AI War Fallen Spire Playthrough (With Videos!)

[Orelius]

So, I've been around on these forums for a few months, and I noticed the lack of complete AI War playthroughs.  So, I decided to remedy that, and record a playthrough for the Fallen Spire campaign.  I don't know whether or not I will follow through and win the game with the fallen spire victory conditions, as I am still playing the game.

As of now, I have the first two in-game hours of the game recorded, but since youtube is painfully slow with the uploading process, you'll only be able to see the first fourteen minutes right now.  The rest of the first batch will probably be up by tommorow.

Though technically, I'm playing in 1-hour in-game increments, I can't upload that long of a video, so each video will be approximately ~14 minutes of actual length.  Since I'm playing in +10 speed, each in-game hour amounts to around 40 minutes in real time.

Also, there's no commentary.  Sorry about that.

Part 1: Starting a new game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAO5XHYSKGE
Part 2: The First Shard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7fsDMtkiUA
Part 3: Maybe I shouldn't have turned on the Devourer Golem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGWHoIUgsTQ
Part 4: Hello, Mr. Dyson, how are you doing today?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1TFGxPjaWo
Part 5: Gateraiding Galore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfGJFWR0PO8
Part 6: Freeing Spire Civilians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45SS1pHWM9Y
Part 7: -15 AIP an hour!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LQMJH2Bvc8

If you're wondering what settings I used, they're here:

AI War Version: 5.007

Map settings:
# of Planets: 80
Map Style: Simple
Campaign Type: Conquest
Map Seed: 1845219391

AI Type and Level:
Two Level 7 Vanilla AI's

Expansions:
The Zenith Remnant
Children of Neinzul
Light of the Spire

Ship Types: Complex

Disabled Ships:
Swallowers (I cannot stand maws)

Game Options:
Combat Style: Blitz (I also play on +10 speed all the time)
Unit Cap Scale: Normal
Performance Profile: High[50ms]
Visibility: Full Fog of War
Other: Show Unexplored Planets

Minor Factions:
Human Colony Rebellions
Human Marauders
Human Resistance Fighters
Broken Golems (Hard)
Zenith Devourer
Zenith Dyson Sphere
Zenith Miners
Zenith Traders
Fallen Spire
Spire Civilian Leaders
Spirecraft (Hard)

AI Modifiers:
Reveal Random AI Types (irrelevant)

Auto AI Progress:
None

AI Plots:
None

Starting ship type:
Raiders

[Solarity]

You should just start with the commentary half way through, it will be fine

[Red Spot]

Actually, I find his opening rather refreshing. Pretty much the complete opposite of how I play.

[Orelius]

Okay, I've got the first two hours of gameplay uploaded, so I might as well talk about it, since the first two hours don't have commentary.

These games are recorded in batches of 1 in-game hour each.

Batch # 1 is parts 1-3.
Batch # 2 is parts 4-7.

I'm going to discuss what I'm doing in those batches here.

Batch#1:
#1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAO5XHYSKGE
In part 1, I'm pretty much opening up.  I've chosen raiders as my bonus ships, and I'm ready to begin.
I immediately begin by building a survey ship as fast as I can, and start scouting nearby planets.  I destroy my merc space dock because of personal preference, I don't want it there and it gets in the way.  I soon discover that many of the nearby planets have AI eyes and spire civilian outposts, which makes me both happy and sad.  I start skating around, raiding planets and neutering them.  I also try to set off as many counterposts as I can early in the game so I don't have to deal with them later.  I've unlocked the economic mark II stations to profit some more off of the two planets I've gotten.  I also unlock fighter mark II's and raider mark II's for some extra firepower.  To conclude the video, I initiate the search for the first shard and prepare my defenses for the incoming waves.
 
#2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7fsDMtkiUA

My fleet makes short work of the enemy attacks as the shard moves, slowly, but surely towards my homeworld.  I scout some more, disregarding the combat because I know I gave more than enough firepower to deal with the AI threat.  After the AI waves cease, I immediately rush my fleet in to crush the adjacent planet.  I wait for the subspace receiver to finish scanning before I take over the world, because if I took it there and then, the next shard would spawn slightly farther, something that is not very desirable.  Also, I suddenly notice that a devourer golem was loitering around some of my worlds, and I checked in on my fleet to see that it had been decimated by the golem.  I spend the rest of the video rebuilding my fleet and scouting some more.


#3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGWHoIUgsTQ

Okay, now wer're up to part 3.  I realize that I have lots of surplus energy and I decide to start powering down generators that aren't needed.  Since generators use resources, I figured that doing this would help me a bit economically.  I spend the rest video defending my worlds and making raids on AI eye worlds.  It works out fine, though the devourer golem occasionally likes to pop in and eat up all of my raiders.  I leave the video off by triggering yet another counterpost.

[BobTheJanitor]

I wait for the subspace receiver to finish scanning before I take over the world, because if I took it there and then, the next shard would spawn slightly farther, something that is not very desirable.

That's a slight flaw in the FS campaign, I've always thought. Although I do recall Keith saying he was going to work on some alternate shard spawning ideas, so maybe we'll see some improvements that don't encourage odd behavior like waiting to take a planet in order to game the system. (Not that your tactic isn't viable, I do the same thing, it's just sort of wrong that such a tactic exists in the first place)

I'm interested to watch these, but of course I first noticed this while at work and getting through the web filter to watch youtube videos is an exercise in futility. I was having some luck with the vtunnel proxy for a while, but it's become pretty much useless lately. (anyone know a good youtube proxy that works through websense?) But I'd love to see lots of examples of how others play the game. It's the best way to learn new strategies, I feel. Too bad that recording actual replays for the game is impossible.

[Orelius]

Thanks for the commentary!  I really appreciate it.

On another note, It's becoming increasingly difficult to record my games, as the game becomes nearly unplayable with lag.  I think this is because of the dyson gatlings snooping all over the place, but it's probably because of the increasing number of ships that I'm facing.

I was only able to record another 20 minutes or so before it became practically impossible to record.

So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to put updates on haitus until I can a figure out a way to fix this.  But, hey, there's still two hours of footage on youtube that most of you haven't watched, so it's not like you're missing much.

[Red Spot]

But, hey, there's still two hours of footage on youtube that most of you haven't watched, so it's not like you're missing much.

Who says I havent seen it
Can you do anything without raiders?

I would most likelly go insane if I co-op with you, utterly insane. You on the other hand would probably be bored to death by my over-thinking every step along the way. Mucho fun to see how someone else plays the same game so very different though
(Not like I am going to rewatch the full 2 hours, and I have fast-forwarded some bits, but I am glad I have seen it

[ledshok]

But, hey, there's still two hours of footage on youtube that most of you haven't watched, so it's not like you're missing much.

There goes part of my weekend I guess... 

[jordot42]

I just finished watching the whole thing.  Good stuff!!  I hope you post some more.

[Orelius]

Thanks, jodot!  It's always nice to hear some praise.

So, I've finished the game, without recording due to my computer being unable to play the game and run a recording program at the same time.  There isn't much that I did that you can't infer from watching the first two hours of gameplay.  I conquered ~30ish worlds (but only colonized maybe 24 of them, the rest had spire civilian towers that I didn't feel like endangering), obtained four golems (2 hive golems, 1 botnet, 1 black widow), set up a bunch of fortresses everywhere, and nearly got checkmated by an AI armored golem that slipped my notice(which I took down with spire rams).

I ultimately won by devastating both AI homeworlds with hive golem drones, then sending in penetrators to finish the job.  That worked for one of the homeworlds, but the other necessitated the use of a large number of spire rams, as my penetrators kept getting shot down (RIP permacloak).

The game ended with a time of around 8 in-game hours, which equaled around 6-7 hours of actual playtime.  I completely disregarded the fallen spire campaign after the transceiver was built, so in other words, all of the fallen spire campaign that I played was already in the recorded video.

And now, for some things I've noticed:

The fallen spire campaign needs to be tweaked quite a bit.  The massive AI attack waves resulting from it are truly headache inducing, and I really couldn't bring myself to do it for fear of losing everything (though that's probably the intent).  When I was securing territory to make it safer for myself to do the campaign, I ended up amassing enough macro power to stomp the AI into the ground.

Spire civilian towers need some sort of incentive for capturing the world upon which they reside.  Because the spire civilians are so vulnerable while under player control, I ended up sniping every single world that had one (but colonized one for its botnet golem, I lost that civilian tower within thirty minutes).  Perhaps a perma-cloaking akin to the human colony rebellions should be instated?

I might consider trying this again sometime, perhaps on a game with less planets to reduce the lag.  Until then, enjoy what's there, folks!