At what point do the Antarans attack? i am at turn 76 and not sign of them yet.?

[Messi]

At what point do the Antarans attack? i am at turn 76 and not sign of them yet.?

[Rawrshuga]

They typically attack some time after the first Research Labs are built on Antaran Ruins by yourself or another Race. If Antaran Victory conditions are off then they never appear (nor do the ruins).

[frdnwsm]

To a certain extent, their appearance depends on the game parameter settings that you use. The CNN announcement that they have retuned occurs, on the average, somewhere around turn 75-100. The first actual attack should follow in about 25 turns.

[Exoclyps]

The precise answer is 70 - 90 turns in an unmodded game. After that it's 25 - 45 turns between each attack.

[frdnwsm]

So, galaxy size, starting tech age, research speed setting and time of first ruins investigations have no effect at all? I haven't kept strict records, but I'm fairly sure I saw one first appearance at 100 turns.

Bah, I'll have to pay closer attention from now on.

[FourteenFour]

well you might not see them unless you are highest score but I have never made it past 90 without a news announcement

[Exoclyps]

Most recent version seems to ignore parts of the AntaranSettings file, but the file is set to spawn at "min: 70" and "max: 90". Which from my testings during earlier versions did seem correct (I had the Antarans Spawn at 5-10 turns when I tested for my Antarans Mod.

[Messi]

Thanks, I got him by them around turn 80-90. Spot on :P

[Saxon]

Even though they start to appear you need to make sure you have the highest fleet strength for them to target you.

Personally I turned Antaran victory off because once you're on top of the ranking they keep spawning every 50 turns with clockwork precision. The spawns are designed to be slightly stronger than your entire combined fleet, so you need to come up with some very gamey tactics such as deliberately staying understrength until the last moment in order to have a fighting chance. Defeating their fleets eventually absorbed so much of my attention that I couldn't really focus on anything else for no reward at all other than feeling like a badass when the news praises me for it.

[frdnwsm]

Radiarion shields help ward off most of the biobombs of their early attacks. Flux shields do the same for their mid strength assaults. So, you can just throw those up on any threatened worlds and ignore them for much of the game.

Personally, I'll fight off as many attacks as I can, just for the fun of it, since the AI races ... except for the Meklars ... are pretty much pushovers in combat. I certainly won't turn the Antarans off, and miss out on the end battle. I usually don't need more than 2/3 of my fleet to defeat their incursions.

On the other hand, if most of my ships are busy beseiging an enemy race's systems, I won't break that off to oppose the Antarans. The planetary shields and local marines will have to do the job in that case. Some population will usually get killed off, but enough survive to keep the planet fairly viable.

[Saxon]

Yeah, I know I can ignore them altogether. But that is just another reason for me not to activate them. I'll not have to deal with them either way and I don't feel I'm missing anything. Maybe I'd be more interested if they actually tried to conquer the galaxy like they claim their goal is. Instead they just strike the same spot over and over again using the same tactics and without sending ground troops. If they invaded using ground forces the AI would get murdered, so that is probably why. The first time I faced them I felt hyped up by the news broadcasts about this ancient and advanced empire resurfacing. But without any reward for fighting them or them even having a real agenda I just lost interest after a game or two with them in it. I'm just glad they are optional so every player can decide for themselves if they are worth it.

[cb6dba]

I would prefer them to be like they were in Moo2. At the start of the game they are stong and you have little chance but eventually, you start to beat off their attacks.

At some point you turn the tables and go for them.
I would also have liked beating them to not have been a victory condition, just an end to the their threat and some usefull tech.

[corpowat]

it was as i finished the lab on the ruins the 1 st attack i took em all out 20 turns they came back for a rematch and i got my butt kicked so its best that they come in lster than sooner lol