10/10 The Core/Tech Raider

[Faulty Logic]

I chokepointed with Warp Jammers, and put the entire fleet through the grinder on arachna every single wave. A wave where I only lose half the fleet and all of my turrets is a cheap wave, but then I have a lot of time and a strong economy to build for the next one. And that is with the use of spire rams and shields, which are finite resources. Every wave and exo was a crisis.

Golems are fragile against thousands of high-mark ships (lost the regen to a huge swarm of raptors).

Tech raider is far more of a threat than the core.

Warheads against normal waves started to become routine.

Every exo was a desperate battle for survival. I actually think this game might have been easier sans golems/spirecraft.

The game definitely got much harder upon updating to 5.046.

I can't speak to the exo-buffs in 5.050, because only the last exo occured during that version, and I completely ignored it while attacking the second HW.

I agree 10/10 needs a buff, but this game was on the brink of defeat for most of the last half, so nothing insane.

Thanks all.

The requested save file: right before the final assault (which takes a lot of micro to make work (Pinpoint jumpship control, cloaked warheads directed carefully, getting the entire fleet to the AI HW after the nuke, but before the CRE wave arrives on the core world, splitting the fleet to kill the guard posts, etc), and if the RNG spawns a MS you are hosed no matter what.

(I recomend switching to my layout if possible, the original is somewhat confusing)

[Kahuna]

The requested save file: right before the final assault (which takes a lot of micro to make work (Pinpoint jumpship control, cloaked warheads directed carefully, getting the entire fleet to the AI HW after the nuke, but before the CRE wave arrives on the core world, splitting the fleet to kill the guard posts, etc).

Ahh now I see what you did there!

About that 9k MarkIV wave. Did you blow up all of them with 1 missile right when they all came trough the wormhole and when they came out of their Carriers?

PS. Suggestion about the Avenger AI Plot. If Avenger(s) is/are enabled the Avenger should be destroyed before the game is won. That's the point of the Avenger.. it's AIs last defense vs the humans. If you fail to destroy it you DIE. And if you die you failed. In my own games I don't consider the game won if I can't destroy the Avenger even if I see the "You Win!" text.

[Faulty Logic]

It took 3 missiles, and an arti golem to pop the carriers.

I always considered the goal of the game to be: kill the AI. Survival is a luxury.

[Kahuna]

The way the AI ships comes trough the wormholes or out of the carriers makes it too easy to blow up 1k V ships with 1 missile. They should come like zombies from the AI Eye. As an "endless" stream. Then it wouldn't be so easy to instagip thousands of ships. When Carriers are destroyed or deployed they could let out the ships the same way. 1k ships over 5 or 10 seconds or something like that. The Carrier wouldn't be able to shoot or move while it's deploying the ships. Like in some scifi movies when a big starship is destroyed it doesn't blow up immediatelly. It's "epic".. there's like parts of the starships blowing up (Carrier is deploying the ships). Small explosions everywhere.. THEN there's the big boom (all ships deployed, the carrier self destructs). Kind like this

[Faulty Logic]

I disagree. I think warheads are just about right. When you have to use warheads, it marks the beginning of an AIP spiral, so I think having them be extremely effective is the right move balance-wise.

[_K_]

The way the AI ships comes trough the wormholes or out of the carriers makes it too easy to blow up 1k V ships with 1 missile.

Well, aside from the fact the missiles are kinda supposed to kill those huge chunks of units at the cost of AIP, id suggest making the carriers "leak" their units as their health drops. Start leaking at 50% carrier HP so they dont leak due to AOE damage at the beginning of the wave.