naaah, it's not useless. When you have to jump across a system, your ships get locked down for a long time, sometimes even a few minutes. This upgrade seriously reduces the jump time and it's a really sensible bonus. I know it's not really important if your ship takes 10 seconds to jump instead of 6 or 15, but it becomes very crucial if you can reduce the time, during which your whole fleet is essentially useless, by a couple of minutes.

N3rull, are you sure you're not thinking of "Gravity Tolerance" (Level 5 Civic)?  The tech I was referring to is called "Enhanced Tunneling".  "Ships moving through phase lanes created by Phase Stabilizers travel more quickly."

I guess it might have some value if you use phase stabilizers to travel often, giving 20%, 40% speed increases.  It's pretty expensive though.

On a 1v1 map, I wouldn't touch it.  Of course, I very very rarely get this high in the tech tree in a 1v1 scenario.

In a team game, this is extremely important if you're doing phase stabilizer jumps across the solar system.  That extra speed means a lot on huge maps where a phase stabilizer short-cut (or back-world Kostura attack) could leave your fleet jumping for several minutes.

^^ What he said.
Sanchezz, there are things about this game that I don't know, but when it comes to Vasari - I can honestly say I know almost everything there is to know about them . I've never played anything else more than a dozen times. There is no way I can mistake a Vasari research .

This research is very good, but it is only good when you a] have a fleet to jump and b] have a large empire with outskirts connected by phase stabilizers.

Obviously, point a] is in outright conflict with the point of Returning Armada - you want to get RA to have moar fleet, but you need to make a double, very expensive research that is not useful for you until AFTER you've finished RA. That's why this chain should be broken.

OK, thanks for clearing that up, guys.  Next time I play Vasari in a game where I end up being very rich and have lots of phase stabilizers, I'll consider researching that.  I can see how it could be very useful.

You don't need lots of phase stabilizers. All you need is two frontlines some fifteen jumps apart, connected with two stabilizers. If you have to jump all the way across a huge system, it takes a couple of minutes, during which you can not do ANYTHING with your fleet. You can't stop it, return it to defend something else etc. That's what the enhanced tunneling does, it literally gives you your fleet a couple of minutes earlier. Very useful in certain endgame situations, just not if you're going for RA .

The way to use it is you set up a phase stabilizer on a dead asteroid (or some other planet) on the far side of the solar system.  This allows you to quickly redeploy your fleet to win a 2v1 battle quickly, then get back to defend yourself.  Obviously every second counds in a situation like this.

sorry to bump this but im just curious, how can one possibly think insurgency to be more underpowered than ra? it periodically spawns hcs, lrms, and siege frigates at -all- your planets, it can be extremely annoying to deal with especially if your fleet is away or in a battle.

and whats wrong with the novalith? destruction of most planets with 2 shots and preventing colonization for some time is pretty good imo

better than the deliverance engine at least

The problem is that it's a double-edged sword.  If the enemy fleet is there defending, then killing these units is trivial and it can level up the enemy's capital ships.  If this is a long and drawn-out game, this can actually end up being an advantage to your opponent if you aren't careful.  That's why insurgency is generally considered a very questionable tech.

Annoying in the short-run, but in the long-run the enemy empire is going to need to starbase spam to defend against novaliths anyways at which point this ability is just a joke since it's no threat at all to a starbase.

 

The problem with the novalith is that starbases with the correct upgrade (auxiliary government for TEC, enduring devotion for Advent, and enforced loyalty for Vasari) can protect the planet.  The novalith blasts will still kill population, but the enemy will keep control of their planets.  The problem is that if you can afford a large number of Novaliths to deal serious damage, the enemy can afford a large number of starbases to protect against them.

The Advent deliverance engine gives your fleet extra punch in battle, allowing you to break stalemates and win the game.  The Novalith can deal economic damage to the enemy, but it won't weaken their defensive position, so long-run it's not nearly as devastating as it may appear.

 

Yea... gotta say Novalith has turned from best 'superweapon' to lamest in a heartbeat.

Pretty simple fix tho, have it destroy the planet even with the starbase upgrades. Dunno if its possible (probably not in a mod) but would certainly give this old dog some new teeth. 

but theres no way to tell which planet the novalith(s) is going to fire on, surely its not practical to put upgraded starbases at all or most planets? how would i sustain a fleet and research?

admittedly tec can stop novalith shots with planetary shields, but vs other factions isnt it fairly good to deny tax and force the opponent to redevelop every bombarded planet?

Depends on the kind of economy we're talking about. If you're fully developed, this isn't that hard.  If you aren't, you can still starbase your most important planets (like homeworld and front-lines) this late in the game.

Keep in mind that the enemy just sunk 16000 into superweapons to do this to you, so it's not like they're getting off cheap here either.

It's cheaper to starbase 'em before the novaliths start hitting then to redevelop them repeatedly. 

Well endgame (which is when novaliths appear) it is easy to wait five mins after the radiation 'cools' and then totally rebuild the planet infrastructure. You also didn't disrupt trade income which is the number one source of revenue. Sure if you 8-10 novaliths it is gg unless the enemies have SBs with the auxiliary govt or equivalent tech. But they don't need to cover all planets to be in business just some key ones. Knocking out a key planet with several frigate factories is nice but the other player can in principle try to adapt.

There is no adaptation for 11-12 synchronized Kostura cannons. Your defensive positions crumble. Your fleet dies. You die. Basically it is all over but the screaming. RA has some utility but since the cost is so high you are better served with even a few Kosturas and a larger fleet.

Stunning phasic traps is so key when you have to fight an Orkulus backed up by fleet. You time your shots, stun the grav well (like subverters covering hte whole grav well) until you can take out the key structures and kite the Orkulus. His fleet is standing there picking his nose while you have unraveled his fortifications. A single Kostujra shot or two in addition to your subverters and grvity warhead is also great at cutting off an enemy retreat which is really deadly imo. This doesn't even account for the shenanigans you can pull with an instant phase stabilizer node. Like jump behind lines, frag a planet, when pressed by a large defensive fleet just shoot again and jump back to one of your phase stabilizers. You can retreat easily since you just stun him when he shows his face. If the system is no longer hostile just scoot one system over and then do the trick. Voila! All you need to do is time it.

Now if deliverance engine stacked that would be pretty sweet. But it doesn't so it stinks.

Novalith is much better than you may think. It is not a fire-and-gg weapon like mass Kosturas (which can evaporate whole fleets if you have more than about 7 of them), but it is still helpful in later game.

First, it forces your enemy to spend 4.8k credits (+resources) at EACH AND EVERY PLANET OF HIS. You make two Novaliths for 16k creds and that forces your enemy's, say, 15-planet empire to plant starbases worth 15x4.8k = 72k credits. Ain't that a bargain?

Second, it frees up your fleet (supply) from having to do planet-killing. So you are attacking that frontline planet that is defended by a starbase anyway. You have your best-in-their-class HCs, Ogrovs and all the other toys to do the job. Once you deal with the starbase, you can move your fleet to attack another gravwell while the novaliths wipe the planet for you. No need to have a siege-specialized Marza hanging out and no need to waste resources and fleet supply on siege frigs. You just bam-bam, planet is ours for the taking... after a few minutes.

I will admit I have never been on the business end of a Novalith barrage. But as long as I SB my key worlds where I am producing ships why would I SB all my planets? I have a few efficiently placed colonizers and if I lose a couple planets to Novaliths I wait till the dust settles and recolonize. Yeah it sucks but I don't need to SB every world. Yeah I lose income but you won't be able to colonize due to culture. And most of my income is from trade anyways.

I am assuming I also have a fleet, right? Also that 72K could be better spent on more fleet or even Kosturas if I am Vasari. Now if you are dominating me in culture then yeah you can try to also grab the planets once the radiation dissipates. But you aren't Advent so I should be able to hold culture (unless you are spanking me down anyways and so what is the point of the Novaliths?). Of course if you have six or more Novaliths then yes I am screwed. But then what was I doing while all this was going on?

I am sure Novaliths are helpful especially during a stalemate. I can also see how it is a great prelude to a full invasion just like Kostura is a great icebreaker to jump into a hostile grav well. Like you said you don't need to specialize in planet busting because you have one with the Novaliths (you often need two close shots to humble a non-roid, right?) Personally though the game seems so nonlinear that even a slight advantage gets magnified quickly. I suppose in some cases the tipping point could be Novaliths but I suspect that there are a lot of different alternatives to also lead to victory.

Lets reverse it you take 3 Novaliths and I'll take 3 Kosturas. Which is better?

Again in full disclaimer I have never been hammered with either Novaliths or Kosturas whether by AI or human players. Any multiplayer game I have been in (not many I admit) is over before these items are reached. The exception was one team game where a pocket Vasari opponent said "I have Kosturas", took a couple of potshots and my team quit.

The only response is to counter-attack hard.  The kostura cannot target friendly planets, so your fleet is actually safe while on the offensive.  The problem is, you can't stop to colonize anything since this exposes you to Kostura attacks.

It's still very rare to turn this around, since an enemy who managed to put up Kosturas is probably tough enough to blunt such a brazen offensive.  

As for the novalith, no one's said it's worthless.  Just that it's very easily counterable.  The biggest problem I have with it is that if it goes super-late, Advent and Vasari just blow TEC out of the water military-wise, so they can afford to plot down a few starbases, let the game stalemate for another 30 minutes, then go for the kill with their superior late-game forces.

You don't have to SB every world to protect from Novaliths, just the Terran, Desert, and if you get around to it, Ice worlds.  Your late game economy won't even miss the loss of asteroids or volcanos, because the worlds themselves provide very little income, the benefit is in the orbital structures (which you have hopefully built out).  If the world is not frontline, you can also throw some trade or economic upgrades on a SB in addition to Auxiliary Govt and it will eventually pay you back the cost for building it if the game drags out.  As long as your crown jewel worlds are protected, the Novaliths are an annoyance that cause a small amount of economic damage and maybe halt local manufacturing.

Bottom line, Novaliths can be useful, but make sure there are worthwhile unprotected worlds to hit before you sink a lot of cash into them.