Incubation centres should get station holding beam?

posted on October 3rd, 2010, 10:00 pm

I suggest that assimilate avatar incubation centres should get an upgrade (like the opti maximise incubation upgrade) which makes them valid stations for the station holding beam research.

so if u maximised an incubator, and did the station holding beam research, the maximised incubator would get a station holding beam

posted on October 3rd, 2010, 10:04 pm

It seems kinda OP. Make it an auto-assim and it might work...?

posted on October 3rd, 2010, 10:07 pm

It already has an assimilate-avatar special. If this is added, would it be station Holding beam with or without the existing station Auto-assimilation?

I'm neutral on whether or not it's added, I'm more interested in if it replaces or compliments the existing ability on the upgraded station.

posted on October 3rd, 2010, 10:19 pm

It seems kinda OP. Make it an auto-assim and it might work...?

i purposefully left out the detail bits to keep it a broad suggestion. as the incubator is smaller than the current stations that can use station holding beam, it should probably have an energy limit, so it cant hold for long. so its basically 1 ship u can hold for a short while, as long as the enemy comes to your incubator. which i dont think is horribly op.

as for using them in groups at your main base for defence, the feds already have an awesome turret system which can turtle up their base. these incubators wont generate more supply when maximised, but they will cost money. the costs could be adjusted to stop it being op.

It already has an assimilate-avatar special. If this is added, would it be station Holding beam with or without the existing station Auto-assimilation?

I'm neutral on whether or not it's added, I'm more interested in if it replaces or compliments the existing ability on the upgraded station.

i'd say that when the holding beam is active, it doesnt do its normal assiming, but when the holding beam deactivates, it starts doing its stuff again.

the idea of an auto assim station has been suggested before, and is a separate idea. i personally am not against a station getting auto assim.

posted on October 3rd, 2010, 10:24 pm

I like this idea.  I also think that the special energy used is cut by at least a factor of 5 and should be available for both avatar incubation centers and the recycling center.

posted on October 3rd, 2010, 10:37 pm

I like this idea.  I also think that the special energy used is cut by at least a factor of 5 and should be available for both avatar incubation centers and the recycling center.

opti incubators already get a cool bonus, they can be upgraded to make more supply. i think fleetops should strive to make the play styles of the avatars unique and distinct, rather than the same.

recycling centre getting station holding beam is trivial and wont polarise many people. i dont mind if it gets station holding beam or not, its only 1 station and is nearly always built in a super safe place.

posted on October 4th, 2010, 6:15 am

The IC should get an assimilation upgrade for the Assim avatar...like double the assim strength of the center. This way you can use it as a cool type of turret.

posted on October 4th, 2010, 6:25 am

For opti, you manage ressources, for assim, you assimilate. Thats the basic tactic behind it.

So auto-assim should be more like the "boarding-ability" for stations. Not some crew people over the time, but a certain amount of drones per usage. This may replace the holding beam. Only works if researched, but not only for ships, also for stations. If an enemy ship will get near a station, it may be assimilated in an instant. So you wont decloak in the middle of borg stations. Also you will try to engage them with a larger fleet an attack from farer away. This could be a nice "turtle-effect" for the borg. They have "borg-space" were everything gets assimilated, that comes in range.

The assim-avatar can make a lot of use of that but it wont help in fleet-engagements, only in base defense. Its not wise, to pack 3 layers of assim-methods together (auto-assim, holding-beam and boarding) so ONE of them should be enough for the stations.

posted on October 5th, 2010, 4:13 pm

I think that assim avatar's incubation centers should just get the holding beam without any upgrade at all. (The research would still be required)  Even Opti's IC's could get it, as opti builds fewer of them.

The reason this wouldn't be insanely overpowered is simple: IC's only have enough special energy to hold the beam for like 4 seconds.  You can't make a Starbase Conquest strategy out of it, but you CAN use it to harass enemies within your space.

posted on October 5th, 2010, 4:17 pm

The station Holding beam doesn't require any energy to use. Once you lock-on, it'll keep assimilating until the station/target/weapon system is destroyed/taken or you cancel it.

posted on October 5th, 2010, 8:06 pm

However, it is medium range, if memory serves.  So using long/artillery it is easily overcome.  Sabres are immune.  An immediate production vessel defeats it, if slowly.  And it's rate of transfer isn't very fast, so unless you're using it on a low-crew ship, that thing is going to be sitting there with the beam on it for a long, long time.

posted on October 5th, 2010, 8:38 pm

Ah, I didn't realize that.  So basically, 3 structures means 3 automatic captures if the enemy doesn't kill you?

That would be VERY overpowered if IC's got it, but if they got a version that drains energy it could work.

posted on October 5th, 2010, 8:56 pm

Well, for opti avatar maybe a special, that will drain the enemy special energy/damage in arty range and for assim the holding beam at medium range, so that only long rangers can attack?

This would make this station a very good support station for many ways. I like the idea of... "borg space", where you get a certain bonus, if you enter it as borg, or you get a certain penalty if you are an enemy.

posted on October 5th, 2010, 9:29 pm

If needbe, just do what I did last time I got holding-beamed from a station and didn't have the ships on hand to break the station.  The victim began beaming it's crew onto the station, and the remaining ships in the fleet force-fired on it with it's shields down.  From out of the unicomplex range.  Then I flew away.

Set up a test sometime, pick a vessel with triple-digit crew, hit it with unicomplex holding beam, and start counting.  You won't think it's great after that.

I only use it on small ships for capture.  For anything with a crew over 120, I only use it to keep the ship in range of the starbase guns (and I have to keep telling them to fire on it, because by default, they don't shoot at things in the beam.)

Being that the only stations that get it are Assimilation Matrix, Conduction Matrix, and Transmission Matrix (only the conduction matrix is really expendable until late game, even by my standards, and I think of the Assim Matrix as an expensive turret), this further limits it's value.

I love the thing, and usually buy it, but I won't call it good.  Mediocre at best, waste of a special slot usually.  I just feel like the Borg stations should have it, so I research it anyway.

[Tyler]

posted on October 5th, 2010, 9:43 pm

Last edited by Tyler on October 5th, 2010, 9:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It's slow, but can do the job. I took a Descent with one of them (I love stupid AI).