Topics

1

AI War / Does Energy still matter?

« on: May 12, 2013, 11:32:36 AM »

I'm currently playing a 7/7 game using the current beat (documented here), and something I'm noticing is that I'm not noticing energy. At all.

In the very early game, it mattered. An AI raid that would take out an energy collector was a problem, particularly since I have Broken Golems on Medium and thus they consume massive amounts of power. But for the last 2/3 of the game (if not 3/4), I've been able to totally ignore it. In fact right now I'm pushing 1.7 million available energy, and that's with four golems (including a Botnet, which by itself is something like 200,000). Granted I do have a lot of planets, but I'm also running mk II of six different kinds of turrets, mk I and II Fotresses, mini forts everywhere, and not a single economic command station anywhere.

Is that unusual? Is it intended to just ignore energy in the later game? I like the new mechanic of energy collectors not consuming resources, but it seems like they're just putting out too much power. Once you get a few of them you can forget the whole mechanic exists.

2

After Action Reports / 7/7 Advice needed

« on: May 04, 2013, 08:42:01 AM »

I've won 7/7 once before, with Fallen Spire on. That tends to suit how I play other games, because I like to systematically conquer everything in sight and FS is great for that (particularly once the cities start giving you insanely powerful defenses).

So to try and improve at AI War, this time I'm playing with FS off in a more conventional style game. Here's the setup:

- 7/7 Random Easier (I tried Random Moderate earlier, and the results were ugly, particularly the game that had those fancy new Eyes showing up with alarming frequency)
- Simple mapgen, 80 planets, normal ships
- Zenith Traders, Dyson 4, Broken Golems (Medium), Botnet Golems (Medium), and Spire Civilian Leaders are on
- Bonus ship is Space Tanks

Here's the initial area around my starting point. Starting next to a mk IV world is something I wasn't happy about, but the area does have two interesting features, as shown in these two screenshots.





The Hive Golem is a very tempting target, particuarly as it comes with a civilian leader. Next door is the Superterminal. Now I've never actually used a Superterminal before, but my understanding is that they're very powerful if used correctly. The downside of starting so far down in the corner of the map is that I'm going to have to go a long way to win the game, so I'm going to need that AIP reduction. How much can I expect to get out of it before the hacking response gets out of hand?

Initial unlocks were Harvesters III (both), Heavy Beam Cannon 1, and Mini Fortress. By this screenshot I've also picked up Millitary Command Stations II, Hardened FF I, and Engineers II.

What I'm looking for now is some advice on what to unlock next. I could take Fortresses or some turret upgrades, as the Hive Golem is going to boost my offense anyway. That said, some mk II ships would be useful too. I'm just not sure which ones. Considering the planet that has the Hive Golem also has two Ion Cannons and is all around not looking pleasant, the firepower might be useful right now.



Thanks!

3

AI War / Ancient Shadows Newbie MP question

« on: April 12, 2013, 07:20:41 AM »

Hi. I've got a friend who I'd like to try to get into AI War. He tends to like strategy games, but doesn't like managing bases or base defenses very much. So I read that Ancient Shadows has a Champion mode that someone can play, which gives them the champion unit but presumably no base to deal with (presumably he'd be using my base). Is that correct? I think that'd be perfect for him.

If so, how does that work in regards to resources and research? I've never gotten a chance to play AI War in MP, so I'm not really clear on how it would work. Does the AI treat it differently than if we both played in normal mode with two bases and such?

Thanks!

4

After Action Reports / Wait, planets can have three ion cannons? (First time on 7/7)

« on: May 12, 2012, 05:48:48 AM »

After getting my feet wet on 6/6, I've decided to try a game on 7/7 to see how it goes.

AIs: Both Random Easier, reveal is off. That'd spoil the surprise!
Minor Factions: Zenith Traders, Dyson Sphere, Spire Civilian Leaders, Fallen Spire, Golems (Hard), Spirecraft (Hard) - First time for those on hard, I usually have them on Medium or disabled entirely.
Map: Simple - 100 planets. Bonus ship is Parasites
Ships: Normal. Normal caps, speed is on Epic.

Initially I was pretty optimistic. Unlocked Harvesters III (if I do anything with Fallen Spire it'll eat up a lot of territory after all) and start building. Initial scouting rather dampened my enthusiasm. The screenshot is what I found.


Going to the west immediately runs into multiple mk III worlds. North has a mk IV right nearby, which just happens to have THREE Ion Cannons and three Neinzul Viral Clusters. That's just mean. On all these planets aside from some Spirecraft mining resouces there's nothing of interest at all except a Regenerator Golem to the East. Mind you, I'm kind of afraid of taking that this early because of the response it might provoke.

With no sign of an ARS or good early target in sight, for the moment there's little to do but see where the Survey ship wants to send me...

5

AI War Strategy Discussion / Help defending against Zenith Bombards

« on: April 30, 2012, 08:18:29 AM »

Hi. Newbie question, but I'm having a real problem with it.

I've got a really nice choke point world that I'm trying to defend. It's got a millitary command station, fortress, mines, and a wide variety of turrets. Combined with some Riot ships that I keep hanging around to slow down incoming waves, it stops pretty much everything that's been thrown at it without a problem so far with the one exception of Zenith Bombards.

Those things pop out and rip everything to shreds with the exception of the command station (it's under a forcefield and they don't seem to be able to attack forcefields at all). I can deal with them if I have a fleet nearby, but I'm running into difficulty keeping enough ships in the area as I get more territory (some of it not as well defended as this world). I'd been thinking that maybe putting some tractor beams and other turrets under another forcefield near the wormhole(s) would work because they won't be able to shoot it, but don't turrets suffer a major damage reduction in that case? Is there a better way?

Currently playing on difficulty 6 with the most recent beta version and AIP up around 300, with some of the waves being 100 Bombards and a Starship. Thanks!

6

AI War Defender Mode Strategy Discussion / What is a good number of reachable planets to defend?

« on: February 02, 2011, 09:29:26 PM »

Hi. Love Defender mode, it's great for a shorter game.

I'm having some difficulty finding a good setup to start it off though. The first time I tried I started with 3 planets that could be attacked. I wound up losing all 3 very quickly and didn't really stop the AI until I'd been pushed back to having a single attackable planet (with everything else behind it). I was able to hold that (difficulty isn't up that high).

So for a second game I tried starting with a single attackable planet (using the "Vines" map type that isn't hard to create). The AI will throw a ton of ships at it, but because I can also direct pretty much my entire array of defenses at it, it's actually really easy if you survive the first wave. So that doesn't seem great.

Any suggestions? Was 3 a good number and I just need to get better initial defenses?

7

AI War / What does radar dampening do?

« on: January 10, 2011, 03:31:39 PM »

Something I've been wondering about as a new player, but I see ships with things like "Radar dampening 5000". What does that do?

I tried finding it on the wiki, but there's a lot of entries about things having radar dampening and doesn't seem to be one that just explains what it is.

Thanks.

8

AI War Strategy Discussion / Some newbie questions

« on: December 04, 2010, 06:44:50 AM »

Hi. Just got the game, played a couple games so far. It's great! Some things are confusing me though:

1. I've seen talk of knowledge raiding. Is that something you still do in 4.0? I decided to make an attempt at it, and it went... poorly. The AI got very, very angry and a planet with no warp gate (I'd already destroyed it because it was next to my homeworld) got a large number of ships and overwhelmed me every time I tried. They followed me back, but that world was still defended enough to fight it off. Also, is the tooltip right that only the mark 3 science lab works for this? Those take *forever* to build.

2. What counters armor ships? Those just refuse to die. Is there any turret/defensive structure aside from capturing an Ion Cannon that works well on them?

3. Late in my second game after I tried the knowledge raid, I got a warning about a cross planet raid that was 1600 ships. Suffice to say that was way bigger then anything I'd seen before. Did I trigger that by accident?

4. Any defensive tips in general? I don't want to build turrets on every planet, but sometimes I get AI ships sneaking past the defended planets and going for undefended ones. Can I build something to make it harder for the AI to do that, or is the only option to use a defensive fleet to chase them down?

I don't have any of the expansions yet (but I intend to get them), so it's possible solutions are in those and I just don't know it yet. Thanks.