Sterilization Hubs (The Contingency) too tough?

[Doctor Proteus]

Are these machine worlds supposed to be so ludicrously hard to destroy? I have x4 fleets ranging from 100-350K each bombarding one and it's taken several years to get it down to about 12000 fortification(down from 20000), and then it spawned a few fleets which I had to deal with, and within about 20 seconds the Sterilization Hub repaired itself back to 17000 fortification.

Is it supposed to be this stupidly resilient?

I have orbital bombardment set to Light, if that factors into it.

[Bomber]

Originally posted by Evil_Lord_Proteus:

I have orbital bombardment set to Light, if that factors into it.

Thats the main factor. You have the lowest possible bombardment option. With "Armageddon" you would be twice as fast.

I had an 200k fleet bombarding with light and it took around 6 years (because each time a fleet spawns they stopped the bombardment to deal with the enemy fleet while the hub repaires). With armageddon bombardment it took me less than 2 years to destroy a hub.

[Doctor Proteus]

Originally posted by Bomber:

Originally posted by Evil_Lord_Proteus:

I have orbital bombardment set to Light, if that factors into it.

Thats the main factor. You have the lowest possible bombardment option. With "Armageddon" you would be twice as fast.

I had an 200k fleet bombarding with light and it took around 6 years (because each time a fleet spawns they stopped the bombardment to deal with the enemy fleet while the hub repaires). With armageddon bombardment it took me less than 2 years to destroy a hub.

And what about nations that only have access to Light and Limited? Seems like a flawed design to me.

[Astasia]

It's supposed to be fixed in 1.8.2, where planets wont regain defenses at full speed until a couple months after bombardment stops. So if a fleet comes in and distracts the bombarding fleet, you don't lose all or most of your progress.

[Bomber]

Originally posted by Evil_Lord_Proteus:

Originally posted by Bomber:

Thats the main factor. You have the lowest possible bombardment option. With "Armageddon" you would be twice as fast.

I had an 200k fleet bombarding with light and it took around 6 years (because each time a fleet spawns they stopped the bombardment to deal with the enemy fleet while the hub repaires). With armageddon bombardment it took me less than 2 years to destroy a hub.

And what about nations that only have access to Light and Limited? Seems like a flawed design to me.

well... It works^^ just takes very long, like I said -> 6 years with light stance in my case once. I think its pretty fine, because it kind of reflects your empires ethic.
And of course you can still speed it up by not attacking it with a 100k fleet, but instead attacking with a 500k fleet.

Even for gameplay it makes more sense this way. Contingency would be so laughable easy if you could just send 4 small fleets on every hub and basically wipe them out fast or "stop" them from spreading. Currently at contingency start I always (... well the two times I got it in 1.8.1) have to use my full fleet to destroy the first hub, giving contingency enough time to spread a little so it can be at little bit of an danger.

I really like it that the base mechanics of each crisis since 1.8 is challenging and you only have to decide at gamestart how challenging you want it to be.

Edit: Of course the fast repairing sucks^^ totally overread that part, but like Astasia wrote, this will be fixed.

[Doctor Proteus]

Originally posted by Bomber:

Originally posted by Evil_Lord_Proteus:

And what about nations that only have access to Light and Limited? Seems like a flawed design to me.

well... It works^^ just takes very long, like I said -> 6 years with light stance in my case once. I think its pretty fine, because it kind of reflects your empires ethic.
And of course you can still speed it up by not attacking it with a 100k fleet, but instead attacking with a 500k fleet.

Even for gameplay it makes more sense this way. Contingency would be so laughable easy if you could just send 4 small fleets on every hub and basically wipe them out fast or "stop" them from spreading. Currently at contingency start I always (... well the two times I got it in 1.8.1) have to use my full fleet to destroy the first hub, giving contingency enough time to spread a little so it can be at little bit of an danger.

I really like it that the base mechanics of each crisis since 1.8 is challenging and you only have to decide at gamestart how challenging you want it to be.

Edit: Of course the fast repairing sucks^^ totally overread that part, but like Astasia wrote, this will be fixed.

Can you only bomb a planet with one fleet at a time?

[Bomber]

Originally posted by Evil_Lord_Proteus:

Can you only bomb a planet with one fleet at a time?

yes

[Doctor Proteus]

Originally posted by Bomber:

Originally posted by Evil_Lord_Proteus:

Can you only bomb a planet with one fleet at a time?

yes

Oh I didn't know that, I had 4 fleets clustered around a hub with a fifth on the way. I could have been sending those other fleets to the other 3 hubs. Well, 2 hubs, one of them opened in the middle of enemy territory, so they can keep that one for a while...