Counterbattery fire - fire back at novalith canons if you have your own.

from Sins2 Forums

It's very annoying not being able to fire back at novalith planetary canons when they are shooting at you from across the map. I guess planetary shields will protect planets but is their a way perhaps we could use our own novalith canon to triangulate the source and fire back?

I don't even need to destroy the novalith, just interdict it's incoming bullets with some sort of point defence system. Maybe the point defence system needs 3 in 3 different gravity wells to triangulate and fire accurately. Maybe it misses sometimes?

sins of a solar empire ii
13,701 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Sins2 Forums Top

Ok just built planetary shields... planet is apparently invulnerable after that. However with a novalith reload time of 3mins and approx two shots per planet kill iirc, I will have lost half the other planets before being able to build shields around them.

 

How many jumps can they fire? Is it much less than the original which iirc was unlimited?

Reply #2 from Sins2 Forums Top

Quoting Norska, reply 1

Ok just built planetary shields... planet is apparently invulnerable after that. However with a novalith reload time of 3mins and approx two shots per planet kill iirc, I will have lost half the other planets before being able to build shields around them.

 

How many jumps can they fire? Is it much less than the original which iirc was unlimited?

It's one jump only, and with a Tier V tech that's improved to two jumps.

Here's something that Blair Fraser said on it once in the Discord, when comparing it to the Loyalists:

Blair Fraser, 24 May 2023: "There is currently no super weapon for the Loyalists by design (subject to change). They were already juiced up compared to the Rebels. With Loyalists we expect a creeping line of twin fortresses, deployable starbases, higher levels of garrisons, and titan beach-head support, etc. All the new (or improved) Rebel stuff in the update is to help bring them up to par with Loyalists and to promote a more offensive strategy compared to Loyalists. All subject to change based on how things go (i.e. nothing is written in stone)."

Compared to the Rebel's creeping Novaliths; they can also use the Titan's Novalith of course which is greatly offensive as well.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Sins2 Forums Top

I see. I like the change then. Two jumps away is at least manageable. 5*   I remember Blair from sins1. 

I am recalling correctly that the original supercannons in sins1 had a system wide range right?

Reply #4 from Sins2 Forums Top

Quoting Norska, reply 3

I see. I like the change then. Two jumps away is at least manageable. 5*   I remember Blair from sins1. 

I am recalling correctly that the original supercannons in sins1 had a system wide range right?

Blair is either the Owner of Ironclad or the Co-owner (not sure); So yeah he's been here from the start.

And indeed, they could just fire from anywhere to anywhere. I think this is a way better direction to take, but they're still open to changing pretty much everything about the game so depending on how other factions work, different balance etc it might still change.

Reply #5 from Sins2 Forums Top

I agree a much better direction. One solution perhaps would be to have to build 3 cannon at 5 jumps away from each other exactly, so they could fire anywhere in the solar system. However because of the orbiting planets those 3 novalith guns only align once or twice per solar rotation where they are the exact prescribed distance apart to fire, you can only fire a few times and even one novalith being taken out has you doing it all again.

Reply #6 from Sins2 Forums Top

Quoting Norska, reply 5

I agree a much better direction. One solution perhaps would be to have to build 3 cannon at 5 jumps away from each other exactly, so they could fire anywhere in the solar system. However because of the orbiting planets those 3 novalith guns only align once or twice per solar rotation where they are the exact prescribed distance apart to fire, you can only fire a few times and even one novalith being taken out has you doing it all again.

Yeah, the orbital mechanic works nicely with the change as you describe. And without it, creeping twin fortresses or novaliths seem actually somewhat fun. More of a grindy way to get there, but different from culture like in Sins 1 and it might make sure there is a possibility for a non-decisive victory.

Reply #7 from Sins2 Forums Top

In S1 to fire anywhere in the system you had to discover the planet. It was easy hiding your capital planet in S1 due to creating a beach head ahead of your capital. but right now with the maps being smaller and orbits it's really easy to discover enemy planets. 

I would like it to be the same way as S1. I also like what they have here. I feel like this last update the rebels actually use it. I've played games where almost all of their planets had one but they never used them.  

Reply #8 from Sins2 Forums Top

I don't think I ever got the novalith to fire. Probably because I had no idea it was only one jump away I could fire it and I had built it at the back of my civilisation.

Reply #9 from Sins2 Forums Top

It's going to be interesting to see how things like the novalith evolve and balance as the game grows

Reply #10 from Sins2 Forums Top

For one I am playing a game atm where every AI faction seems to be building novaliths everywhere no matter how many I expunge. It's really very annoying. All I am doing is jumping to random planets all over the centre of the orbital plane knocking out novaliths after they destroy my planets.... planets really do not last long enough against them for a response to be made. Shield arrays are just coming online to protect planets but they are too few and the novaliths popping up everywhere to be effective.

Additionally can we have the notification for a cannon shell show the origin as well. Often I am trying to find the origin after the fact and because the shell is gone their is no vector to see.