So everybody who likes playing MoO2 knows the Antarans. My question is if you like them?

Some think that they add a very nice touch to the game and that it adds one cool victory possibilty, furthermore they look badass and vanish out from nowhere to attack empires.

Honestly I don't like them to much, sometimes they just pop out and kill your whole planet if you're not that well prepared or if you currently have a war with someone else. It can be really annoying. They're also quite overpowered but that's one thing about them which makes them so important.

What do you guys think?

The best way to ensure you don't get attacked until you are ready for them is to ensure you aren't the strongest at the beginning of the game. Let someone else take the punches. :)

I actually thought they were quite fun - especially when I assemble a fleet of lower-tech ships (well lower than the Antarans anyway) and manage to force them to retreat or destroy them. I even once captured an Antaran vessel! I managed to get a lot of nice tech from that. :) Plus the ending battle against them if you choose that route is a lot of fun.

It's also nice that pre-game you can turn them off if that's a part of the game you don't want to play.

Heh, during a recent campaign, I had the Antarans attack my empire what seemed like 5-6 times in the span of roughly 30 turns. The kicker? A number of these attacks occurred during a hyperspace flux (no ship movement allowed; my colonies were basically on their own). Lost some colonies and star bases during that one. I've played a lot of moo2 campaigns, but I've never seen that level of activity from them.

That said, I always play with them on. I don't think they're too big of a deal with the right defenses. A station, missle base, and fighter garrison can fend off the vast majority of their attacks for quite a while. Especially if armor and missile technology has been kept up to date.

Missile base technology is absolutely mandatory in the game. It's the cheapest planetary defender, doesn't add to your fleet maintenance cost, and becomes ever better when you improve your missile tech and armor tech.

I always play with the Antarans. I rarely lose anything when they do attack. Plus I usually end up getting assault shuttles and transporters and have managed to capture one from time to time. Capturing and scrapping an Antaran vessel is the only way other than destroying the Guardian of Orion to get more of their technologies: xentronium armor, black hole generator, quantum detonator, death ray, particle beams, and whatever their version of shields is called (I forget).

Quantum detonator's aren't all that great, but trade them to the other races. Then, they'll put them on all their ships which makes blowing them up much more exciting!

Damper fields. They're not exactly shields. They just block 3/4 of all damage.

I like them. I like almost all such "uncontrollable" elements in strategy games. Things that makes the world feel more alive and unpredictable, and add challenges that are independent of the players.

I like them. Yeah, sometimes they do some damage to you, but sometimes they go attack your neighbors, every once in a while you can capture an Antaran ship, and they give a nice alternate way to win the game if you're not the biggest baddest empire out there (or just don't feel like slogging through all the leftovers).

I like them, but unfortunately they can create a huge game imbalance - in your favour. A few ships filled with assault shuttles turn every Antaran invasion into a tech farming spree (only 50% of the ships explode on being captured).

Fun yes, but when you have your xenotronium armoured ships with molecular computers wiping out every enemy fleet in sight, it takes some of the challenge away ... almost as bad as the creative perk, and available for any species design.