me. However I always investigate because the temptation is too much to pass up.

[Gray Death]

As far as I know there are 3 superweapon techs to find. The super laser, the devastator pulse and the death ray.