Hi all,
Hoping this is the right place to look for advice on how to proceed with my game. I haven't played this in about two years, shortly after Light of the Spire released. I've only won a few games, one co-op, one regular, and one with Fallen Spire, all on 7/7 with Easy AI's. I'm trying to get back into the game and have been reading a lot of forum posts and wiki articles and it's time I reached out for help.
It appears that my old strategy of playing doesn't seem to work as well. The wiki seems to imply that high AIP is no longer as winnable as it used to be. I remember the two games that I won, the AIP was somewhere in the 350-400 range before attacking the AI Homeworlds. It seems like that is no longer such a great idea. Also, most of my conquest strategy revolved around 1) take in raid starships to kill guard posts, then 2) send in blob of death to clean up. That worked pretty much the entire game. Of course, in the span of 2 years, lots can/have changed.
Oh, yes, a lot of things have changed. Two expansions, and some major changes to the base game. You may have noticed, for example, that AI Guardposts are now much nastier than they used to be, and starships got a major upgrade - Raid Starships included. The Mk II and Mk III especially.
The Fallen Spire campaign has changed a little, too. Later shards now move faster, but have higher AI response. The shards also now spawn at a fixed distance from the homeworld, not a distance into AI territory - this makes it a little less predictable as to where they will spawn.
Knowledge costs for Mk II and Mk III ships and turrets have been lowered. The higher mark Starships also cost less, but they received major stat upgrades as well. Take a look at the new Neinzul Enclaves, for example. They are no longer mobile space docks, but automated drone producers instead.
So, before I get into my specific game, I guess I have a few questions.
1) What changes have occurred after LoTS that cause such a difficulty jump now in AIP? It seems that my old strategy of just taking several early worlds, creating a few bottlenecks, and then extending from there may not work as well as it used to.
In general, the AI got a boost in response to AIP. The human player has received a bunch of bonuses to compensate, but it doesn't change that the AI gets more ships for most things over what it did right after LotS came out. That strategy will still work for the general case, but it isn't as powerful as it once was.
The economy also got a significant boost - both Harvesters and Stations. It is no longer as necessary to grab an extra world or two right away for the resources. This makes it a little easier to keep AIP down.
Energy got a rework as well, the net result was to make it more important and less fiddly. Each system can build 1 free Energy Collector that gives 150,000 energy, but for additional energy you need to build Matter Converters that give 50,000 Energy but cost -100/-100 Metal/Crystal. Keeping a large energy reserve, or recovering from a brownout, can be economically costly and time consuming. Be careful of your Energy level if the AI looks like it might take out a system or two, as without fixed defenses or forcefields it can easily cascade into losing multiple systems.
I've used up every bit of static defense I have to defend ALL the wormholes that currently are in my territory. I've got 2 ARSes that are nearby which I'm planning on taking soon, however, I won't have the turrets available to defend those planets.
I don't know when you last played, so you may be unfamiliar with how ARSs have changed.
First, capturing an ARS no longers unlocks both the Mk I and Mk II of a ship. Now it unlocks only the Mk I, but also gives 500 knowledge as well.
Second, each ARS can unlock one of three ship types. You can view which ships will be unlocked by sending a Science vessel to that system. Mk II Science ships are useful for this. Select the Science vessel, then on the ARS tab, you'll see three ships. By default, the leftmost ship is the one that will be unlocked. However, you can use the Ship-Design Hacker vessel to hack the ARS and take your pick of the three ship types. The AI responds forcefully to this sort of thing, so be prepared. Hacking must be done BEFORE killing the AI Command Station.
I suggest you send a Mk II Science vessel in to the ARS systems ASAP to find out what ships are available.
1) I know I'm probably being a bit too obsessive about the low AIP in this game. Should I start killing some of the warp gates in adjacent planets so that I can lower the number of turrets defending each wormhole and use them elsewhere?
Personally, I like to limit the AI to 1-2 systems it can send waves to, and no more. If possible, I will restrict where there are ANY AI access points, as CPAs are now much more dangerous than they were 2 years ago - they tend to group up more, better evaluate the human defenses, and are able to re-direct if a weaker human target system is available. And most dangerously, freed threat won't just sit forever at one wormhole. It will now pull back into AI territory and wait for a good target. This can make it very difficult to clear out threat sometimes, so it's best to never let it build up to begin with.
3) What is a good AIP to be at before attempting to take out one of the homeworlds?
The AI Homeworlds have a number of defensive reactions that assume a roughly 200 AIP. Attacking with less AIP than that means giving up something without having lower the AI defenses.
4) Am I screwing myself down the line by neutering every planet adjacent to one of mine? The good thing about taking one planet at a time like this is that I'm putting a lot more planets on alert than usual. Unfortunately, to be able to defend a single planet results in me requiring a lot more defensive turrets than I'm used to having. I captured the Adv Fact but I have no use for it at the moment
No, neutering planets is just as important (or more so) than it ever was. Gate Raiding is also still important. The Warp Jammer Command Station is very useful for protecting things like your Adv Factory - it prevents the AI from sending waves to that planet AND it stops the human system from putting adjacent AI worlds on alert. Lower reinforcements and less threat is a great thing.
I'm sure there is more that's changed that I just can't think of as important right now, sorry. To a certain extent, there's enough different stuff that you'll need to play a bit and relearn it all yourself. But if you have specific questions, or can post screenshots/saved games, it's easier to comment on specific situations.
