Can't Bombard Planets

[Taliesyn]

Okay, obviously I missed something, but I cannot seem to find any way to bombard a planet manually (say, to take out a missile battery so I can invade). If I put the game on auto during a tactical batte, the computer will bombard the planet, but I can't figure out how to do it manually.

What am I missing?

Also, it seems missile batteries might be a little TOO tough. Every planet I've managed to take out so far (via autoplay) has only had the missile battery destroyed when I completely sterilized the planet.

[Bansheedragon]

I dont know if its intended though I suspect it may be a bug.
If you have ships with both heavy and light weapons, then it seems you are for some reason unable to attack a planet if you have not fired your light weapons.

As far as I know, only Heavy mount weapons and bombs can attack a planet, thought I'm not sure about missiles/torpedoes.

Might want to ask in the support forums if its a bug.

[Lithari]

It would be cool if you could specifically target defence structures when bombing a planet....maybe it could be a feature they add in at some point.

[Taliesyn]

That could explain it - I tend to give all my ships point defenses, rather than putting all my anti-missile capability in just a couple ships. (For whatever reason, my all-light-weapons ships always vanish the turn after I give their fleet Bombard orders.)

I *THINK* I've seen my ships launch missiles at a planet in the combat screen, but I'm not entirely sure.

Anyway, thanks for the heads-up!

[palkkipantteri]

you cannot bombard planets with light weapons. bombs, torpedoes and heavy and regular beams can be used to bombard planets. It does not matter if you have mixed size beams. you use only those that can attack.

if you want manually attack planet just press A or click that attack button and then point it at a planet and click. weapons panel should point out if you can't use some weapon for some reason, like out of range or out of arc.


for me it seems that i cannot invade anything in my current game, i just blow everything up and colony goes along with defences.

i have one guestion though... could you use your transport ships(with ground attack pods) to land your troops in tactical combat? Now i don't see the option to blow up defences and invade at the same turn.

[Taliesyn]

Sorry, editing, shitty mood from work.

Anyway, I'm fully aware of using the A key to attack. It didn't work, nor did disabling light weapons and THEN trying to attack the planet. I'm also aware you can't use light weapons to bombard. Trust me, I've been playing 4x games since there were 4x games, and inability to bombard planets with light weapons is something of a standard feature.

That said, it wasn't working today either, then after a reboot for another reason, it started working.

THAT has me wondering.

Edit 2: In regards to landing troops during tactical - no, you cannot. You need to use the 'invade' button, and then go through the 20 rounds of tactical combat if there are any enemy defenses in the sector. THEN you should get your invasion screen. That is, assuming you don't glass the planet while destroying the defenses, something that is insanely easy to do.

[Bansheedragon]

About you not being able to invade, in case you dont know.

The reason you cannot invade could be because there are planetary defenses you have not taken out.
You need to take out both space and ground defenses before you can invade

[palkkipantteri]

that is what i meant. in my opinion you should be able to invade/land troops on tactical screen if defences are taken out. that makes killing transports a priority. make it like current system that defences has to be taken out or that they try to kill some of the troops etc.

[Daggath]

I would also like to see an option to have your ships only disable a planet to allow for invasion.
A few times now I have ended up glassing a planet while attempting to disable its defenses for an invasion.

[FrozenFallout]

I would also like to see an option to have your ships only disable a planet to allow for invasion.
A few times now I have ended up glassing a planet while attempting to disable its defenses for an invasion.

I agree, I cant seem to not glass a planet if it has a missile base on it. Would really like an option like (take out defenses) in the strategic view so I don't bomb the planet into nothing. I have yet to take over a planet with a missile base by anything other then glassing the planet.

[Zaimat]

If you give the Bombard order on the galaxy map it will bomb until the colony is completely destroyed. I think we will change this to 'Destroy' to make it clear.

But if you just give the orbit order or manually move near it, automode will just disable their defenses. But I'll test this, may be due to some changes it's not working as intended.

As for regular mount weapons, they will no longer miss every time as of today's update. Light weapons cannot be fired on planets, everything else should work, though bombs deal full damage and are best vs planetary attacks.

[True_poser]

> automode will just disable their defenses

That's exactly what it tries to do.
However, in somewhat like one time out of three, the population ends before defences' hp does.

It may make sense with fanatical/devoted, but usually civilians should be afraid of collateral damage.

[Bansheedragon]

If you give the Bombard order on the galaxy map it will bomb until the colony is completely destroyed. I think we will change this to 'Destroy' to make it clear.

But if you just give the orbit order or manually move near it, automode will just disable their defenses. But I'll test this, may be due to some changes it's not working as intended.

As for regular mount weapons, they will no longer miss every time as of today's update. Light weapons cannot be fired on planets, everything else should work, though bombs deal full damage and are best vs planetary attacks.

Like True_poster says, I have tried this and far too many times the population on a planet is wiped out long before the planetary defenses are destroyed.
A few times I have not even managed to get the planetary defenses to half HP before the planets population was obliterated.

Simply put, the planetary defenses are too strong.
They either need less HP or you need to be able to specifically target those.
I think being able to specifically target planetary defenses would be much more interesting and realistic, than just doing a general bombardment of the planet, if its possible.