AI War Beta 5.006, "Raiders Of The Lost Desync," Released!

[BobTheJanitor]

Although the "more than about 100" scares me a little: won't this lead to 'em killing themselves all off eventually, if patrolling a particularly tough AI world?

Probably so, but then that's probably how it should be. My concern is still with whether or not gatlings will cause ships to go into threat status by themselves, and whether they will alert adjacent planets. Freeing other ships might not be so bad, since the gatlings will probably just kill them as well. Alerting adjacent planets could be a good or bad thing, depending on which direction your empire's expansion plans are headed. I'll just have to play with it and see. Looks like it'll be pretty great, although as far as I can see from theorycrafting, it's probably going to make the dyson sphere even more of a powerful ally.

[TechSY730]

Although the "more than about 100" scares me a little: won't this lead to 'em killing themselves all off eventually, if patrolling a particularly tough AI world?

Probably so, but then that's probably how it should be. My concern is still with whether or not gatlings will cause ships to go into threat status by themselves, and whether they will alert adjacent planets. Freeing other ships might not be so bad, since the gatlings will probably just kill them as well. Alerting adjacent planets could be a good or bad thing, depending on which direction your empire's expansion plans are headed. I'll just have to play with it and see. Looks like it'll be pretty great, although as far as I can see from theorycrafting, it's probably going to make the dyson sphere even more of a powerful ally.

You don't need to worry so much. Minor factions (except maybe for the devourer golem, but I think that was fixed) cannot put planets on alert. Also, they cannot free ships by merely firing upon them or getting close to them, AI ships will only be alerted in those cases. However, they can free ships by killing a guard post, because that would lead to all the ships defending that guard post getting freed. As you mentioned, that wouldn't be so bad because the gattlings would probably kill those freed ships pretty quickly.

Also, someone reported that not only does the Dyson sphere stop spawning gattlings when it is on an AI planet and there are no humans around (which is intended behavior), but already spawned gattlings will stop firing on AI ships if they are on an AI planet and there are no humans around (not intended behavior). Can anyone confirm this?

EDIT: Found the original post for the issue in the second paragraph: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=2680#c11341

[x4000]

Minor factions should never cause AI ships to go into threat mode, but we'll see.

In terms of the AI not attacking planets with dysons on them, Vinraith, that should also be fixed by the changes in 5.007, but let me know if not.

In terms of the AI not spawning dyson gatlings on planets with no human presence, that's by design, but the dysons should keep fighting.  It might be that the AI is going into cold storage or something.

[x4000]

Oh, and Otagan, at the moment I'm not aware of any huge imbalance with penetrators.  I'm sure they will be tuned with time like anything, but so far I'm not aware of them being broken -- being powerful is okay, just not broken-powerful.

[BobTheJanitor]

Probably referring to this thread: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,8268.0.html (In reference to balance issues with the penetrators)

[x4000]

Got it...  thanks!

[TechSY730]

Spirecraft Penetrator balance:
    * Penetrator perma-cloaking replaced with normal cloaking.

People are going to hate you for that one X. 

[Red Spot]

Just stalk him ... 

[x4000]

Please direct all hate mail to Irxallis .

[TechSY730]

TBH, that loss of perma-cloaking is not as huge of a deal as it may seem at first.

1. Even with their now nerfed health, they are still pretty durable.
2. Tachyon beam guardians are pretty easy to kill
3. They are blind, so even with their perma-cloaking, you wouldn't be able to hit something on a planet that you never got a scout in the first place. (unless you ate playing on complete visibility)

So it still is a big nerf, but not as big as it would seem to be at first glance.

EDIT: I mentioned tractor beam instead of tachyon beam guardians by mistake. Fixed.

[x4000]

That was my thought, yeah.

[Orelius]

I wouldn't say that, it removes all possibility of easy deepstriking, as in order to do so, you will have to wipe out tachyon guardians on the way there, which is tiring and costly.

I will miss being able to wipe out both homeworlds simultaneously with warheads and penetrators =\.

[x4000]

I will miss being able to wipe out both homeworlds simultaneously with warheads and penetrators =\.

That I won't.

[Otagan]

Probably referring to this thread: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,8268.0.html (In reference to balance issues with the penetrators)

Sorry, yes.  I was referring to that thread and forgot to link it.

[Vinraith]

In terms of the AI not attacking planets with dysons on them, Vinraith, that should also be fixed by the changes in 5.007, but let me know if not.

Will do. That should make my current save... interesting.  Any idea when 5.007 will be coming down (not intending to rush you, just curious)?