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« on: January 23, 2012, 06:41:52 PM »
Since I haven't seen any comprehensive guides for ships or their general use and utility, I figured I'd start by making one for golems. I'll be covering the seven golem types in this post. I may expand to spirecraft and later fleet ships and starships if enough people find this useful.
The Golems will be rated on a scale from one to five based upon both their usage in player hands and their dangerousness in the hands of the AI.
Armored Golem
Statistics:
Cost: 30,000,000 M/C
HP: 500,000,000 (50,000,000 or 250,000,000 under AI control)
Range: 13,000
Armor: 100,000
Attack: 1,000,000x5 / 2 seconds (Flame Wave)
Armor Piercing: 999,999 (Ignores armor)
Speed: 88
Hull: Ultra-heavy
Attrition rate: 120:00
Under Player Control: ++++
The Armored Golem is one of the most powerful straight-up combat ships you can get. With its half billion hp and 100,000 armor, the armored golem’s incredible tankiness means that it’s unlikely to go down in a fight. It also happens to have a great range and a powerful attack that pierces all armor, so it’s excellent for both assaulting AI systems and defending yours.
Under AI Control: +++++
The Armored Golem is one of the most dangerous ships the AI can have at its disposal. While its survivability is severely gimped by the hp reduction, it can and will punch through your force fields and other heavy defenses like a chainsaw through butter. You’re going to want to use ships that have high armor pierce or armor rotting so your ships can do more than a paltry 20% damage against it. When defending against one, you’re going to want to isolate it from the rest of the ships and focus it down with everything you’ve got.
Counters: Ships with high armor piercing (polarizers, etc.), armor rotting ships (armor rotters, autocannon minipods), extremely hard-hitting ships/structures(Bomber Starships, Spire fleet ships, AI Fortresses, AI Hunter/Killers, etc.), Stacked Forcefields (non-hardened).
Artillery Golem
Cost: 10,000,000 M/C
HP: 100,000,000 (10,000,000 under AI control)
Armor: 0
Attack: 100,000,000 / 30 seconds (Artillery)
Range: 1,003,000
Armor Piercing: 999,999 (Ignores armor)
Speed: 64
Hull: Ultra-heavy
Attrition rate: 120:00
Under Player Control: +
It’s essentially useless to a player save for the occasional “snipe off a really powerful ship” gimmick that does not occur often. It’s certainly nice to have, but you shouldn’t go out of your way to get it. It’s also very fragile despite its 100,000,000 hp, as it has no way to defend itself against most ships.
Under AI Control: +
The Artillery golem also happens to be just as useless to the AI, too. Most of the time, if you see an AI artillery golem, it’ll probably be safely sitting about doing nothing. In the rare case where it actually decides to attack you, be sure that your golems or other valuable ships are not there when it is, since it’ll really put a dent in them if not kill them outright. Just put your starships through the wormhole first, and then rush towards it to kill it and your ships will be fine.
Counters: A stiff breeze, Fleet Ships
Black Widow Golem
Cost: 25,000,000 M/C
HP: 80,000,000 (8,000,000 under AI control)
Armor: 6000
Attack: 140,000 x50/ 4 seconds (Shell)
Range: 19,000
Tractor Beams: x100 @ 12,000 range
Speed: 160
Hull: Ultra-heavy
Attrition rate: 120:00
Under Player Control: ++
One of the more mediocre golems that a player can have, the Black Widow Golem really isn’t that good of a golem compared to the rest. While pretty strong in combat, it’s not a good idea to use it extensively because of the tendency of tractor beams to get a hundred ships to fire upon the golem. It’s a nice golem to get, but certainly not a vital one. Of course, one can try to pop in and out with the golem to separate the ships from their group, which would make it more effective.
Under AI Control: +++
Under AI control, the black widow golem can really screw with you by taking a hundred of your ships to be killed on other AI worlds, alerting them and bringing on the pain. However, with its paltry 8,000,000 health, it’s trivial to focus down with starships or even basic fleet ships.
Counters: Ships with a bonus to Ultra-Heavy (Bombers, Raiders, etc.), Hard hitting ships (Bomber Starships, Zenith Bombardment ships, Zenith Electric Bombers, etc.)
Botnet Golem
Cost: 40,000,000 M/C
HP: 36,000,000 (3,600,000 under AI control)
Armor: 6000
Attack: 20,000,000 x50/ 2 seconds (Energy Burst) (Reclaims all ships that it hits)
Range: 12,000
Speed: 88
Hull: Ultra-heavy
Attrition rate: 120:00
Under Player Control: +++++
The Botnet Golem is perhaps one of the most valuable golems a player can have. With this golem, one can convert entire enemy waves to mindless slaves to defend your planets in a hearbeat. It is also particularly useful in clearing threat. After plopping in your support fleet, insert the botnet golem and you’ll have several hundred zombie bots that will make the planet even easier to take. However, it’s very fragile, so keep it supported at all times. Also, it’s not very useful if the AI is using neinzul or spire ships because of their immunity to reclamation, so be sure not to combat said ships with a botnet golem.
Under AI Control: ++
Surprisingly, the botnet golem is really underwhelming when the AI has it, which is an unbelievably good thing because it can chew through your fleet and make it its own fleet within seconds. It’s also even more fragile than the human version is, so just snipe it off with starships and you’ll be fine. AI botnet golems never ever spawn with waves so you’ll only have to worry about it if a planet spawns with one. If you do manage to piss one off, you’re really in for it unless you hide all your fleet ships away.
Counters: Non-Reclaimable ships (Starships, Core Ships, Neinzul Ships, Spire Ships)
Cursed Golem
Cost: 10,000,000 M/C
HP: 60,000,000
Armor: 6000
Attack: 160,000 x20/ 2 seconds (Energy Burst)
Range: 603,000
Armor Piercing: 10,000
Speed: 128
Hull: Ultra-heavy
Attrition rate: 40:00
Under Player Control: +++
The Cursed Golem is a sort of glass cannon. It has an incredibly fast attrition rate that will probably kill it before AI ships do. It has an incredible range and a powerful long-ranged attack. Be sure to use gravity or tractor effects to supplement this attack. It’s also rather cheap to repair, so be sure to do so regularly. Leave it off when not in use.
Under AI Control: N/A
The AI doesn’t have cursed golems. It’d probably be too broken to imagine without its fast attrition rate.
Counters: Leaving it on too long
Hive Golem
Cost: 40,000,000 M/C
HP: 48,000,000
Armor: 0
Attack: 100,000/ 2 seconds (Flame Wave)
Range: 8000
Radar Dampening Range: 10,000
Speed: 88
Hull: Ultra-heavy
Attrition rate: 120:00
Under Player Control: +++++
The Hive golem is one of the best golems a player can have. In short, leave it on to get 500 wasps, then release those wasps to wreak untold amounts of havoc on an AI world. Wash, rinse, repeat. The golem has to be on to charge wasps, so be sure to have the resources to repair it. It can also be used to defend against enemy attack waves, and does so extremely well. Just unleash the wasps on a planet and it’s a death zone for three minutes, after which the drones die off.
Under AI Control: N/A
The AI doesn’t have hive golems. If it did, you’d never be able to win.
Counters: Forgetting about it
Regenerator Golem
Cost: 60,000,000M/C
HP: 200,000,000 (20,000,000 under AI control)
Armor: 0
Attack: 600,000/ 2 seconds (Laser)
Range: 23000
Speed: 88
Hull: Ultra-heavy
Attrition rate: 120:00
Under Player Control: +++
The regenerator golem is a very good supplement to your fleet and is one of the best ways in combat to regenerate your ships. It is able to immediately reinforce your fleet and essentially store ships because the regenerating ships comes solely from the golem’s HP. It’s also not very cost efficient, with the highest cost to repair out of all the golems. It’s useful in clutch situations and when defending, but the cost of using it may be prohibitive.
Under AI Control: +
Under the AI, a regenerator golem isn’t nearly as effective, as you can simply bring it down with a few seconds of focus-fire. Its hp will also deplete very fast since it has only 1/10 of the hp a normal regenerator golem would, making it a very not dangerous golem to encounter.
Counters: Attacking
Comments/Criticisms are welcome and appreciated! Feel welcome to voice your opinions on the matter, as this is really a working draft of a guide.
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" no matter what, even with scout intel. You are given absolutely no information whatsoever and are pretty much left in the dark, literally. I'm not sure if this AI is too original, as I think that a situation like this can be duplicated by messing with fog of war and selecting some AI types.vv