Re: A discussion of missiles, economics, and good neighbors:

#35
SirDuction has a point here, the game isnt always about profit. Its a war game and war isnt always fun. Sometimes you gotta show a little muscle and just hit a player to keep them down. This isnt done to get under their skin or "irk them", its an early defense as a player may be advancing in ranks quite rapid and sometimes you need to knock them down while you can before they become too big. With the combat system as it is now, this is the safest option because there is no way of making a profitable hit once they are right up your *** on the ranks.

In Coolhand's case, I think this was someone who clearly doesnt know how the game works. Maybe they thought Dessies had decent cargo space, who knows. Ive been hit by a few noobs, they just send cargoes at me and my defense demolished their ships easy.

Anyway, the thread made for a good read! :D

Re: A discussion of missiles, economics, and good neighbors:

#36
I can grok that point, Squirrel (regarding slowing someone's progress) ... but sending about 15 (!) IPMs at a planet's defenses (aside from the fact that only about 2 were really needed to kill it all, seeing as how I hadn't bothered at the time to buy any ABMs) doesn't seem a real cost-effective way to "keep them down." I mean, they do, themselves, cost money, which could be used to build ships, or defenses to keep someone from attacking ...

After all, it's not my defenses that're causing them problems. All lobbing a bunch of missiles at me without purpose OTHER than to force me to have to go rebuild them later does, is paint a big bulls-eye on every allied planet for 40 systems in either direction from the areas in question.

Hell, I knocked about a dozen of them back under 1/5 of my points. And some of those were within 5 or 10 places of me when I started. Talk about stunting growth.

If you use 'em as a prelude to going in there and smashing their fleet and stealing a bunch of loot, that, I can dig. It works, and it's a lot more lasting of a solution. Just lobbing missiles at somebody - especially somebody whose growth is unnerving you - is just gonna MOTIVATE them.

I will note that neither of the original missile-lobbers has so much as cast a nasty look in my direction since I started my little reparations campaign. Possibly they realized that the things can carry one hell of a price-tag.
I got the rationale of a New York cop
I got the patience of a chopping block

Re: A discussion of missiles, economics, and good neighbors:

#38
overkill is a useful tactic too.. lol it forces them to commit to the fight big time or run, and wiping your 50 ships out in 1 or 2 rounds rather than 5 or 6 might have even saved them from losing a ship or two.. ;)

The attacker has lost a total of 0 units.
The defender has lost a total of 0 units.

thats what every one of the reports said mate, you only raided a few undefended planets really and there is never any question that your going to make a profit on those bases, i'd have raided them anyway whatever guild they were in at the time.. lol
the guys that threw missiles at you are sitting behind they're defences knowing that you dont want to take them on at home so what have you demonstrated if anything other than your reluctance to make any hit thats not profitable???

who cares about a few noobs that dont have enough common to build defences? they are all just food sooner or later anyway, its the guys behind defences throwing missiles that need to be dealt with, you need to kill fleets to do damage not just raid a few smaller guys that are not even active enough to build a few turrets.

what you going to do when the ACS defend is up and running and the top 5 guys from they're guild gather enough fleets to wipe you out?? you'll have given them enough room to do just that as you've only taken on they're soft targets and done no real damage to any of the fighters in they're ranks.

and thats my point after all.. ;)

profit is NOT the only reason to attack someone, any war you have should demonstrate that point.

Re: A discussion of missiles, economics, and good neighbors:

#39
Funny thing is- I've never seen a profitable war. All it does is provide fodder for the alliance lemmings and a few occasional laughs in the forums. Other than that, an alliance bent on war usually loses ranks faster than the one they declare on, regardless of how powerful the bigger alliance is.

The problem is one of focus. Rather than making hits that make sense and building tools to become stronger, people tend to build whatever is popular at the time. In Coolhand's case, a bunch of alliance lemmings scrambled and over-built and over-utilized IPMs. Resources that could have been used to put a real hurt on someone else.

But, meh. People with the kill for a kills sake mentality are having fun. Not growing for crap. But having fun.
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