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I am unable to bomb a planet to oblivion. Only one ship design has a bomb and then only 1. When I have 10-15 bombers on a planet the population grows. Is there some secret to talking the AI into building me ships with bombs?

Playing as Ackdar

Take over that design and re-do it as you desire would be the easiest.

ORIGINAL: CyclopsSlayer

Take over that design and re-do it as you desire would be the easiest.

Finding there is less automation and more required playing than many reviews lead you to believe.

Edit: I literally have 100 ships at this planet and not enough bombing damage....

Also, a bomb component (nuclear exterminator?) takes up 14 units. A capital ship has 1000 units. Telling me you can't throw a couple bombs on a capital ship?

Also, a bomb component (nuclear exterminator?) takes up 14 units. A capital ship has 1000 units. Telling me you can't throw a couple bombs on a capital ship?

The computer mostly only places components on designs if the templates call for them. If the Ackdarian capital ship template does not include bombardment weapons, the computer will not put bombard weapons on the capital ship (the template does call for bombardment weapons, but only asks for one). Given that bombardment missiles contribute nothing to the space battle and bombardment railguns are a bit weak by the time you can obtain them, it probably isn't that terrible for the standard template to not include a significant number of bombardment weapons on the capital ship. After all, the computer is going to be using these as its heavy fleet warships, and space dedicated to bombardment weapons takes away from its performance in its primary role as a heavy warship.

You can change what the computer designs will use if you edit the design templates, found in C:\Matrix Games\Distant Worlds Universe\designTemplates if you installed into the default directory, or you can design the ship yourself. You may also want to consider upgrading your bombardment weapons, as the early bombardment missiles do not perform particularly well.

Beyond that, any bombardment weapon, no matter how poor, will eventually cause enough damage to the planet quality that the planetary population becomes too large for the planet to support, at which point you will no longer need to worry about the population growth exceeding your ability to kill the populace.

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

Fair warning: I don't know if modifying the design templates affects games which are in progress. It might not do anything for your current game, but it will affect the next.

ORIGINAL: MegaGrubby
Edit: I literally have 100 ships at this planet and not enough bombing damage...

That's funny. My entire pirate military consists of 13 ships split into 2 fleets:

Attack Fleet

4 x Blaster (Class: Destroyer)
50 x Ultradense Armor
1 x Raptor System (stolen tech)
1 x Combat Targeting System
1 x Command Center
1 x Fleet Targeting System
1 x Countermeasures System
1 x Fleet Countermeasures System
2 x S2F4 Repair Bots
2 x Energy Converter
42 x MultiVector
44 x Vortex Engine
12 x Life Support
12 x Habitation Module
1 x Hyperdeny GW4000
1 x Torrent Drive
8 x HyperFusion Reactor
1 x Trace Scanner
20 x Meridian Shields
20 x Ultradense Fuel Cell
2 x Death Ray (stolen tech)
1 x Ion Defense
1 x Tractor Beam
8 x Phaser Lance
4 x Terminator Autocannon
16 x Titan Beam
Size = 1500, Cruise = 40, Turn = 57, Shields = 6400, Armor = 2000

1 x Lander (Class: Troop Transport)
1 x Command Center
1 x Countermeasures System
4 x Energy Collector
30 x Multivector
52 x Vortex Engine
12 x Habitation Module
12 x Life Support
1 x Medical Center
2 x Hyperfusion Reactor
20 x Ultradense Fuel Cell
8 x Massive Troop Compartment
10 x Meridian Shields
1 x Ion Defense
32 x Nuclear Exterminator
1 x Torrent Drive
32 x Ultradense Armor
2 x S2F4 Repair Bots
1 x Combat Targeting System
4 x Titan Beam
1 x Trace Scanner
1 x Advanced Proximity Array
1 x Scanner Jammer
1 x Hyperdeny GW4000
2 x Advanced Fighter Bay
Size = 1500, Cruise = 47, Turn = 42, Shields = 3200, Armor = 1280

2 x Exterminator (Class: Capital Ship)
1 x Command Center
1 x Combat Targeting System
1 x Fleet Targeting System
1 x Countermeasures System
1 x Fleet Countermeasures System
4 x S2F4 Repair Bot
4 x Energy Collector
20 x MultiVector
20 x Vortex Drive
2 x Advanced Fight Bay
12 x Habitation Module
12 x Life Support Module
1 x Hyperdeny GW4000
1 x Torrent Drive
4 x Hyperfusion Reactor
1 x Scanner Jammer
1 x Trace Scanner
1 x Advanced Proximity Array
10 x Meridian Shields
20 x Ultradense Fuel Cells
1 x Ion Defense
8 x Phase Lance
16 x Titan Beam
44 x Nuclear Exterminator
20 x Ultradense Armor
Size = 1500, Cruise = 18, Turn = 30, Shields = 3200, Armor = 800

So... seven ships, carrying a total of 16 infantry (1097K strength at Elite) with a firepower of 18,836 & 32 fighters, because why not? Perfectly capable of wiping out any AI made Space Port, with all their secondary Defense Bases, in under thirty seconds flat and bombing a thriving planet of fifteen billion people down to under twenty million survivors wandering ashes of a zero environment rating in under one minute.

Needless to say, no one is ever going to catch up because all I do is open the diplomacy screen, find whatever is their homework that year and send it right back into the stone age. Then I move onto to the next one.

I follow this up with my second fleet, which consists of exactly six identical ships:

6 x Harpoon Class: Cruiser
1 x Commnand Center
1 x Torrent Drive
25 x Ultradense Armor
8 x Assault Pods
2 x Energy Collector
76 x Vortex Engine
50 x MultiVector
20 x Ultradense Fuel Cell
20 x Meridian Shields
16 x Titan Beams
2 x Hyperfusion Reactor
12 x Habitation Module
12 x Life Support
1 x Countermeasures System
1 x Hyperdeny GW4000
4 x S2F4 Repair Bot
1 x Ion Defense
1 x Fleet Countermeasures System
1 x Fleet Targeting System
1 x Trace Scanner
8 x Terminator Autocannon
1 x Tractor Beam
1 x Raptor Targeting System (stolen tech)
1 x Advanced Fighter Bay
8 x Phaser Lance
1 x Proximity Detection Array
Size: 1500, Cruise = 69, Turn = 67, Shields = 6400, Armor = 100

Total firepower for that fleet is a measly 4320 plus 24 fighters. The boarding strength is 8688. Standard procedure is to set them to blockade the smoking husks of targets planets, then launch raiding parties one at a time until control is over 50%, then plant a Pirate Base and move on. Once it's built I come back, bring it up to 100% and add a Fortress.

In order to make sure that they never recover I send my construction ships (I only need 3) to build one of these in orbit over the target:

Planet Lockdown
1 x Command Center
4 x Energy Collector
2 x Hyperfusion Reactors
10 x Ultradense Fuel Cell
6 x Habitation Module
6 x Life Support
20 x Meridian Shields
1 x Docking Bay
5 x Massive Cargo Bay
8 x Advanced Fighter Bay
25 x Ultradense Armor
16 x Titan Beam
1 x Countermeasures System
1 x Combat Targeting System
1 x Gravity Well Projector
1 x Hyperdeny GW4000
1 x Area Transit Singularity
1 x Ion Defense
1 x Medical Center
1 x Recreation Center
4 x S2F4 Repair Bot
Size = 1025, Shields = 6400, Armor = 1000, Firepower = 564 plus 36 fighters.

So far I've never had any AI manage to break one of these, and it's pretty rare that any of them even survive long enough to retreat. At less than 2000cr of upkeep, the Pirate Bases/Fortress offsets the costs once they recover to about two billion people. Once they get to around five billion and start to build their first troops to attack my bases, that's when the first fleet returns to invade and take over completely.

Systematic assimilation of the galaxy made simple: Move in, vaporize everything in the system, bombard planet down to under under three billion people, raid loop to 50%, plant pirate base on the ground and defense base in orbit. When both are finished return, raid loop again to 100%, planet pirate fortress. When population hits five billion or they make more than two units of ground troops, invade with sixteen infantry units and curb stomp them. Thus properly absorbed build a regular starport, scrap defense base when finished (defense base remains to protect starport until construction is finished, which is why the defense bases have medical & recreation facilities for morale boosting purposes).

Entire ship force costs less than 30K per year in upkeep.

while I do aspire to run a pirate empire soon...this seems a bit off topic for that wall of text. I am trying to avoid slowing my game down by designing all my ships. It's going to take me forever as it is.

ORIGINAL: Aeson

Fair warning: I don't know if modifying the design templates affects games which are in progress. It might not do anything for your current game, but it will affect the next.

I did not see any affect in my current game. But it wasn't following the original designs either. Another "AI does what AI does" situation probably.