Messages

61

AI War / Re: Is there a benefit to captive human settlements?

« on: September 01, 2011, 04:05:50 PM »

Making Waves larger for having certain objects on a planet (like human settlements and Human Ion Cannons) was taken out quite awhile ago.  The description for settlement just hasn't been updated methinks.

Still got memories of a 100k ship wave I had once...

That did not end well for me, or my CPU

62

Off Topic / Re: Forum Themes

« on: September 01, 2011, 04:03:06 PM »

I did the same, so much more relaxing for my eyes to look at white and blue with black text

63

AI War / Re: AI War Beta 5.015, "Martyred Forcefields," Released!

« on: August 30, 2011, 03:35:23 PM »

My last spire game I had to layer 2 MK II and 2 MK III force fields to even hold of some of the nastier attackers before my main fleet could get there. Even then it was not always enough

Good times.

64

AI War / Re: Spirecraft Ion Blaster - Does anybody use them?

« on: August 30, 2011, 08:27:21 AM »

I think it was fine how ICs basically annihilated any ships that fall under their mark level (they used to have a refire time of ~1 second?)

Yes, it was 1 second per shot, but that was with a standard mkI triangle ship cap of 196.  Now with that cap (playing on high caps) it fires every 2 seconds (every 4 on normal caps, every 8 on low).  So in theory they should be about half as dangerous as they used to be.  In practice they seem to be a lot less dangerous than that.

I think I'll go with the same reload times but have it do 4 shots per salvo, and we'll see how much pain that causes

That will probably be sufficient to make AI Ions painful again, but doesn't really help the mkI/II spirecraft ions since you don't see a lot of pitched battles against mkI/II AI ships by the time you're in midgame.  That's the main reason I want to give them some kind of useful role against higher-mark stuff.  And honestly the AI Ions don't need that as long as they're dangerous enough as insta-kill.  Though that doesn't address ion cannons not being very useful to humans.

4 shot salvoes sounds pretty cool actually. Got my support . And if you play like me will still make the MK II cannon worth it, since I try and keep AIP low, and teh AI sends Mk II ships frequently early to mid/late game.

Adding the other kind of damage as you mentioned might also be a pretty cool idea, for both humans and the AI. Regardless, the 4 shot salvoes will go a long way to make them more dangerous again

65

Off Topic / Re: Aurora

« on: August 30, 2011, 05:45:35 AM »

fantastic, another 'awesome' game buried in text. On the plus side, it doesn't use all the strange symbols. Unfortunately, I don't see a lot of explanatory literature on this. I will wait for the youtube videos, of which I cannot find any.

For some reason I enjoy text based games. I love DF, and I used to like Xenocide3001 (later recreated as Imperial Kingdoms) before it went totally inactive. I also played another text based browser game 10 years ago... ogame or some such.

If not text, symboles are fine as well, like in AI war and Star Ruler (even SupCom 1), were I spend most of my time zoomed out


But, tbh, DF did take some time to get used to, but was great fun when I did. Some streamlining of UI is never a bad thing, so long as one do not remove features

Aurora does sound interesting, I must check it out.

66

AI War / Re: Spirecraft Ion Blaster - Does anybody use them?

« on: August 30, 2011, 05:39:32 AM »

Even if ions are buffed the ai held ones will be easy enough to counter.

No matter what mark level the cannon they shoot the lowest mark first so just make sure to have plenty of cannon fodder mkI in your fleet.

In retrospect the devs will probably change the targeting priority to shoot the highest mark now. 

Really? Hmm, I could have sworn they went after the highest tier MK ships they could insta kill first. I alwyas seem to loose my Mk III and IV ships quicker on ioncannon worlds with high tier ion cannons.

If that is not the case, it really should be though

67

AI War / Re: Spirecraft Ion Blaster - Does anybody use them?

« on: August 30, 2011, 02:27:41 AM »

I have no idea what Chris would think about this, but I'm wondering if a general overhaul of the ion-cannon mechanic would be good (the turret-ish ion cannons are also a byword nowadays, not just the spirecraft ions).  Well, I think most of us would agree that it needs to change somehow, but specifically:

- Make ion cannons fire significantly more rapidly (this probably means multiple shots per salvo since they already fire fast, iirc).
- Make it so that a MkI ion cannon insta-kills MkI fleet ships, does 50%-of-max-hp damage to MkII fleet ships, 34% to MkIII, 25% to MkIV, and 20% to MkV.
- MkII ion cannon would insta-kill MkI and MkII, would do 50% to MkIII, 34% to MkIV, and 25% to MkV.
- MkIII would do insta/insta/insta/50/34.
- MkIV would do insta/insta/insta/insta/50.
- MkV would insta-kill all tiers.

They still wouldn't be worth anything against starships and whatnot, but they could go back to being the fleet-ship-depopulator.  Wouldn't want to go too wild on increasing rate of fire, and maybe that's primarily a buff for the higher ion marks.

Thoughts?

Sounds like a good change. Ion cannons have been underwhelming for a while now imo.

Of course, this makes the planets the AI has Mk III+ cannons on a lot more dangerous. But thats a good thing, and more lucerative to capture and hold, espeially if it is a choke point.

68

AI War / Re: Super terminal

« on: August 30, 2011, 02:09:09 AM »

But that thing never stops sending ships? Whats the point? 100 core ships every 15 sec, are you supposed to blow it up or leave the planet, or are you supposed to actually defend yourself from those waves?

Some players have managed to permanently hold it off, and still be able to do other things.

Playing AI wars really reminds me how bad I am at RTS.

The strategies I've seen for holding off the super terminal indefinitely tend to have more to do with just piling a _ton_ of stuff on the planet, high tech, maybe some spire capital ships, etc.  Just overwhelming force.  Not a lot of skill

Indeed. I often pile a lot of stuff on the planet, and a few completet turret Mk's. But evnetually I loose it since I have yet to pile that much on it .

69

AI War / Re: AI War Beta 5.015, "Martyred Forcefields," Released!

« on: August 30, 2011, 02:06:17 AM »

Noes my viral shredder backbone! 

j/k

I was abusing all of the mechanics that got nerfed especially the shredders.

1500 mkIII on a single wormhole meant nothing gets through and the little that is immune would get ate up by the turrets.

Indeed. I had huge shredder hoards as reserves on my planets, on low energy mode since 4500 of then sucked up a lot of energy

But this is awesome: "Replication-created shredders now copy the FRD, Attack Move, and any unit commands (movement waypoints and whatnot) of their "parent". Note that they already copy the control groups and "am I currently selected" status of their parent. "

I like the forcefield change as well. I don't always use that trick, but when I do it has saved me from huge numbers that should have killed me

70

A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: A Valley Without Wind #14 - Beta Gameplay Footage Part Two (Crafting!)

« on: August 24, 2011, 11:48:07 AM »

Looking more and more interesting

71

AI War / Re: F***ing finally!!!

« on: August 10, 2011, 08:08:00 PM »

Seems like you capture more planets then usual, but as long as it works

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Off Topic / Re: Forums are now running SMF 2.0!

« on: July 19, 2011, 07:32:12 AM »

I was wondering what site I was on hwen I tabbed to his tab.


nice update
(just sucks that spam got in a question might not be a bad idea, and don't hurt legit accounts either, worht a shot )

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Off Topic / Re: Recommendation for boardgame for x4000? :)

« on: July 14, 2011, 04:18:50 AM »

I do not remember the player count from the top of my head, but the game of thrones board game was fun. Mind, it is 4 years since I tried it, but still.

Another one my group liked was Mag Blast. Not strictly a board game as such, rather with cards, but still fun in a big group.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Poll about exploration: blocked passages, full realism, or game-ified buildings?

« on: July 13, 2011, 02:45:19 AM »

I would go for 2 or 1. I kinda like 2 because any game that is too much like RL might as well just be RL (well, maybe a bit exaggerated), and I got no problem with some artistic freedom this way. Option 1 is also OK, but I never did like that closed door I might/might not be able to get through at a later date .

As for option 3, while it is pretty neat, it will eventually become booring to go through offcie number 1561

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Off Topic / Re: Recommendation for boardgame for x4000? :)

« on: July 13, 2011, 02:38:49 AM »

I realy like (vanilla) Risk, and it has 6 players. It might last a tad longer then 1-2 hours, depending on how and who you play with though.