Against Vigilant Foes

[Faulty Logic]

This game got a lot harder as of "Lazy AI." First, the floor moved a lot, then the mini-exos were added, not to mention the normal exos (of death).

70 Planets spokes 86132429 Tackle Drones

10/10 Experimentalist/Sledge Hammer

Marauders 4
Resistance 10 (and they still don't show up very often)
Rebellions 4
Roaming Enclaves 4

Normal + Champ, Schizo, Comp-vis.

I also want to see if tanking waves on 1 or 2 planets is absolutely necessary, by letting the AI have 5 possible ways in (the hubs, as it turns out).

And the map looks... average. Don't know how many planets I'll take, but I'll start with my hub, then scout the near 4 ARSs.

I decide to colonize much faster than normal, because the nemeses are coming.

Unlock Harvester IIIs.

I have a milI station up on my hub for the first wave, and kill it with a cap of fighters, tdls, and missile turrets.

~1/2 the initial turrets and the mkI fleet + riots kill the second wave.
I plan to leave all my turretry protecting the entrance to the HW. It isn't worth dispersing it accross 5 systems.

1:00 in, I've conquered my second planet, and raided two DCs.

Unlocked TDL IIs.
Unlocked FortressI (one will go on every hub).

2:00 Three more hubs captured, other four DCs raided. AIP 30. Forts up on the 4 hubs I control (mobile builder + remains rebuilder gets them half off).

The ARS next to me has shield bearers as a hackable option. Preparing for that.

2:20 That hack was absurdly easy. I just sent in the hacker and a scout starship, and sent in another scout whenever a tachyon pulse happened (can't do this later, too many pulses).

2:40 System colonized. Had to deal with a counter post, but it was worth it. It also comes with a core parasite fabricator.

Unlocked Riots II-III.

2:50 Scouted the other 4 ARSs. Nothing worth hacking (except maybe for a teleport raider, that double Pinwheel looks menacing), nothing spectacular.

3:15 CPA declared. 4400 ships? What the? Do CPAs use the same time-rule as exos?

Anyway, wasn't too bad, the biggest group was 2500, and I had riots, a fortress, and a core ion cannon waiting for them. The 160 rebels saved the ion cannon, but nothing major would have gone wrong without them. I still have about 880 sitting around though.

State of Empire:

[keith.lamothe]

I also want to see if tanking waves on 1 or 2 planets is absolutely necessary, by letting the AI have 5 possible ways in (the hubs, as it turns out).

Interesting.  Aside from waves, any significant threatfleet could lead to significant headaches there too, as they specifically look for weak spots on your border.  And some of those nemesis units will spawn and neglect to pass Go while proceeding directly to threatfleet.

Still, your TDLs should shut down just about anything that can be tractored, when combined with RAA and such.

The ARS next to me has shield bearers as a hackable option.

At about this moment, the AI seriously considers calling gg.

Unlocked Riots II-III.

Ditto.

3:15 CPA declared. 4400 ships? What the? Do CPAs use the same time-rule as exos?

Yes-siree, it's been doing that for quite a while.  It's basically a total-power-check on the humans.  It can be passed without taking any planets thus far but it's dicey (on high difficulty, not really <= 8 ).  In general it seems quite a bit easier to handle than it is with the exos (which is appropriate, as you don't get any superweapons along with the CPAs), but basically the idea is that CPAs are the nastiest form of offense you encounter in a non-superweapon game, and there's enough time between them that you can cover a whole phase of the game inbetween.

[Faulty Logic]

Still, your TDLs should shut down just about anything that can be tractored, when combined with RAA and such.

They aren't as good as I remember, struggling against any significant AI fleet, or firing 16 drones at one enemy fighter. Riots are still awesome, however (ever just pick up an entire wave and deposit it in a minefield?). And a fortress per planet seems to discourage threat pretty well.

At about this moment, the AI seriously considers calling gg.

Much as I love shield bearers, they aren't all that much more effective than other fleetships. They are a lot more flexible and noticeable, though.

<CPA stuff>

I knew the basic intent and time rules. I was wondering if it used the exact same number that got me killed in the other game (which will be rebooted upon exo nerf).

In general it seems quite a bit easier to handle than it is with the exos

Well, exos lack a certain vulnerability that thousands of fleetships don't.

[PokerChen]

If there's only one thing shield-bearers are useful for, it'd be to shield a Botnet while it churns through a CPA all by itself.

Without superweapons, the only thing needing that kind of protection are warheads...

[keith.lamothe]

I knew the basic intent and time rules. I was wondering if it used the exact same number that got me killed in the other game (which will be rebooted upon exo nerf).

Hmm, something like it, yea.  Looks like it may have been the right number in this case   They're not connected in the code though, changes to one do not impact the other.

[Faulty Logic]

===Operation Mop Up====

Scouring the threat (champ shields + riot tractors + waiting tazers = dead, dead threatball) and conquering the last hub (has an ACS, so I was really careful) takes me to hour 4 gametime.

My modular forts will all go on the last hub, because that's where both the AI homeworlds lead in. My turretry will remain as HW insurance.

===Operation Basic Negotiation====

It's nebula time:

First, gatlings. I spend my 2 unlock points from guardposts on shields/laser, and clean up the gatlings with ease. I ended up with 24 of them. And ten extra levels. The starbase spawn rule should not apply here.

Installed Spire mod fort.

Next, neinzul mourners. I managed about half the prisons at once, because the small starbase and my projected shields have more relative punch at frigate level.

Installed Neinzul mod fort.

Next nebula: 3-way. I used a zenith champ with missiles to assassinate the spire large base (I actually died and reentered), then worked with the allied ships against the Neinzul (who don't appear to get spawns upon small-base-death.)

Installed Zenith mod fort.

Next: Humans. This scenario is a lot more fun with the base spawns, though they need to be smaller. Missiles really kill starbases well.

Next: Colony ships. This scenario should not have the small-base spawn rule. And missile modules may need a nerf.

===Operation Kill the SF====

Now that the Negotiator is a cruiser, I want some more AIP before the last 4 nebulae. And I want a few more energy collecters, because running 8 matter converters is not part of the recommended economy diet. I take the FactIV-ARS-nothing spoke. Easier said than done, since that was where all 5000 (+10 frigates) SF ended up.

And the AI constantly redeploys the ships into carriers, especially when I have them tractored, right before I pull them out. The in-and-out process also appears to heal the enemy ships.

I ended up brute-forcing it, wiping most of my fleetships and a couple low-mark starships.

I got paralyzers from the ARS.

I used my k for starship unlocks, because I want to try them. I have Flagship, Spire, and Zenith up to mkIV, and leech/bomber/siege up to mkII.

MkIV starships are awesome, though my accountants don't agree.

And I unlocked TDLs III/IV to keep the enemy off the starships, as well as for hacking.

Core parasites are awesome, though the leech starships probably help. I'm putting off my fleetship unlocks because I already have high-mark triangles (and caps of infiltrators, eyebots, microfighters, and sentinel frigates safe at home).

===Operation Hold the Line====

CPA declared with 8500 ships (!). And a double wave, for ~3500 more (fortunately to the hub with my homeworld on it, and thus all my turrets, 10 enclaves, and the greatest concentration of patrolling rebels). So I was able to kill the waves and get my fleet in possition before the main part of the CPA crashed against the ACS hub.

And by "crashed", I mean "sent one carrier though (instantly deployed and warheaded), then stop. And hung around as a threatball. Against someone who has near-ideal threatball cleanup technologies."

After dealing with the main thrust, I scour the ~1500 ships intimidated by my scattered fortIs.

That was a lot easier than I expected.

===Operation Silver Tongue====

Nebula time again:

Ravenous Shadow: what did you do to that poor thing? I killed it before the enclaves stopped showing up, and 11 of them escaped. Also, if the starbase spawn rule applies to this scenario, it shouldn't.

3v2: Nothing special.

2v2: Large Spire Starbase assassination seems like it should be harder.

Brawl: The rebound effect didn't happen here at all.


Ending the session here, about to go on a mad hacking spree.

State of Empire:

[keith.lamothe]

===Operation Basic Negotiation===

Observation: Ah, yes, it is once again time to facilitate communications.

Unnecessary Addendum: And terminate hostilities.

The starbase spawn rule should not apply here.

Yep, already fixed for next version for the gatlings, colony ships, and mini-cookie-monster scenarios.

And missile modules may need a nerf.

Possibly yes.  They do kind of horn in on the territory of more specialized "siegeish" modules.  So I'll take them down from 60k*mk to 50k*mk and see how it goes.

===Operation Kill the SF===

Subtle.

And the AI constantly redeploys the ships into carriers, especially when I have them tractored, right before I pull them out. The in-and-out process also appears to heal the enemy ships.

Interesting.  If you have a save where this happens I can use it for a test case for logic to prevent such revacuuming.  It's non-trivial to find a solution, however, as the game really does need to keep the ship count on a particular planet from just balooning.  At 5k AI ships it just starts not spawning new ones at all with a very few exceptions (the Avenger, etc).

And by "crashed", I mean "sent one carrier though (instantly deployed and warheaded), then stop. And hung around as a threatball. Against someone who has near-ideal threatball cleanup technologies."

Sigh.  CPA ship self-preservation-cogitator tweak made for next version.

Ravenous Shadow: what did you do to that poor thing?

What people asked for, or so I thought.  But several have chimed in that it's too far, so for next version I'm buffing its health, attack, and shots-per-salvo a bit (leaving the move speed and attack range at the nerfed levels, as those were the more operative in making an enclave-wipe not a foregone conclusion)

2v2: Large Spire Starbase assassination seems like it should be harder.

Suggestions?  Just more health, or heavier anti-champion defenses, or what?

Brawl: The rebound effect didn't happen here at all.

You mean the small-base-death spawns, or what?


Thanks for the feedback, as always.

[Faulty Logic]

Subtle.

I can do subtle. When I have to. Honest!

Suggestions?  Just more health, or heavier anti-champion defenses, or what?

I don't know. It's mainly the fact that I can ziz-zag and take only a tiny fraction of its lance's dps. Maybe give it a bonus against champs only (Structural would work for against shields only).

You mean the small-base-death spawns, or what?

Yeah, that was what I meant. I expected ridiculous carnage, and I got the same brawl as always.

Thanks for the feedback, as always.

No problem.

===Operation Mad Hacker====

Buffed the hacking response, eh? We'll see.

First, I will hack the ARS three hops away for teleport raiders, because the idea of remotely sieging the HWs appeals deeply. Killing the core posts with endless waves of teleraids leaves my fleet available to deal with those mini-exo things that have me paranoid.

Nothing went wrong during the hack. Response reads at moderate.

Fleet deals with a couple waves, then commences k-raiding.
I can handle two hackers at once for the first 5. The AI keeps spawning huge groups of gravity and zombie guadians, which just isn't scary. They die before they get into weapon range.

During hack 6, I start to take some significant casualties, so I dial it back to one hacker. Colony rebellion (on an archive world I was going to take anyway) and CPA (12,000 ships) declare near the end. Gametime 8:55.

I like hacking on spokes, where the response is limited to one planet.

Unlocks: bomber/siege/leech starships III, grav turret 1 (for the grav module, for the raid groups), bomber IIs, engineer IIs, and warp jammers.

I'm not near the limit of what I can hack yet, though.

Now, the CPA.

===Operation Gulp====

Hmm, 12,000 ships. In threatfleet behaviour. I know my fleet can handle up to 3000 ships with virtually no casualties, and the CPA will have to come through my 3 modular fort system (plus a normal fort and ion IV), but I do not want to engage them all at once.

I call in the reinforcements: the 5 mk-caps each of infiltrators, eyebots, munitions boosters, and sentinel frigates, along with the complete cap of merc fighters, and 22 reclaimed gatlings that usually reside on my homeworld, safe.

Naturally, I have 6 lightning Is under cloak, as a fallback.

Wave declared, 2000 ships to my central hub. In 6 minutes? Oh, right, waves can synchronize with CPAs now. Well, I should be able to take care of the wave, and then get my fleet in position before the CPA arrives, because carriers are slow.

Wave killed, fleet coming to the far hub. The CPA has resolved into 9000 ships in one carrier hammer, pondering its way closer (still 3 hops out), 2000 ships attacking the HW hub, and 1000 on the other three hubs that are too scared to attack.

Enclaves, rebels, and turrets are dealing with the 2000 attack handily.

I send the Negotiator to pop carriers, hoping the fleetships will arrive first, thus breaking up the group. It succeeds in popping three, then politely exits the conversation, returning to my fortress.

The AI then redeploys the ships back into carriers, which resets them to the HW, about 2 and a half minutes of travel time from the other 6, which aren't moving.

I pull my mobile fleet out, hoping to bait the threatfleet into attacking. Which works.

The 6000 ships kill my ion cannon, and inflict moderate casualties on my fleet.

I healed the fleet, then hunted the other 3000, then scoured the remaining 1200 or so, dealing with a couple waves as well.

CPA survived at the cost of an ion cannon (and some of the merc fleet, including 2 gatlings). Threatfleet is harder to deal with, and I imagine would be even nastier on open maps. And I doubt this will be the last cpa. Gametime is 9:20.

===Operation Archival Rebels====

I colonize the Archive+Rebel world with the Negotiator, accepting the two warp counter waves mkII (which somehow end up at my HW, despite being 8 hops away). I prefer the counterwaves unrestricted, but every single one of them has headed home this game, and it's kind of harrowing.

Anyway, I then extract the k, build the rebel fleet, then abandon the system, because I can't reasonably expect it to hold against threatfleet nemeses without a bigger garrison than I'm willing to use. I left the champ, the zenith and spire starships, and two riot IIIs to protect the archive while the rest of the fleet (now with rebels) protect the HW.

Unfortunately, the AI decides to get cute, attacking the ACS with threatfleet nemeses, forcing me to split my forces further. I lost the home forcefield to the two waves, but nothing important.

Archive extracted. Unlocked shield bearers III, fighter II.

I also conquer the other archive, because a cpa was reasonably recent, I want the planet, and I emphatically do not want a cpa to happen while I'm extracting k. This was no problem. Unlock bomber III, missile frigate II.

AIP is 161.
Gametime 10:50

Time to resume hacking.

===Operation Mad H... What is that?====

Another k-raid, no problem, though interrupted by two waves. Unlock missile frigate IIIs.

And then I got a warning: 16,011 ships massing for a cross-planet attack.

A quick check of the galaxy stats shows the AI is not bluffing; accounting for the strategic reserve, it can definitely pull 16,000 ships together.

I have warheads on standby.

Wave (2400) declared for my far hub. No problem, my fleet needs to be there anyway.
CPA and wave arrive. By the time the wave is dead, the CPA has settled into two main thrusts one from each HW, of 8 and 6 thousand, with the 6000 set to arrive about a minute before the eight, if I left it alone.

1000 enemies are hanging in a big group around my HW hub, and 1000 are scattered in tiny fleets which won't attack.

I send my fleet out to meet the 6000 group, and have it down to about 2000 when a wave (3000) declares for my HW hub. Uh-oh. Most of my rebel patrol died against the last cpa, with no replacements, and the enclaves are over with my fleet.

And the 8000 group is less than a minute from crashing against the fortress world.

Negotiator scrapped home, but my other ships (including the merc fleet, which usually protects the HW) are too far away. I send them back to the fortress hub, carrying about a thousand of the remaining 2000 ships left from the first AI thrust. Riots are awesome.

Wave arrives, and it's mono bombers. The resistance, alarmed, spawn 160 ships to meet them. The marauders, apparently not wanting to live in an AI controlled galaxy indefinitely, contribute 80 of their ships. The AI, scoffing, and joined by the 1000 ship threatball I mentioned earlier, blows them, my fortress, and my turrets to smithereens. The wave was quite resistant to Negotiation, as well.

The remaining bombers (about 1200), finally retreated from my surviving turrets (protected under champ shield). Unfortunately, they took out the command station, and decided that "retreat" would mean "attack" for a little while.

Meanwhile, 8000 angry ships took issue with my advanced starship constructor. 2 warheads, and a lot of kiting, tackle drones, and riot awesomeness killed them, but couldn't save the constructor.

My fleet then rallied, and killed the remains of that evil, evil wave, which had been joined by those other tiny threatballs and thus steamrolled across 2 systems after their first kill.

They were squished without issue.

So I lost the ACS and three sytems, took a bunch of casualties, incurred 2 AIP from warheads, and don't have any resources to speak of. But I'm hardly crippled. I don't even care about losing the ACS that much, because mkIV starships are really, really tough. And there's another one.

Anyway, I plan on a rebuild and more hacking madness next session.

State of Empire:

[keith.lamothe]

I don't know. It's mainly the fact that I can ziz-zag and take only a tiny fraction of its lance's dps. Maybe give it a bonus against champs only (Structural would work for against shields only).

Oh, so it's just the dark spire base?  Yea, it's pretty assassination-prone.  I could just give it a non-lance weapon, I just think the ability to "juke" the lance is actually kind of cool.  We don't do a lot of micro-micro in this game, for cause, but letting the champ do some seems fine.

Yeah, that was what I meant. I expected ridiculous carnage, and I got the same brawl as always.

Weird, I don't know why it would work in some scenarios and not that one.

Buffed the hacking response, eh? We'll see.

Did I?  Anyway, looks like I need to give it something more threatening than "spawn a lot of gravity guardians"

Killing the core posts with endless waves of teleraids

I forsee a lot of dead teleraids.

Wave declared, 2000 ships to my central hub. In 6 minutes? Oh, right, waves can synchronize with CPAs now. Well, I should be able to take care of the wave, and then get my fleet in position before the CPA arrives, because carriers are slow.

Hmm, noted.

The AI then redeploys the ships back into carriers, which resets them to the HW

Really?  I'd forgotten about that.  Ideally it should just load them right there.  I've just made some changes to make the AI-initiated carrier'ing to keep all the ships on the planet they're currently on when redeploying.  This could cause a lot of partial carriers if threat is really distributed, but I think it's preferable to just dumping them all back on the HW.

And then I got a warning: 16,011 ships massing for a cross-planet attack.

sqrt(-1)^2.

So that one at least registered on the "possible death" meter

[Faulty Logic]

Did I?  Anyway, looks like I need to give it something more threatening than "spawn a lot of gravity guardians"

I recommend decreasing the guardian spawn rate signifcantly. They aren't nearly as big a threat as a pulse of fleetships or raid starships.

You know, if anything has a polynomial response, it should be hacking. Or give anti-hacking some really nasty tricks at higher antagonisms.  You could also let the AI have fleetship unlocks just for anti-hacking.

sqrt(-1)^2.

Resolves to -1. I detect a missed reference, here.

So that one at least registered on the "possible death" meter 

5 digit numbers tend to do that.

===Operation Mad Hacker, Encore====

But first I need to rebuild.

That was easy. I really like that command stations, energy collecters, and forcefields leave remains. You might not want to let forts leave remains, though. If you lose one, you should have to pay for it (also prevents cheese to get forts half off).

Refleet takes a bit longer.

Double wave on two separate planets dealt with.

Hacking time.

9th k-raid was no issue.

I could hack at least two more planets (confirmed empirically) but time is of the essence; carriers have begun to arrive from the core worlds (which should read as mkV, not mkII, to reflect their contents).

===Operation Round House====

Time to knock out the CSGs.

I already have B, D, E, and half of A taken care of.

Captured core laser gatling fabricator to kill C.

Captured teleraid and IRE + core tiger ARS worlds to kill the rest of A.

Unlocked teleraidIIIs.

And start hammering on the double wrath lance homeworld. 5 one-way trips with caps of I-IV manage to kill the first wrath lance. The mini-exos are not as bad as I feared, but I certainly can't leave them to static defenses.

Oh, and another cpa declared, with 19,000 ships.
Not cool, AI. It's only been a bit more than two hours since the last one.
And, 3500 more just declared. Lovely.

The plan is one word long.


State of Empire:

[keith.lamothe]

I recommend decreasing the guardian spawn rate signifcantly. They aren't nearly as big a threat as a pulse of fleetships or raid starships.

You know, if anything has a polynomial response, it should be hacking. Or give anti-hacking some really nasty tricks at higher antagonisms.  You could also let the AI have fleetship unlocks just for anti-hacking.

Yea, I need to do something here.  9-11 K-raids on 10/10 is off the chain.

At least they're not as boring (I hope) as they used to be before hacking.

sqrt(-1)^2.

Resolves to -1. I detect a missed reference, here.

http://xkcd.com/849/

That was easy. I really like that command stations, energy collecters, and forcefields leave remains. You might not want to let forts leave remains, though. If you lose one, you should have to pay for it (also prevents cheese to get forts half off).

Yea, it's nice.  For the forts the rebuild thing is a quality-of-life thing that I don't want to lose, though I guess if forts are dying you probably don't balk at a little rebuilding micro.  But I think it would be fine if I had their rebuilding start at maybe 2% health instead of 50.

The mini-exos are not as bad as I feared, but I certainly can't leave them to static defenses.

Yea, you're not coming into this at low-AIP and you have a crapton of extra K from hacking, so you should be fine against the mini-exos (which don't get worse with high AIP or better with low AIP).

Not cool, AI. It's only been a bit more than two hours since the last one.

So the earlier ones were much further apart than that?  Odd, I haven't really touched their interval logic in some time.

I wonder if it's even got the ships for that.

And, 3500 more just declared. Lovely.

Share and enjoy!

The plan is one word long.

Magma.

[TechSY730]

The plan is one word long.

I'm either guessing "warheads", or "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH"

[Faulty Logic]

Yea, I need to do something here.  9-11 K-raids on 10/10 is off the chain.

At least they're not as boring (I hope) as they used to be before hacking.

No. Before, I could have up to 4 "hacks" going on at once, each with 2 scienceIIIs, and not really hear about it.

sqrt(-1)^2.

Resolves to -1. I detect a missed reference, here.

http://xkcd.com/849/

I was right. Amusing.

Yea, you're not coming into this at low-AIP and you have a crapton of extra K from hacking, so you should be fine against the mini-exos (which don't get worse with high AIP or better with low AIP).

That was what I thought. I was wrong.

So the earlier ones were much further apart than that?  Odd, I haven't really touched their interval logic in some time.

First one ~3:15
Second   ~6:15
Third      ~8:30
Fourth    ~11:30
Fifth       ~13:30

I wonder if it's even got the ships for that.

If not, it will empty the core worlds, each with ~1500 mkV ships, so I won't really get a break in that department.

Magma.

I don't have that option, sadly.

I'm either guessing "warheads", or "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH"

Warheads? Me? Where do you get such crazy ideas?

===Operation Kill it With Warheads====

I'll try to minimize the number of warheads, though; it isn't quite engame yet.

Fortunately, the AI had only 17,000 ships to throw at me.
Unfortunately, that includes ~3000 mkV ships, so it's actually tougher than the 40000 mks it would otherwise have thrown.

The AI has decided to throw subtlety out the window, condensing 16000 ships into one carrier hammer. The other thousand join the wave (3500), and share its horrible death against my full fleet.

I commence Negotiations with the threat hammer, persuading 3000 ships to come from the other AI homeworld, and 2000 to become ~150 core guardians. The core guardians arrive before the carriers, and are mopped up by the full fleet.

By now, the remaining 9000 ships are waiting outside my wormhole (?). Champ-shield-riot-grab kills another 2000, and then the 7000 + 3000 I delayed attack the fortress hub.

3 lightning warheads mkI take out about 4000 ships (go carrier popping), and the remaining 6000 in two separate 3-carrier groups are defeated in a straight-up brawl. Full resistance spawn and 33 enclaves arrive too late to do anything, but the resistance is a nice bonus to my patrols.

===Operation Fast Pace====

By the time I rebuild, it's about 13:45 (go D nodes, neinzul shadow free-repair thing).

I take advantage of the core world depletion to Negotiate for free cloaked passage through to the AI homeworlds while refleeting. Of course, tach drilling is less effective when the AI has both microfighters and sentinel frigates.

Alright, time to start cranking the teleraid engine again. 70 more mk-caps kill the second wrath lance (mini-exo dealt with with resistance+champ minion fleet, no problem; floor still nowhere near actual).

50 more mk-caps kill the grav reactor post, leaving one AIHW without any brutality. Apparently it wasn't happy about this, because it sent an artillery golem after home command.

It blew up the fortress on my HW-entrance hub immediately, then the ff guarding the actual entrance, then the ff over home. Meanwhile, I had killed its minions, and gotten the golem down to 7%. Then it shot at my unprotected home command station.

This looks like it's time for  *facehuggers*  Negotiation.
Warped home, cleared the build queue of any non-shield modules, and saved the day.
Minions/Rebels kill the golem before it fires again.

Teleraided the remaining posts of the first HW, dealing with threat fallout. No subsequent mini-exo issues, though I did allocate more ships to the response fleet.

Repelled a double wave with the help of warheads.

Cleaned up some threat from the other HW, then my whole fleet and a few lightning warheads under cloak to kill the now-vulnerable HW. 2 core ffs last about 10 seconds against my full mobile force. 1 of 2 AI down.

Regrouped, repelled wave with the help of three warheads.
AIP is 277.

===Operation Vigilance For Naught====
I hope.

Send more teleraids to murderize the squid. Takes about 7 waves (also in range of the fortIII).

Repel another wave.

This is really stressful.

Kill 4 more posts with teleraids. The last HW is now down to two posts. Unfortunately, they are both under core ffs, and the system is protected by an eye.

Time to throw sublety out the window. Got the fleet in position, along with lightnings under cloak. Group-moved through the core world, while the lastest (~50th) batch of teleraids triggers the reserve (to appease the eye).

I make a dynamic entry into the system, and the AI launches a wave at my central hub. Nuke on standby.

I kill the eye directly, the tackle drones keeping the strategic reserve partly at bay.

I kill the first leech post, and send out the cloaked warheads to kill the other one.

Then I pound though to the AI station before the mini-exos even do anything.

Warheads arrive at the last post.

I let the Negotiator do the honors.


Restart the 10/10 buffing engine!

[Winge]

sqrt(-1)^2.

Resolves to -1. I detect a missed reference, here.

http://xkcd.com/849/

I can't believe it took me a few hours to get that joke .

[keith.lamothe]

Bravo, bravo, another victory snatched from the jaws of malicious code


As far as buffing 10/10, the main thing that sticks out to me is that it let you get away with too much hacking.

In theory the AI HW strategic reserve and mini-exos could be buffed, but at least the latter sounds like it basically performed to spec; took your superweapon to avoid death in that one case.  Cheddar Shields to Full Power, Mr. Scott!

The CPAs are another obvious area to ratchet up the pain (and the next version does have that change to try to make the wave synchronization more painful), but again it doesn't sound like it was really their fault you won.  Actually, that last one cleaned out the galaxy.  To the extent possible, you literally fought every ship the AI had on 10/10, and still won.  I can just give it more ships, but that might be a tad unimaginative