The perpetual noooob player here aksing another dumb question...
I am playing a 8 player FFA (AI). Based on my intel the game is now down to 3 forces remaining. I am battling with a TEC faction (TEC vs. TEC) and the enemy fleet is using the sabotage reactor special ability (light frigate - "Game Description: Destabilizes the target with a bolt of energy, causing it to take damage when abilities are used. When such damage is taken, the target cannot use abilities for a brief time.") to drain antimatter and frustrating my attempts to destroy their fleet. the enemy appears to have about 10 colbalts in his fleet and is able to use this special ability over and over.
Is there any good counter(s) to these special ability? stay out of enemy frigate range? jump ships in to avoid effect? I read TFM and searched this site for help, but my search-fu has failed me...
thanks in advance.
what, you mean someone figured out how to use a LF properly?
well just build some LRFs which counter (and have superior range) LFs
yes, the AI seems to use this special ability quite well!
OK, good idea! I have LRFs in my fleet but they are being effected by the enemy frigates sabotage reactor. I will split off my LRFs from my main fleet and try to keep them out of range of enemy frigates (my first targets will be these enemy frigates).
You don't necessarily need to split them off and move them out of range. Any appreciable amount of lrf will cut through the LF like butter. You could even have less lrf thank he has cobalts and still come out on top. The lrf will even target the LF first if left to their own devices but you should target them yourself if they give you so much trouble. Sabotage is really only useful against carrier cruisers and support cruisers to get rid of AM.
[_]-Greyfox
As has already been mentioned, Cobalts just melt to LRF. Against only ten of them, it should take no more than fifteen seconds or so to clear them out. In the meantime, just keep your hoshikos turned off and then once the coast is clear turn them back on. If anything, this ability is a little weak since any late game battle is just littered with LRF, so cobalts never live long enough to really wear down enemy support cruisers.
OK sounds good. I have all of my ships (including about 20 LRFs) in one fleet and the entire fleet is being disrupted by the enemy light frigates. The enemy AI cycles through his light frigates one after the other using the sabotage reactor ability. Once the ability times out the next enemy frigate uses it's sabotage reactor ability. It sounds like a just need some distance between my LRFs and enemy light frigates.
I will try the "loose" fleet formation first and see how that works. If it does not keep my LRFs out of the range of enemy frigates then I will break off my LRFs from the main fleet and try to catch and wipe out the enemy frigates.
thanks!
Cobalts don't affect LRF, their ability only works on antimatter units. Get the LRF right up there and take them out quickly if they're really an issue.
What you need to keep out of Cobalt range are Percherons, Hoshikoes, and Cieloes.
-Twilight Storm
really? wow! then I do need to split the LRFs off from my main fleet. When I select the fleet (including LRFs) to fire on a particular ship I get the red X saying "target is invulnerable." D'oh! I am a stoooopid SOASE tactician! LOL
thanks for teh info!!
Invulnerable?
Let me clarify. SABOTAGE REACTOR does not affect Long Range Frigates, it only affects units with Antimatter. The red X would in this case say something like "Target must have antimatter"
Cobalt laser weapons will hurt LRF, but LRF will hurt them back much much worse. 1v1, LRF will win.
A mere 20 will be more than sufficient for cleaning up cobalts, but you want more for firepower purposes. As you start to get above 50, you can simply aim your LRF at a capital ship in range and it will die. Human players learn to stay away from such large swarms of LRF, but AI's will just lose their capital ships over and over again to this mature fleet because they don't know better and keep getting too close.
Maybe I am seeing some other special ability in the game? For whatever this is it shows a whitish rotating disk below my ships and facilities. This disk appears to have a "peace sign" in the center and white shafts of light eminating from the center of the disk while it is rotating. If you click on a ship or facility is says sumfink like..
lost abilities
no antimatter
This is affecting all of my ships and facilities (including LRFs).
If you select the attack button for any warships when they showing this disk and place it on an enemy target it will show up as a Red X and will say somthing like "invulnerable"
I will try the latest idea of cranking out more LRFs with the hope that some of them are not affected by this mystery TEC special ability (since you state this cannot be sabotage reactor since it would have no effect on LRFs)
Sounds like the enemy fleet had a level 6 Akkan using Armistice then, that's the only ability I can think of that makes units invulnerable(For TEC, Anyway)
That's Armistice, the special ability of the Akkan battlecruiser (level 6+). All frigates and cruisers nearby become invulnerable and cannot attack or use special abilities for the duration. This applies to the enemy, as well, so if you don't apply it at the right time it doesn't do that much.
Once it wears off, just focus on the Akkan and bring it down.
haha... does the ai have 3 lv 6 akkans? bwahahaha!
cant touch dis! (literally)
Never seen it happen in practice, but in theory wouldn't it be completely impossible to win the game if the Akkans kept guard of a planet?
will happen occasionally with the DS mod (we give access to capital ship level by 3 pts to get a cap to level 6, current AI makes great use of it)
OK! So sorry for my ignorance!
Yes, the AI has at least 2 Akkans (It is late in the game so I expect they are >level 6). The AI uses one akken to activiate Amistice. When the special ability wears off the other Akkan(s) activate their Armistice...repeat, repeat repeat. My s
hips are only available to fire for a few seconds between each armistice activation.AI may be using this in cooordination with the light frigates to drain antimatter?
I keep seeing three effects:
Invulnerable, No antimatter available, weapons disabled
Unless the cobalts are firing between Armistices, then they aren't to blame. Is there perhaps a Dunov Battlecruiser in that Grav well also? They can drain antimatter and shields as well with EMP(I think...Been a while since I've used one) Also, you're probably using abilities between armistices yourself, so maybe it's a combination of the two draining your AM reserves?
Special abilities are disabled while under the effect of armistice, whether you have antimatter to use them or not.
I don't know how you'd deal with two level 6 Akkans (I have never seen this happen before, though as I mentioned in theory this could stalemate the game permanently. Now, he would need three Akkans to do this, since armistice has a duration of one minute and a cooldown of three minutes.
Not quite Stalemate, but close enough that it wouldn't matter, and you'd have to be Vasari late game to counter it. Drop a scout into their grav well, and pummel it with kostura after kostura, hope for the best.(Very situational counter)
In all likelihood, the 3 wouldn't be an uber problem anyway since they can't attack either and would only chain it like that to bring in reinforcements or retreat.
With 3 Akkans all with Armistice, they can chain it and since they are all invulnerable your Kostura would have no affect on them or any other ship around them. Your only way to break the chain is hope they run out AM. If they are in their own culture then forget it. You could get lucky and interupt one in inbetween armistice but the chance of that come down to luck and lag.
I doubt you see 3 lvl 6+ Akkans in non modded SINS. But its a main stay for me during game I play with mods. Just not for the Armistice, lvl 3 Ion bolts and targeting uplink. LOL, having several Akkans with Ion bolt is fun to use. You can just about take 1 cap out of the game forever. Always fun to use against the Advent who need their motherships.
I was actually refering to some semblance of surprise. Chances are if they have 3 akkans and aren't attacking you, they're on their way or building reinforcements. ANd not many players I know will follow their fleet 6+ grav wells without zooming out and doing something else till they get there.
But no, as I stated, this is not a very effective counter, it's just your only shot. But its mere existance makes the word stalemate inaccurate.
That's why I usually have 2 or 3 Progenitors in the late game. Progenitors are too easy to pick off in the late game given how critical they are to your fleet's survival. The way to handle this is to build multiple redundant Progens, so if one dies the others are still healing. The upside of this is that if any reach level 6, you can start using ressurrection, effectively making it futile to go after your caps. It's a hard combo to get rolling, but if the game has already gone on that late you should definitely pursue it. Particularly against Vasari, you need to end the game before Kosturas come into play in significant numbers.
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