"Defensive Hybrids Mobilizing" is my new nightmare

[Sunshine!]

I was plugging along, 7/7 all minor factions, all AI plots, 2 and a half hours into the game (right after the Spirecraft and Golem exogalactic forces showed up), and the game says "Defensive Hybrids Mobilizing."  So I say okay, I haven't had a problem with them yet, shouldn't be too bad.

Swarmed by 48 hybrids at once, plus their escorts (low ship cap!)  I didn't have the firepower or resources to be able to handle that all at once.  Ouch.

[keith.lamothe]

  Yea, that's the kind of "traditional AI" and "go for the throat" tactics we've put in for them.  The emergent stuff used by the main AI is much more robust at avoiding gap-in-the-wall situations and much more interesting as a whole, but having the separate opponent with logic literally like "if an exo just triggered, everyone rush the quarterback!" can be quite effective

[Sunshine!]

After 21 (or whatever it was) patches of non-functioning Hybrids, it was a welcome relief to see they've got their claws back!

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, they had a fit when they found out what was going on

[Red Spot]

I love them, eventhough they smack me silly ½ the time. They add such a big extra levelscare to the game it almost feels like an other game (note the -almost- ).
The only thing that allows me to stand tall against them is the knowledge they always go for your CC and 40 mk1 basic and lazor turrets (40 together) surrounding your CC take down the lighter waves by themselves. Then you get excited and enable advanced Hybrids .... 

[Shrugging Khan]

What's the difference between vanilla and advanced, anyways? 

[TechSY730]

What's the difference between vanilla and advanced, anyways?  

I think Advanced hybrids are allowed to get higher level modules. Maybe they spawn at a slight faster rate too?  

EDIT: Oh, and I think they are allowed to get higher level "escorts" too.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, it lets them mature to tier V classes, which have higher escort counts, can mount higher-level modules, and can get mkV escorts.

It also lets some of the lower tiers have somewhat improved equipment (like letting the initial neophyte stage get mkII shields instead of just mkI).

And, rather relevant to this thread, without Advanced Hybrids on, they don't do the defensive-hybrids-mobilizing thing.