Battle report final testing x3

[Kaptein]

My usual modes:
AI level 8.3
AI stealthmaster
AI experimental
Schizophrenic
No warping (they sometimes appear on the bottom of your system which is impossible to defend as the enemy waves get larger)
Trains

Story:
We start off well, as opposed to in beta were we got decimated very early at times
However 20 minutes into the game 4 waves combined into 1000 hostiles gang up on light blue player
The four waves were the first and last we ever got. They were announced at the same time, with different timers.
Light blue gets 2 gangs from a warp-hole, for a total of 400 (1 starship), and the 600 (2 starships) at the bottom of his system
All enemy ships were Mark II at the time
The enemy decimates him, then us in a matter of 5 minutes.
We had a combined force of 400+300+700 (maybe 1400 ships) at the time

Quirks:
- Selecting option to not show all starsystems will remove selected systems for players, so they will unknowingly get a random system at start
- Still getting starmap bug where system icons disappear to certain players
- No warping makes the game unplayable as it is right now, seeing as the most of the time appear at the bottom of your map

Otherwise, incredible gameplay, and despite the outcome, it was fun!

[keith.lamothe]

Thanks for the report, glad it was fun

What exactly do you mean by "no warping" and "appear at the bottom of your map"?  Do you mean "cpa-like-waves" and "show up off in deep space somewhere"?

[Kaptein]

Cross Planet Waves, yes
thats the option we had on

EDIT:
i just asked him,
my friend who got attacked had 4 wormholes, 2 of which were friendly, so even in the case below, it shouldnt have happened :S should it?

((so the only way for the AI to get to that planet would be through another players planet
i suspect this is a bug? the pathing algorithm doesnt include non-AI planets and so they simply spawn in his system?))

regardless of this, the waves we got were unbeatable
it wasnt so much about the location, which would inevitably kill anyone, given that they scale up later in games
the problem this time was the size of it, and the fact we had really just started =)

we will try again tomorrow without Cross Planet Waves =)

edit: i should also add, the AI started at Mark II which is odd :S

[keith.lamothe]

Haha, ok   Thanks for info on those waves, they really shouldn't do that, they should just spawn on an AI world and cross over normal space to attack you.

But yea, you've got troubles on 8.3 nowadays, there's something like a 5x wave multiplier, etc.  You may want to try 7.6

[Kaptein]

Ok, we will try 8.0 tomorrow! Definitely wont go any lower, its a matter of pride at this point!

[keith.lamothe]

I think 8.0 has the same major multiplier as 8.3, though is marginally less.  But by all means, get smashed

[Lancefighter]

that issue is counterwaves, not cross planet waves etc..

I run with cross planet waves/no wave warnings, and stuff gets dicey at times, especially with the counterwaves, but its usually fun ^^

[Mánagarmr]

Yeh, CPA waves should spawn on an AI world and naturally cross over through wormholes, while Counterwaves (that you get from destroying counterwave guardposts) will spawn on any allied world, far out in space, and attack from there.

You sure you didn't kill a bunch of counterwave guardposts? That would explain the odd timers and placements of ships.

[Kaptein]

Yeh, CPA waves should spawn on an AI world and naturally cross over through wormholes, while Counterwaves (that you get from destroying counterwave guardposts) will spawn on any allied world, far out in space, and attack from there.

You sure you didn't kill a bunch of counterwave guardposts? That would explain the odd timers and placements of ships.

we never ventured outside our systems, the game was too short to get to that point
at the start we, and i think this goes for most people, test their defenses against the first waves while you have amassed a fleet just in case
in short we got decimated by 4 waves at the same time, after 15-20mins of play, might even have been less, but not sure

[Lancefighter]

will minor factions shoot guard posts? will that cause counterwaves?

[keith.lamothe]

Minor factions have received many beatings to instruct them to never, ever fire upon a guard post or command station.

Unless they're ai-ally (evil dysons) or the sort that only show up after the humans are kicking doors down in the system (marauders).

The instruction is done by making sure they have a zero bonus... against... guard posts.

...

Wait.

Those bonuses don't exist anymore

Command stations are all Command_grade hull type, so they should be fine (if the minor factions have 0 bonus against that type), but I do need to check that the guard posts are properly covered too.

[Lancefighter]

Oops? 

[keith.lamothe]

Um, yea, turns out those guard posts have all kinds of different hull types, as one might expect.  A devourer can't hit UltraHeavy or Structural either, though, and counterattack posts are UltraHeavy.

What other minor factions did y'all have running around?  Neinzul Roaming Enclaves, perchance?

[Lancefighter]

wouldnt the simplest method be to make them command grade?

(also, preservation wardens probably arent a bad bet)

[keith.lamothe]

If they're all command grade then it drastically changes their balance against other ships and generally makes it less interesting.  I'm just adding a couple explicit flags for "MustNeverBeAbleToFreeAIShips" and "IsUnhittableByShipsThatShouldNotFreeAIShips"; the latter is set on all CommandStation and CommandPost types, the former is set on most non-AIAlly minor faction types.