Finished my first 8/8. Suggestions for 9/9?

[undefind]

as the title says, i just finished my first 8/8 with spirecraft hard and champion mods.

i ended up with 627 AIP after everything was said and done.

what can i expect in a 9/9 game thats different from an 8/8? that is to say, what advice can anyone give me to properly prepare for the increase in difficulty? i was thinking of enabling spirecraft hard or golems hard since exo waves were the only thing that gave me a real challenge, but the spirecraft made it so much easier to deal with the homeworlds and everything else in general. i definitely wont be enabling human resistance fighters though, those riot control starships were a pain in the butt and the human fighters only provided negligible assistance.

thanks,

-undefind

edit: i wasnt sure if i should have put this in the strategy discussion or here. i chose here because i literally just finished the campaign and figured someone might be interested...or whatever.

[Pumpkin]

Well, being fond of "pushing myself out of my tracks" (look here and there), I was blissful trying a setup far from my habits.

You never play without spirecrafts/golems? Try to play without them. You are a high-AIP player? Force yourself to play damn-low AIP and archipelago-empire. Have you tried all the map styles? Some are challenging or favoring depending on your playstyle. Have you tried some nasty AI personality mix? Something like GravDriller/OneWayDoormaster, or the strange youngster or vanguard are much more !!fun!! and harsh than +1/+1.

9/9? I don't know. What I know is that if you're looking for fun and discoveries, there is much more interesting settings to tweak than raw difficulty.

I know I don't answer your question. But I'm currently one step lower on the "ladder". I'm just getting comfortable on 8/8 and ready to experiment the !!fun!! settings I was able to tackle at 7/7. So I can't speak about 9/9. Sorry for not answering your question.

[Captain Jack]

I have a fun recommendation: Hybrids! I never see anyone play Hybrid games, and it'd be interesting to see how the buggy bastards hold up as power creep has increased everywhere.

[undefind]

the game i finished was somewhat vanilla. i had spirecraft and a few other things on sure, but ships available was only "simple". to be completely honest, aside from the exo waves, the game was extremely easy. this is why i have considered a 9/9 game with some extra goodies.

pumpkin, i read some of your other posts and i have to say i think I'm going to enable all ship types on 9/9 with Dark Spire at 10! sounds real fun. maybe ill pick some interesting ai combo as well.

also, i was thinking of turning off Z-Trader since i always turn it on and have gotten comfortable with it. i guess this would force me to change up my strategy like researching heavy beam cannons. what do you think?

thanks,

-undefind

[Toranth]

9/9 is the point where the AI is getting enough of a bonus, you can't be careless in any roughly even game.  However, I wouldn't worry - it's only at 10/10 that even perfect play won't always (or even usually) help you survive.  9/9 with superweapons should be OK.  Just note - the AI boost from diff 8 to diff 9 is somewhere between 50-100% for most things.  Waves will be faster, and about 50% larger, more higher mark systems, more brutal guardposts, etc.

Switching to harder AI types can also up the difficulty a lot.  Try the Diff 9 Vicious Exotic/Vengeful, for !fun!, or a Vorpal/Speed Racer.

As was suggested earlier, consider switching map types.  The ease of access control on an X map presents a very different style of play from a Grid or Honeycomb map.
On the other hand, playing through a Fallen Spire campaign on a Snake or Vine map provides for some... excitement, as the various Exos march up and down the galaxy.

I, personally, always leave all ship types on, even the annoying ones.  It's just too much fun to see all the various ship types that can appear, and in such wonderful combinations!

I would suggest holding off setting any minor factions or other settings to level 10 if you intend to play a serious game.  On the other hand, just for laughs, stuff like Dark Spire 10 can be more fun than a barrel of vengeful homicidal space-monkeys.

[undefind]

I would imagine a wheel map would be a nightmare to defend.

funny, i just finished a wheel map on 9/9 with dark spire 10, advanced hybrids 4, and hunter.

when i say i "finished", what i mean is...well, you know what i mean

[Pumpkin]

I have a fun recommendation: Hybrids! I never see anyone play Hybrid games, and it'd be interesting to see how the buggy bastards hold up as power creep has increased everywhere.

Oh yeah!!! I'll definitely do an Outa Tracks MkIII episode with them. Thanks for the idea!

I would imagine a wheel map would be a nightmare to defend.

Actually, I played on wheel once (at least) and went ok. But I played damn-low AIP and archipelago empire. I don't think a wheel would be such a nightmare to defend. Just different, so you need to learn again. Which is fun. Any conventional experience on defense in a wheel? Anyone?

[undefind]

Actually, I played on wheel once (at least) and went ok. But I played damn-low AIP and archipelago empire. I don't think a wheel would be such a nightmare to defend. Just different, so you need to learn again. Which is fun. Any conventional experience on defense in a wheel? Anyone?

on the one time i played the wheel map, i noticed the outer ring could be defended fairly well where the spokes meet the ring. at some points some of the planets have only 2 connections if i remember correctly. i think the key is to fragment the ai's worlds and go more of an archipelago style (is that correct? archipelago=less connections to your empire?), but i think that would cost a lot of AIP if you took out all the warp gates between all your planets. i have never really understood how to defend when i have multiple hostile wormholes, so i tend to do a lot of gate raiding leading to high AIP games.

i only have a moderate knowledge of the game and strategies to use. i often spend hours on pause trying to figure out what to do next. reminds me of a game of chess.

[Pumpkin]

I think the key is to fragment the ai's worlds and go more of an archipelago style (is that correct? archipelago=less connections to your empire?)

Yes, this is correct. However, disconnecting the AI empire isn't the goal of such strategy. But it could be an interesting side-effect. A !!fun!! side effect when the Hunter plot is enabled.

but i think that would cost a lot of AIP if you took out all the warp gates between all your planets.

1) false: a gate cost 5 AIP; a whole planet cost 20 AIP. So gate-raiding 4 planets is more interesting in term of warp-dampening that taking one planet for the same price.
2) this isn't how to go archipelago/damn-low-AIP (IMO). Just let the waves hit the isolated planets and defend them independently. This is a bold strategy, but with a damn-low-AIP level, it's manageable.

Also, don't forget/hesitate to hack for knowledge, because with such strategy, you'll be short.
Oh, and I almost forgot: only hit planets with a CSG. The ultimate goal is to capture the fewest planets, so the minimum is 4 to take down 4 out of 5 CSG A-prime, plus one per other CSG network: B, C, D, E. B-planets can be taken twice because they have AdvFacto and Adv Starship Constructors, and sparing enough Knowledge to hack one of them is... complicate. Anyway, you need your HaP for K-hacks.

i have never really understood how to defend when i have multiple hostile wormholes, so i tend to do a lot of gate raiding leading to high AIP games.

Yeah. It took me a long time to master that, and I'm still not perfectly safe with this "outfit". I'm "enough challenged" at 8/8 in a regular playstyle, but 8/8 with archipelago is a little bit ahead of my current level. The thing is: Kahuna-style defense isn't reliable on a planet with many hostile wormholes. I often use military (MkI, because I can't afford MkII) and long range turrets (missile, sniper). Capturing the MkV sniper/spider controllers is a must-have, and may justify 20 more AIP.

Last advice: for a slightly more resilient strategy, try to pair your planets: if one falls, the other one still provide supply to its turrets and don't let the offending fleet escaping (and joining threat-fleet) unpunished.

i only have a moderate knowledge of the game and strategies to use. i often spend hours on pause trying to figure out what to do next. reminds me of a game of chess.

This is why I love this game too.