You guys kick donkey thanks for all the help! 1 more question.

[SteelReserve]

Ok thanks to everyone for helping me my colony is kicking butt (I think) but about invading. I only did a successful slide once past something like 40 flask cannons that weren’t very organized. I watched the videos and must say I am very impressed on how the colonies are invaded by many of you. Eventually I’ll probably be able to do it too it just takes time but here is what I was wondering. In the videos I see people "pedal to the medal" to rush to the biodome. I try this and bounce all over the place. I even got stuck in between 4 cannons and should I say that didn’t turn out well. Eventually I want to get good enough to play on perms and be somewhat competitive and I see that invasions are a big part of that. Now I did notice that there is a short delay between the time I land on a planet and when the cannons start firing. Would it be better to land take a screenshot of the planet and back out and plan an attack? If so how do you slide past several corners?

[Maniacus]

You need to destroy any turrets guarding the entrance, If the entrance is out of solar range this helps. (this will give you a staging area, and your bargers can sit here and feed you nukes if needed.

Then you need to determine the location of the base and look for places that will give you room to maneuver to dodge the solar and be protected from lazers while firing off nukes.

When you go for the dome it is good to have distraction but if able to an eratic path to the dome will help you dodge solar to land. and distraction isn't always necessary.

It's good to have backup on a zounds, but if none is available it just takes more time (and possibly a few ships of your's) but you can take it alone.

[Tux]

You're list doesn't have enough choices but I chose sliding anyway, but I explain why there aren't enough.

How you invade a planet is decided by several things, your skill, resources available (this includes lasers, nukes, corp mates, ship access) time available, and how many times you feel like dying. ;D A few other things too.

Sliding: If you can slide it, there comes two issues, can you take it one land or will you need to leave, and can you take it by yourself. If you can take it by yourself, you are all set, if you may need to leave or need to take some extra turrets out, a partner can make it easier as one of you can distract while the other torps an exit (and even distract while you take the dome), or in some cases torp the dome, the 8 extra nukes come in handy too. btw, sliding can be used on other layouts than rings... if you don't believe me, ask Mua'dib.

Sliding part 2: There are things (usually rings) you can slide, and things you can't (well slide stopped rings), or ones that it may take several (even dozens) of deaths before you can even make it past the entrance and kill some turrets. Assuming you don't want to die... you can either move on if you don't have nukes/time to a different planet, or if you do have nukes nuke it some to make it easier. (usually the side with the least turrets that still allows you to get in and be safe, you wouldn't want to take out the side that is a dead end)

Suicide sliding: If you don't care about dying, sometimes you can save time by doing a suicide slide and nuking something, blowing up, reshipping, repeat.

Nuking: If you have the nukes sometimes nuking a ton of them is the only way, but often you can nuke some and then get in and torp some, and sometimes you can even grav a few at the entrance. If you don't have nukes and are close to a base, sometimes you can vulture the turrets (usually with the help of a solar distractor), Zavrith can slide rings and superwides with vultures. The most I have ever done along that lines is land vulture, takes a while but if you don't have any nukes, it is the only way. Mua makes fun of me for land torping but sometimes that works as well.

Distracting: I used to never invade with anyone, so it is easy for me to take any planet with or without a distractor, some planets it is made even more easy for me though with a distractor, but other times they throw off the solar so I can't predict it as well and it becomes harder. If you are vulturing then a distractor is almost always make it easier.

Resources: Specifically lasers, if you don't have many lasers and intend to try to keep the planet, killing as few of turrets as necessary is good practice.

[Moleman]

You need to destroy any turrets guarding the entrance, If the entrance is out of solar range this helps. (this will give you a staging area, and your bargers can sit here and feed you nukes if needed.

Unfortunately a recent patch has meant that you no longer need to be within a certain range to activate solar, as soon as you land it starts shooting...

For me a good place to perfect invasion tactics was rebangs where cash/nukes are very limited compared with permas and skill/tactics comes more to the fore.

As far as solar is concerned with a bit of practise its a big wild and crazy guy cat, you can pretty much predict where each shot is going to go and after a while ignore it completly, with the exception of when im in a vulture i much prefer to invade solo than with a distractor. Another advantage of not using distraction is if you go at the dome fast enough you can usually cap it before the lasers start firing whereas if there is a distractor there the laser bolts will be bouncing everywhere

Sliding is only an option on relativly few layouts, a properly defended colony should be nigh-on impossible to slide, i usually drop nuke for a bit to make an easy slide, then slide in and nuke out an escape route, colonies which can be slid and capped with 1 load of nukes are very rare (unfortunately).

Hope this helps, have fun

Moleman

[Tux]

lol, Mua thinks I am nuts because I don't take out the slide stops on the front.