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[billi999]

So not long ago I had my first experience of a core world decivilizing. It was Argeus (Argreus?) Cycle ~214 and 10 months.
I genuinely wasn't aware core worlds could decivilize before that happened and went off to look into what causes it, etc. There was a warning of deterioration but as I've found others experienced in threads elsewhere, this warning came only days before decivilization.

I have some questions about preventing this as I don't like the idea of all the core worlds gradually decivilizing to the point where colonies I create can't acquire imports, earn as much from exports, and I can't buy ships, supplies, fuel etc. from anywhere else anymore.

• Does destroying pirate bases slow down/prevent decivilization?
• Does doing system bounties slow down/prevent decivilization?
• If yes to either or both of the above, has the damage already been done by the time the system or station bounty appears?
• If yes to any of the above, is it possible for the player alone to save all core worlds from deterioriating permanently? How this require babysitting forever or would there be time to have fun with [REDACTED], visiting your own colonies to pick up new ships and weapons etc.?
• If no to the above, is there anything at all that can be done to prevent core worlds decivilization?

[RawCode]

ever with half of core sector wiped gameplay won't change a bit.

[SCC]

Destroying pirate bases slows deterioration, but they respawn quickly, which means the benefit doesn't last long.
System bounties have no direct impact on this, but if you destroy pirates, they logically can't harass other NPC fleets.
If Megas's complaints about this are true (it's RNG dependent in my experience. Sometimes, the core worlds don't really care), then babysitting the core will consume all your free time.

[Megas]

1) No.  It does remove pirate activity... until the base respawns a day later elsewhere and threatens another target.  Basically slows down the pirates.
2) Since they tend to be posted after the pirates finish a raid, no.  Raids are good for other things, just not raid prevention.
3) Damage already done.  It takes months to regain all stability lost from one raid, but pirates can launch more raids before that happens.
4+5) It is possible to stop raids long enough to allow core worlds recover stability from previous raids, but it will take a lot of time intercepting and killing pirates after pirates.  Add that to the time taken protecting your colonies from major factions' expeditions, player does not much time to explore or farm Ordos before the bat signal flashes and you go play super cop.  It is possible to explore, but the constant interruptions are always annoying.  Reaching the red planet can be hard if your colony is at one side and the red planet is at the other.  This is a reason why the current Pather bug that blocks sabotage events is so great; one less babysitting headache to deal with.  Get Navigation 3 and keep usual sustained burn at 20 at all times.

Argeus is a problem child.  It has Free Port AND Pather cells caused by the big tech mine.

My decivilization experience was with Asharu, and I had no warning.  It just decivilized.  It do not remember the cycle, but about ten years sounds about right.

[billi999]

ever with half of core sector wiped gameplay won't change a bit.

If I understand correctly, less core worlds means your own colonies are more likely to be targeted "because they [pirates] have no one else to torment":
https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=16097.msg257784#msg257784

Destroying pirate bases slows deterioration, but they respawn quickly, which means the benefit doesn't last long.
System bounties have no direct impact on this, but if you destroy pirates, they logically can't harass other NPC fleets.
If Megas's complaints about this are true (it's RNG dependent in my experience. Sometimes, the core worlds don't really care), then babysitting the core will consume all your free time.

Thank you, that's good to know. I guess it does make sense that cleaning up system bounties means less trade disruption.
And I suspect if the babysitting is that bad, the randomness of it could mean there are times when there is too much than what you can clean up alone.

1) No.  It does remove pirate activity... until the base respawns a day later elsewhere and threatens another target.  Basically slows down the pirates.

So is it still worth destroying pirate bases? If you have to spend all the time babysitting wouldn't you leave the core worlds vulnerable while you're away? I guess a factor in the answer to the first follow-up question here might be if there is a limit to the number of pirate bases that can exist in the sector at a given time.

... bat signal flashes and you go play super cop.

 

This is a reason why the current Pather bug that blocks sabotage events is so great; one less babysitting headache to deal with.

Definitely makes sense, if the only way to prevent a death spiral in the core worlds is for the player to be babysitting forever then one would want as few penalties that distract from that as possible. Of course, that's for people that actually want to save core worlds which I understand not everyone might care about!

Get Navigation 3 and keep usual sustained burn at 20 at all times.

I never bothered with that skill, keeping sustained burn speed at 18 didn't seem too bad. But from what you've described here it seems like the only way to save core worlds means you'll be forever up against the clock, in which case this becomes even more important.

Argeus is a problem child.  It has Free Port AND Pather cells caused by the big tech mine.

My decivilization experience was with Asharu, and I had no warning.  It just decivilized.  It do not remember the cycle, but about ten years sounds about right.

Judging by what you describe of Argeus, that does indeed seem like a disaster waiting to happen. Perhaps I'd leave that as one to just allow to die.

I wonder if I'd have the same experience with Asharu or if it really depends on RNG.

It sounds like the only real way to babysit the core worlds effectively is if you know where is being attacked and when so you can drive off the pirates. But does player even get notified of all raids or just a select number?

I think I have to surrender to the idea of all my credits coming from passive colony income only. Well... That or save hacking once per cycle to manipulate the stability history recorded to prevent decivs.

[Mondaymonkey]

Well, there is a one way to stop decivilization. Just turn off pirate base spawn and kill remaining. Player related pirate bases still will appear, but the primary target is a player and you can defend your colonies passively by defense structures.

But it is a bad advice. Seriously.

[Thaago]

While faction fleets from major worlds could stand to be a bit stronger, I have never experienced the core deteriorating at all. I've never had a single world decivilize except from my own actions. Maybe it might happen once multiple pirate bases upgrade to rank 3 (a process that takes months if not years), but even once I stopped killing them for their extremely large payouts that just hasn't happened to me.

[Megas]

What happens is I intercept raids (unless I want the raid to succeed or at least kill patrols guarding blueprints), then when a base bounty gets posted, go to the base and kill it!  You just need to prevent pirates from successfully raiding the same system repeatedly.

Navigation 3 is most important for Transverse Jump to leave a star system immediately when you want to leave a system.  Sometimes, traveling from somewhere to a jump point can take days.  Aside from T.Jump, it also gives +2 to sustained burn, where means either two less tugs or no Augmented Drive Field on your big ships required.

Player will be notified of raids.

If I understand correctly, less core worlds means your own colonies are more likely to be targeted "because they [pirates] have no one else to torment":

That happened to me.  I killed all of the core worlds, then I kill a pirate base that put -3/-50% on my main colony system.  After I kill it, I leave the system to go home.  Before I went far, -3/-50% reappeared on my main system about a week later, and the new pirate base respawned in the system I just left!  I reloaded the game to try again.  I kill pirate base, and it respawned elsewhere only a day later and put -3/50% on my colonies.

If I play again, I may befriend pirates to prevent raids.  That will not stop pirate activity, but that is okay if it means I do not need to fight anymore invaders after core death.

[lethargie]

Maybe more mod faction increase rate of deterioration? I've noticed that world where interfaction battles decimate defending fleet are more suceptible to it.

[Megas]

I usually play without mods lately.  It probably depends how long the game is before player is done with it.  If player is finished playing after five years?  Probably not enough time for pirates to decivilize planets.  More than ten?  Possible.

[Obscurus]

You can always got to the config file and change the setting. There are lines like "decivSamplingMonths", "decivZeroStabilityMinFraction", "decivMinStreak", and "decivProbPerMonthOverStreak" you can change to make it so that worlds can basically never deciv.

[FooF]

While faction fleets from major worlds could stand to be a bit stronger, I have never experienced the core deteriorating at all. I've never had a single world decivilize except from my own actions. Maybe it might happen once multiple pirate bases upgrade to rank 3 (a process that takes months if not years), but even once I stopped killing them for their extremely large payouts that just hasn't happened to me.

Funny you would mention this because I was about to agree with you except that last night, during a new playthrough, Agreus was decivilized by pirates. If I play long enough (10+ cycles), Pirates eventually decivilize a few Core worlds but this was only a cycle in.

I will note that this latest playthrough had some of the largest and more numerous pirate fleets I think I've ever encountered. Multiple pirate armadas with 5-6 Atlas Mk. IIs and such. Probably just RNG but the pirates are in rare form this game.

[Megas]

Funny you would mention this because I was about to agree with you except that last night, during a new playthrough, Agreus was decivilized by pirates. If I play long enough (10+ cycles), Pirates eventually decivilize a few Core worlds but this was only a cycle in.

One year is fast.  I usually build my first colony around that time, and my fleet is not endgame strong to kill everything.