A few random questions from a beginner

from Sins Forums
Alright guys, I just have a few quick questions from those more experienced than me since I can't seem to grasp the concepts on my own =/.

Firstly: culture. Is this worth actually doing anything with? I ask because the first game I played, I set the AI on easy (so I could play around with stuff pretty much) and, of course, proceeded to rape it heartily. At one point, when I had pretty much won the game already, I decided to try this whole 'culture' thing. I was Advent, and I knew that they had the strongest culture, so I wanted to see what that was worth. I maxed out the slots of a planet near theirs with their culture building and maxed the research for their culture and...was very unimpressed. The little allegiance percentage thing ticked down extremely slow, even with everything maxed out, and only one of the three planets that my planet bordered was very close to their capitol planet. Frustrated, I researched and built a Deliverance engine and fired it at one of their planets and...nothing again. What exactly does the Deliverance Engine DO? Because I detected no change at all after that giant energy ball hit the planet's surface.

Another thing that I wonder about: fighters or bombers? So far, I haven't purchased a single fighter squadren because bombers seem to be incredibly powerful against everything, but I've seen a few people on this forum discussing strategy, and it is evident that going all bombers isn't the way to go. Why not, and what SHOULD I be doing with regard to that? Is there a rule of thumb?

That's all that I can really think about right now, though I'm sure there are more things I want advice on, heh. Any input on these topics is welcome and appreciated.
strategy
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Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Firstly: culture
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Culture is fairly subtle, and it's not meant as a brute force way to gain planets. Basically, Culture has these effects:

- It raises yours (or your allies') planet allegiance by 10% on any planet it affects. This means 10% extra income from the population and ore/crystal mines.
- It reduces enemy planet allegiance on planets it affects. This is harder to do because the enemy can combat with his own culture, but it's the backwards effect. His planets make less money, and if you manage to get a planet to 0% allegiance, it will rebel and turn neutral. This obviously starts taking long times the closer the planet is to the enemy's homeworld, but for vast empires with far reaching borders, the planets on the outskirts can only have 35% max allegiance (discounting an Advent tech).
- Each race gets a bonus in friendly culture. TEC have higher antimatter regen, Vasari get a damage bonus, and Advent get a shield mitigation bonus. This is added on with the culture research line, doesn't happen by default.

The Deliverance Engine shoots a massive amount of your culture anywhere - can be your planet or your enemy's. Because allegiance gain/loss has a cap, you would need to chain several shots of the Engine for your culture to last long enough to drop a planet to 0 allegiance, because the culture from the cannon decays. And, since you can shoot it at enemy planets, that means when you're fighting at one you can take away the enemy's culture bonus (really sucks for the Vasari), and you gain yours (yay!).

In essense, Culture is more of a support mechanic than a direct combat one. It's highly useful, and if you ignore it you can lose all your planets to it, but culture tug of wars take a while to "win".

Another thing that I wonder about: fighters or bombers?
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Fighters do incredible damage to long range frigates, siege frigates, and of course other fighters/bombers. Bombers do great damage to capitals, heavy cruisers, and structures, and "okay" damage to everything else, but a fighter squad will do quite a bit more against those LRFs and siege ships than bombers will.

In short, they're definitely very useful. The rule of thumb is adapt to your enemy, since you can change squads around on the fly. If you have to blast through some sticky defenses, or lots of heavy cruisers, bombers are the way to go. If your enemy likes massing LRFs or tries to siege raid, go for fighters.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Culture aids each race in a particular fashion in addition to the obvious influence aspect. TEC culture adds to antimatter regeneration iirc which helps when you are defending your own territory from attack. If you play AI on smaller maps, then I really wouldn't bother as it rarely if ever will alter the outcome of your game. In MP thats a different story as any edge you can get over a human opponent is a good thing.

Deliverance engine expands your sphere of influence allowing you to reap the benefit of your culture in opponent territory.

F/B issue again is a single player vs multiplayer thing. The AI as it stands uses few Flak/Interceptors so as a player you can go with just bombers, but humans obviously will come with forces to quickly dispatch bombers. Best advice is use everything to acclimate yourself to their capabilities. That upcoming patch may change the AI way of doing business so it's best to be prepared.Just my two cents.
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
F/B issue again is a single player vs multiplayer thing. The AI as it stands uses few Flak/Interceptors so as a player you can go with just bombers, but humans obviously will come with forces to quickly dispatch bombers.
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Fighters are also more effective against several types of frigates including LRM's, Siege, and Scouts which the AI will use frequently. In most cases, I find myself up against more targets desirable to fighters than bombers in an AI game.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Another thing that I wonder about: fighters or bombers? So far, I haven't purchased a single fighter squadren because bombers seem to be incredibly powerful against everything, but I've seen a few people on this forum discussing strategy, and it is evident that going all bombers isn't the way to go. Why not, and what SHOULD I be doing with regard to that? Is there a rule of thumb?
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The rule of thumb, as Annatar said, is adapting to the situation at hand.

Go Fighters if you need to kill:
-Fighters
-Bombers
-Long Range Frigates
-Siege Frigates
-Scouts
-Civilian Ships
-Colony Ships

Go Bombers if you need to kill:
-Heavy Cruisers
-Defense Platforms
-Capital Ships
-Logistics Structures
-Tactical Support Structures

Bombers are not particularly effective against Light Frigates and Support Cruisers, but they still do that job well if there's something protecting their Carriers. Fighters are totally useless against anything that isn't on that list.

Advent strike-craft are the best in the early game with no technology upgrades, but as the game progresses and military technology increases, the Vasari strike-craft go on to become the strongest strike-craft available. TEC strike-craft cannot compare unless they have a huge micromanaged fleet of various capital ships supporting them, but they still form a part of the TEC combined arms and are definitely not useless.

To completely change between Fighter and Bomber Squads, the Vasari carriers/hangars take ~1.5 minutes, the TEC carriers/hangars take ~2 minutes, and the Advent carriers/hangars take slightly over 2 minutes. Fighters cost 75 antimatter and Bombers cost 125 antimatter(both for one squad).