Evasion Protocol

[Faulty Logic]

A relatively simple game, with no superweapons:

10/10 Golemite/SF Captain // Everything/Warp Jumper

50 planets lattice, 452421283 Tackle drones, Schizo, complete visibility.

Resistance 4
Marauders 4
Rebellions 4
Cookie Monster
Enclaves 4

Avengers
Beachheads
Hunter 10/0
Shark B 0/4

===Operation Get Moving====

Unlocked MilIII stations and Enclave starships III.

Repelled first waves, using the salvage to build the initial fleet.

I conquered an ARS system within two hops, giving me railclusters.

Then I raided four data centers, before conquering a parasite V fab. Unlocked TDLIIIs.

Three more data centers fall. This released a regen golem, and an armored golem. They beeline for my homeworld. Regen is down to 10% before I do anything, somehow (I suspect it regenerated some of Cookie's victims). It's quickly squished.

Armored, on the other hand, feels just about right. I took a lot of casualties, and it was pounding on the home ff net for a while. In fact, I only survived by using the riot starships to manually push it away so I could repair the forcefields.

Back to expanding.

Next planet has nothing special, but connects to a core spider turret/core zenith hydra world, and an advanced factory. All three conquered, unlocked assault transports, engiIIIs, leech starships II, and miniforts.

Hacked the core missile and sniper turrets. There were no issues, though the huntercloud nearly wiped out the fleet.

I have every planet fortified with milIII, miniforts, and core spider/sniper/missile turrets.

Which is good, because a thousand-ship CPA declared. Two piddly waves back it up. Waves squish against my every-planet defenses, and the CPA splits into 2 groups, of about 6 and 4 hundred.

The big one comes to my homeworld, and dies horribly. As an added insult, it was from Everything, so my fleet ended up bigger than it started.

The remaining group is annoying, and won't attack. So I engage it in AI space, killing it with some moderate casualties. This triggered a reprisal wave, which is squished by the fleet.

CPA over.

===Operation Archival Extraction====
The huntercloud is camping out at the upper archive, so I go for the lower one, which also comes with a StarIV. It has an ARS (shield bearers)/Core Protector starship planet next to it, so I conquer that as well.

At 45 effective AIP, waves are still bouncing off the fixed defenses.

First archive extracted. Unlocked Riots II-III, and leech starships III.

Gametime 3 hours.

I turn my attention to the next archive. I had to create a distraction by attacking a core shield generator on the other side of the galaxy to draw off the huntercloud, but then conquering the planet and holding until extraction was easy.

Now to connect up.

===Operation Establish Contiguity====
And pop the coprocessors, to keep AIP reasonable.

They're all within two hops (well, every planet is, now) so it wasn't hard.

Conquered a corvette/armor rotter fab world, and three nondescript planets. I just need one more to be contiguous, and it's a 4-counterattack post planet. And before I can start working on it, a CPA with 2000 ships declares. Yikes. That's a problem for next session, though.

State of empire:

[keith.lamothe]

Beachheads

Depending on timing that could get interesting.

Armored, on the other hand, feels just about right. I took a lot of casualties, and it was pounding on the home ff net for a while. In fact, I only survived by using the riot starships to manually push it away so I could repair the forcefields.

I suspect the engineers maintaining the Riot shields under that kind of load were Scottish.  And cursing.

a CPA with 2000 ships declares. Yikes. That's a problem for next session, though.

I'll just go ahead and start sending out the next-of-kin letters for the CPA ships.

[Faulty Logic]

I suspect the engineers maintaining the Riot shields under that kind of load were Scottish.  And cursing.

Profusely.

===Operation Cross Planet Defense====
The CPA consolidates into a big hammer and a smallish attack. Small attack squished by the fleet on the way to defend against the 1600-ship hammer.

My fleet is quite powerful at this point, but can't cope with 1600 ships when a whole bunch of them are low-caps. But a single mkII lightning warhead evens the odds.

Nothing irreplaceable lost.

Took remaining planets to establish contiguity (requires killing four counter posts).

Unlocked gravity turrets, Railclusters III, Flagships III, Shield Bearers III, and zenith and spire ships II.

===Operation Grand Hack====
Popped the superterminal command station, and fortified with a mobile builder. Every defense goes there.

Spooled up the Superterminal. Initial spawns are absolutely pathetic. And I quickly build the speed booster drones I'm now entitled to. Oh, and core flak turrets.

Half the fleet defends from the pulses, half scurries around squishing waves (which can no longer be repelled without the fleet).

Once I'm at 60 reduction (~110,000 post-hack strength) I bring in the reclaimed/merc fleet and pop the terminal. About 2500 mkV ships come out.

Let's just say that Riots Are Awesome. Even so, I lost most of the fleet, including most mercs and reclaimed ships. But I didn't lose anything important.

The pulses were practically ignorable, especially compared to the end spawns. I recommend tripling pulse strength and halving the total end spawn strength.

AIP reads at 125, but is actually 77. So it's time to capture any fabricator that looks interesting.

Targets:
Remaining three ARSs (gatling, armor boost, raider)
Zevastator V
Microparasite/core TDL
Tractor platform V
Possibly the Attractor Drone V

For 110/125 more AIP.

And then I'll spend my remaining hacking on designs/k, maybe sabotaging the blasted spire gravity drains.

State of Empire:

[keith.lamothe]

The pulses were practically ignorable, especially compared to the end spawns. I recommend tripling pulse strength and halving the total end spawn strength.

Halving the total end spawn strength compared to what it is now, or compared to what it would be with the pulse strength tripled?

[Faulty Logic]

Halving the total end spawn strength compared to what it is now, or compared to what it would be with the pulse strength tripled?

Compared with what it is now.

[keith.lamothe]

Halving the total end spawn strength compared to what it is now, or compared to what it would be with the pulse strength tripled?

Compared with what it is now.

Ok, that's what I wound up going with.

Though the change on the interval (which doesn't directly affect the challenge of the on-death spawn) on top of the spawn strength tripling may be more than bargained for

[Faulty Logic]

End-pulse strength's multiplier halved (so it will be about 1.5x of what it used to be, with the above change).

That wasn't what I was suggesting (sorry if I was unclear).

I wanted it to be .5 of what it is now, which combined with the pulse and interval changes should make it not the only relevant part of the hack.

[keith.lamothe]

Ah, sorry, I swapped the two in my mind in the last post.  Kind of mentally bleary right now, will abstain from further releases for the day in the absence of crash bugs or the like   But will adjust the end pulse down next time.

Though I imagine it would result in !SCIENCE! right now.

[Faulty Logic]

Ah, sorry, I swapped the two in my mind in the last post.  Kind of mentally bleary right now, will abstain from further releases for the day in the absence of crash bugs or the like   But will adjust the end pulse down next time.

Don't worry about it 

Thanks.

[Faulty Logic]

Things go pretty well until a 5000 ship CPA announces. And that's when I remember that I have shark on. And that it combines with warp jumper.

Game over.

Tried again.

Game over.

And again. Nope.

Once more: Denied.

Okay, defending an open empire against 5000 ships (the majority of which are low-caps) with shark on is simply untenable. I'll try a similar setup without said plot next time.

[keith.lamothe]

Ouch, yea, the Shark plot is pretty much made of vicious, and the words "distributed defense" just make it hungry.