Newbie and the Beast

[Alex Heartnet]

Part of me is glad I found the darn thing, and the other part wants to go hide in a corner and cry.  Keith Y U do this to me?



So is this where the robots are getting all of their ships from?



...And yes, that is indeed a MKIII fortress parked next to the robot core.



But the main highlight?  This thing.



The words "core" and "raid" do not go together!  Good grief.

Also mobile guard posts.



Where did the AI get alien tech from?  I don't have any of the expansions enabled!





This place is a nightmare.  And the worst part of it is that there is a second one of these somewhere!  Why, Keith.  WHY?  Why would you do such a thing?!

HOW in the Andromeda Galaxy am I supposed to defeat this abomination?!?

If warheads can't solve it, use more warheads..

[keith.lamothe]

There's a couple alien-race-named core guard posts that are part of the base game.

And believe me, if you have the expansions on the brutal-picks it can choose for core guard posts are much nastier.

It's going easy on you

[Alex Heartnet]

A man, a plan. Panama!





Ugh, do I want to take this system?  I don't like where it is bordering, but it has an ARS and a A-Prime shield gen.






I might take this random system so the AI will have to spend some of its (admittedly small) defense budget on reinforcing systems I don't care about.



I also plan on borrowing at least one MKIV factory, ideally both a fleetship and a starship factory.  I will also take whatever core fabs I come across.  Challenging the AI homeworlds will take a lot of firepower.

The robots are dead already.  They just don't know it yet.

[Alex Heartnet]

It was a bright and sunny day.  The bloody wars of so long ago has been all but forgotten.  There was leech starships at every wormhole, helping to gather ships so the humans could rebuild.  The stock market was booming, spire cities were springing up everywhere, while the children of Neinzul laughed and played in the space lanes and everyone was nice and happy and





Oh god what did I do I didn't MEAN TO PUSH THAT BUTTON



Now its typing all by itself!



What?  NooooOOOoooo!!!

[keith.lamothe]

That won't do all that much to a game in progress   It'll give it some more guardian types to be a jerk with, but not the new station/post/subcommander types, etc, as that's all picked at mapgen.

Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if this somehow generates !!fun!! regardless.

[Alex Heartnet]

So apparently the recent beta patches has changed the location of each and every wormhole in my save file.  That now means that all my defenses are in the wrong position!



And I better set up my new defense grid quick.



However, I have a few new ideas for defense layouts that I have been wanting to try out.  Namely this thing.





Everything in every system needs to be re-aligned.  EVERY.  THING.  This means scrapping all of my defenses AND the command station all at once.  I might just have to defend against this wave using ships only.

Oh, and I just discovered line placement.  Now I actually know what to do with my cap of 250+ mines.



The command stations in my backwater cluster need to be moved to make sure they are as afar from the wormhole as possible, along with the accompanying power plants.

After all, scrapping a bunch of power plants right before an attack wave is totally a recipe for success, right?

Cue sound of head banging into desk repeatedly.

Yes, I seriously did exactly that.  I'm sure the pilots under my command are cursing Slippy Toad Vice Admiral Norbank GTVA High Command my own 'brilliant' decisions.



Well, if I get rid of my beachhead in the Iota Horologii system I should have a bit more energy to work with.  It's all part of my incomprehensibly complex plan!  Really!



Trying to re-do everything depleted my scrap reserves as well, which means that everything will take a lot longer to build.  Including the power plants.



Hear that, pilots?  Everything's all up to you guys, and there's no conveniently placed reactor core or anything to shoot at.  You are the last line of defense.  You must hold.  At all costs.

And when you guys all die you won't be missed because once we have power again a replacement fleet will be manufactured in minutes.



Good luck and godspeed.  Now get to your ships and die in nuclear fire do me proud.

[keith.lamothe]

Yes, I seriously did exactly that.  I'm sure the pilots under my command are cursing Slippy Toad Vice Admiral Norbank GTVA High Command my own 'brilliant' decisions.

(...)

Good luck and godspeed.  Now get to your ships and die in nuclear fire do me proud.

Time to show them how the big boys do battle?

*snicker*

[Alex Heartnet]

And here comes the first wave!



At least I have some of my minefields ready.  First time using mines and I already like them.



Good job protecting the system guys, we already lost the command center.

Why am I surrounded by idiots...



I must say, having to manually order remains rebuilders around is annoying and defeats the whole point of having them.



I really need to figure out what's draining my economy so I can actually build those power plants.



Why, oh WHY are my metal harvesters not built?  Ugh.

This has something to do with the game moving all the wormholes around, doesn't it?



One attack wave later, and zero progress has been made on my new command stations.  Worse yet, I made the new ones logistics stations and not economic ones, so I will have to re-rebuild them.



I won't suppose all these turrets would have something to do with my crashed economy?  Full stop on all turret construction please.



Much better.  I see an improvement already.







The Zavijava command station is brought online just in time for the next wave.



And pop goes the warp jammer.  Useless thing doesn't actually keep ships from attacking the system!





I must of gotten my pilots from the Galactica or something.  Bunch of useless nuggets, the whole lot of them.



...Hang on, what are these ships doing here?  There wasn't an attack wave announced!



And poof goes the flagship.  Bunch.  Of.  Useless.  Nuggets.

         

It's like the Kilrathi War happened all over again.  Is there a place I can go to recruit more competent pilots?

[Pluto011]

This was pretty entertaining to read.

also,

And pop goes the warp jammer.  Useless thing doesn't actually keep ships from attacking the system!

Warp jammers only stop waves and prevent the planets around it from being put on alert by the planet.

[Alex Heartnet]

Warp jammers only stop waves and prevent the planets around it from being put on alert by the planet.

I regret spending my science points on this.  Can I have a refund?

[keith.lamothe]

At Sirius Cybernetics, all Knowledge Sales (and Pilot Training Classes, for that matter) are final.  Share and enjoy!

[Alex Heartnet]

At Sirius Cybernetics, all Knowledge Sales (and Pilot Training Classes, for that matter) are final.  Share and enjoy!

Boycott!  Boycott!

I think I'll buy from Post-Terran Mining Corp instead.

[Alex Heartnet]

Who turned off the lights in the Geminorum system?

So that's what it means for a unit to be "Blind".



Hey, on the plus side the AI's guard posts aren't aligned either!





Finally!  The lights are back on!  Despite the best efforts of my pilots, I might add.



One by one, the defense grid slowly come back online...



Mines and turrets lie in wait at every wormhole.  Snipers scatter themselves at the edges of the gravity well, catching attackers in an intense crossfire.

Ships that do make it past the tractor beams are instead immobilized by the newly-researched  gravitational turrets.



Attackers that make it past the blockade find a second line of defense.  Needlers and missile launchers ensure that the robots continue taking fire every step of the way.





A similar setup awaits in the Rana system.  A set of flak cannons provides a final line of defense a gainst force field-immune units.





Hard lessons were learned that day.  Tractor beams, tachlyon emitters, minefields, and snipers all guard the warp jammer.





And once the attackers get destroyed, the AI will see its own tools of destruction turned against it.







Could it be that somehow, I have become a better player?

[keith.lamothe]

Could it be that somehow, I have become a better player?

Inquiry: Does that mean you'll be more effective in the salt mines post-subjugation?

[Alex Heartnet]

Inquiry: Does that mean you'll be more effective in the salt mines post-subjugation?

Work what where?  Automation has reached a point where a small space dock can create dozens of frigates within a minute, and you seriously want me to mine salt by hand.

If it was some annoyingly extremely-magnetic ore, then hand-mining would make sense.  Otherwise my metal harvesters can gather all that I need.

And from now on I'll be sure to make my purchases from elsewhere.  It's very unwise to use body mods from someone you don't trust, and besides I'm tried of cyberpunk-looking implants - I want a different aesthetic.