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AI War Strategy Discussion / Re: Late-game advice for a newb?
« on: December 21, 2012, 10:27:30 AM »
Good advice, lol. I found out the hard way. 
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AI War / Re: Do resources/energy get more scarce at higher difficulty levels?
« on: December 14, 2012, 06:07:38 PM »
Heh, confession time: the AI already killed me once. I'm playing my first Fallen Spire campaign, on 7/7, and one of the early events took me by surprise. To say the least, lol. It was like trying to fight off jets and tanks with spears and swords. 
I've savescummed and am now trying to accumulate more toys, not to mention more resources/energy, before I trigger that particular alarm again.
I've savescummed and am now trying to accumulate more toys, not to mention more resources/energy, before I trigger that particular alarm again.
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AI War / Re: Do resources/energy get more scarce at higher difficulty levels?
« on: December 14, 2012, 03:20:06 PM »
Thanks for your replies. So my supplies of metal/crystal are lower because I'm building more stuff (like turrets) earlier. That makes sense to me.
How about energy? The wiki entry on energy says energy collectors always collect 150,000 energy. I gather that does not change from one difficulty to another. Also, one person posted this above:
I understand this to mean that if I want more energy, I'm going to have to conquer more systems, which means my AIP will go up, and my AIP headroom is lower at higher difficulty levels. Right?
How about energy? The wiki entry on energy says energy collectors always collect 150,000 energy. I gather that does not change from one difficulty to another. Also, one person posted this above:
Quote
Energy is a different beast, it's an AIP balance point.
I understand this to mean that if I want more energy, I'm going to have to conquer more systems, which means my AIP will go up, and my AIP headroom is lower at higher difficulty levels. Right?
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AI War / Do resources/energy get more scarce at higher difficulty levels?
« on: December 14, 2012, 01:53:32 AM »
I've read the various wiki entries on the effects of choosing higher AI opponents, but I remain unclear on one thing. Does the player get fewer resources -- or less energy -- on 7/7 than, say, on 5/4? Or, conversely, do units take more resources to build, or more energy to maintain?
I ask because in my current 7/7 game, I am having more trouble maintaining any resource stockpile, and I also have energy problems I didn't have at all in my 5/4 game. Could it just be that I'm more panicky in my new game and I'm building more stuff more frantically? LoL.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this.
I ask because in my current 7/7 game, I am having more trouble maintaining any resource stockpile, and I also have energy problems I didn't have at all in my 5/4 game. Could it just be that I'm more panicky in my new game and I'm building more stuff more frantically? LoL.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this.
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AI War Strategy Discussion / Re: Late-game advice for a newb?
« on: December 11, 2012, 01:02:37 PM »
Four to five hours! I will have to overcome my hyper-cautious instincts to play that fast.
I knew I was going slowly when I started getting achievements like "Long Campaign" and "In it for the Long Haul" and "From Here to Eternity", or some such. This for a 60-planet map on 4/5, heh.
Going to fire up the Spire campaign tonight. Can't wait!
I knew I was going slowly when I started getting achievements like "Long Campaign" and "In it for the Long Haul" and "From Here to Eternity", or some such.
This for a 60-planet map on 4/5, heh. Going to fire up the Spire campaign tonight. Can't wait!
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AI War / Re: Help with Mark-selection filter
« on: December 11, 2012, 01:00:40 PM »
Yep, I love those. L and Shift-L, yes? Kinda wish there were a 2/3 key, but those are great.
Also, I never knew about the Threat filter until I played this last campaign. I would look at the "Threat" number and wonder what it meant, where it came from. Now I've bound Threat to "T" on the galaxy map, and I can instantly assess where I need to cull the enemy.
Also, I never knew about the Threat filter until I played this last campaign. I would look at the "Threat" number and wonder what it meant, where it came from. Now I've bound Threat to "T" on the galaxy map, and I can instantly assess where I need to cull the enemy.
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AI War Strategy Discussion / Re: Late-game advice for a newb?
« on: December 11, 2012, 10:20:20 AM »
Thanks!
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AI War Strategy Discussion / Re: Late-game advice for a newb?
« on: December 11, 2012, 01:48:04 AM »
I won! At last, lol. I followed the advice here and took out the harder AI first (Vanilla with those Teuthida drones, ugh), so the second seemed like a cakewalk. The second AI was a level-4 Tank with a Raid Engine Guard Post, a Fortress, and a few other things. It still took me 3 or 4 raids to kill it, but each raid achieved something constructive, unlike my comical efforts against the Vanilla AI.
Also, I took another piece of advice I see a lot here: I used Transports to attack the Homeworld, from 3 hops away. Wow, I wish I'd tried these earlier. I packed up three of them, and was happy to see that even starships fit inside. (Some big Spire ships did not, though, so I left them behind.) The transports zipped through the two intervening systems so fast that I was at the Core-World target before I knew it!
If I had to level a criticism at my own gameplay, I'd say I'm waaay too slow. It took me 24 hours to finish this 60-planet map. And yet I took only 14 planets! That's barely more than a planet every two hours, whereas x4000 says he takes one every 45 minutes. My cautious nature is my undoing.
Also, 14 planets might have been a bit too conservative; I was probably unduly hyper about my AIP, which ended at 417, after killing the second homeworld. At this difficulty level, I was never close to getting to AIP(III), which wouldn't have kicked in til 700 or so. I could have used the extra knowledge and crystal/metal. Metal/crystal was a problem the entire game, what with all those fabricators and starships building (and the occasional merc ship and Trader-bought goodie). I amassed only 53,000 knowledge. Could've used more.
My raw score was 3.2 million; adjusted score only 91,406, lower than one of my losses on Defender mode! (I took a hit for difficulty level, for using Easy Broken Golems, and other things.)
Anyway, thanks for all the help in this thread. Now the question is: what next? I'm thinking 7/7, as this did feel too easy, except for the epic fight for the first Homeworld. I have all 4 expansions; I might want to enable Complex ships (had Normal this time). But I'm also interested in trying the Spire campaign. Is that a good challenge?
Also, I took another piece of advice I see a lot here: I used Transports to attack the Homeworld, from 3 hops away. Wow, I wish I'd tried these earlier. I packed up three of them, and was happy to see that even starships fit inside. (Some big Spire ships did not, though, so I left them behind.) The transports zipped through the two intervening systems so fast that I was at the Core-World target before I knew it!
If I had to level a criticism at my own gameplay, I'd say I'm waaay too slow. It took me 24 hours to finish this 60-planet map. And yet I took only 14 planets! That's barely more than a planet every two hours, whereas x4000 says he takes one every 45 minutes. My cautious nature is my undoing.
Also, 14 planets might have been a bit too conservative; I was probably unduly hyper about my AIP, which ended at 417, after killing the second homeworld. At this difficulty level, I was never close to getting to AIP(III), which wouldn't have kicked in til 700 or so. I could have used the extra knowledge and crystal/metal. Metal/crystal was a problem the entire game, what with all those fabricators and starships building (and the occasional merc ship and Trader-bought goodie). I amassed only 53,000 knowledge. Could've used more.
My raw score was 3.2 million; adjusted score only 91,406, lower than one of my losses on Defender mode! (I took a hit for difficulty level, for using Easy Broken Golems, and other things.)
Anyway, thanks for all the help in this thread. Now the question is: what next? I'm thinking 7/7, as this did feel too easy, except for the epic fight for the first Homeworld. I have all 4 expansions; I might want to enable Complex ships (had Normal this time). But I'm also interested in trying the Spire campaign. Is that a good challenge?
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AI War / Re: Help with Mark-selection filter
« on: December 11, 2012, 01:33:35 AM »
Yep, I alt-click on that list of ships all the time. When I'm forming an attack fleet, I'll do a ctl-comma to get all the military ships in the system, then alt-click out the ships I don't want. Then make a control group of the remaining ships. It's great!
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AI War / Re: Help with Mark-selection filter
« on: December 10, 2012, 11:39:41 AM »
Oh, I didn't even know about triple-clicking! I'll try that.
I changed the Mark-filter combo to F plus alphakey. That's working better for me.
I changed the Mark-filter combo to F plus alphakey. That's working better for me.
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AI War / Re: Help with Mark-selection filter
« on: December 09, 2012, 11:01:04 PM »
Ah: it kicks in on *release* of the button. I'll try again. Thanks!
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AI War Strategy Discussion / Re: Late-game advice for a newb?
« on: December 09, 2012, 10:59:19 PM »
On my fifth raid, I got the Teuthida outpost down to about 8% before I succumbed. I rushed to prep my next raid, and while the AI did repair the outpost up to about 20%, I got there in time to finish it off. That was SO satisfying! I know I'm only playing on AI 4/5, but this was a great challenge for me, and I loved overcoming it. A terrific gaming experience.
After that, mopping up the remaining Teuthida drones was easy. With them gone, I was able to bring in my fleet ships. I took out most of the remaining outposts, but I still wiped out on the Fortress, which was guarded by two Core force fields and lots of angry Core ships (that heal, I guess near the Fortress). On raid 7, I got rid of the force fields, and the Fortress itself came down surprisingly easily. After all that, the Core Station was almost anticlimactic -- it exploded after a few shots.
Heh, I've got 120-plus hours logged in this game on Steam, but this was the first time I'd ever taken down an AI Homeworld. Sad, huh? In my first plays, two years ago, I got hopelessly bogged down in my middle games and never finished. And this time, I'd pretty much forgotten everything, so it was like being a newb again.
Of course, I'm not done yet, but I'm already 5 hops from the other homeworld, AI Progress is around 270, and I see two Core Fabricators right on my route to the second homeworld. Things are looking up!
After that, mopping up the remaining Teuthida drones was easy. With them gone, I was able to bring in my fleet ships. I took out most of the remaining outposts, but I still wiped out on the Fortress, which was guarded by two Core force fields and lots of angry Core ships (that heal, I guess near the Fortress). On raid 7, I got rid of the force fields, and the Fortress itself came down surprisingly easily. After all that, the Core Station was almost anticlimactic -- it exploded after a few shots.
Heh, I've got 120-plus hours logged in this game on Steam, but this was the first time I'd ever taken down an AI Homeworld. Sad, huh? In my first plays, two years ago, I got hopelessly bogged down in my middle games and never finished. And this time, I'd pretty much forgotten everything, so it was like being a newb again.
Of course, I'm not done yet, but I'm already 5 hops from the other homeworld, AI Progress is around 270, and I see two Core Fabricators right on my route to the second homeworld. Things are looking up!
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AI War Strategy Discussion / Re: Late-game advice for a newb?
« on: December 09, 2012, 03:01:33 PM »
LOL, thanks.
Hrmm, my fourth raid was complete bust, even though I had my biggest fleet yet. I think the Teuthida is really the source of my woes. Those drones swarm me and zombify most of my fleet in seconds. I do have a number of ships immune to reclamation: Spire Rams, 20 spire mini-rams, Spire Teleporting Leeches, plus various starships. Getting kinda worried, though. None of my main fleet ships is immune to reclamation. Maybe I should just leave them behind until i figure out how to get this Teuthida down?
Hrmm, my fourth raid was complete bust, even though I had my biggest fleet yet. I think the Teuthida is really the source of my woes. Those drones swarm me and zombify most of my fleet in seconds. I do have a number of ships immune to reclamation: Spire Rams, 20 spire mini-rams, Spire Teleporting Leeches, plus various starships. Getting kinda worried, though. None of my main fleet ships is immune to reclamation. Maybe I should just leave them behind until i figure out how to get this Teuthida down?
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AI War / Help with Mark-selection filter
« on: December 09, 2012, 02:52:29 PM »
This filter has always given me fits. I tried changing the default hotkeys (N plus alpha) to a single keypress, like F1 or a letter key. It doesn't seem to work. Must this hotkey have two keypresses? Ugh. N plus a number key is just too big a stretch for my hands.
Also, it doesn't seem to matter whether I select ships first and then hit the key, or whether I hold the key while selecting ships. Which is the proper method? Select first, then hit key? Or hold key while selecting?
Thanks.
Also, it doesn't seem to matter whether I select ships first and then hit the key, or whether I hold the key while selecting ships. Which is the proper method? Select first, then hit key? Or hold key while selecting?
Thanks.