Contradictions and Silliness

[Aklyon]

Most of these AARs are of a reasonable difficulty. Most of them are not during an alpha too. This is not either of those. :)

1/1 Chivalric/Vengeful Chivalric/Vengeful, no Auto AIP
80 planets X map, Complex ships but no CSGs
Low caps, no fog (usually I play with full fog but I felt like turning it off this time)
No handicaps
Resistance Fighters 10/10
Dyson Sphere 10/10
Dark Spire 10/10
Fallen Spire 10/10
Hunter 10/10 (Probably not the best idea, but how hard could it really get on 1/1?)
Golems Easy, Botnet Easy (I'm more interested in the vengeance spawns than a lot of exos)
Trader
Showdown Devices (probably not going to show them here, but I want to see them myself)

Starting ship type: Spire Railcluster

After a bit of nudging the map around to get rid of overlapping names, it looks like the first attachment.

06:43 - Unlocked Metal/Crystal Havesters II, Mini Forts, Railclusters II & III, Neinzul Enclave II, Heavy Beam Cannon.
07:13 - First Signal is on Aqua Hydra, a system I'd need to go through anyway.

13:37 - The Trader has either the worst or the best timing ever, but either way, theres now a bunch of stuff sitting around thats not going to get built for awhile, and one thing thats going to get built soonish (Zenith power gen) on Spire Knight once I am not perpetually broke.

48:55 - Backyard is cleaned up and mine. To :P the Vengefully Chivalrous AI, I've decided to name the backyard planets Knights as well.

[keith.lamothe]

Sounds like a delightful mix of an utterly incompetent opponent and relentless death.  What dwarf could resist?

[Aklyon]

1 hour - unlocked the remaining harvester upgrades and Knocked out Grand Chimera.
1:03:27 - Spider turrets! Also set up a small defensive region over the Spire Knight wormhole on Grand Chimera while I decide which arm to go for next.

1:12:44 - Well then. It seems the AI is unamused at my choice of targets, the Ghost arm. It just went and melted my hastily constructed outpost.


Command note from after watching Railcluster Squad evaporate on Kobold: Avoid that clump of doom at all costs.

1:28:01 - Grand Chimera outpost rebuilt. Knighting of Kobold to be completed soon, along with the other Ghost arm planets afterwards.
1:31:13 - Grenade Launcher V Fab, Armored Golem, and Lightning Turret Controller obtained. Golem rebuild in progress.

[Aklyon]

Sidenote: I haven't had any waves at all since I neutralized Grand Chimera, I had two before that. Is it just 1/1 being 1/1, or can the AI just not find anywhere to send waves to?
1:55:07 - Armored Golem rebuilt, Econ II and Engi III unlocked. Lets clean the place up a bit now, shall we?

First Target: Dark Sword, holder of the Botnet Golem. First we have to go through Wild Wolf first however, and there we meet (and promptly melt with plasma-flame) our first Dark Spire, although it took out an engineer and the entire mkI squad of railclusters in the process of melting, along with a couple of the mkIIs as well.


While the Golem and Railcluster squad are successful, Grand Chimera outpost is murderificated a second time by what I'm assuming is the Hunter Plot in action. The deathsquad then politely returns to Minotaurus for some reason.

[keith.lamothe]

Sidenote: I haven't had any waves at all since I neutralized Grand Chimera, I had two before that. Is it just 1/1 being 1/1, or can the AI just not find anywhere to send waves to?

It could just be 1/1 having really long wave intervals, or it could be a lack of normal entry point and the "send wave to ? ? ? if no entry point" logic being reserved for a setting which could be non-ironically described as "difficulty".

While the Golem and Railcluster squad are successful, Grand Chimera outpost is murderificated a second time by what I'm assuming is the Hunter Plot in action. The deathsquad then politely returns to Minotaurus for some reason.

Oh yea, that's the Hunter SF alright.  The disassemblers are there so that starships need not apply, the H/Ks are there so that meatbags in general need not apply.

[Aklyon]

2:42:04 - As core lightning turrets and miniforts are setup across the knighted lands, a science lab carefully sneaks into Abyssion, expecting the SF mob to show up any second and turn them into plasma-charged particulate. It doesn't, but they do find out the ARS there holds Medic Frigates. Quickly the cloaked lab flees back towards the railclusters that had previously cleared the way for it. A few seconds later, Grand Chimera outpost (now codenamed 'Doom Post') is, in fact, turned into plasma-charged particulate. But this time theres a cloaker starship to save the mobile builder, so things will be rebuilt in time.
Meanwhile Railcluster Squadron clears Medusa out, getting a distribution node and a zenith reserve in the process. Some vengeance is spewed forth into Grand Chimera because if that, but nothing that would pose a problem to Spire Knight should it come through, and certainly nothing like the SF mob. The reserve is sent back to Spire Knight for now.

2:51:11 - Bomber Squadron is sent to knock down the forcefield over Abyssion's important bits, while the Railclusters are sent to clear out the last planet of this arm that is unshielded. Doom Post for the most part, hides under its remains. But enough was rebuilt to apparently hold off the doommob from Spire Knight again.

However, they then went for the attackers, which led to more Dark Spire attacks. Against the disassembler mob though, they were rather...inept. The H/Ks now have minor paint damage to scoff at while sitting in the Minotauros arm waiting threateningly.


3:31:00 - The new contingent of Knights has been completed, except for defenses. Enclaves III, Fort I, Fighter/Bomber/Frigate IIs, and Spire Starship I/II/III unlocked. Aqua Hydra's ARS appears to have snipers in it, which could be useful. Botnet Golem 40% rebuilt.

[keith.lamothe]

a science lab carefully sneaks into Abyssion, expecting the SF mob to show up any second and turn them into plasma-charged particulate

Hunter/Killer: "Query: Do meatbags prefer reduction into negatively-charged particles, or positively-charged ones?"

A few seconds later, Grand Chimera outpost (now codenamed 'Doom Post') is, in fact, turned into plasma-charged particulate.

H/K: "Insincere Exclamation: Oops!  Too late now!"


Btw, even killing the whole doom-mob will only keep them off your back for about an hour before they've all respawned from the hunter plot.  It's possible you might find some way of trapping them so that their pathfinding logic won't let them cross that much of your territory (I'm honestly surprised they're willing to cross Grand Chimera).

[Aklyon]

I'm mainly just planning to just try to ignore them as long as possible and then just bombard it with FS firepower on my way out, if I can get that to work.

[keith.lamothe]

A good sized FS fleet would do it, though 10 HKs will probably take a nasty chunk out of it.

[Aklyon]

Speaking of FS, I'll start that next, now that the Botnet Golem has finished.

3:57:00 - Zenith power generator finished, along with the miniforts in the demon arm.
4:05:00 - Trader arrives at Grand Chimera, reinforcements are started. They won't last very long when the mob comes out swinging again, but they'll make a better dent.
4:17:56 - Fortress reinforcements complete. Other parts will have to wait until there are more resources, Mass Driver self-constructing on its own. Railcluster squad sent out to clean up whatever militias are sitting around near Grand Chimera, and to see which planets pull on the SF's attention outsdie of the Minotauros arm. Dark Spire are triggered on Origin and Wolven Knight in the process.

4:22:00 - Wolven Knight has fallen, but mostly because I forgot there was a generator there. It'll be fixed later. Origin DS are defeated by the Daedalus militia, Numb Ant militia drawn back into Grand Chimera and zombified. 5 minutes later the singular DS ship that messed up wolf is cleaned up.
4:35:00 - Minotauros militia zombified. It then does not rush toward a SF death, it just goes to Grand Chimera instead. Now that everywhere I dare to peek into is cleaned up, time to get that there survey ship to Aqua Hydra while Wolven Knight rebuilds.

It does get there, but it alerts the Doomsquad in the process, which sends everyone into a hasty retreat for the time being so that i don't just lose my entire fleet at once. The reinforced doompost does manage to snipe a couple guardians, but more importantly, they leave!
...and then sit on Hammer Knuckle. Change of plan then, to Rabbit!

4:58:31 - Keith, did the AI install an alarm in the ARS stations? Because as soon as I arrive at Rabbit to shoot its command station down I get an alert that theres more than 50 units on Orcrot, and since this is 1/1 that can only mean SF is coming to eat Doom Post again. Also some minor Dark Spire problems.

This is a hilariously inept threat placement though, AI.

[keith.lamothe]

Speaking of FS, I'll start that next, now that the Botnet Golem has finished.

Yea, what could go wrong?

Keith, did the AI install an alarm in the ARS stations?

Since quite some time ago, actually   That was one of the original "SF beelines to defend this" structures when the SF was remade.

This is a hilariously inept threat placement though, AI.

Haha, well, when you've only got 40 ships does it matter?

I don't even know what all those 1s and 2s are; if it were special forces that would make sense with their spawn pattern, but SF does not show as threat (since it can't just attack you wherever).  Do you see anything on those planets that seems like it's a lone threat ship?  If not, if you can post a save I can take a look to see what immobile thing or whatever is getting uppity.

[Aklyon]

I looked through it a bit ago, it really is just scattershot ships. They eventually all collect at grand chimera and get sniped off one by one as they wander in in 1s and 2s. Things have gotten better now that the AI actually is getting the resorces to have >100 ships for vengeance though.

[Aklyon]

5:46:00 - SF at Ktugash. They're actually sitting around a special forces post for once, heh. Finally colonizing Grand Chimera, since they're fairly far away now.

6:10:41 - Shard get, Snipers recieved, signal obtained. Lesser Demonic Knight is next, Mil II stations and area mines unlocked.

6:21:00 - Ohai, waves! I forgot you existed on this map. 9 MkII fighters in 6 minutes?
Also, the refugees made it to Spiral Knight easily.

6:30:35 - Next stop, Origin. But first since I've got plenty of resources and plenty of time, I'm going to build the stuff I've let sit unbuilt on my home from the trader earlier. Except the Superfort, I doubt I'll have enough leftover to build that. Zenith Reserve on Lobo added a bit more pow to the fleet.

6:42:35 - Trader on Aqua Knight, Minotauros arm taken over. ARS on Rabbit had Cutlasses, Mill III stations and Mod Fort unlocked a few minutes later. Are Dark Spire supposed to spawn when you upgrade command stations with command station's build menu? That caused a bit of a mess for awhile.

6:56:56 - The Vengeful waves are actually starting to resemble waves now. Also stopping here for the moment to update, so the next update will have an updated map, not this one.

[keith.lamothe]

Are Dark Spire supposed to spawn when you upgrade command stations with command station's build menu? That caused a bit of a mess for awhile.

I don't see why not   It's a bit odd, but since a unit is dying it still counts it.  The DS already have amusingly complex "exception" logic, so this may get in there too.

[Aklyon]

Updated to 6.038.

7:07:07 - My quadrant of the galaxy is now completely knighted with the exception of Anger Ball, which will have to wait until I can reach all of the Co-Procs first. Theres a few things to get built first (mostly mini-forts), but after that onwards with FS!
7:13:00 - Triangle MkIII, Sniper II, Spacetime manipulators unlocked.

7:39:00 - Countdown to city shard begins on Origin.
7:43:00 - Huzzah to Botnet Golem, it who has killed almost everything non-starship/guardian so far thrown at Gatekeeper Aqua Knight. Its also at half health, probably should give it a break. Also, the Plasma Guardian description is pretty funny
7:46:11 - Shard recovered. Aqua Knight is a mostly alright a wreck kinda ruined temporarily except for the Fortress, but the Botnet is still intact for the most part. Also, threat is scattered everywhere again and there is a minor dark spire problem in the rabbit arm.


7:53:16 - Fort has successfully held the remaining wave away, at the cost of 88% of it health and 6 remains rebuilders making weak cover in the form of rebuilt turrets to take attacks with. While basically everything on Aqua Knight rebuilds, I'm going to ask for advice on where to put the first city, since I haven't actually tried Fallen Spire on an X map before.