Terror Stars and UP Vote

Seconded. Terror Stars can already be banned by the UP, I think the devs just forgot about the vote to restrict the number of allowed modules.

As does the "shall we ban Terror Stars" UP vote.

I haven't come across that one yet. I can't say that I agree with that issue either. Sometimes Terror Stars are the only realistic way to have a chance at victory in some games, and voting them out would again, effectively end that game for the race in question.

You still have the option to leave the UP...Tell them where to stuff their laws.

That's true. As long as you don't mind giving up the trade.

If you are about to snuff out life from an entire system with a Terror Star, I think you've already set yourself down the path to not caring about other races lol.

The OP has a good point though, I do belive that its just an oversight, but I do think it might be an idea to flag this one as a bug in the TA beta forum.

Usually, Terror Stars come into force in the late-game, where trade is practically irrelevant due to all the wars that just cripple trade (Unless you've managed to stay out of them). Just leave the U.P if that is the case and blow them to Kingdom Come!

Exactly

Besides, look at it this way, the UP doesn't really matter if you just plan to conqure them all anyways

This is not a viable option, playing as the Thalans. First, their low pop cap demands another revenue stream. Second, the excruciating lag before they gain any advantage in tech means that they have to 'turtle', and try not to annoy any other race while they research. Since they have such an awful diplomacy ability, the only avenue left to them is trade.


Utilizing these behemoths is a desperation move. I would only go this route when I felt that I had no other option for victory. Starting a war with a Terror Star, or with a tiny hull with 1 laser is no different as regards to trade.

I suppose that my point is, that sometimes you might just need these to win. They're not just some cool things that you can build to watch things go boom. (And they are.) Removing them from the game can truly be 'game over'. This should be addressed.
;

I didn't know you could leave the UP...How?

On the United Planets subscreen of the Foreign Stats screen, in the upper right, there is a button that says "Leave U.P.". You can't ever get back in, though. EVER. And it means you can't have trade routes anymore.

I would agree that Terror Stars should be affected by the U.P. starbase module vote.

Not to get off topic, but while we're on the subject of Terror Stars, why is it that you can use a single Terror Star to destroy multiple systems? Sure, it takes a while, but it means you don't need to build more. It doesn't make much sense from any point of view-I mean, they blow up the star, the planets, all the ships around the star, the asteroids even, if I remember correctly (though since everything is "converted" into asteroids, that doesn't matter too much), the resources, the anomalies (even if it's a wormhole, which is moderately humorous), yet they survive the blast?

I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make-there was one game that I got bored of and created enough Terror Stars to take out the Drengin's last system as well as all eight of my systems in the same turn-and even though I destroyed them first, I wound up getting a Defeat message for destroying my own homeworld with a Terror Star. However, I would still suggest that Terror Stars be consumed/destroyed upon use. A limit of one active per civilization might be a good idea, too.

Maybe not the best place to voice my thoughts, but still somewhat ontopic.

The victory condition for defeating the Dregins wouldn't have clicked in until the following week. The loss condition kicks in as soon as your last planet is gone.

Only planets are turned into asteroids I think. I know any ships & current asteroids go poof.

If you wish to have a different ending screen, destroy two civs in one Terror Star blast to win the game. I do love the loss screen from blowing up your own last world.

As for Terror Stars being a one shot weapon, I have to disagree there. Something that is THAT handicapped and costly shouldn't only have one shot. I guess you can say that the weapon on a Terror Star is also linked into a special force field generator that will protect it from a star going nova.

Eh, that's what I meant. Everything goes boom and the planets become asteroids. Didn't mean to imply ships became asteroids, but didn't remember what happened to existing asteroids.

Personally, I like Terror Stars. I like having that option. I like how much power they have, and I like the fact that they also take a while to build, mobilize, and move. I'm just not sure that limits their power ENOUGH. I just don't think that there should really be situations where you're better off Terror Starring than you are actually fighting it out (whether you do it via conquest, influence, etc), and as it stands I see too much ability to use them.

I mean, who cares if they take 10 weeks to mobilize, and only move at one parsec a week, if you have fifteen of them roaming around, and you built them all up at the same time-and they're all only 2 or 3 months from your biggest opponent's systems? Of course, you still need to protect them, but that's not nearly as much of a concern as it maybe should be.

Handicapped, yeah. Handicapped enough, I'd disagree. Costly? How? It takes six constructors. Again, you have to protect it, but how is that different from, say, that resource base you can't afford to lose or A) your citizens stop being happy and you start losing money your military power plummets and the AI can crush you C) your influence dips below 75% and you can't win that influence victory, etc?

I notice you didn't comment on my suggestion of one active per civ. What would you think of that?

As for blowing up two civs in a turn...I'm going to try that now.

And I love the screen when you blow yourself up, too. It's awesome.

Also, a thought occurred to me. So I tested it. Military starbase speed raising and reducing modules do not apply to Terror Stars; and neither do warp bubbles of any kind. So I guess I won't be reducing enemy Terror Stars to 0 speed in my territory any time soon...ah well.

Well, we talked about it here at the office and we decided it that it would be more fair to exclude starbases from the UP law restricting modules.  So I'll get that fix in for the next update.

Cari, thanks for putting this one to bed.

1 per civ would be interesting...but on larger maps it would hurt. If there would be a max number per civ, I think it should scale with map size.

One of the patches they mentioned about a new victory screen if you killed 2 or more civs to end the game. I instantly tried that one out by arranging it via selling planets to the last two civs for me to get in one blast lol.

Terror Stars did get boosted via Warp Bubbles for a bit once they were allowed into a fleet (the next patch or two after they got introduced). I think that got squished in beta4 though.

I think Frogboy said somewhere that Terror Stars are basically for finishing off "entrenched" enemies in the late game. I assume that's the reason why they survive the blast, why they're mobile, and why you can build more than one. If you can only have one, then it might not shorten the endgame that much, compared to standard invasions... at least on the larger maps.

Thanks, Cari. You're the best.

Yeah. You already have to research five techs, build the terror star with five constructors, wait ten turns for it to become mobile, and then move it to the target at one pc/turn. Making it one-shot just makes it go from a strategy to a gimmick.

Fixed ::) Remember, you need a constructor to build the initial foundation for the Terror Star as well.

Personally, I think the AI needs to take a greater offense to Terror Stars on their borders. I mean, seriously. It's the diplomatic equivalent of openly pointing a nuclear missile at another country and publicly saying that, if you wanted to, you could totally push that red button in the missile control room and reduce said country to ash. I really think the AI needs to try to prioritize Terror Stars a little more. They ignore these incredibly destructive beasts a little too often, me thinks ::/

Yes, the AI doesn't react as well as it could to WMDs. It doesn't get especially offended at spore ships, either.

There should also be something when you use one for the first time. Some reaction.

To be fair, SD hasn't started on the AI updates specifically for TA yet.

Spore ships hopefully can be addressed as well, in my last game I didn't build a single transport, just spores. The AI never targeted those ships or tried to take them out in advance.