Planet buster attack ground?

[L29Ah]

I've noticed a pair of cities located a tile apart and want to strike a fusion planet buster between them, but i don't seem to be able to attack an empty tile with it. Can i?

[Buster's Uncle]

Nope - missiles have to have building or unit targets.

What you might try -if this is absent a vendetta and you can't just target one of the bases- is build a mindworm and move it to the square, release it into the wild, then nuke the worm.

[Eadee]

can a planet-buster self destruct?

I mean, it'd be quite a loss in damage, but...

[Buster's Uncle]

I've never used missiles much, and I'm failing to remember for sure whether they won't self-destruct or only do a regular unit's worth of exploding - I think they just won't.

Most of what I know is from fooling around with tectonic and fungus packages, which are frequently irritating to use when you can't find a worm or something to target - and I always play worm-heavy maps...

[vonbach]

Oh just FYI I'm pretty sure you can "accidentally"  blow up an enemy base or two while shooting a planet buster at an ordinary mindworm.
Its been awhile but I think the computer wont register it as an actual attack.

[L29Ah]

Nope, AIs got pissed even though i've attacked a lone mind worm.

[Buster's Uncle]

AIs always get cheesed over PBs.

[vonbach]

Maybe it was a bug. Bear in mind this was over a decade ago and when I was playing on my Mac.
That version of the game never did work quite right.

[Buster's Uncle]

Naw; you can always nuke wild mindworms, if that's what you're talking about.

[vonbach]

Yes that was what I meant.

[Dio]

The reason that the AI always become angry over the application of a planet buster involves the fact that it registers as a major atrocity. The registration of an action as a major atrocity causes the AI to declare vendetta against that individual and to expel him or her from the planetary council.

[Vishniac]

What is strange is, you can nerve-gas the aliens to death but using a planet buster against them triggers also vendetta from all AI human factions.

[bvanevery]

What is strange is, you can nerve-gas the aliens to death but using a planet buster against them triggers also vendetta from all AI human factions.

They were well schooled in Carl Sagan's theories of Nuclear Winter.     Or this game's equivalent, Noah's Flood.  You can always vote to repeal those atrocity prohibitions.  I must admit I was quite surprised when I discovered I could nerve gas aliens to my heart's content, in a recent game.  17 years of play, I have no history of nerve gassing anything.  It was really, really useful for completely destroying remote alien bases that I didn't want to develop into real bases anyways, and that were going to drop to size 1 on conquest anyways.  Saves one the trouble of executing the fleeing alien colonists.  I even did a roleplay of that game, as Sister Miriam.

[Misanthrope]

What is strange is, you can nerve-gas the aliens to death but using a planet buster against them triggers also vendetta from all AI human factions.

OMG Serious?!  I have to try this now! 




Also, yes, is true, planet buster needs a target.
Also, also... don't try to transport them to ally bases; that's bad.

[Yitzi]

What is strange is, you can nerve-gas the aliens to death but using a planet buster against them triggers also vendetta from all AI human factions.

Yeah; PBs count as atrocities regardless.  The reason given is the ecological effect, but that doesn't really make sense since tectonic missiles have the same ecological effect and are not atrocities at all.  (And that's not getting into the weirdness where, unless changed in alphax.txt, the ecological effect is dependent on the atrocity status, to the point where repealing the U.N. charter causes PBs to not affect ecodamage.)