Base defenses

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by darktactics, October 14, 2014.

  1. darktactics

    darktactics Member

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    Hey,

    Have missile towers stopped targeting ground units? I have noticed that they dont shoot at ground units in my games. I thought they were a shoot anything defensive structure.

    Also, If I target and destroy enemy power plants, why do the base defensive structures still fire. Do they not require constant power to fire? Or am I wrong and they do act like this?

    Anyone else notice these things?
  2. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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    They haven't for.. How many months now?

    A loooong time. :p

    Also no, they don't require power, only artillery like the pelter and lobber holkins do.
  3. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

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    Probably more like a year.
    squishypon3 likes this.
  4. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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    Yeah that's actually probably right, it's been changed since- I don't even know, maybe early beta? (Pulling this out of no where)
  5. Engineer1234

    Engineer1234 Well-Known Member

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    Laser turrets and anti air towers don't need power to function, I think catapults and holkins do, ubercannon needs power to recharge too.
    AA towers used to fire at ground units but that really was quite a long time ago :)
  6. MrTBSC

    MrTBSC Post Master General

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    oh boy were the bolo´s (and a number of groundunits) happy when they heard of missile aa being truly limited to well AA ..
  7. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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    I'd say the bots were. As you could micro to avoid laser towers, but the missile towers could get them.
  8. MrTBSC

    MrTBSC Post Master General

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    which is the reason bolo didn´got used back then ... avoidable by bots and spinners basicly doing their jobs ...
  9. mjshorty

    mjshorty Well-Known Member

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    Defenses are kinda useless at this point anyways, they are to expensive to cover such a small area+damage they can do, just stick with an army, but it does make getting expansions up incredibly difficult
  10. zgrssd

    zgrssd Active Member

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    I don't quite agree here. It is true that defenses are not capable to stop a serious attack on thier own. They were propably never meant to be, as the game has a clear focus on offense rather then defense for me. However they do work well against harassment, to defend chokepoints and to support army units.
    A turret with wall's in front can actually be a hardy target even for vehicles and can easily kill it's metal worth in bot's.
    Defenses strenght is that they put a lot of firepower/range into a very cost effective package. The only trick is forcing the enemy to run into them.

    Also flak-towers can coutner T1 bomber commander snipes, due to the AoE effect of thier attack.
    corteks likes this.
  11. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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    At one point defenses were really OP, atm I think the defenses got a sliiight over nerf.
  12. stuart98

    stuart98 Post Master General

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    It's tanks got buffed when they didn't need to be. That was the one thing that's shaped the game ever since.

    It was helpful in the grenadier era because it kept them from being OP, but in the post grenadier era it's meant that defenses were useless and is the reason that dox got overbuffed and created the current meta.
  13. LeadfootSlim

    LeadfootSlim Well-Known Member

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    Defenses are very, very useful - AA remains vital for discouraging and stopping air raids, and ground defenses with walls can be a serious roadblock. In both cases, the more defenses you build, the more "critical mass" you need to break through... or the harder you need to look for an alternative angle of attack.

    Even if your opponent never breaks through your defensive line and instead goes around, it's well worth the cost to be able to shape where they go.
  14. zgrssd

    zgrssd Active Member

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    Indeed.
    Just needing that much more Dox per Mex-field (and actually having atrrition attacking Mex) totally changes the way harassment has to be done.
    Even if you have enough mass to break through, the time you waste on walls+turrets means the enemy has more time to react or act. If the enemy forces come in when you still have not broken through the defenses, you are in a pretty bad position.
    Even if all they archieve is let the enemy attack from another angle, this is one angle you have effectively locked down. You just saved a lot of your Attention resource by placing a bit of metal in defenses there.

    Fun fact of reality: The great wall over china was never intended to be guarded. At all. It was jsut way to long to effectively guard on any lenght. It was really just a man-made obstacle designed to make raiding parties more vulnerable to counter strikes, thus effectively discouraging raiding.

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