Matrix Games Forums

So, I recently started a game of DW and according to the awesome Galactopedia, it was suggested I could build research stations near black holes in order to gain a research bonus.

However, whenever I try to build any type of station near a black hole (research, resort, defensive) it IMMEDIATELY explodes upon commencement of construction. Like, the constructor stops moving and immediately there is an explosion under it (the station dying) and then the constructor just moves on to another mission.

I've tried manually placing the research stations on top of the black hole, on the outer edge of the black hole, right-clicking and building from the galaxy map, etc.

I've also noticed that non of my constructors have even attempted to build a research station even though we are well aware of TWO perfect research stars.

Anyone have any ideas as to what could be going on? Am I missing something obvious?

heh

Don't do that.

Black holes aren't gentle.

You need to place the station within the hashed area (as viewed with no ships near it). I usually put mine halfway out. If you place the station too close to the accretion disk, you risk your ships +- warp point placing them too near the disk and getting sucked in.


K

Krob,

Thanks for the attempted assistance. The problem is, I'm pretty sure I've done what you are suggesting regarding the "hashed area." I've attached a screenshot to illustrate my situation more. The red "X's" the locations I've attempted to manually build resorts, research stations, etc.

Keep in mind, please, that the constructors will not AUTOBUILD bases here, or at any of the other research areas I'm aware of either.

First black hole research base I build was constructed at the outer mark you have shown. This was easily build but got no research bonus. I have build later research bases at what is closer to your second mark, again without problem. I've even dared a resort base as close to the black whole as your inner mark. This was also build without problem.

The only issues I encounter is
- I still sometimes right-click on the black-hole "star" and choice build there - this loses you one construction ship, every time.
- It is hard to tell if something is inside the "star system" or not. I usually error on the side of caution here, and have every ship leave the area before trying to select a location for building.

Btw. I got tired of having universal research stations called "Energy Research" or "Industry Research", so I now build Black Hole Observertoriums based on a specialized resort base. Black Holes, fun the whole(some) family!

Decided to do a bit more testing so I started a new game, found another black hole and told a construction ship to build a base in similar positions to those marked on my screenshot. In this new game it works FINE. My ships do not take damage near the black hole (or near as they do in the other game anyhow) and I'm able to build facilities. Is it perhaps a bug related to that game? Because it seems that all black holes, neutron stars, etc. cause ships to take damage and facilities to die immediately in that game.

Maybe they do take damage, but the damage is usually easily handled by ship shields? Some races seems to have different automatic ship designs, and some build almost all non military ships without shields by default. From reading on forum, it appears some older patch versions had much more dangerous black holes. Could the first game be older than 1.0.6.0?

The first game and second game are running the same version. The ship has 600 shields max. Upon entering the area, no matter how I tell ti to build, it takes around 150 shield damage then progressively takes more. I mean, in theory, if it regenerated faster I could beat the damage but that still would NEVER allow me to construct a research outpost, unless, somehow, I could have it INSTANTLY build the stations shield component first and that shield component would need to be enough that the BH wouldn't hurt it.

When near the black hole, the entire screen flashes a "purple" color at times. I assumed it was an effect of the black hole....I'm not sure if I've seen it occur in the second game now that I think about it?

I tried a few more things and came up with another screenshot. Note how far my ship is away from the black hole. It is STILL taking shield damage from the black hole. Something tells me this is NOT the norm.

Can anyone confirm?

Can we get a Sector Zoom view? I've got a feeling you are building at a Black Hole that is in or near a Cosmic Storm (lightning on the map), these storms are very big, and extend further sometimes than the Gas Cloud they are in. I've never lost a ship or station to a Blackhole so I don't know what happens, but I assumed they got sucked in rather than took shield damage. Storms do cause Shield and then Hull damage though.