The planet defenses.

[JetJaguar2000]

Maybe that means you can dial back the awesomeness of colonies, then. As I wrote before, I think allowing colonies to be so indestructible feeds in to the "land grab" strategy that I think is really problematic for the game. I think there needs to be more checks against that, so that people who don't play constantly can stand a chance in the long game.

[Leedot]

We'll most likely be making some adjustments to colonies so they're more of an investment that you'll need to protect and nurture early on. We'll want to sit down and run some numbers first though.

On the issue of players picking of outposts with cruisers and then converting them to energy arrays I don't really have an issue with that considering that it takes one T2 tech and one T1 tech from a separate tree. Also, if the outpost was actually defended this would be much easier to fend off. It's possible that the ATK / Cost balance of energy arrays / cruisers, etc. need to be looked at but on the whole I think it's a good strategy. If you're not defending your outposts then you should expect them to get ganked.

[JetJaguar2000]

I agree completely on outposts. Seems like already people feel that they should be able to stake claims across the sector and not have to worry about defending them. Defend your outposts, people!

I'm glad you guys are open to making adjustments, I really think it will improve the balance of the game.

[VanderLegion]

I had someone get upset at me when I used my colony ship to kill their outpost then colonize the planet. They said I should respect their outpost. It entertained me.

[Tsagoth]

In reviewing the planet regen code, the population refreshing like it does is consequence of a change I made in beta. This is a mistake and it will be undone in a patch tomorrow.

In rough numbers, with no skills, a Terran planet will go from the initial colony pop drop to 400Mu in ~7.5 days.

[Leedot]

On the other end of the spectrum Rock planets will take roughly 15 days to reach 400mu without any tech upgrades. (although with their lower terraform level you'd need to do some work on them to even get to 400mu.)

[Magorath]

I thought that there may have been a bug when I started 3 new colonies and they poped with 400mu straight away. They also have home world icons on the planet/sector tiles. So it looks like I have 4 home worlds?

[Leedot]

Ah, yeah - that's a different bug. Basically what happened there was you colonized a terran planet that was slotted to be the home world of someone who had signed up for the game but hadn't started yet. In the future those systems will be hidden from view until the player joins the game.

Even right now a standard terran planet will take 4 hours or so to get to 400mu if it's not intended to be a homeworld.

[banjankri]

So you need 63 dreadnaughts or 234 battleships. Seriously devs?

My calculations suggest much lower - what am I doing wrong?

Assuming a fleet of Cruisers (attack value of 11) vs. a 400 Mu population world (defence value 7200, or 14400 in combat.)

Assuming that there are no orbital defences, just the planet.

And assuming that the planet will kill one cruiser each round (which is how it works, I think?)

It should be possible to take a 400 Mu planet with 51 cruisers. The attacking fleet will be reduced to 6 cruisers at the end of the battle.

Note that 50 won't do it. 51 is the magic number.

Are my calculations completely off the mark? I wrote a dumb little script, output follows:

51 ships with an attack value of 561 attacking unit with defence 14400.
50 ships with an attack value of 550 attacking unit with defence 13839.
49 ships with an attack value of 539 attacking unit with defence 13289.
48 ships with an attack value of 528 attacking unit with defence 12750.
47 ships with an attack value of 517 attacking unit with defence 12222.
46 ships with an attack value of 506 attacking unit with defence 11705.
45 ships with an attack value of 495 attacking unit with defence 11199.
44 ships with an attack value of 484 attacking unit with defence 10704.
43 ships with an attack value of 473 attacking unit with defence 10220.
42 ships with an attack value of 462 attacking unit with defence 9747.
41 ships with an attack value of 451 attacking unit with defence 9285.
40 ships with an attack value of 440 attacking unit with defence 8834.
39 ships with an attack value of 429 attacking unit with defence 8394.
38 ships with an attack value of 418 attacking unit with defence 7965.
37 ships with an attack value of 407 attacking unit with defence 7547.
36 ships with an attack value of 396 attacking unit with defence 7140.
35 ships with an attack value of 385 attacking unit with defence 6744.
34 ships with an attack value of 374 attacking unit with defence 6359.
33 ships with an attack value of 363 attacking unit with defence 5985.
32 ships with an attack value of 352 attacking unit with defence 5622.
31 ships with an attack value of 341 attacking unit with defence 5270.
30 ships with an attack value of 330 attacking unit with defence 4929.
29 ships with an attack value of 319 attacking unit with defence 4599.
28 ships with an attack value of 308 attacking unit with defence 4280.
27 ships with an attack value of 297 attacking unit with defence 3972.
26 ships with an attack value of 286 attacking unit with defence 3675.
25 ships with an attack value of 275 attacking unit with defence 3389.
24 ships with an attack value of 264 attacking unit with defence 3114.
23 ships with an attack value of 253 attacking unit with defence 2850.
22 ships with an attack value of 242 attacking unit with defence 2597.
21 ships with an attack value of 231 attacking unit with defence 2355.
20 ships with an attack value of 220 attacking unit with defence 2124.
19 ships with an attack value of 209 attacking unit with defence 1904.
18 ships with an attack value of 198 attacking unit with defence 1695.
17 ships with an attack value of 187 attacking unit with defence 1497.
16 ships with an attack value of 176 attacking unit with defence 1310.
15 ships with an attack value of 165 attacking unit with defence 1134.
14 ships with an attack value of 154 attacking unit with defence 969.
13 ships with an attack value of 143 attacking unit with defence 815.
12 ships with an attack value of 132 attacking unit with defence 672.
11 ships with an attack value of 121 attacking unit with defence 540.
10 ships with an attack value of 110 attacking unit with defence 419.
9 ships with an attack value of 99 attacking unit with defence 309.
8 ships with an attack value of 88 attacking unit with defence 210.
7 ships with an attack value of 77 attacking unit with defence 122.
6 ships with an attack value of 66 attacking unit with defence 45.
Defender destroyed!
 6 attack ships remaining.

[Royce]

And assuming that the planet will kill one cruiser each round (which is how it works, I think?)

No, the planet's attack value will be spread across multiple attacking ships until it has all been used up. So many cruisers would die every round. You need capital ships with high defense to take on a colony, though I think sending smaller ones in as well to draw fire might help depending on how target priority is set.