Albion Prelude - Defending a sector?

[BryanNeff]

Hey all - so I've been doing other things - building complex, making money, etc. I finally thought I'd turn my attention to the war effort and such, only to find that Omicron Lyrae is now constantly swarmed by 3-4 Osaka's and dozens of other ships.

I want to clear the sector and keep it clear without having to micromanage the process - constantly buying new ships and repairing.

I built some Boreas's - up to 5 now. My first attempt was to use the wing system, but that's crap - they get separated too easily and picked off by Osaka's. I tried to use fleet, but again, with them not together, they just get butchered apart.

My most successful attempt was to have one 'leader' using defend sector, with the other 4 Boreas's protecting that one. That worked for awhile, but after initially taking out a couple dozen Osaka's, one will eventually die, and that will cascade.

Here's the thing.. There seems to be a limitless number of Osaka's. It's just a constant stream of them. Have they just built a huge army, and eventually I'll run them dry and things will slow down? or is there really just going to be an infinite stream of Osaka's into Omicron Lyrae that I have to contend with? Is there any reasonable way to defend that, OOS, without constantly having to replace ships?

Not really sure what to do. My traders keep exploding upon entering Omicron. I'm trying to play without any scripts/mods for steam achievements.

[pref]

War sectors are impossible to keep (they have red borders in universe map).
Both sides will keep respawning (M1s, M2s and all).

Even if you are friendly to both, the one for which you have lower rep will still attack your assets in those sectors.
Atm i have highest rank with both terran and argon race, still Terrans attack me because i only have 19% rep while 20% for Argon. This only happens when your out of sector, while IS they act friendly if you have the rep.

[ancienthighway]

It's not so much the Argon vs Terran rep, but your game start (CW or Terran) and which race owns the sector.

As a CW pilot (any race) if you build in a Terran owned war sector, Terran ships will destroy that station/complex if you are OOS, no matter how good your Terran rep is. Same with AI piloted ships. Same thing happens as a Terran pilot building/flying through the Argon owned war sectors.

[BryanNeff]

If the game just spawns ships automatically (doesn't bring them from pre-existing ships from another sector) - I guess that answers my question. Omicron Lyrae is just going to be a constant hellzone, and I'm going to have to deal with my trade ships getting destroyed there from time to time.

I was hoping to find a means to create a constant, regular force so powerfully defensive that it could survive the constant stream of Osaka's. Nothing else challenges my Boreas's - they tear through everything else. But a couple Osaka's will usually take out one. Left on SETA, it feels like any number of Boreas's would eventually be whittled away while OOS.

Unless anyone has recommendations or something I don't know about. Wing commands just separate my Boreas's so they don't act as a unified force, attacking at the same time. Set to defend sector, they spread out. I thought maybe fleet commands would act more wisely, but they don't seem to. Would be nice if it was smart enough to plant my missile frigates in the center of the sector and have them annihilate anything that comes through the gate, but that doesn't seem to be an option.

If there's any suggestions on how to make the sector relatively safe for traders, I'm all ears. I imagine if I had a stable, surviving force, at least the Osaka's and other ships may target it over my Mistrals. Otherwise, without mods, I'll just have to handle my losses.

[astreus]

Yes, and even if you left a ship docked, it's a mess.

Leave a ship docked (OOS) will work (as a argon) in OmLy but I left a fully loaded TS in Heretics End Argon trade station, just a few seconds, just take my nose to Asteriod Belt to see what in there, make a u-turn after the gate and return to HE - all seems ok but my TS was not docked anymore, didn't find it, no kill report, just gone.

I believe after player left a war sector, it might change ownership. This comes with a totally new set up/spam of stations - the old one beeing deleted - incl. you docked assets!

[Bill Huntington]

Your problem in the War Sectors will go away after the peace I presume.

When you are trying to defend a sector with you OOS, the most shields is perhaps the most important thing in your defender(s). The Boreas is a great ship, but only marginal for the task you have chosen. Four M2s have 6 x 2GJ shields. You can buy the Megalodon from the Boron. The Tyr, Osaka and Kyoto are Terran. (The Kyoto actually has 7 x 2 shields.)

Good Luck!

[pref]

Just go on with the plot if you want peace in war sectors.

Anyway with proper blacklists i dont get any trader losses there.
This involves blacklisting all sectors that have no jump beacon or gate, and path to/from that sector can lead through the war.

[MarvinTheMartian]

It's not so much the Argon vs Terran rep, but your game start (CW or Terran) and which race owns the sector.

As a CW pilot (any race) if you build in a Terran owned war sector, Terran ships will destroy that station/complex if you are OOS, no matter how good your Terran rep is. Same with AI piloted ships. Same thing happens as a Terran pilot building/flying through the Argon owned war sectors.

Really? This is contrary to what I understand from reading forum posts on the subject but I've never started the game as Terran or had Terran rep higher than Argon at any point to test it myself.

You're on a losing crusade if you intend to bring peace to OL through firepower, trying not to spoil anything - the game plot does provide an opportunity to improve things here. You can also add blacklists to your traders to stop them going into war sectors though.

As for the ships spreading out, have you tried assigning one lead Boreas to patrol sector or defend position and the others set to protect the leader? that should keep them all on task - at least until the leader is destroyed.

[NOO3TASTIC]

It's not so much the Argon vs Terran rep, but your game start (CW or Terran) and which race owns the sector.

As a CW pilot (any race) if you build in a Terran owned war sector, Terran ships will destroy that station/complex if you are OOS, no matter how good your Terran rep is. Same with AI piloted ships. Same thing happens as a Terran pilot building/flying through the Argon owned war sectors.

That isn't correct IMO. Just like pref said your assets in war sectors will be attacked by either Argon or Terran whoever has lower rep than the other with player irrespective of game start. I am playing a Poisoned Paranid right now. Around 5 days ingame game time and I have 26% top rank rep with Terrans and 20% with Argons. Argons attack my ships and satellites etc when I am OOS.

I am about to start the main plot after getting that last Starburst Shockwave cannon for Kyoto. Didn't build any factories etc for that stuff so far I am supplying those NPS fabs with Springblossoms CLS MK2 and then buying them. Would have been cool if I could choose which main plot I want to start Argon or Terran on this poisoned paranid game start. I luv that Hyperion Vanguard a bit too much

Unless anyone has recommendations or something I don't know about. Wing commands just separate my Boreas's so they don't act as a unified force, attacking at the same time. Set to defend sector, they spread out. I thought maybe fleet commands would act more wisely, but they don't seem to. Would be nice if it was smart enough to plant my missile frigates in the center of the sector and have them annihilate anything that comes through the gate, but that doesn't seem to be an option.

If there's any suggestions on how to make the sector relatively safe for traders, I'm all ears. I imagine if I had a stable, surviving force, at least the Osaka's and other ships may target it over my Mistrals. Otherwise, without mods, I'll just have to handle my losses.

With constant respawning of Argon or Terran M2 in war sectors it would be very hard to hold them. If I am not wrong those RRF ships jump mid sector as well. If they were coming through the gate then it might be a little bit easier. Best way to keep the sector safe is with M2 esp M2+ ships like Megalodon Kyoto etc. Megalodon works awesome in sector as well as OOS as a cap ship killer with 32 Photon Pulse Cannons it can mount. Also that attack all or defend sector command isnt very effective. You might want to try having one or two M2 with good shieldings running an Attack Cap ships command two three M2 taking out nearest enemy of that cap ship and one or two protecting the leader that will keep all those M2 near each other and should improve survivability.
OOS losses mostly occurs when the lead M2 is targetting an M7 or lower ship where as it is being targeted and being fired upon by an enemy M2. Thats why one or more M2/M7 on protect leader will help rectify this.

[ancienthighway]

With 3 saying contrary to me, I have to assume my experience thus far hasn't set up my rep to show me this. My bad.

[Cycrow]

i can confirm its defiantly the race with the lower rep that will attack. I cant remember what happens when both are exactly equal, i think it will be the Terrans that attack then

[Monkeyfister]

To keep your Traders safe, use MK3 Blacklist for your UT/LT/STs.
Use CAGLOCK for your CLS Traders.

Both let you ban Pilots from going into any sector(s) you choose, and even specific stations can be excluded in the case of MK3 Blacklist.

As an Argon Pilot, keep them not only out of the War Zone Sectors, but out of ALL Terran Space-- including Segaris Region until you can end the War. They WILL be attacked.

ETA: Killing Terrans hurts the Rep. It can be repaired later, but like the Yaki, it's best to stay on at least half-way decent terms with them as best as possible.

[NOO3TASTIC]

ETA: Killing Terrans hurts the Rep. It can be repaired later, but like the Yaki, it's best to stay on at least half-way decent terms with them as best as possible.

I know but I want to lay waste to their entire space. Destroy every station and take out dozens possibly hundreds of terran ships till I get my hands on some of the jump beacons. They started the war I want to give them war at least till the completion of plot and brokering peace later on

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

There is a bug(s) with the Blacklist Manager that can result in UTs entering hostile sectors. A fix for that can be found in my signature under "Updated TC/AP Bonus Pack".

[pref]

I know but I want to lay waste to their entire space. Destroy every station and take out dozens possibly hundreds of terran ships till I get my hands on some of the jump beacons. They started the war I want to give them war at least till the completion of plot and brokering peace later on

Just what i'm about to do
As for OOS defense without losses - its more random then in TC: I have 6 terran capships (Tyrs Kyotos and an Osaka) defending a xenon sector, and i still get hull damage from a single J and a few fighters. In TC 3 Tyrs could defend any gate.

By the way - Terran rep is really easy to increase with high pirate rep. You can get friendly in one mission in their unknown sectors.
Not sure if it's specifically for the Shady Business plot, or works the same way the entire game.

[Nanook]

...
As an Argon Pilot, keep them not only out of the War Zone Sectors, but out of ALL Terran Space-- including Segaris Region until you can end the War. They WILL be attacked....

No, they won't, unless it's by pirates or xenon. As long as your Terran rep is good, your ships will not be attacked by the Terrans, except possibly in the war sectors.

The game does not recognize the player as either Terran or Argon, only as 'player race'. So the Terrans will not attack player assets if the player used one of the Commonwealth starts, as long as the player's rep is good. And vice versa.

[NOO3TASTIC]

...
As an Argon Pilot, keep them not only out of the War Zone Sectors, but out of ALL Terran Space-- including Segaris Region until you can end the War. They WILL be attacked....

No, they won't, unless it's by pirates or xenon. As long as your Terran rep is good, your ships will not be attacked by the Terrans, except possibly in the war sectors.

The game does not recognize the player as either Terran or Argon, only as 'player race'. So the Terrans will not attack player assets if the player used one of the Commonwealth starts, as long as the player's rep is good. And vice versa.

Correct. Only time player assets will be attacked by Terran or Argon is in the war sectors when player is OOS. Only one of the factions that has lower rep with player than other will attack assets in war sectors OOS.