Planetary Defense Unit

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elvendeathknight
Posts: 84
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2012 3:58 pm

Planetary Defense Unit

Post by elvendeathknight »

Hi,

Is there a way to move a planetary defense unit from one planet to another of your own planet ? My troop ships are unable to load them. My ships had plenty of room and the unit was not garrisoned.

Thanks !
EuropaJupiter
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2018 6:33 pm

RE: Planetary Defense Unit

Post by EuropaJupiter »

Hi :)

While I am not sure about it, I think it is possible to load them from planet managment. If there are transports near planet, you can open planet view/managment/howeveritiscalled window and check troops tab. You will see there all troops that are on planet.

I think you can check them and there is option to LOAD them on nerby troop transport. Not sure if it works with PDF units, but worth a try. If not - than I have no idea if there is another way. Anyway, please, let me know if it works! :)
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Aeson
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RE: Planetary Defense Unit

Post by Aeson »

The first thing that I would check is that your planetary defense units (PDUs) are not garrisoned, because garrisoned units will not be picked up by transports.

If that isn't the problem, I'd next check that the transports have sufficient available capacity to load a PDU. Ground units cannot be split between transports and you need 100 capacity per unit of infantry or special forces*, 200 capacity per armored unit, and 400 capacity per PDU. If you have two PDUs and six infantry units that you want to move and you have three 500-capacity transports with which to move them, you will only be able to do so in a single trip if no more than one of the transports picks up more than one infantry unit despite the three transports collectively having more than enough capacity to transport all eight units in a single trip. This tends to be more of an issue when picking up troops from multiple locations than when loading troops at a single point.

If that isn't the problem and you are using a fleet of ships, then the issue might be the fleet troop loadout, which by default is something like 25% infantry, 25% special forces, 50% armor, and 0% PDU. If you want to customize this, note that the percentages are percentages of troop-carrying capacity and not percentage of units actually carried, so the default ratio in practice works out to something like a 2:1:2:0 ratio of infantry, special forces, armor, and PDUs.*

*The game appears to reserve 200 transport capacity for each unit of special forces, but only 100 transport capacity is listed as being in use for each unit of special forces.
elvendeathknight
Posts: 84
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2012 3:58 pm

RE: Planetary Defense Unit

Post by elvendeathknight »

Thanks guys for the answers.

EuropaJupiter, I will try loading them from planet window in my next game. It was never a big issue in my last games, but I was wondering what I did wrong...

Aeson, thanks for the info. To be honest, I checked these (garrison, room on troop ship, fleet loadout), but I appreciate the information. I did not know about the game not listing correct capacity for special forces, so that’s good to know !
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Omnius
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RE: Planetary Defense Unit

Post by Omnius »

ArchMike,
Planetary Defense units are best built at their home planet because they give a defensive bonus for defending the planet they're built at. PDU's cost 400 transport capacity, so you need a transport or transports that total 400 or more capacity. A single transport won't get to that 400 point capacity until well into the research of transport tech.
RogerBacon
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RE: Planetary Defense Unit

Post by RogerBacon »

Am I the only one that thinks PDS's are worthless. They are big, expensive and have a poor combat capability. For their size I'd rather have two armor when attacking or 4 infantry when defending.
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Aeson
Posts: 786
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RE: Planetary Defense Unit

Post by Aeson »

ORIGINAL: RogerBacon

Am I the only one that thinks PDS's are worthless. They are big, expensive and have a poor combat capability. For their size I'd rather have two armor when attacking or 4 infantry when defending.
I don't think that they're worthless, exactly - their ability to damage or destroy invading units before they reach the ground can be useful - but I do think that they're too expensive and too specialized for widespread use or for inclusion in minor garrisons. If I have a world important enough to merit a big garrison or if I get very annoyed by pirate raids before getting planetary shields, I'll add a few PDUs into the mix, but for the most part my garrisons are just a handful of infantry units for dealing with minor pirate raids.
elvendeathknight
Posts: 84
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2012 3:58 pm

RE: Planetary Defense Unit

Post by elvendeathknight »

Also, their presence gives a +25 % (Defense Grid) to overall strength.

Still, they are best used when expecting an invasion.
EuropaJupiter
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2018 6:33 pm

RE: Planetary Defense Unit

Post by EuropaJupiter »

And I on other hand agree with RogerBacon.

For me they are worthless because I personally preffer to just throw soldiers at problem untill it is solved. Nothing better than Imperial Guard in action. PDF are too expensive for me to even consider. But again - that is my pesonal play-style. That is my personal opinion. What for my playstyle is worthless for somebody else it may be priceless.
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