Messages

451

AI War / Re: AI War Beta 5.090 "Fish Or Cut Bait" Released!

« on: October 09, 2012, 08:40:26 PM »

True, but wouldn't want to use nuclear energy if nothing else then to propell the projectiles in the cone and to propell the missile?

For me it sounds like you are just converting the energy from the sphere of the weapon into a cone while transferring the energy to a projectile, which I think is cool, but seems similar to people first trying to shoot at each other with gunpowder till someone released "If instead of the powder itself, we use the power to project shells..."

What I'm trying to say is your weapon is awesome, but the core is still using nukes, except you are dressing it up.

Well, I was more thinking a controlled release of some sort, maybe even tether the projectiles so they are closer to a net then a shotgun.

Their closing velocity, and therefore damage, would be from the missiles engine during flight, any explosion at the end to boost the pellets would have very little effect. (I think anyway).

Satellites in geostationary orbit move at 3 kilometers per second, low earth orbit at 8 kilometers per second. I'm assuming any sort of ship that could qualify as a combatant has a maximum velocity and acceleration to reach a significant percentage of these speeds and a missile better still.

A battleship gun fires a shell at 0.8 kilometers per second. That's not that big of a speed increase compared to how fast I'm assuming a missile would be moving so a controlled spread to guarantee a hit would do better.

Kinetic kill is great if you can hit the target, but ballistics would only work at very short ranges (to avoid dodging) or very high concentrations (concentration requiring increasing prohibitively fast as range increases), and non-ballistic kkv's may not be able to pull the g's necessary to counteract its own incredible velocity enough to deal with an evading target.

Something a bit more likely to work would be like the Harrington-novel "laser head" where you use something to focus a portion of a missile's nuclear explosion into many extremely-short-lived lasers going in all kinds of directions to punch holes through anything nearby.

Of course, that universe's gravitic manipulation technology is basically magitech, albeit more internally consistent than the stuff found in star-trek/star-wars/etc.

Well, I'm assuming a universe that respects science as we currently understand it and does not get into the magi-tech range.

That means reaction drives, limited ship sizes, no artificial gravity, etc.

The problem is when we get into magi-tech, the limits are arbitrarily defined by the author as it has no relation to science as we understand it, so different people get different 'observed effects' from the descriptions we see in books. That then descends into a matter of opinion as much as anything.

It's all my own headcanon anyway.


D.

452

AI War / Re: AI War Beta 5.090 "Fish Or Cut Bait" Released!

« on: October 09, 2012, 08:15:50 PM »

Heh.

Nukes are actually pretty poor weapons as space engagements go.

Nuclear weapons will destroy a ship if they detonate exceedingly close to it. But if it is further away than about a kilometer, it won't do much more than singe the paint job and blind a few sensors. And in space a kilometer is pretty close range.

From Atomic Rockets - Conventional Space Weapons.

A shotgun type effect where a missile gets in close and detonates a spread of pellets into the path of the enemy craft would be much more effective.

"Pellets" being sized relative to the spacecraft and assuming they don't have force-fields of some sort to block the pellets.

More and more I'm seeing the simple KKV (kinetic kill vehicle) become the weapon of choice for hard sci-fi where they don't have magitech of some sort because of this.

If we are getting into the magi-tech range (Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.) then all bets are off as the flavor of the magi-tech will determine what happens, but for anything that gives even a token shout-out to science as we understand today, the KKV is the way to go.

D.

453

AI War / Re: So, what most needs attention for 6.0?

« on: October 09, 2012, 08:41:37 AM »

The really big complaints (4 out of 7 that I've gotten to play the game) has been about the multiplayer set up. We've given up on VPNs completely and just use direct connections to IP. There's nothing really that could be done about it but the 'unintuitive' (actual words used by the players) set up usually took 20-30 minutes of struggling with the VPNs and teaching people how to use them (again), bringing actual interest in the game to a grinding halt.

I don't play multiplayer much so I may be wrong, but isn't direct to IP the preffered method of playing and the VPN stuff was given as a workaround for people behind university firewalls and stuff?

Direct IP is always how my (few) multiplayer games have gone anyway and once the host gets the port open in his firewall it has taken about 30 seconds to get everyone connected.

On the interface stuff, I'm seriously considering doing a 'quick-start' youtube vid if I can ever find the time which will pretty much be the tips and tricks of how to use the interface.

D.

454

After Action Reports / Re: I shall be Heroic! (and get a Heroic hurt. Ow.)

« on: October 08, 2012, 08:58:07 PM »

Having thought on it some more, Shadow Frigates from the AI homeworld is normal threat correct?

What I think happened to me just now then is that I had 3 or 4 pairs of shadow frigates sitting on wormholes but not coming through due to the firepower comparison.

Then the double wave hit the left end of my defensive line and rolled my firepower back so all of a sudden those pairs of shadow frigates that had been sitting around all went "time to attack" and hit within a few minutes of each other.

Going to poke at this game some more, but if that is the case I may simply not have a playable save.

D.

edit: Okay, my previous save loses me 25 minutes of gametime, it was the save I made just before I started the attack on Rinso (the Mk IV system) that the threat from combined to steamroll me last time. I halt the attack and dig in so the game is back on. Next actual AAR post once I actually do something worth AARing.

455

AI War / Re: Brainstomring: Status of Command Stations

« on: October 08, 2012, 01:38:47 PM »

My recommendations for Miliitary are the following.
1) Get rid of the @#$#@!!!!! translocation shots.  More often then not I want to actually turn that OFF.  They are strategically disruptive and I'd have been better off if I could have powered the command center down completely without losing the turret boosts.  On satellite systems you invert the basic turret layout and tighten up the defenses near the command center.  If the stream is constantly being sent into the ozarks it is very disruptive to the layouts, as you're trying to be very sparse with things like grav turrets and the like.

I generally agree with you except for this point.

The largest reason the Mil station is such an effective stall currently is those translocating shots and that's the primary reason I use them. Yes, it means I have to build sniper turrets and AI ships can stay alive stupidly long sometimes but to break the wave up so the AI ships are scattered is worth it to me.

It is why the Tackle Drones are so powerful, they break the AI ships up so you don't face as much of a unified AI fleet.

You take away the translocating shots, you've basically removed the Mil stations ability to stall.

D.

456

After Action Reports / Re: I shall be Heroic! (and get a Heroic hurt. Ow.)

« on: October 08, 2012, 11:25:23 AM »

Well, now that I've had a few minutes to calm down, I could have handled them if I'd had my attention on the game. (I think.)

Because of the nature of how the AI attacks (usually) and I was in a build cycle after the waves destroyed me with nothing on the threat counter, I alt-tabbed out. The FFs over my home command were already half dead by the time I returned to AI war and knew the Shadow Frigates were there.

I really want to get my actual defences up, only a single planet has a fort so far and the shadow frigates have yet to touch said planet.

Because my fleet is right near my homeworld, I'm prioritizing that for resources as the mobile fleet can be both offense and defense.. Even the world with the fortress is supposed to get significant additional defences, assuming I live that long.

Let's go see if this is doable.

D.

edit: I did get lucky, the auto-save is from just after the wave of shadow frigates that killed me last time entered my homeworld. Microing my defences allows me to survive that. There is still the question of if I can survive to rebuild my empire.

edit the 2nd: Never mind. 2 more shadow frigates just showed up. Auto-save is not playable. Does the Shadow Frigates from the homeworld get logged anywhere when they spawn?

457

After Action Reports / Re: I shall be Heroic! (and get a Heroic hurt. Ow.)

« on: October 08, 2012, 10:54:46 AM »

Game Session 2: 2:34-3:24 (and game over #2)
Existing Unlocks: Mini-Forts, Repair Stations, Plasma Siege Mk II, Spire Corvette Mk II, FF Mk II, Missile Turret Mk II, Tackle Drone Launcher (ARS)
This session: Fortress Mk I.

Heroic AI Round 2: (*$)&^(*@&#%(&#$)$% this guy, really. I obviously don't understand how the Shadow Frigates that spawn on the homeworld work. I end up facing 3 sets of 2 shadow frigates within a 10 minute time span. Combined with a double AI wave, this loses me the game (again).

Starship Fleet: This is coming together nicely. I'm starting to add Plasma Siege Mk II and Spire Corevette Mk II to the mix now. My standard engagement pattern relies on the Riots engine damage and the Plasma Siege high range while kiting, with the Riot and Spire corvette shields keeping the fleet alive when ships get in close. This means the only ships types I intend to unlock are those 3 which is going to leave me with no close range punch so I will need to bring fleet ships in to break the warp points to allow my starships in later in the game. This lack of close range punch hurts this session in my first attack on Rinso. (See below). Resource expensive though, I never recovered this after I lost them all in my first attack on Rinso.

Repair Station: Working I guess? Never had a chance to show off this session.

Multi-Ingress Defense: Argh. I'll get this setup one of these days.

Mini-Forts: These are more super-turrets then mini forts, although the fact that they can move gives several tactical options that turrets don't have. They are still useless against the shadow frigates so I'm not actually seeing these pull their weight.

Other notes: Well, I found the special forces. My first attack on Rinso they decided to stonewall me and dumped 1,500 ships in system. I would have to face these Special Forces at some point so even though it would cost me my entire starships fleet as it is only 30 strong, I fought it out. I kited them for as long as I can and leave them strung out along the bottom of the system but as expected my starship fleet is wiped out.

Rinso with disabled special forces


Galaxy Map so you can see the defensive line forming:


Game Log

Alright.

At this point my starship fleet is 30 units strong as I've started adding the Plasma Siege and Spire Corvette Mk II to the mix, although they are not yet at cap.

Continuing to setup my defensive line, Yuunu falls easily, I don't think a ship dropped below 75%. I'm also up to 10K free knowledge so Fortress Mk I's get unlocked and I start on the first one.

However, Rinso is going to be a problem. It's a Mk IV and it's had time to reinforce, although not at badly as I expected.

Once again, there's a fortress although it is far enough north I can enter through a warp point in the center south that is out of range.

Although it is a Mk IV system, my entry warp point is on the lower right edge of the AI's forces so I can start kiting immediately upon entry. I kite away to the edge of the gravity well and as I go to make the turn to continue kiting along the edge of the gravity well, special forces ships start streaming into the system. It takes them several seconds but 1,500 special forces ships arrive.

I'd have to turn back into the ships I've been kiting and the first special forces ships would intercept before I reach my exit warp point so I'm losing some starships anyway, instead I decide to stick it out and kite along the bottom edge of the system. This ends up with all my starships dead but I've stranded half of the 1,524 ships the AI has in the system along the bottom edge, I just hope I can get back in there fast enough to take advantage as engines auto-repair now.

I have a wave of Bombers to kill before I can think about that however. The bombers die in short order, but by the time I turn my attention back to Rinso, all the special forces are gone.

I got my starship fleet dead for no reason.

#$*@%#

Alright, that's out of my system. I can't brute force this so time so, other options.

400 ships in system, it's a Mk IV world, that would steamroll my defences after my fleet gets trashed if I rush the command station and pop it so I'm going to have to snipe guard posts and get that ship count down. That fortress in the north is going to constrain me, but it will have to wait until I capture the system.

Or not. The next wave of Shadow Frigates from the homeworld hits, and they bring along the threat left over from my failed first attack on Rinso. My fleet is used in the defence and I lose a raid SS. Ugh.

Okay, it's going to cost me a system, maybe two, but once the first fortress is online I'm going to just pop the Rinso command station. My economy is broke and my turrets represent such an overwhelming percentage of my existing firepower I have to get them into play. (Fortress at 86%)

Wait, Mk I Tackle Drones cost 22,000 metal and 11,000 crystal? No wonder my economy is in the tank. I just set those to auto-build when I unlocked them and did not check their costs. Ugh, oh well. Tackle Drones are great against waves.

Anyways, Fortress is at 100%, I've just killed a wave from each AI so I've got my window of opportunity.

Also, Tackle Drones + Military Command = Hilarity. When a target the tackle drone has tractored gets translocated, the Tackle drones come along for the ride. I had tackle drones criss-crossing the system all over the place.

Anyways, Rinso's command station needs to die so I tranport hop in my entire load of Mk I bombers expecting to lose them all. Amazingly, 30 bombers make it back out.

However, I now face the steamroller. The good news is its headed for the same planet the Shadow Frigates from the AI Homeworld have been attacking so I have decent defences in place.

The bad news is the next wave of Shadow Frigates from the AI Homeworld arrives at the same time. Ow.

I end up losing two systems and because the Shadow Frigates prioritize command stations I lose the second energy collector faster then expected so enough of my fleet is still alive that I drop to negative energy. Only to -45K so I only have to scrap a few units to get my energy back to where my defences are online.

Tackle Drone launchers are still hilarious.

Anyways, two systems to rebuild and then fortify Rinso and then my starship fleet. Economy? What economy?

Also, because of Rinso's location on the corner, I expect it to face more then it's fair share of threat so it is going to get extra-heavy defences despite the fact it will only be one of 4 ingress points when everything is said and done.

Hmm, double wave to Dudorral at the left edge of my defensive line, this might hurt.

And it does, but not in the way I expect as when the wave hits, the next Shadow Frigates from the homeworld hit (along with escorts from the other ships loose on threat) the right side of my defensive line. It's only been a few minutes since the last ones, they must have been sitting on the otherside of the wormhole at threat for a while.

I manage to fight this off, but I lose 3 of my 5 systems and as I'm cleaning up the last 100 ships left in my homeworld, the first CPA gets announced. This will be fun.

W.T.F.!!!!!

I alt-tabbed to type this as I was just cleaning up the last 100 ships. During those 60 seconds yet another wave of shadow frigates shows up and nukes my home command station. Just how often does the Heroic AI Homeworld spawn Shadow Frigates? I've now fought off 3 waves of 2 shadow frigates from the homeworld in the past 10 minutes.

Well, fought off 2, the 3rd killed my home command.

That's it for now then, I'll save scum this later but it's been a long time since I saved, I hope the auto-save is in a playable condition.

D.

458

After Action Reports / Re: I shall be Heroic! (and get a Heroic hurt. Ow.)

« on: October 07, 2012, 07:36:21 PM »

Game Session 2: 1:23-2:16
Existing Unlocks: Mini-Forts, Repair Stations.
This session: Plasma Siege Mk II, Spire Corvette Mk II, FF Mk II, Missile Turret Mk II, Tackle Drone Launcher (ARS)

Heroic AI Round 2: This is still giving me fits. I've now got enough defenses up that even without my fleet 2 shadow frigates can wreak, but not destroy, a system. I'm now in the safe zone for this I think. The waves from the homeworlds are no longer a threat and AIP is not high enough that a lot of Shadow Frigates come with waves.

Starship Fleet: This is still working well, but I've only attacked Mk II worlds this time around. I have one more Mk II then it's a Mk IV world, that will be the first real test. I'm running a single shield on both the Riots and the Spire Corvettes and that is proving to be a good damage soak.

Repair Station: Nice to have along but very luck dependent. Can repair ships while in combat if you get lucky, can sit there doing nothing if you can't kill that long-range guardian who is targeting said ship due to the repair cool-down.

Multi-Ingress Defense: Half way setup.

Mini-Forts: These feel about right. They are giving me a decent punch but nothing huge. Mind you they have only had to hold out until my fleet arrives so far so they have not really been tested. Can't wait for 5.091 and them getting Translocating immunity however, they are still worthless against Shadow Frigates due to that.

Other notes: Nothing else major of note this time around. On the ARS, I don't Ship-Hack, I save my hacking for the super-terminal, so I take what I get. I got lucky on this first one with the tackle drones, we'll see what my second one gets me. Said second ARS is 4 system captures away.

Galaxy Map now:


I'm curling back to get defensive depth at the moment before I finish clearing systems to set my defensive line up to the west.


Alright, I apparently need to save more often. I lose 40 minutes going back to my previous save.

Anyways, resuming where I left off, I have captured the Mk IV system to the west of my homeworld but have to kill the fortress again. Yay.

Anyways, back to clearing Dudorral.

I also start hitting my ship caps. Looking at the K costs, I unlock Plasma Siege Mk II and Spire Corvette Mk II for 2,500 knowledge each. Riot Mk II is my next offensive unlock, but it's 4,000 knowledge so it has to wait a bit.

Dudorral falls and I get my command station up. I capture a counter-spy because why not?

Dudorral is going to be one of my defensive line worlds so it gets the heavy defence treatment from the start.

Unlock Missile Turret Mk II and FF Mk II and once I get the knoweldge from Dudorral, unlock Fortress Mk I.

Curling back towards my homeworld, I take the next defensive line planet, Buyarbu.

Dropping a scout in, it only has 150 ships present. I send the raid SS in and pop the command station. I'll eat 150 ships on threat without a problem.

Buyarbu is cleared easily and command station goes up. I capture an Ion III and my first ARS, I get tackle drones. My first time with those, this will be fun. No resource points here however but I'm up to 4 systems controlled so resources are not a primary worry at this point.

And just got my first AI wave with a tackle drone launcher built. I forsee hilarity once I get the cap of Mk I and II up.

And the next Shadow Frigates from the AI homeworld hit. For some reason they are comeing down the west side of the map, bypassing Dudorral and hitting Diyun. That pathing makes no sense to me but it means I have to hold more defences at Diyun then I intended. Probably going for forts soon then.

And supper calls.

I'm out for now.

D.

459

AI War / Re: AI War Beta 5.090 "Fish Or Cut Bait" Released!

« on: October 07, 2012, 06:25:27 PM »

Hmm. Rebuilding at negative energy needs a look.

Patch notes: Command station remains can now be rebuilt even when energy is negative, to avoid the "you need power to get power" catch-22.

Remains Rebuilders now process command station remains at negative energy by removing said remains from play. No command station spawns to replace the remains. Effectively the player selected the remains and pressed Del.

http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=9705

D.

460

After Action Reports / Re: I shall be Heroic! (and get a Heroic hurt. Ow.)

« on: October 07, 2012, 06:01:37 PM »

Oops. I took the new Spire Corvettes as my bonus ship as I can just slide those into my starship fleet easily. Forgot to mention that in my game setup.

Gametime: 0:00 to 2:00 (Start to 2 hours, not showing seconds).
First game over at 2:00. (I'm expecting more save-scums over this game.)
Unlocks so far: Mini-Forts, Repair Stations

Heroic AI Round 2: This is still giving me fits. The Shadow Frigates that come with waves are not a big deal as my defences are prepared. The ones that spawn on the AI Homeworld and come unannounced are tearing me up. Indeed, with my attention out on my fleet in an AI system, 2 of these sneaked in and punched out my home command station as my fleet was out on the attack. For reference: 2x MiniFort, 20x each of MLRS, Basic and Laser (so 60 total) did not even get the shields down on 2 Shadow Frigates. This session ended with said death of my home command and I will be save scumming this.

Starship Fleet: This worked well, punched out my first system with them and only lost a couple. As it was a Mk IV system I think that's acceptable. Once I actually unlock more then the Mk I Starships will be the real test.

Repair Station: I was afraid that rolling up the Counter-Spy would invalidate this as the Repair Stations are cloaked. But as they are Insta-Kill immune it is not a worry. I think they helped my starships survived better but again, this early I have not really used them as I intended to.

Multi-Ingress Defense: Going to setup a 4 ingress defence along the systems marked P4 and P5 on the map. Not setup yet so notes in the future on this.

Mini-Forts: These seem to work? They are not as awesome as I was expecting, but a large part of that I suspect is the Shadow Frigates are neutralizing them. The mini-forts are not Translocating immune so when the Frigates spawn with a translocating module, my forts end off at the edge of the system and are effectively out of the fight after a single salvo. More notes once my front opens up and I actually face the trickle of ships on threat these are intended to counter.

Other notes: Because of the counter spy, I am having to transport-hop my scouts out. This is generating a lot of threat. I can't actually find any actual stats on guardians killed in the Reference window but I would guesstimate I've killed probably about 20 guardians and escorting fleet ships from systems that the only ship has entered them are my transports and scouts. They are not really a threat as I'm going reasonably heavy on the defenses due to the Heroic AI type. However, as my empire gets bigger and I can't use my fleet as effectively as a quick response fleet they could be a problem. As least the mini-forts will get a workout.

Galaxy map


So, first two hours are pretty standard. I unlock mini-forts and repair stations right off the bat. I have a history of not leaving enough knowledge for things so I unlock those now even though I will not be building them for a while.

Getting my initial scouts out turns out to be quite problematic. The AI I left on random rolled up counter-spy. My scouts are going to suffer, badly. I also panic for a second, repair stations are cloaked so I'm worried I won't be able to use them.

Repair stations are immune to insta-kill however so they will not get one-shot by the counter spy thankfully.

That still leaves scouting as a major problem. I start transport hopping my scouts out to skip past the counter-spies to get some scouting depth.

However, I know start running into transport threat. Every time a transport goes through an AI system, 20 to 40 ships (including guardians) are freed and head for my systems keeping my defenses busy although this threat is not really dangerous.

Regardless, I have my initial strategy.

On the map above, the row of P5 and P6 planets are going to be my final defensive line. The P6 are nothing special but the two P5s are two ARS nice and close.

The neutral planet to the west of my homeworld was a Mk IV world.  The other two worlds adjacent to my homeworld were a Mk I and a Mk IV.

The Mk IV to the west has almost double the amount of resource nodes as the other two worlds combined however so it is my first target. To take out a Mk IV world as my first captured planet, I can't afford it to build up at all. The planet does have a Fortress on it but it is off to the left edge of the system, my entry wormhole is on the right edge well out of range so I have room to operate.

By the 10 minute mark I have a decent size fleet and a line of turrets so I start picking away at the Mk IV west of my HW. Initially it is just fighters and bombers but I upgrade to Spire Corvettes and Riot Starships with a couple plasma siege as fast as I can.

It takes me a while but there are no real problems. The fortress stays alive for probably 30 minutes after my own command station goes up but it is far enough out of the way that it does not really constrain me.

I build up some light defenses, including the mini-forts, and the energy collector for this system, my next target is Dudoral so it is right next door. My fleet will pull double duty defending this system for now.

This ends up costing me the game. Because Dudoral is a low mark system, my starship fleet (4x Plasma Siege, 2x Spire Corvette, 4x Riot, 4x Flagship, 2x Mobile Repair) is rolling it up and I have not checked my own systems in a bit. The next thing I know I get the Diyun Command Station under attack message.

While my attention was focused on clearing Dudoral, 2 Shadow Frigates arrived at Diyun and with my fleet that was supposed to help out the limited turrets in the system busy in Dudoral, Diyun effectively puts up no resistance and is destroyed, including the Energy Collector. I had 60x Mk I turrets of various types and 2x mini-forts in system to challenge the 2x Shadow Frigates, neither Shadow Frigate even lost it's shield.

I am now at -100,000 energy balance, the 2 Shadow Frigates essentially undamaged and the only defences online in my home system are the fleet ships but with only Mk I they are not enough.

My fleet does not have a hope of catching up, the shadow frigates are in my homeworld before my fleet has even made it back to Diyun from Dudoral.

Game Over.

And save-scum time, those Shadow Frigates are a serious threat early in the game before serious defenses are built to handle the larger AI waves as the AIP goes up.

D.

461

AI War / Re: Brainstomring: Status of Command Stations

« on: October 07, 2012, 05:21:16 PM »

I am in favor of unlocking fold-outs with the mil, log, and econ abilities for your generic command station. Which i think i brought up the last time we discussed comm stations.

And was also shot down by the devs. That suggestion has come up every few months for that past couple years and the answer has consistently been negative on implementing it.

That's why I'd like to see suggestions that keep the current 3 lines of units intact but just tweak their abilities so we are not actually changing how command stations work, just what the different lines of command stations give us.

D.

462

AI War / Re: Brainstomring: Status of Command Stations

« on: October 07, 2012, 05:12:45 PM »

Wow, so Faulty Logic lays out why he uses Logi stations over Mil, which I laid out myself not to long ago, and people disagreed with me.

I don't use Log stations

That is what I'm saying.  You don't use Logistics stations, I do.  I said, "I use logistic stations for  my outer worlds because of the speed difference" and people came along and said "BUT MILITARY IS BETTER THERE."

So yes, you do in fact disagree with me, otherwise you'd be using Logistics stations.

I prefer Mil stations for my playstyle because I don't want to be microing my fleet around to take advantage of the speed difference, I want to be able to ignore those systems while I'm off doing other things.

I can see how the Log stations could be more powerful then Mil stations with enough micro attention given to them, but I don't want to give them that micro so it's Mil stations for me.

D.

463

After Action Reports / I shall be Heroic! (and get a Heroic hurt. Ow.)

« on: October 07, 2012, 01:03:20 PM »

Alright.

After the interesting experiences my last couple games have been, I decided to just play a game.

As this is me however, I can't make things simple of course. However, looking back at the walls of text my previous AARs turned into, I'm going to preface my posts with the following points as those are kind of what I'm playing this game for.

Heroic AI Round 2: After the drubbing I got last game, I have something of a grudge against the AI so I set AI1 to Heroic and leave the other at Random All Non-Tech.

Starship Fleet: A few games ago I did have pretty good results with a starship only attack fleet so I'm going to try that again this game.

Repair Station: The mobile repair station will accompany my fleet to see how it currently stands up. It's probably been 15+ games since I used this and in theory it will be a very powerful complement to a Starship attack fleet.

Multi-Ingress Defense: After the change I championed to the multi-ingress defence, I'm going to set up one of those this game to see how it goes.

Mini-Forts: As these tangentially came from the discussion about Multi-Ingress defence I started, going to try these out also.

Other notes: I will make specific comments on that game session here.


Okay, so onto the game itself.

Game Setup:
Diff 9 Heroic
Diff 9 Random All Non-Tech (I draw Counter Spy on game start).
80 Planet Lattice Map and all Expansions on.

Ships:
Complex Available
All sub-types enabled, including CSGs.

Game Options:
Combat: Normal
Unit Cap: Normal
Full Fog of War

AI Options:
Everything Off
0 AIP Auto Progress

AI Plots:
All Off

And Start!

464

AI War / Re: Brainstomring: Status of Command Stations

« on: October 07, 2012, 10:48:11 AM »

That actually synergizes quite well with the mini-fort as the mini-fort has a 2,000 longer range then the translocating shots so that trickle of ships dies faster. At least the Mk I station. The Mk II and III stations have a longer range then the mini-fort.

That actually gives a boost to the Mk I stations over the II and III stations oddly enough.

D.

465

AI War / Re: AI War Beta 5.090 "Fish Or Cut Bait" Released!

« on: October 07, 2012, 10:14:37 AM »

Do you use starships? They are quite the energy hogs. Using forts and starships and fleet ships and turrets should strain your energy in almost any stage of the game..

Yes, I'm a big fan of starships.

In my current game that I just started, going with starships as my main strike force.


Having said that, mini-forts are not immune to translocation apparently. Just faced a Shadow Frigate with a Translocator module, my mini-forts are now off on the edges of the system.



See that fort off at the top edge of the system? Probably the best way for the AI to deal with it actually.

D.