Novalith Cannon

I am about to make my first Novalith Cannon but before I do I have some questions first.

First off, here is my situation. My forward choke-point planet is right next to the Pirate Base where they have 250+ ships there. I am growing tired of having to pay 2,000 credits to pay them off, so I want to destroy them. The only problem is, even though my fleet is the biggest (out of the 3 factions) I doubt it would come out in one piece if I invaded the pirate home world. At the same time, my other forward choke-point planet is right next to an Advent-held asteroid, and they have been stockpiling their fleet there for a while now. I would like to be able to deal a massive blow, make them retreat, and take over that planet. Ideally, I would like to destroy both the Pirate and Advent planet, so I can expand further into the solar system. I would then have about 65%-70% of the solar system under my control.

So my questions are:

1. To fire the Novalith Cannon at a planet, do you need a "line of sight" or straight phase lane to the planet, or can it be 2-3 planets away?

2. By firing at the planet, what exactly does happen, and will it make the enemy retreat, or does it destroy enemy ships and structures as well?

3. If scuttled, how many credits do I get back?

4. Is it worth the hefty price?

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Hi there. This is my first post, so I hope I'm correct in this. To answer your questions:

1. You can fire your Novalith Cannon at any planet you have scouted before hand. You can fire at any planet in your solar system, and any planet in other systems. It's been my experience that you don't need a real time view of the target.

2. When you hit your target with the Novalith Cannon, it does drastic damage to the planets health and population. If your target is an asteroid, it will most likely wipe it right out. Now it's up for colonizing. I've never experienced the enemy retreat directly because of it. And it doesn't effect ships or structures.

3. I don't know this off hand.

4. As for the price, if you already have that much tech, what the hell? Why not? It saves you having to bombard the target before taking it. I guess that means you can save fleet space by not making bombarding frigates. It's just something you have to experiment with for yourself.

Anyways, I hope this helps you somehow.
Cheers

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4.the cannon is not worth the cradits.
3.no credits are returned if scuttled.
2.it sometimes uncolinize it but most times damages the planet pretty bad.
1.you can fire it at any planet(enemy)in the map that is or was scouted like deadpool said.

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1. You can fire it at any planet. I'm not sure about the scouted beforehand part, because by the time I get it, all the planets are scouted. Watch out though, if you're firing across solar systems, it can take quite a while for the warhead to reach the planet. There have already been stories of people killing their own planets.

2. Massive damage to planet's health, and it can't be intercepted. It won't take out a pirate asteroid, because that has as much health as a fully upgraded planet. It won't take out the ships there, but if that's the only pirate base, you'll eliminate the pirate faction.

4. One isn't. If you get two, you can annihilate planets if you fire them both.

Furthermore, if this is the computer you're playing against, have the chokepoint near the Advent planet fully upgraded with all the tactical slots used (best to have two repair bays and some fighter bays there with point defense guarding them, planetary shield is also useful). Leave a small portion of your fleet (15-20 frigates should be enough) and the computer will probably either:

A) Not attack.

Break off any attack.

If the comp attacks in full force, those defenses should last long enough for you to reinforce that planet.

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1) Can target any planet you have explored. I.E. had one of you ships visit the grav well. You do not need any ships present at the location to fire.

2) It causes exactly 3500 DMG tot eh planet so you need 2 shots to kill your 6000 HP planet like a pirate base. Take note that if you only have one cannon by the time you get to fire your 2nd shot the planet will be healed again. So you need 2 to kill it one go. Also TEC is the only race can reduce the damage received by novalith by building shield generators. I was able to mitigate dmg down to only 700 or 450 i forget.

3)How over the scuttle button to find out.

4) Novalith can be worth it like they can be a big waste of resources and time. It's up to you to decide. But normally in a lot of late game the novalith is TEC's salute.

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