quote:Originally posted by dagger43

ok, when I first used sentinels, I didn't think you had to be in them, lol! I'm sure it's a common mistake. But I would get like 4 decked-out sentinels and just let them sit on top of my planet

That's another question...later on in the game, do sentinels really make THAT much of a difference?


No. Unless the sysop has modifed sentinels (either better odds, or more fig/shield capacity), they are seldom of any use after the first few days. Depending on the quality of the players, they can be useless after the first hour. You would be better served in most cases keeping the figs on your lv2+ cit than on tholians. If your planets aren't lv2, then you shouldn't even bother defending them at all. Having one of your guys #SD# is not worth the slight defensive bonus that the tholian provides.

Back in the day (early 90's), the Sentinels were of some value because most games were 1,000 turns or less, universes were smaller, and playing tactics weren't as advanced. Today, they're more of a curiosity than anything, although some sysops beef up Tholian style ships in fighters, shields, and defensive combat odds.

The Sentinel provides 26,000 combat points (6,500 fighters/shields x 4) in defense of a planet. An ISS can take that down with 17,350 fighters. A Flagship can take that down with 21,700 fighters. 25,000 fighters, at 240 per fighter costs 6 million credits. In a 1,000 turn game, one red makes more than that in a day. Even a red working alone will make that much in a day. As Traitor said, they're useless after the second or third day. If your planets are at level 2, the fighters on them get 3-1 odds in defense.

Fighters on most unmanned ships, btw, are worse than having the same fighters in the sector. Besides sitting there as deadweight and doing nothing to inhibit attacks, an unmanned ship only gets half the defensive odds of a manned ship. In other words, an unmanned Tholian with the full 6,500 fighters and shields (at 1-1 defensive odds), would take about 3,250 fighters to capture or destroy.

quote:Originally posted by midnight
Fighters on most unmanned ships, btw, are worse than having the same fighters in the sector. Besides sitting there as deadweight and doing nothing to inhibit attacks, an unmanned ship only gets half the defensive odds of a manned ship. In other words, an unmanned Tholian with the full 6,500 fighters and shields (at 1-1 defensive odds), would take about 3,250 fighters to capture or destroy.

Actually, the tholian is a bit of a curiosity there. It gets the same odds manned or unmanned.

I set it up on my TWGS and attacked an unmanned tholian with a tholian, and it only got half the normal odds (e.g. 200 fighters did 400 damage).

quote:Originally posted by midnight

I set it up on my TWGS and attacked an unmanned tholian with a tholian, and it only got half the normal odds (e.g. 200 fighters did 400 damage).

That's odd. I just now tested it and it behaved as I previously said. Was the tholian corporate? Was the planet corporate? Was the twgs version 3.11.55? In a completely stock game (fresh bang) with a merchant cruiser attacking a tholian, this is the result I got:

Attack 1 [1]'s unmanned Tholian Sentinel (2,496-2,500) (Y/N) [N]? Yes
How many fighters do you wish to use (0 to 750) [0]? 100

You lost 100 fighter(s), 2,396 remain.
You destroyed 22 enemy fighters, 2,478 remain.

Command [TL=00:00:00]:[92] (?=Help)? :

You're probably right. I didn't set it up too elaborately and probably didn't go the corporate route.

quote:Originally posted by midnight

You're probably right. I didn't set it up too elaborately and probably didn't go the corporate route.


I have been told that if either the planet(s) or ship(s) aren't corporate, they won't get the bonus. I have never actually tested this myself, I just always make sure they are corp.

They do need to be corp.. I have tested it and another factor on the corp ships if they have a IG on them and it's personal ship it will hold the corp memebers also...[^]