I hate this ai ;)

[vonduus]

I guess this rant goes under the AAR heading. AI level 7, grid map, bonus ship: parasites.

I have a day off, and I was looking forward to play an epic game. But what happened? First game started around 10 o'clock, and ended thirty minutes later when I was overwhelmed by 700 autocannons, killing my home station. New game. Ended after 45 minutes, home station killed by 400 bombers. 12 o'clock, lunch time. After the break, new game, got killed after 30 minutes, combined fighter/bomber run. New game. Killed after 40 minutes, viral shredders this time, hundreds of them. New game. Just got killed again, 40 minutes in, death by fregates.

This obviously isn't my day. I hate the ai.



edit: Added smiley to title of thread

[x4000]

That's a huge number of ships for
such early raids. Are you using multiple-planet starts, or just happening to play against a lot of raider-type ais? That seems really repeatedly unlucky unless you were specifically setting up the scenario like that.

[snow2.0]

old version/freed ships by devourer?

[HellishFiend]

old version/freed ships by devourer?

My thoughts as well....

[x4000]

Since these were uniform waves I figured something else. But yeah.

[vonduus]

I am playing 3.050, seed 1125488281.

I do not think this is golem-related, all raids have been by mk I ships only. There is a devourer golem somewhere nearby, but it was eating enemy ships last I scouted it, and noone seemed to run away from it. Also, the raids that killed me were all scheduled raids, ie. announced in an alert.

And I am not complaining, it is partially my own fault. I have set myself up against a Vicious Raider in all games, combined with a Zenith Descendant for a game or two, then a Mad Bomber, and then a Starfleet Commander. I guess my problem is that I am on a grid map, my home worlds have had no less than six entrances. Which means FRD is not very effective: There is always some small unscheduled raid going on somewhere, a few strayers at some wormhole, beginning 60 seconds in. They draw away my fleet, and then when the serious raids arrives with fast ships, my fleet is in the wrong location. And before I can get back to my homeworld, kaboom.

I find the grid maps challenging: There are plenty of opportunities for knowledge raiding, if I can hold on to my hubs. Well, I can't. The plan was to grab a lot of Raiders with my Parasites, thus bolstering my fleet early on. This tactic works most of the time, but seemingly not today. I grab a lot of ships allright, but I am low on ressources due to my turrets getting destroyed, so neither the ships nor the turrets get repaired very fast.

What is not my fault is that the ais seem to have learned to synchronize their scheduled attacks. I guess it has to do with the grid map, enemy warp gates being equidistant from my home planet or something(?). Or perhaps I am just not very lucky today. I am definitely not as good at this as I thought - yet.

Now I have had a break, and time to think, and I am ready to try again. My new plan is to unlock tractor beams mk III right away, they are a lot more cost-effective. If I can survive this first hour, I am pretty sure that I can establish and maintain a foothold on my home planet, so that I can get on with some warp- and knowledge raiding.




 

[x4000]

The synchronization, truthfully, is by chance.  That always happens sometimes, but it also only happens sometimes.  Playing a grid map is definitely a lot more challenging, I've not won a game on it yet myself (though I've only played a couple there, and got really unlucky with Alarmists, etc).  You might find something like even spokes or trees easier to get started with regarding knowledge raiding, etc, while also still being able to set yourself up with choke points.  With the recent updates to transports, it is a lot easier to do long-range raiding and planet-hopping, etc, on those bottleneck-centric maps.

Having points where you can cluster your defenses and your turrets is really a must unless you have really specific other strategies, I think.  But given that you're having some trouble with the current setup, that's what I would suggest: create more bottlenecks, and pile on the turrets, tractors, and mobile forces.  Then use transports to go out and kick some real butt while still being able to cover your own base.

[vonduus]

3.051: Okay, I managed to get a foothold on my home planet, and now I have even expanded to my neighboring planet thanks to a devourer golem who happened to fly by . It was the mk III tractor beam turrets that finally made my day, combined with the fix to the factory automation (I think I lost a lot of ressources before the fix). And of course, this time I was really, really careful not to let my fleet stray away chasing marauders in outer space.

The ais (Vicious Raider and Starship Commander) again synchronized their attacks 30 minutes into the game, attacking with 700 raiders plus 300 bombers plus some assorted starships. x4k, I believe you when you tell me this is accidental, I guess it is a probability freak, like rolling snake-eyes ten times in a row. It is very, very improbable that this should happen, but sometimes it actually happens anyway.  (Which btw is the reason why i do not trust probability math).

So now I have the beginning of yet another epic game. But it is close to midnight here, and I have to go to work tomorrow . I still hate the ai, he killed one of my science labs. But now I am in a position to retaliate. Unless I screw up something.

Everything I have seen so far in 3.051 is working as expected, I saw no bugs and no anomalies, except the synchronized attacks. 

[vonduus]

About the huge amount of enemy ships: I forgot to mention that I am experimenting with building a Zenith Power Plant. I guess this is the main reason for the abnormal huge numbers.

[x4000]

Oh, yeah. That would do it!

[keith.lamothe]

I think the ZPG is just an AI ploy to get the human players to bring their own doom upon their heads.

[x4000]

Indeed!  It's like the holy grail at the end of The Last Crusade.  Let it go, Indy!

[vonduus]

Doom it was indeed. I didn't manage to get it more than 10% finished before I lost the game

But now it is weekend, and I plan to build another one and this time I shall kill the ai!!!!  (I hope ).

[x4000]