Author Topic: Just my game...  (Read 10130 times)

Offline CaptainTaz

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Just my game...
« on: May 31, 2015, 02:13:16 am »
Using this thread mainly to share my thought process in order to help people help me.

Settings:
Spoiler for Hiden:
Map settings;
No setup script
120 planets
Encapsulated
Conquest
seed: 1878480680
All expansions

Ship settings;
Complex
All but swallower enabled

Game options;
Normal combat
Low caps (Save mah CPU plox)
Full FOW
Show unexplored planets

Minor factions;
Murauders - 5
Resistance fighters - 10
Colony rebellions - 1
Traders
Zenith Miners - 1
Dyson Sphere - 10
Zenith Devourer (Helps keep CPU lag down, good boy :D)
Easy Golems/botnet
Nenzul Rocketry Corps - 1 (For when the AI wasn't annoying enough)
Preservation wardens - 10
Roaming Enclaves - 10
Fallen Spire - 1 (Dunno what that does exactly)
Spire Civillian leaders
Easy Spirecraft
Dark spire - 5 (For base management)
Alt Champ Progress - 10
Alt champ nemisis - 1
Showdown devices
Exodian blade

Yes, that's pretty much everything. I love variety :D

AI modifiers;
Reveal random AI types
Auto AIP ; 0/0 (I'm slow, don't want to lose the game because of my playstyle...)

First AI;
Hybrid 3
Advanced 3
Bouncer/Chivalric - 5 - Pink - -50% resources
(Bouncers gotta be pink, yknow?)

Second AI;
Hybrid 1
Advanced 1
Trains 3
Train master/Chivalric - 5 - Red - -50% resources

(Chivalric for both because I need all the mercy I can get... don't judge me...)

Me;
Blue -Normal/Champion
2 homeworlds
2 bonus champions - Green - Lime
+100% resource boost (to make up for power, and my stupidity... I'm still losing even with this overpowered setup... x_x)
Bonus ships: Zenith Medic frigate, munitions booster

Lobby view; http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=4525103551

Map Priority key;
P0 = No interest anymore
P1 = Planned spire base
P2 = Existing spire base
P3 = Spire Civilians
P5 = Showdown device
P6 = Warhead Generator
P7 = Dark spire generator
P8 = DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! Kill the thing ASAP.
P9 = Golems/Advanced Constructor/Exile location
(I use this for at-a-glance intel so I know what's up. If I randomly use P4, I'll explain why near the image)

I will update this as the game progresses. After every 30-60 clock minutes, I'll have another spoiler added (Unless something major happens)

************Game start
Spoiler for Hiden:
Not every update will be like this, but I wanted my starting process to be judged.

First things first, I import my Ctrls ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452510974 ), and set each champion up with a standard 6 lasers, 2 shields for maximum DPS. I immediately set where my spire facilities are on the map ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452511906 ), and rename my homeworlds Hiigara (north one) and Adaella (South one). Hiigara is the production facility, Adaella is the special taskforce hub. (Golem parking, scout factory, Spire fleet hub, Spirecraft deployment hub, Advanced research parking, etc.)

My first goal is to eliminate all my neighbors who wanna cause trouble, so I prepared my champs to deal with them.

Unlocked metal harvesters 2 and 3, and engineer 2 with my initial K.

Lo and behold, AI super-terminal parked next door to Hiigara ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452512999 )... lovely... This is more a liability than an actual bonus IMO (Spire civilians are better anyway) so I destroyed it. The three others of my neighbors had train stations, so I destroyed them too, and cleared all four planets of guard posts and ships.

Research unlocked polarizer, intercepter bay, and flak for the champ, none of which I use, as well as the zenith and Human destroyers. Equipped them with Mk 3 laser and shields. The Grey spire also showed up, and I began using their facilities to produce ships.

Using the 6k I got free from my homeworlds, I unlocked scout 2, mini fortress, spire starship, and the logistics station MK 2.

Scouts revealed an AI attritioner, something i have not faced before ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452513732 )... Following this discovery, i sent 1 MK 2 science lab to each of the 5 (liberated that other one in the cluster too) planets I liberated for knowledge gathering. Not long after, the shattered pillar, In Memorium Terra,  and Nienzul mourners arrived, and the spire shadow ship was unlocked, followed by the Cruiser upgrade. I also unlocked Heat beam and Bomber bay modules.

Using the two outer spire markers as reference ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452514648 ), I plan to set up my first bottlenecks using the logistics stations and the munitions boosters.

One of these planets has an advanced research module, so I decided to hack it. while waiting for my hacker to build, I scouted some more and found the dyson sphere within the territory I planned to claim. Booyah! ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452514663 ) I also discovered a Spire civilian/bulletproof & Armor booster backups.

Hacking begins at 29:00, and I am using my three champions to defend it.

While the hacking battle happens, I use some more K to unlock Mk 2 of Needler, laser, MLRS, Missile, Flak, Electric, Sniper, and Spider turrets, as well as Grav 1 and Tacheon 1. I also unlocked the assault transport, force-field MK 2, and  advanced warp sensor.

I also scouted even more, found a few data centers, a cursed golem, another attrition thing. Hacking was a success, with no casualties. I then destroyed the command center, and that is where I'm going to leave it off for the night, at the 40 minute mark. ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452514678 )

Next session I will be gate raiding then claiming the systems and establishing bottlenecks, after which, i will start the spire sidequest.

*************Session 2 starting at 40:00, gunna go by session now.
Spoiler for Hiden:
Right off the bat traders visited Hiigara, so I bought my two zenith powerplants. My energy had been getting really low, so this was a welcome development.

The Dyson Sphere is triggering two dark spire vengance generators... I'll need to free it soon... in other news, an astro train group flew through my base and tried to kidnap a few of my ships. I scrapped them before that could happen. I also found some dark spire wraiths that had visible health bars o_O ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452920651 )

As I finished cleaning up, the Dyson's control of the region began increasing. I decided to send my champs to deal with it before the gatlings took out my home command.

I have determined that the AI has these bonus ships so far; Spire railcluster, Armor booster, and bulletproof. Scouting also revealed an advanced fleetship constructor only 3 jumps from Hiigara, and the botnet golem/Lighning turret MK V fabricator right next door! I also found an impulse reaction emitter (no clue what that is) MK 5 fabricator. (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452930869 and
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452930939 )

At 52:00 I freed the dyson sphere. ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452932221 ) This will help keep the Ai off me while I set up my bottlenecks. I sent research labs to all the planets I freed, and unlocked the shadow battleship upgrade, plasma siege cannon, Photon lance (YESSS), Acid Jet, Impulse reaction cannon, projected shadow tacheon pulse emitter, rail cluster, Heavy beam module, doom accelerator, and projected shadow Decoy. The Epsilon Eridani Remnants also arrived, finishing the splinter faction collection.

The Civilians pushed me into the MK 2 AI range, so i had to boogie on those bottlenecks. The devourer golem also decided to pay me a visit, but it only passed through.

Using my newfound K, I unlocked Munitions booster 2, logistics 3, forcefield 3, area mines, medic frigate 2, missile frigate 2, zenith starship, flagship 2, and scout starship 2.

Using my new champions ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452936053 ), I sliced through the fleet camping near Hiigara (Action shot! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452937032 ) and on the first bottleneck. I then set up a bottleneck on this planet. Thanks to my two zenith generators, power was not an issue at all.

While waiting for construction, I set up my planet-specific controls for the bottleneck ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452938183 ). Once all the turrets were set up, I brought the munitions boosters in to give the turrets the x2 boost ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452939467 ). Found the amusing dyson gatlings captured by tractor train as well xD ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452940386 )

Once my economy evened out, I began work on the second bottleneck. during construction, i destroyed the A prime generator that was sitting on the planet. When I got the ARS, I had the choice of lightning torpedo frigate, spire blade spawner, and the lightning Starship. I decided to go with the Spire blade spawner. The Torpedo frigate I've found to be pretty useless and lag inducing (as well as the annoying false-alarm explosion sounds), and the lightning starship's attack really isn't that great at all for how low the ship cap is and it's reload time.

With the second bottleneck just about complete, I place four economic stations within my territory to give myself some energy and metal boosts.

Once everything was in place, I began to split my fleet into two defender groups. ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452941899 & http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452941924 & http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452941995 ). Once that was done, I sent a survey ship to the spire signal, and sped up time. Literally not a single AI ship attacked at all, and I recovered the shard without incident.

While waiting for the second signal trace, I used my MK 2 scout starships to dash around and gather intel about planets further out. They discovered another advanced fleetship constructor, but it's way too far out to be practical compared to the one I already found. They also found a showdown device, and a warbird fabricator/Advanced research station. the final stop was a civillian planet before they died. ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452943694 )

Next shard was located one hop west of the bottleneck outside Hiigara, on an attritioner planet x_x, so I sent the survey ship with a cloaker starship to wait just outside while I sent my champs in to get rid of the attritioner.

at 1:52:00, I had discovered the spire ship. Once again, no AI activity.... o_O I popped a data center though to bring the AI back down to MK 1, however, the AI had already unlocked the Zenith Autobomb.

Sent another scout dash out while waiting for the next signal, thanks to the dyson gatlings a lot of the tachyon guardians were destroyed, allowing me to go further into enemy space. I found a grav drill nearby, and an advanced starship constructor on one of my future spire bases ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452945171 ). I need to get rid of some of these train stations so I can keep my scouts from dying to the tachyon emmiter trains however, as I cannot keep constant scout coverage....

Spire civilians hit again, luckily I stayed in the MK 1 AI tech level. the next shard was located on "Jerpan" (I dunno, i find that name funny xD http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452946499 ) so, as per usual, i send my champ and my 8 spire frigates to clean it up. This planet just so happens to have a dark spire vengance generator, so this will be fun...

Cleaned up the planet, had to recall one spire frigate before it died, but the remaining 7 and the 3 champs guarded the surveyor until the shard was discovered (Action shot! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452947676 ). Using a fancy little tactic I made myself, I select all the spire/champs and the shard while they are in proximity to each other, and set them to go to the bottleneck planet. after that, I select just the shard, and send it to my home planets. Now the spire ships will move with the shard at the shard's speed, but stay and defend the bottleneck while the shard goes onward. ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452948438 )

The reactor was reactor was recovered easily with minimal incident and resistance. An abnormally strong hybrid, however, was detected soon after. I sent the brand new colony ship to the first location( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452949715 ), and began construction of a city. Thanks to engineer spam ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=452949783 ), the hub was quickly constructed and scans began immediately.

My spire fleet now consists of;
24 frigates
4 destroyers - ( 2 MK 1 rail, 1 MK 2 shield, 2 MK 2 Laser)
2 cruisers - ( 4 MK 1 rail, 2 MK 2 rail, 2 MK 2 laser, 1 MK 3 shield)

at 2:55:06 in-game time, I shall stop for this session. I'm sure this wall of text is already too much ^^; I have this session saved as a different instance than yesterday's so that I can back up if I screw up. If you guys want me to upload them to you can look for yourself, just tell me how and I will :D

************Session 3, starting at 2:55:09
Spoiler for Hiden:
with the successful building of my spire fleet, it's time to continue my mission and obtain the next two shards. The next one is on the planet with the botnet golem, so I decided to split my fleet into two forces, the stand-by force in the AI-controlled planet the shard will travel through, and the main force that will guide the shard like before.

Stand-by force; 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer, 12 frigates, 2 champs
Guard force; 1 cruiser, 3 destroyers, 12 frigates, 1 champ

both ways to this planet are blocked by tacheon stations, so the cloaker ship will be rendered useless for part of the journey...

Resistance forces decided to join my assault on the first planet as I cleared it of guard posts... they helped thin the enemy lines a bit, but most of em died to the marauder fleet that spawned just after them xD ( Marauder VS Resistance action shot! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453608667 )

Just realized an exo wave is on it's way, but honestly, I'm not all that worried, they never make it past my bottlenecks. ever. The next shard was discovered at 3:06:47. With a small bit of resistance, I got the shard to my home planets safe and sound.

I desperately needed to unlock MK 3 snipers so I could get the tier of rails for my regular spire defensive builds, so I quickly creamed a nearby planet, and lo and behold, I unlocked champion rail modules too. I replaced my human shields with the new spire ones, and set to work reinforcing the bottleneck. I unlocked MK 2 Tachyon turrets to place at each wormhole at my bottlenecks so that I can detect enemy ships as they come in (Since I don't have the military command tachyon coverage

Bottleneck view;
Far out; http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453609408
Zoomed in; http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453609443
Turret damage coverage; http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453609491

5 Reactors - Normal Template - (4 rail MK 2, 2 Rail MK 3, Mk 2 shield generator (2.4mil HP))
1 Habitation center - Normal Template - (Same as above)

the 3rd shard was found two hops north of my eastern bottleneck... perfect! As soon as I finished rebuilding my bottleneck in the west, I prepared my fleet. with the new setup, i was able to gain 3 more shipyards. During construction of the new fleet, a strange hybrid-like signal was detected.

New fleet totals;
48 frigates
10 destroyers
4 cruisers.

once the modules finished building and I upgraded from lasers to rails on my champs, i set out to claim the 3rd shard.

After recovering the third shard, I realized that I messed up my pre-spacing. Big time. the north is off by one. it works in my favor though as I realized one of the bases was on the dyson planet ^^; Constuction of the third hub is postponed as I cut myself a path to my first main bottleneck in the north, at this intersection; http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453610456

Cross-planet attack with 632 ships incoming... meh, not a worry at all...

Knowledge champ unlocks; Paralyzer, insanity inducer, translocator, after those, nothing else was unlocking, so I assume I have everything now.

Traders visited my west bottleneck, so I bought a black home machine, armor booster, and counter-spy. They also visited my new bottleneck just as construction began, so I quickly bought the supplies I needed for it. I also finally unlocked tier 3 engineers. ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453611198 )

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453611780 Iiiiii probably should have gate raided first....  The four waves weren't trouble at least for my spire fleet. I quickly cleaned up and got the tier 2 city up and defending. I also had first contact with a warhead generator (No sight of said generator yet however... P6 is now Warhead generator) (Complete post-this-time bottleneck shot Minus munitions boosters, which are on their way; http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453611237 )

Luck is against me, and I soon find that the next shard is to the west x_x

Using my new 16,00k I unlocked MK 4 Sniper, Mk 3, needler/laser/MLRS/Missile/Flak/lightning/Spider turrets, MK 2 tractor, and MK 2 blade launcher. Devourer golem gave Hiigara a visit and ate the enclave drones for a looong while x_x ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453611221 )

Building time acceleration as I get my sturdy defenses set up in the north ( see bottleneck image above) and rebuild the shit that got eaten by the devourer x_x I also got a armor booster, black home machine, and a counter-spy for my eastern bottleneck to give it some assistance.

After the time acceleration, the time is 5:26:00, and the main defenses are just about done in the north. The Hybrid-like signal vanished, so I'm unsure if I killed it or if it created something that's gunna mess me up... Either way, it's gone...

aaaand at 5:40:00 it's back again.... what exactly it is, I have no clue....

Before going for the shard, i decided to raid some train stations in the hopes that they stop visiting my base... The medic frigates are also serving their purpose of healing any damages my fleet happens to take, which is nice.

Once the stations were killed, I moved on to the destination where the next shard was hiding, and sent the survey team. Shard 4 was recovered easily :D 5 new shipyards were able to be constructed as well, increasing my ship caps;
88 frigates
20 destroyers
10 cruisers

The AI better watch out now... I'm ready to stomp their faces :D

I realized that there was 6k knowledge unclaimed, so I quickly grabbed that and unlocked[ Econ station MK 2, and MLRS Mk 4. Energy is starting to become an issue... I need to expand westward, and soon... I know it will most definitely push me into the MK 3 territory, but it needs to be done... I plan to claim up to the selected planet here of territory to get thet bottleneck. It should also help me gain a foothold for my permanant one 6 jumps out. For now I constructed matter converters to keep me in the green zone.

The fifth shard was detected at the same planet as the fourth, so here we go again.

aaaaand at 6:46:00, the shard was recovered! wohoo! I quickly got the city set up, and began work on the capitol building. 2 new shipyards granted me a few more spire ships, and this is where I will end this session. Next session, i will begin my western conquest and hopefully set up the final bottleneck of my base, and be fully established and ready to fight. (At minimum bottleneck goal, maximum is all the way east the the furthest P1. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453613346 )
« Last Edit: June 01, 2015, 07:33:54 pm by CaptainTaz »
Just that guy who hides behind walls of death hoping that they stay up.

Offline Pumpkin

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Re: Just my game...
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2015, 06:42:06 am »
Nice discovery setup.
Dyson and Enclaves will have a big impact on the game; fortunately, they can easily be turned to good things.
I'm looking forward to hearing your stumbling epic fights tales.

Just a note, however.
The low-cap + 2*homes sounds very awkward to me. I very rarely played multi-home but always felt far from the balance of a regular one-home game. If the purpose is to save CPU, one home (and maybe low-cap) sounds both normal and sane.
Just sharing my thoughts.
Please excuse my english: I'm not a native speaker. Don't hesitate to correct me.

Offline CaptainTaz

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Re: Just my game...
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2015, 11:52:35 am »
Nice discovery setup.
Dyson and Enclaves will have a big impact on the game; fortunately, they can easily be turned to good things.
I'm looking forward to hearing your stumbling epic fights tales.

Just a note, however.
The low-cap + 2*homes sounds very awkward to me. I very rarely played multi-home but always felt far from the balance of a regular one-home game. If the purpose is to save CPU, one home (and maybe low-cap) sounds both normal and sane.
Just sharing my thoughts.
I play with 2 Home planets for a few reasons

Flexibility - I like having two ship types to experiment with and use to the best of my ability
Practice - I bought the game for a few friends of mine, when we get to play, I wanna be prepared for the harshness of the AI
Fun - I dunno, i just find it fun. The game craps out eventually anyway with 1 HW, so I said hug it, let's do two.
Just that guy who hides behind walls of death hoping that they stay up.

Offline CaptainTaz

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Re: Just my game...
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2015, 04:41:46 pm »
Post updated with session 2!

If anyone knows how to use the embedded URLS and how to name the spoilers, that information would be nice ^^;
Just that guy who hides behind walls of death hoping that they stay up.

Offline CaptainTaz

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Re: Just my game...
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2015, 07:34:23 pm »
Session 3 is up! Still looking for feedback, especially on my bottleneck setup.
Just that guy who hides behind walls of death hoping that they stay up.

Offline Radiant Phoenix

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Re: Just my game...
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2015, 09:24:57 pm »
this is a URL
Code: [Select]
[url=https://google.com]this is a URL[/url]


Code: [Select]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/qWVri80.png[/img

The only thing I can clearly see that I would change is to put the turrets closer to the center of the city, so they remain under glass longer.

Offline CaptainTaz

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Re: Just my game...
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2015, 09:36:03 pm »
this is a URL
Code: [Select]
[url=https://google.com]this is a URL[/url]


Code: [Select]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/qWVri80.png[/img

The only thing I can clearly see that I would change is to put the turrets closer to the center of the city, so they remain under glass longer.

Perfect. I assume you do the same for Spoiler as Url?

As for turrets, I put em out to give em some more range so that their DPS is higher, but I keep em so that there's at least two fields overlapping them (Except the electric/flak/tractor/grav, with their low range x_x)
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Offline Radiant Phoenix

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Re: Just my game...
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2015, 09:38:25 pm »
Remember that forcefields shrink when damaged.

Offline CaptainTaz

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Re: Just my game...
« Reply #8 on: June 01, 2015, 09:56:20 pm »
Remember that forcefields shrink when damaged.

yeppers, I know this :P
Just that guy who hides behind walls of death hoping that they stay up.

Offline CaptainTaz

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Re: Just my game...
« Reply #9 on: June 07, 2015, 08:55:41 pm »
I'll post again if people still want to see, but for now I'm gunna be going for the last two A core shields and then splitting my spire fleet into two groups and simultaniously take both AIs down before Tier 4 stage begins...
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Offline Shock

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Re: Just my game...
« Reply #10 on: October 19, 2015, 06:05:34 am »
Please do keep posting, i'm listening :D

Offline CaptainTaz

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Re: Just my game...
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2015, 04:27:12 pm »
Please do keep posting, i'm listening :D

Sadly, it's been ages since I last played ^^; I can't even remember if I finished this game or not.
Just that guy who hides behind walls of death hoping that they stay up.

 

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