I have multiple terror stars built...and mobilized, equipped with all modules, etc. I have driven them right up to enemy planets and stars. What I have been lacking is simply a way to trigger the death ray weapon...?

Can someone just give me detailed instructions on how to pull the trigger? Ive got them made and driving them around, etc....but no way to shoot thus far, even at point blank range. Thanks.

Boogly

PS-Playing Yor, like the fellow above, if it matters.

How does a bug like that slip through? Isn't that what they're MADE for?

Thanks Far--Okay... just played my first game with Terror stars and they are great!

What seemed less than obvious until Farout pointed it out is that, to pull the trigger, you have to drive right up to the star (not a planet) and, with Terror Star selected (and a move still) left DOUBLE RIGHT CLICK THE TARGET STAR. If you have ships in the blast radius and/or you will cause casualties to someone with whom you currently are not at war a pop-up window will show up advising you of consequences and asking you if you want to do it anyway. But if you get your ships out of the way the T Star will just drive over the top of the star and BLAMO!

Whatever bug prevented demolishing habitated systems has been worked through. I am killing the CRAP the Drengi, and the Terror star is great (coz Drengin soldiering about TRIPLE mine right now). Yes, thats right, with the terror star you do not have to condescend to descend to the planet. Just pulverize their buts from space WHOOT!

And the AI is coming for them with GUSTO! Dang invisibility bug almost got like TWENTY FLEETS through as they were all stacked in the same space (I thought it was a bug). The whole little window was jam-packed with Drengin ships, so there was like twenty fleets LITERALLY on one square, going after my TStar. I have never seen the AI put that kind of priority on targeting anything, and thats a good thing because that is the way it SHOULD be. And yes, they eventually did get one of my four Tstars.

These things are very well done. Very well balanced to make them fun to play. I mean, its not like you can just sit in your home system smoking cigars and blazing away. You have to protect them just like transports (or spore ships). My only complaint is...well, sometimes I am very intent on using a Tstar and a planet inhabited by one of my allies happens to be in there, or one of their ships. WHOOPS! LOL. Loads of fun.

-Boogly

TerrorStars should be allowed to equip weaponry. It is ridiculous, that something so massive would not have its own weapon systems. They don't need to be nightmare torpedoes, but allow some defenses or something.
Maybe make 2 new techs that branch from TerrorStar tree, and make them very costly to research
1st branch > Basic Weapons/Defenses
2nd branch >improved propulsion

Right now Terrorstars, while very cool, are very useless in larger games.

I disagree -- just personal opinion here. In my current TA beta 3 game, playing as Iconians, the Terrans lucked out with a system that has five habitable planets around one star, with no exotic tech needed. One Terror Star successfully moved in there and... BOOM, they're all gone. For game balance, it makes sense to me that this has to be offset somehow. So they're vulnerable, and they're slow.

This isn't an exact analogy, but it's like modern day aircraft carrier group tactics. The big prize is the carrier, and it's fairly easy to take out alone... but only if you can get past a heavy defensive screen of other surface ships, attack subs, and airborne assets.

Here's another way to look at it. If another race researches this tech first, how hard do you want it to be, to take out one that's moving into your home system? That's assuming the AI knows how to move and protect them. I think it would be fun to fight your way in, past a screen of defensive fleets, to take out the terror star. Much more fun that treating it as just a big uber-battleship that you have to fight directly.

That said, I haven't played deep enough into the new beta to see the AI deploying these things yet, and they're borked anyway against habitable systems. So I don't know if that's going to play out the way I think it might.

It's all about who has the better tech, right? Have you seen this?

WWW Link

Just one or two modern torpedoes (not even getting into the "hyper-speed torpedo" category, which is feasable), and a delivery system that's stealthy enough... that's all it takes.

Yes I have seen that actually Torpedo range is a great distance. Just because its in range, doesn't mean the target will sit there and wait for it, (sub has to compensate for angle on bow, ship speed/course, oceanography, etc etc, many of these variables can change as soon as the torpedoes are launched, or during payload delivery..not to mention detection methods.

However going by this logic path we will undoubtedly come to nuclear weapons, MRLS Artillery, ballistic/cruise missiles to take out carriers. I never said they were impregnable, however used in relation to the fleet model in GalCiv2, (no missiles, no submarines/cloaked units)...
In the context of THIS game, there is nothing similar to a Submarine, ICBM, or a cloaked ship, thus rendering this example invalid in the context of terror stars.


Anyways, I don't want to derail this topic further, but you do have many points in your post that I agree with, I just objected with that one element/implication.

And to end and come full circle ...your point... "Just one or two modern torpedoes..."

I am not asking for the Terrorstar to have 100 defense in all categories, I am not asking for a hi tech defense tank. I and seemingly what others are clamoring for, is some lower tech stuff, (say 5/5/5 or 10/10/10 just for example) in attack defense.

Heck you can even make it that the only armour a terrorstar can have is the Top level Starbase defense when you've researched the appropriate defense technology, ( overlord Armour, Electromagnetis Surge, Invulnerability field... [the 16 ones]) That would stop thins from being overpowered defensively, but it would still need a comparable low weapon.

Thats no moon

i remember reading that Brad is going to do most of the AI re-balancing during the last betas and for the final release. right now they're just trying to roll out the new techs.

Okay, I've built a Terror Star immediately after getting the first tech and they work fine now. But if you try to research the other techs before building a Terror Star, then they will never work.

As for Terror Stars getting weapons, I see no reason why the ultimate battle stations shouldn't get at least the Battle Station techs. Just enough to keep the tiny and small hulls from being more than a nuisance.

Speaking of nuisances, wouldn't an effective defense against Terror Stars be to build flocks of fighters and surround your stars with them so that the Terror Star can't get in close enough to detonate them? That reason alone is enough to justify giving Terror Stars some weaponry.

I see no reason to give terror stars weaponry. So you have to escort them with ships. No big deal.

The point is not that a carrier has minimal defenses, or that it is useless without escort.

The point is that a fighter with a good engine and a fricking Laser 1 can destroy a battle station you spent two years developing and another half a year implementing.

I agree that Terror Stars should be useless without escort. However, they shouldn't be useless on defense against start of game ships. Seriously... Why would the most advanced battle station in existence lose a fight against a DEFENDER?!?

Obviously Terror Stars should be useless on attack unless escorted, just like aircraft carriers are. However, just like aircraft carriers, you shouldn't be able to take one down with a single Fokker, which is literally the case right now.