spam

posted on October 9th, 2010, 11:19 pm

I just have to chime in...

I personally think that any number of ships lower than 11 cannot be spam.  I base this off one thing.  30 ships is one full fleet.  A third or less of a fleet should not be considered spam.

Word's getting used a little too loosely these days.

posted on October 9th, 2010, 11:29 pm

What about moving a fleet of ships back and forth right through your enemy base only leaving maybe 45 seconds (max) between attacks.  Could that be considered a spam?  How would you counter it?

posted on October 9th, 2010, 11:34 pm

We have a guide for this kind of thing:

Let us start with a simple definition: spam is simply making only one or two classes of units, regardless of the situation.

posted on October 10th, 2010, 1:28 am

That doesn't work quite as well for the Borg, mind you.  Even the Scube is actually 4 different ships.  Beam, Interceptor, Regen, EM.  And a quick glance won't tell you what they are.

Sphere+ is a huge number of possible ships.  Just off the top of my head, spheres that are effective...

Assault Sphere (beams and torp)
Regen Sphere (we all know this one)
Prime Sphere (3 prime and a regen)
Battle Sphere (Beam, Torp, Regen x2)
Utility Sphere (Beam, Torp, Regen, Prime)

So that's 5 ships there, only two of which are actually viable 'dancers'.  The others are various forms of slugger, one of which is anti-science/anti-romulan.

And if your opponent is fielding the big guns, those scout cubes aren't really worth building.  And if you don't have the mixed tech ready, the Adaptors aren't worth it.  And Assims are slow.  So it's easily possible to see a Borg Fleet that is almost entirely spheres of various sorts, largely due to viability concerns merged with Connections limits minimizing the production of Diamonds and Cubes (or Pyramids for Assim).  Dodecs are a bit fragile for the kind of engagements where you don't want anything that can be rapidly alpha'd.

This, plus low numbers of ships in the first place makes 'spam' a flawed word with the Borg.  Unless you're actually spamming something like Probes or Detectors.  Or the game's gone on long enough that it's Cubeapalooza.

posted on October 10th, 2010, 9:36 am

the name prime sphere is given to 3 regen 1 prime spheres.

the 3 prime module sphere is rarely built now, but when romulans get their redo and rely on specials more then 3 prime might be a good anti romulan loadout. right now wiping everyone's special energy dont crush them.

imo the best sphere is the one that is hardest to kill. in which case its a 3 regen 1 holding sphere. the holding is there mainly to allow a double vinca dodeca to give it 1000 energy for more regen. also u can use holding as a combat tractor beam to stop escape. u have to force fire after though.

posted on October 10th, 2010, 12:38 pm

I like the Prime Sphere for a different reason against Rommies and Klingons.  I'm not really looking to stop their specials, though that is quite nice.  I'm looking to keep them from cloaking and running, since the Borg have...issues finding them afterwards.  Nice to make sure they don't have enough energy to cloak.  And a Prime Sphere drains energy at such a nightmarish rate that it's very good at that job.

posted on October 10th, 2010, 12:46 pm

I like the Prime Sphere for a different reason against Rommies and Klingons.  I'm not really looking to stop their specials, though that is quite nice.  I'm looking to keep them from cloaking and running, since the Borg have...issues finding them afterwards.  Nice to make sure they don't have enough energy to cloak.  And a Prime Sphere drains energy at such a nightmarish rate that it's very good at that job.

your sphere will be dead before it can fight them off though. a sphere without regen doesnt last very long.

posted on October 10th, 2010, 2:28 pm

Never send a Prime Sphere alone.  Ever.  It's a support vessel, though it hits plenty hard.  One of its best uses is to plink a romulan station with it just before it cloaks.  The cloak will drop in no time and take quite a while before it can come back up.

The big thing I see is that a Prime Sphere, or an Assault Sphere doesn't have the staying power of regen.  But the Regen Sphere doesn't have the damage output or side effects of a prime or Assault sphere.

Notably, Assimilate can be completely horrible by building Pyramids that have Regen.  That changes the ballgame a bit.  But that's a one-off stunt.

If you send a Prime Sphere backed up by a small force of Adaptors, the lower defense on the adaptors will usually draw fire, allowing the powerful beam of the Prime sphere to do it's work.

posted on October 10th, 2010, 3:55 pm

I'm guessing you are referring to single-player?  Spheres tend to draw a lot of fire in team games.

posted on October 10th, 2010, 8:21 pm

At which point, the Adaptors are free to pulp any large ships...which are usually the ones with enough firepower to be a threat to a Prime Sphere (which has high offense and defense).

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING exists in a vacuum.

posted on October 10th, 2010, 9:25 pm

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING exists in a vacuum.

(hehe - that's because that's the DEFINITION of a vacuum )

posted on October 10th, 2010, 10:28 pm

Never send a Prime Sphere alone.  Ever.  It's a support vessel, though it hits plenty hard. 

  When you say Prime Sphere .... do you mean a x4 Prime module Sphere?

  In game people refer to a x3 Regen / x1 Prime Module as a "Prime Sphere", partly because it uses a Prime mod and partly because it's primarily the most used Sphere.

  Just clarifying ...

posted on October 10th, 2010, 10:45 pm

3x is the max you can get - but yup, he meant that Prime Sphere (he stated that above too) 

posted on October 10th, 2010, 11:37 pm

Yep, the real Prime Sphere.  3 Prime/1 Regen.

High offense, high defense, and strips a target of it's special energy like a cokehead with a line.  Blink and you'll miss the depletion.

Only problem with that sphere is it's reduced repair speed.  But I can live with that.  One or two of them in a fleet makes for a real problem for the enemy, even if they aren't 'dancing spheres'.