Vicious level is more like it! Novalith wtf?

from Sins Forums

I played both factions on normal AI just to get a feel for what was new and couldn't get the enemies to attack me or even expand their empires beyond 3 or so planets. I decided to give vicious a whirl with one star, 60ish planets and 8 AI players. Vicious is an accurate description. In my normal complacency I lost a planet very quickly.

There were Novalith cannons firing off rounds within about 15 minutes. Every 10 seconds you hear, "A power surge of great magnitude has been detected." It gets pretty old hearing that. 1 hour into the game and you can't hold a planet as the Novalith bombardment is insane. It looks like Novalith sperm squiggling all across the screen. 

A concern I had is that I agreed to a cease fire with a neighboring faction yet he kept Novalithing my ass. In the past you could not fire the Novalith cannon at friendly targets. 

14,451 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

A concern I had is that I agreed to a cease fire with a neighboring faction yet he kept Novalithing my ass. In the past you could not fire the Novalith cannon at friendly targets.
End of quote
This should indeed not be possible, I think the dev's are aware of it though. hopefully it will be fixed before the next update.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

With friends like these...

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

You, um, do realize that the Planet Shields protect you from Novalith damage, to the point where it takes 4 or so shots to kill off a planet.

Xer0 \^/

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Xer07, reply 3
You, um, do realize that the Planet Shields protect you from Novalith damage, to the point where it takes 4 or so shots to kill off a planet.
End of Xer07's quote

Starbases are even better, you won't lose the planet period. But both of those are too far up the tech tree for the first few minutes of the game.

The fleet AI for whatever reason is totally messed up in the beta. Hence the AI just slowly expands and novaliths its way to victory because thats the only competent thing it can do.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Ah, I see. I also failed to take into account that Novaliths put a cap on the max population per shot. I think 3 is all it takes to reduce a planet's population to 0 for a while..

Xer0 \^/

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Xer07, reply 5
Ah, I see. I also failed to take into account that Novaliths put a cap on the max population per shot. I think 3 is all it takes to reduce a planet's population to 0 for a while..
End of Xer07's quote

The 40% population and 100% trade penalty the novalith applies do not stack. The reason its powerful is because they last for half an hour, by far the longest duration in the game. Still, you won't be able to win a game with Novaliths alone.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

I had some of the same issues with the AI over using the Novaliths.  Yes, you can counter them with a Starbase and Aux govt. but it does get old after a while hearing the same comment over and over as they fire that thing at you.  I would prefer an option to disable super Weapons, if possible.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Building an anti-structure weapon with comparable range to the Novalith would also solve the problem - albeit you'd have to scout the planet to get the coordinates of the structure you wanted to target, so Novaliths placed far behind enemy lines would prove hard to reach.

 

As for Novaliths stacking, I havn't played SOASE in a looong time, and the latest version/expansion I own is Entrenchment. My experience regarding modern Sins protocol is, understandably, minimal. :grin:

Xer0 \^/

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Xer07, reply 8
Building an anti-structure weapon with comparable range to the Novalith would also solve the problem - albeit you'd have to scout the planet to get the coordinates of the structure you wanted to target, so Novaliths placed far behind enemy lines would prove hard to reach.
End of Xer07's quote

Kostura used to do that (maybe still does in Entrenchment). OP as heck.

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

[qupte]Kostura used to do that (maybe still does in Entrenchment). OP as heck.[/quote]

 

It just does a small amount of damage and a mass long term disable now. Still powerful but your not getting rid of a structure with them without a few dozen concentrating fire. Wheras even with sheilds i'm pretty sure you can still kill a  planet with Novaliths. You just need a lot.

 

Of course given how the AI's spamming them...

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting KarlBar99, reply 10
It just does a small amount of damage and a mass long term disable now. Still powerful but your not getting rid of a structure with them without a few dozen concentrating fire. Wheras even with sheilds i'm pretty sure you can still kill a planet with Novaliths. You just need a lot.
End of KarlBar99's quote

You're right, it used to damage ships too, now it just affects structures. Its still quite possible to get enough to wipe out a gravity well of structures though, and the point was just to show just how powerful the ability to snipe structures from across the map is.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Last I played in Entrenchment, it did NOT disable Starbases (Much to my dismay upon phase jumping there with an understrength fleet), and they disable all structures for about... 240 seconds or so, I think. So... you would honestly need 2 Kostura's for each 1 enemy Novalith, assuming 1 Novalith kills your planets off. 

Xer0 \^/

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Teun-A-Roonius, reply 1

quoting postA concern I had is that I agreed to a cease fire with a neighboring faction yet he kept Novalithing my ass. In the past you could not fire the Novalith cannon at friendly targets.This should indeed not be possible, I think the dev's are aware of it though. hopefully it will be fixed before the next update.
End of Teun-A-Roonius's quote

 

Are you sure that they didn't just fire those shots before the treaty? I seem to remember putting a bunch of Novalith cannons on autocast, only to find a loooong time later that planets I had since colonized in a far off system were getting hit by my own shots.

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

What cooljedidude said is most likely what happened. Even in diplomacy against 7 very hard (or whatever the hardest setting is called) so many super weapons on autocast would have shots flying all over. Many allies were hitting each others planets since shots were flying so far the planet would have changed allegiance or would already be empty, but lack of intel would keep the auto cast firing at it.

Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

To be honest I haven't experienced this problem myself. I was merely stating that a friendlyplayer should not be able to target other allies with any offensive weapon whatsoever.