A reminder that if you kill off 100% of the population, all the factories and mines will go away, so you'll have to invade that same turn.

ricks03 wrote on Tue, 13 October 2020 18:17

A reminder that if you kill off 100% of the population, all the factories and mines will go away, so you'll have to invade that same turn.

Never heard this myself. Packets destroy defences, and a world reduced to 0 loses defences/planetary scanner/techsteal possibility, but I've not heard of factories or mines going away from planet-killer packets. Will check.

magic9mushroom wrote on Tue, 13 October 2020 03:32

ricks03 wrote on Tue, 13 October 2020 18:17

A reminder that if you kill off 100% of the population, all the factories and mines will go away, so you'll have to invade that same turn.

Never heard this myself. Packets destroy defences, and a world reduced to 0 loses defences/planetary scanner/techsteal possibility, but I've not heard of factories or mines going away from planet-killer packets. Will check.

It's not the packet that destroys the factories. It's the going to 0. Once it's at 0 and you have to recolonize, the factories/mines will be 0. So you have to get troops on the ground the same turn if the pop goes to 0.

Back to the point of the post.
Some examples from my current game. Joat and OBRM, so roughly 1 defense per 3300 pop.
24/86 planet with 316k pop can build 96 defenses.
36/82 planet with 204k pop can build 82 defenses.
37/55 planet with 196K pop can build 75 defenses.
16/69 planet with 211k pop can build 64 defenses.
So the number of defenses that can be built is related to pop, but not linear. There is at least one other factor here.
An assumption here is that the number of defenses that can be built is the same as the number that are effective when pop has been reduced on a planet.

RainDancer

ricks03 wrote on Tue, 13 October 2020 18:43

magic9mushroom wrote on Tue, 13 October 2020 03:32

ricks03 wrote on Tue, 13 October 2020 18:17

A reminder that if you kill off 100% of the population, all the factories and mines will go away, so you'll have to invade that same turn.

Never heard this myself. Packets destroy defences, and a world reduced to 0 loses defences/planetary scanner/techsteal possibility, but I've not heard of factories or mines going away from planet-killer packets. Will check.

It's not the packet that destroys the factories. It's the going to 0. Once it's at 0 and you have to recolonize, the factories/mines will be 0. So you have to get troops on the ground the same turn if the pop goes to 0.

And I'm telling you that planets at 0 pop do not lose mines and factories. I left a planet uninhabited for a turn and recolonised and they were all still there.

Defences, the planetary scanner and the invasion techsteal possibility go away when a planet is at 0. Mines and factories do not. I specifically just tested this for mines, factories and defences; you are not going to be able to convince me otherwise.

Oh, there is one thing that you save by popdropping the same turn you bombed/packeted a planet clean, which is the coloniser. You can popdrop at WP1 on the same turn, avoiding a need to recolonise.

(You still don't get to steal tech, though.)

Supposition: that a combination of smart bombs, with packets when the defense percentages fall, and pop bombs when defense percentages are low, is a reasonably efficient way to take the planet. I am not saying this is fast.

Raindancer wrote

Supposition: that a combination of smart bombs, with packets when the defense percentages fall, and pop bombs when defense percentages are low, is a reasonably efficient way to take the planet. I am not saying this is fast.

It's usually faster (and can be cheaper) to kill the planet with cherries and rebuild.

magic9mushroom wrote on Thu, 15 October 2020 22:48

Oh, there is one thing that you save by popdropping the same turn you bombed/packeted a planet clean, which is the coloniser. You can popdrop at WP1 on the same turn, avoiding a need to recolonise.

(You still don't get to steal tech, though.)

Have you tested this enough times? I'm pretty sure you can get tech if you popdrop the same turn even if the planet goes down to 0 colonists before dropping. Same mechanic as popdrop after colonists have been lifted up.