Controlling amount of enemies at neutral planets?

Can you, if so how?

from Sins Forums
Sorry if this is a newbie question but I'm finding that when I start off all the planets surrounding my own have rather large forces guarding them. I'd like to be able to play/make a map where you can at least grab a couple of planets without any resistance. I think I've read somewhere about there being an option to turn on/off or control the strength of the neutral forces that are at un-colonized planets but I can't find anything, can anyone help? I'm playing on a map I created so if it is possible to edit this in Galaxy Forge I can do that.
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Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
All planets have a default template for the neutral forces that guard them. Generally, the better the planet type, the more powerful the neutral force will be.

Using Galaxy Forge, you can disable "Use Default Template" on a planet by planet basis. From there, you can create your own custom templates, to decide how you want the planet to be fortified.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Really they aren't hard to take - here are some tips-

Build your capital ship builder asap after you build your mining nodes.

Your first capital ship is free - build a colonizer

Build 3 fighters from your frigate factory

Send your capital ship to the close by planet first - that will make those small ships attack it, and not your weak fighters.

Then send in your fighters to support your capital ship.

That allows you to take out those small forces without losing anything.


Honestly it wouldn't help much to have those planets clear as they are usually ICE or FIRE based planets, so you need that skill to colonize them first. I like that they have guys on them because you usually gain a level or two on your capital ship. I like using a colonizer because it's faster than a migration ship for colonizing, it's free, and you get bombers / fighters as it levels up.

Hope this helps.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Pretty sure that if you pick Custom Map, there is a slider for each planet group that determines the average strength/number of neuts. Try setting it all the way down and see what happens?
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Richterm - Ah that must have been where I read about the option.

NapalmEnema - How many ships can the colonizer capital take on? I mean I'm seeing one of my adjacent planets having 5 light frigates, 3 LRM frigates, a heavy cruiser and a couple of others, I think seige frigates. If I sent it in first how much backup would you suppose I would need to make sure my capital doesn't die?

Bobucles - Thanks I'll take a look in galaxy forge and see if I can change them a bit.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Pretty sure that if you pick Custom Map, there is a slider for each planet group that determines the average strength/number of neuts. Try setting it all the way down and see what happens?
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Yes. This is good advice. you'll find this in in-game map designer.

All planets have a default template for the neutral forces that guard them. Generally, the better the planet type, the more powerful the neutral force will be. Using Galaxy Forge, you can disable "Use Default Template" on a planet by planet basis. From there, you can create your own custom templates, to decide how you want the planet to be fortified.
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This works too, although it takes a little bit of trial and error to get the right balance of neutral forces.

706, the two options above are the only two I'm aware of unless you want to be going into the .galaxy files and manually editing things in a text editor. It's much easier to use the in-game map designer or galaxy forge. In stock game maps, you shouldn't have much trouble taking on asteroids with a single capital ship. Start your fights there. Then build some more support units and keep them waiting until the capital ship can clear the asteroid. Then join the capital ship and your support ships together now to take on a neutral world with more hostiles. Remember to put your capital ship in the thick of the battle so that all gun ports can fire on something. Remember to keep an eye on it incase it's HP gets really low and it needs to retreat.

Personally, I use a single capital ship to clear the nearest asteroid of hostiles, send a colony ship if that capital ship can't colonize, and by the time that first capital ship comes back I've done built a second capital ship. You can interchange support ships or a second capital ship depending on how much income you've got and how experienced you become.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
I'd be interesting to see in an expansion or future patch a way to capture these planets that is non-violent. For example letting your culture wash over them until they decide to join you or bribing them into joining you. I'd also like to see the militia controlled planets be able to rebuild their ship yards and build up their strength over time so that there was a benefit to attacking them as soon as possible. Also it would be a cool map if 3 players started out behind a terran planet with a giant militia force that stopped them from expanding beyond it until they where able to defeat the militia. That way when each player /does/ get past that planet they will be powerful and a giant land grab phase could take place with large fleets instead of smaller ones.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
As militia will never follow your cap you can just destroy the 1-2 siege frigates then colonize the planet and retreat the Colony-Cap for repairs. That way another player trying to rush with a siege-frigate will have to handle the militia first :P