Base Design
Been playing 4 or 5 days now and I am level 16 (on vacation out of state when I got the invite)
Just wondering what you all think about this base design. This is my first actual setup - I'm not protecting RGs - only my storage. Level 3 Outpost.Level 4 turrets with level III heavy beam lasers + level II tritanium plate and Level II Guass Guns no armor due to weight. I got a one hour bubble from a base test, guy only hit 4 resource gatherers and it still bubbled me... a little confusing.
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Well I would personally move your base down and right a little bit and snuggy up with the RGs. The design of the towers around the OP is genius, but you can afford to be closer to the RGs without compromising that formation. At least that way fewer RGs fall to scavengers.
I got a good hurting last night and had over 3 hrs DP when I logged in. So I imagine the really painful hits give you a large amount of time to yourself.
As a side note, how did you get 400K resources? I didn't even reach 100 I'm so raided (and spend). Outpost 3 is giving me vertigo at 200K requirements. But, I upped lasers and added some long range thingy and I'm hoping to get some results.
I mainly get my RGs hit.
As for loot, that is easy to get. I can score millions from cargos alone, and when I find good base targets I can score a full mil or more on a single hit.
I have 4.6 mill storage...but even for me, most attackers can take out 2-3 storages and only not more because of my high armor turrets...until Someone has torps and polaron, I doubt a base is well defendable
Longbows can sometimes handle 1 or 2 Guass, but when an 8 tower base has 4 of each Gauss and Laser there is no chance of using such slow strafing ships. Even Rancors get tricky at that point. It isn't until the Rancors get some pretty toys that it gets easier.
Now, in a base where people don't know how to position towers... that is a completely different story, lol
Of course, I'm ignoring the weapon on the outpost too. Towers are a pain enough, but the outpost lasts a long time so that leaves for a lot of strafing while trying to make sure shots that mis your lead ship don't hit your other ones (and that is really tricky when there are like 3 or 4 or 5 Gauss shots coming in at a time)
Basically I'm saying that a base design like above is great if the tower selection is wise. And in that situation you'll want rancors and target the polarons first so you can decimate the rest. If someone sticks a polaron on the outpost you are most likely up a creek to try and attack that base.
I didn't see most of the raids, but I did witness one.
He came with 5 longbows and another ship, I think it was the Cruiser, before the longbows. I had most of my turrets as mass throwers, with 2 laser guarding the area. What happened was, he got his longbows in a semicircle, outside the range of my drivers (I keep saying drivers because that's what they are, mass drivers, but I had the lower tech) and what he did is troll all my turrets, by strafing his ship and all my turrets engaged the bait, while the longbows rained on my base. He did this for 4 minutes, after which the defenses crumbled, allowing him to nuke the CC and the 2 storages I use.
This is embarrassing. I got trolled (or correctly baited, depending on who you ask) for almost 5 minutes, nothing I could do. With an outpost at L3 all my options are lasers and the impact thingies. I think. And no matter how much I research, it will be a full few days before I can up my defenses another notch. But I'm telling you that's not the issue, the guy had like 3 hits on his baiter and 3 on his siege formation, by chance alone. I wouldn't matter if I fired black holes, he would have still creamed me. Which is weird, because you would think that with 5 drivers firing I would have hit SOMETHING.
Either I gut creamed by a very, very good player or the defenses are too poor at this level.
I decided to test my theory and got a fleet of 6 ships, all Genesis cruiser, armed with lasers, and proceeded to storm a base belonging to a guy who raided me. I decided to dispense with the tactics and, after dodging some of my approach, I made a beeline for the inner base. I creamed 6 resourcers, several turrets, a storage and most of the outpost. Just by ordering them in. So I'm leaning towards poor defenses in the lower levels.
I'd also like to say I saw someone come with a battleship and 5 longbows, got creamed. He wondered in range of my laser turret and got shredded before he could retreat, followed by longbow soup. So, not exactly bad defenses, just incredibly susceptible to trolling.
Now I do agree with your followup - defenses at the lower levels are really pathetic. Which is why it is good it takes so long to get your hands on Rancors. You get at least half a chance of obtaining Polarons before they begin storming you. And heavy Gauss defenses coupled with Lasers will keep them from slaughtering you (unless driven by strong players/good 'micro')
Obviously most of my analysis has been based on the weaponry available to the person starting this thread. Someone at (or near) level 16 isn't going to be within even a few days to a week of having Plasma Torpedoes. I'm level 22 and even I don't have them yet. So while it may be possible to deal with dodging Gauss with Plasma Torpedoes it is not anywhere close to reasonable to routinely try it with Railguns (which barely outrange lasers on Longbows). We're talking the difference between 4000m * 1.4 = 5600m range on Railguns to the 5500m * 1.4 = 7700m range on Plasma Torpedoes. That's a whole 2100m increase in dodging distance. Gives you quite a bit more time to deal with the incoming.