Star Killers?

[Saathiya]

I can't find anything on the Internet about this. Osirians, I think they're called?

There's an event where a star is being "scanned". Then later, a pyramid appears and destroys the star, along with everything in the system, unless it is defeated.

Problem is, it can't be defeated. It kills every ship in one hit, and I had fighters on it for about 30 minutes straight damaging it, and its color never changed. It seems invincible.

I finally managed to get an empire off the ground, and then this thing came along. Now I have to start over. Again. So, I'm close to giving up on this game.

Does anybody have any advice, even a spoiler, about how to deal with this thing?

[Fantoche]

Wait until you get battleships and use photon torpedoes and Dark star lances. I went in with 4 battleships, 5 cruisers and lost one battleship only.

[Saathiya]

I keep getting it too early for that, but I've made it far enough into the game to see that it won't slowly consume the star map.

This event could actually be built into a much grander story, without much new code required, I think. The key things are that it would need to hit unsettled systems until there are none, rotate near each homeworld in turn, and mirror grand strategy to beat (but on a smaller scale) such that the player ultimately has to make it happen.

So, maybe sending unarmed ships to it gradually lets you learn to communicate until you can help them. OR research can lead to an artificial star. OR you can pay another empire to deal with it as they see fit (based on personality). OR destroy it.

Between that, the Masters, and the ultmate 4x aspirations toward victory, that would be one hell of a story.

[Fantoche]

Originally posted by Meliora:

I keep getting it too early for that, but I've made it far enough into the game to see that it won't slowly consume the star map.

This event could actually be built into a much grander story, without much new code required, I think. The key things are that it would need to hit unsettled systems until there are none, rotate near each homeworld in turn, and mirror grand strategy to beat (but on a smaller scale) such that the player ultimately has to make it happen.

So, maybe sending unarmed ships to it gradually lets you learn to communicate until you can help them. OR research can lead to an artificial star. OR you can pay another empire to deal with it as they see fit (based on personality). OR destroy it.

Between that, the Masters, and the ultmate 4x aspirations toward victory, that would be one hell of a story.

It definately is part of a larger story! You just need to start by keeping the direct threat under control, the rest comes after.. and it's pretty satisfying too, it leads to an ending.

[Saathiya]

Originally posted by Fantoche Dreemur:

It definately is part of a larger story! You just need to start by keeping the direct threat under control, the rest comes after.. and it's pretty satisfying too, it leads to an ending.

Then I have even more reason to replay! I've managed to deal with the Masters in my current game, and I'm steamrolling through an annihilation victory. After this, another run at it is a sure thing.

[Fantoche]

Originally posted by Meliora:

Originally posted by Fantoche Dreemur:

It definately is part of a larger story! You just need to start by keeping the direct threat under control, the rest comes after.. and it's pretty satisfying too, it leads to an ending.

Then I have even more reason to replay! I've managed to deal with the Masters in my current game, and I'm steamrolling through an annihilation victory. After this, another run at it is a sure thing.

If you can keep the masters under control you'll have no problems with the Osiris. Once done, you might have between 200-400 turns more to go before getting the story ending, likely more if you're doing it without being at war with everyone.

[SandRoc]

The Star Destroyer is actually really easy to kill with EMP Torpedoes, which prevent the main cannon from firing. Earlier EMP weapons might also work.

Just checked in battle editor, standard EMP weapons dont seem to work, neither do Dischargers/Sublimators. But you can always predict where the starkiller is hitting from, so just customize your fleet to have a heavily osirian armored tank side Edit: Or front.

[Saathiya]

I think the trick for the Star Killer is to use fighters, like a few people have noted. That's the way I'm going to go when I try again, since it shows up so early. An expansionist empire that builds up command points quickly and has a focus on production should make it reasonably workable. This will only be a problem in games where one of the opponents is going for the tech victory.

That may be another topic too. I just completed the game for the first time, and with maxed research traits and a constant focus on research, when I invaded the Devoted I discovered, colony by colony, that they had finished the entire tech tree through Ascendance techs. If the maximum research rate the player can reasonably achieve isn't enough to overtake them sometimes, then the only strategy to deal with them is to invade very, very early, or really push hard for successful spying.

So, it still seems designed such that destroying the Star Killer is mutually exclusive with winning the game in some circumstances.

Also, as part of this after action analysis, it's worth mentioning that the Star Killer does seem bugged in a way that helps the player. I had it come back and destroy a star it had already destroyed, and the system was referred to as %SYSTEM in all the game text. Then, it never came back again. I don't think that's supposed to happen.

The AI needs its research rate either turned down or simulated fully. It's too easy to tell that the simulation is cheated. Your mileage may vary, of course. And this would be moot if the AI empires were harassed by Masters and the Star Killer as much as the player.

If the AI is cheated elsewhere in the game's design, then big kudos to Zero because I could not tell, and that is the exact foible that ruined Civilization: Beyond Earth. So, for the most part, whatever Zero is doing, he's doing it right. A little more polish, and this is AAA quality, in my opinion. I think that if Zero keeps up progress as well as between SD1 and SD2, and builds on SD2 without following in MOO's footsteps anymore, then this franchise is going to absolutely thrive.

[Пью виски]

Hi, friend! I built a Bunch of missile frigates. The problem of the ship of the pyramid is that it has no shields and he has a long cooldown. To kill them is not a problem) I Have problems with the masters. Terribly tired to get out of the hole.

[Пью виски]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=646107668

So much to destroy the osiran

[saxxon]

Not sure why you are having such difficulty on this. Certainly it pays to save every so often, and before major conflicts if you wish to follow a game to conclusion so at some point you have to figure out how to trade to keep economy humming, research and colonize enough planets to make a good fleet but not hamper research and piss off trading partners.

That said, hitting Krazy Eddy's and getting the stuff to research Dual Mass Drivers, Phoenix cannon help a lot. When you make ships, ensure you have enough capacitors and power extra to allow the weapons to fire freely. As Federation one of my best designs in early mid game is the Fast Cruiser with 8 Dual Mass Drivers and a combat duration of around 500-600 seconds of ammo. There is enough power to fire two of the DMDs each second (4 shots), they recharge in 6.4 seconds on Rapid Fire. So I get a string of 16 shots, a 2 second pause and another ripfire. Have a good fleet of Corvettes with Phoenix Guns and shields, decent frigates with Fusion Beams or Graviton Beams. Getting to Shield Class III helps, but its all about damage.

The thing takes around a million damage. So having several cruisers as above, plus numerous Fusion Beam Frigates will whittle it down quickly. Only lose a half dozen ships to its weapon most times.

The bonus - after you kill it, you research the Star Lance. 9600 damage, 1600 range (it actually fires for like 5 seconds and does around 25k damage in my experience). Very long cooldown of 30 seconds, and 3000 power to fire. This means you need a Battleship at least to support one or two. My patent design on that currently is the evasion BB hull with a Star Lance on either side, the beam upgrade modules on each (unsure if they actually do help, but maybe that's why it does such outstanding damage), 3000 plus in capacitor power and 3000 free power. They are one trick ponies, but they do the trick very well. Outranges anything, will wreck cruisers or less in a single shot, 2-3 such ships will toast enemy BBs. They are just vulnerable since they pretty much have nothing for armor or other weapons. But my fleet of skirmishers run interference while these Star Killer Jrs take out major ships every 15 seconds (two guns, enough power to ensure they fire on availability).

Don't ignore the Ossirians, its a big gift. My question is just - how many turns from first appearance till they return?

[Ingeloak]

I got the encounter to investigate the Osirans. The first time, I only researched them, which resulted in the bigger ship and problems. Lost 2 systems and reloaded an early save. The second time they showed up, I immediately attacked their small group of frigates and destroyed them. The wreckage had an armor plating remnant I researched to get Osiran armor (better than Steel, weaker than Plasteel, but had beam energy resistance)

[j1013]

Originally posted by Ingeloak:

I got the encounter to investigate the Osirans. The first time, I only researched them, which resulted in the bigger ship and problems. Lost 2 systems and reloaded an early save. The second time they showed up, I immediately attacked their small group of frigates and destroyed them. The wreckage had an armor plating remnant I researched to get Osiran armor (better than Steel, weaker than Plasteel, but had beam energy resistance)

I had the same experience as Ingeloak & the Osiran Plating. After that they did not show up again.
It seems you have two options with the Osirans:

1. Fight the first time they show up (vs 3 Small Frigates) & get the Osiran Plating. & That's the end.
2. Scan & get the research project (Doubles the power of your Fusion Beams, Fusion Power Plants and Fusion Engines) - However the Osirans show up again soon after with the large Pryamid and several smaller Frigates. If you Defeat them you can then research the Starlance and build the StarKiller.


Notes:
1. It seems there is no possibility to get BOTH the Osiran Plating AND the Fusion Bonus.
2. The Masters ALSO get the Fusion Bonus if you get it.

Also, If I have the tech for Battleships I've found a good way is to have perhaps 4 Battleships with Dual Mass Drivers or Subspace Artillery to tackle the large pyramid. Put the Artillery on the sides of the ship, and have the Forward Section with Shields or Armor. Also have some shields in the Centre of the Ship. Don't bother with extra shields on the sides or engines as the Pryamid will only shoot at you from the front. Also you don't need much engines on the ship as you don't need to move. I try to include 2 Fusion Beams to tackle the frigates which will attack after the pyramid is destroyed.

[Nia]

Hello, i may be a couple years late but i just wanted to add my part lol,

the timing between when they leave and when they reappear seems random; ive had it from 5-30 turns, and in one case they never came back (i scanned).
out of a bunch of games, i've only ever been screwed over by them once a couple ago, where they took out the star on my main production crystal asteroid.

today i scanned them, and then fought them and won, when they landed in one of my allies systems. it took 2 ships, here are the stats:

2x Impregnable Titan (damage under 1k may not do anything to armor)

12x Spinal Antimatter Cannons
(arc+overload+rapid+range)
(Est. 2k dmg at the range, 8s charge)
4x Cluster cannons
(arc+overload+rapid)
(Est. 500 dmg, 3.2s charge)
side weapons with arc extended wouldnt target some reason

i had 12x class 3 large shields, around 500k shielding (496~k)
if i hadnt had the second ship i would have barely lost.

after killing it, i completed the second research and got the starkiller weapon and can apparently make the ship, its unlikely that ill get through draining 10 stars tho lol, hope someone can report on them doing so lol

[Nia]

Update: i drained 10 stars. everything went boom.

[Fantoche]

Originally posted by Nia:

Update: i drained 10 stars. everything went boom.

Best ending ever.