Arcen Games

General Category => AI War Classic => AI War Classic - After Action Reports => : Pumpkin April 30, 2015, 10:18:39 AM

: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin April 30, 2015, 10:18:39 AM
Setup

AI1: 7 / Stealth Master / Assassin (codename: Fire)
AI2: 7 / Alarmist / Teleporter Turtle (codename: Ice)
Auto AIP: 1/30
Map: 80/Concentric
Ships: Complex, everything enabled (DGL, CSG, ...)

Plots:
* Hunter (4)*2
* Counter Posts
* Warp Relay

Minor Factions:
* Nomad (4)
* Marauder (4)
* Resistance (4)

Achievements:
* Capture all ARS
* Download all Cloaked Design Backups
* Suck'up all Spire Archives
* Usage of the Nomad Controller forbidden
* Never trigger an Alarm (unless by destroying it)
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin April 30, 2015, 10:27:21 AM
HotNotes

00:01
Took Spire Battleships. Unlocked engineers II, scouts II, decloakers, tachyon turrets I and II, OCStation Warp Jammer. Left with 750K.
Nomad 2 is started adjacent to homeworld and lightly defended. Plan is to raid the adjacent alarm and capture it before it goes away.

18:50
Took down the alarm overlooking Nomad 2 with one Raider SShip MkI. Triggered and handled.
Handled first two waves with some turrets.
Nomad 2 captured with Warp Jammer.
Unlocked FField MkII, put one on Nomad 2 and one over the Home OCStation.
Plan is to use a lot of missile frigates (defended by some fighters) because the cloaked ships are mostly vulnerables to missiles.

29:39
The EtherJet DBackup is adjacent to my homeworld, and I need some more HaP to download it. I tried to take down an alarm with a Raider SShip MkI but failed, so I unlocked the MkII design, albeit I haven't the metal to build it yet.

37:48
Blown up a DNode to speed up this too slow early game.
Carved a Tachyon-path and sent a science MkII on a CSG-Aprime planet two hops away from home. ARS contains Mini Ram, Teleporting Leech and Powerslaver. The ram will be ignored. I still hesitate between taking the TeLeech and corrupting the DBackup when I'll find it, or take the mighty powerslaver. The DBackup download would be delayed.

46:05
Took the planet behind my homeworld.
Now I have enough HaP to download the EtherJet DBackup.
I have also enough energy to support a MkII raider. Built thanks to the DNode. Alarm 2 hops away took down.

51:43
Fire (hacked planet belongs to it) has Raptors. Excellent combo with stealth, very "painful-themed".
Anyway, EtherJet downloaded. If it wasn't on my mission list, I wouldn't have downloaded them, rather corrupted. "Pushing me out of my tracks": check!

1:00:00
HaP: 33
AIP: 83
Knowledge: 8,750 (total available)
Empire: 4 planets are under control (1 home, 1 nomad, plus 2 other) all on extern ring. Bridge to ring II half-controled.
Unlocks: WJammer, Engi II, scouts II, Tachyon turrets I and II, decloaker, FField II, Raid SShip II
Metal is still low, but I'm using the missile-immune Raid SShip to get rid of the MkIII missile guard posts (the Ions are already down) before the hack. It is doing wonders and I ordered the building of the two remaining. However, there is a fortress MkII; I plan to avoid it during the hack. (This planet also belongs to Fire.)
On the longer term, I see no AIP reducers (just a distant CoProc), but I only scouted 22 planets so far. I'll need to go archipelago sooner or latter, and I feel AIP will force me to go for it rather sooner. This would be the middle game begining. For now, focus is on the opening.

1:05:09
Two waves on the backyard; delay between each: 1:30. Fleet sent on defence, remaining metal and energy allowed to emergency turret building. However, one howstile wormhole is quite easy easy to defend, albeit the distance hostile wormhole / OCStation + friendly wormhole is rather short.
On the other side, two Heavy Bomber SShips have been allowed to A-prime neutering. I hope to launch the hack shortly after the two waves.

1:12:26
Waves handeled: check.
Polycristal SShips bombers on the fortress: check.
Hunter/Killer unexpectedly spawning there: check. What?!?
Yap. I have only MkI fleet and barely no starship support (just the raiders, the two bombers and the two cheap-but-awesome enclaves) and I have a H/K denying my neutering. It is alone (a handful of riot control was busted earlier), but the whole balance just changed from "everything under control" to "we're doooomed" in a blink.
What to do? Fallback, wait for it to leave and go back to business? I may neuter the other side of the ring-bridge, but this A-prime planet was my very first target. Or go Red.Queen style and sent it an armored warhead. 3 AIP for this? I'll fall back and resort to it if they let me no choice. Also, I don't have the metal for the ArmoredWH yet.
01:13:03
Oh, Ice too is sending a H/K. Sweet! I wondered if luring Fire's one with the raiders while the bombers finish the fortress, but now I doubt.
01:16:28
A-prime is neutered, excluding a SSSphere. The twin H/K were so focused on the raiders it was easy to let the bombers achieve the fortress. Now everyone is in friendly space and the H/K stoped (difficulty 7/7, such a great idea).
Well, immediate plan is to go neuter the RingII bridge end and wait for enough metal for a warhead. On the paper, a MkI ArmoredWH is able to take down two H/K at once. Let's suppose it'll do it on the field.
01:17:54
An impressive amount of disassemblers came dancing around the furthest wormhole and followed the H/K in the fog of war. Just to let me know that my little H/K waltz wasn't meant to last long. Dully noted. Plan is to wait for AT LEAST one armored WH.
How is that possible. I hope I wouldn't have to send a pair of warheads each hour because it would cost me much more than the planned auto AIP. Maybe a full SF guardposts hunting is going to be planned. I just discovered an AdvSsConstructor and checked the K-price for the MkIII raid SShips.
However, the ASC is on the extern ring, 3 hops past the A-prime I'm trying to get and 1 hop after a second A-prime. With no bridge to RingII there, it would be easy to defend this territory, but with every planets MkIII on the road and MkIV for the ASC, it'll be a hard trip. Maybe I'll take this adjacent A-prime, dig a bit in the rings, and come back to this when I'll have more Knowledge and Metal.

1:34:17
Nomad 2 received a space dock with loop order on scout II. A good piece of the west of RingII and RingIII are under scouting range. Data is being processed... please wait.
The other side of the bridge is almost neutered.
Adjacent A-prime is gate-raided because my planet adjacent to it is also the friendly side of the bridge, so now I've only one wormhole to fortify.
Starship bait is too easy: a MkIII siege SShip was threatening my three raiders; I separated them, spoted the one the siege was targeting, sent it to the edge of the planet and the two others were peacefully killing the missile guard posts. I bet there is something to improvements on the AI to deny such micro.
I hope the SF is on the other side of the ring, because I just launched the 10 minutes RRedirection hacking. I now have enough for an armored WH.
My raiders are stirring the AI on the RingII in the hope of luring the SF to go after them; while I control one side of the nearest RingI-RingII bridge, FS woun't be able to go after these two targets.

1:38:41
Hack has still 5:30 to go. Disassembler armada (8 MkI, 8 MkIII) is bursting on A-prime. I was shorter than expected on metal and was unable to prepare a warhead. Plan is to fallback, let the hacker go alone under the cloak, and hope for no tachyon reprisal.

1:40:07
Sent scouts MkI one hop after A-prime. The twin H/K crossed the wormhole back and forth and cross pathes with 11 riot control starships on their way back. Invisible hacking response is packing on A-prime. Plan is to come back for them once SF are enough away.

1:40:55
F! Tachyon radiation hit five seconds ago. EtherJets were unable to grab the offending fleet fast enough. Plan is to try again with a true warhead, this time.

1:44:06
Nomad wormholes just changed. New scouted areas available.
Guess what's after the MkIV with the ASC? a MkIII world with a DGLair.
However, 5 Data Centers are in 3 hops at worst from Nomad 2. The raiders made the trip from home to Nomad 2 and are ready for a little AIP hammering.
Insignifiant waves hit my backwater world. I made some reinforcing but my energy balance now displays 0.
Maybe I'll take the other side of the bridge. It's clear from alarms and one step toward the core. At least SF are way too far from it to defend it.

1:45:17
The bridge side on RingII is now neutral. On the destruction of the OCStation, the AI droped a "look behind you" as the whole hack response team invaded the friendly side of the bridge on RingI... by the undefended wormhole because of the gateraid. Silly me...
1:45:58
Vampire claws rushed the energy generator. FField is down, OCStation follow, I hear the shark roars and realize EtherJets are useless without energy. Great... At least, all wormholes at home are still fully armored.
1:46:34
My fleet crossed the bridge again and came helping the turrets on RingI. AI fleet tried to flee by the other wormhole, the defended one. Needless to say that none made it to RingII.
No shark wave? Oh, maybe I didn't turned it on, this time... So bad...
1:47:35
17 (hand-counted) missile guardians are chasing the DataCenters' raiders. My multitasking is proving good enough to outmaster the SF one. They outweight me in sheer firepower, but... it feels good to know you're not behind your opponent on every topic.
1:48:18
Arh! Ice just hit the just rebuilt station on RingI bridge; energy was back but the FField wasn't rebuilt yet. Teleporters let no chance to it. The total fight lasted less than 30 seconds, but already the target is down and the offending fleet is ashes. Damn'it! With no energy my back is exposed (no FF, no tractor turrets) and the waves already targeting it are about to dig my energy dept deeper!
Okay, maybe the AI isn't that bad at multitasking either.
With again 100 and so seconds before rebuilding, I'd better build 3 metal converters at home. The warhead building isn't ordered yet and I still have 1,000,000 metal waiting. So be it: energy for defense instead of metal for H/K twins.
1:49:00
Oh, the raiders are immune to the guardians' missiles. They finished their mission untouched (almost).
Total AIP: 109
AIP Reduction: 100
AIP Floor: 21
At least there is something good.
1:49:45
The H/K twins are passing by RingII-bridge. They are 5 planets ahead of the missile guardians (which are the slower of the SF, if I remember correctly)... but moving toward them. I try to plot their path but found no logic. Maybe they try to put an end to my raids, but it's done. I just have to get my starships back home by RingI, or they'll cross the twin's path. Anyway, I dully note their current position and direction for latter use.
1:50:20
Oh! Guess what: the twins just changed their route and are now heading toward RingI-bridge. Plan is to let the now-powered back handle the last little wave and get everything back on RingI that just finished rebuild.
I'm very very near the armored WH. I'll launch its construction and see...
Arh! Energy won't do it. I'll need one more metal converter... Okay for one more metal converter. Go-go-go!
O.o?!? 28 Engi MkII are poping an armored WH in... more than 2 minutes?!? We're doomed.
1:50:44
Ice H/K entered RingI. I repeat: H/K on RingI!
1:50:53
Fleet stand back! I said stand back!!
They are heading toward the AI side of RingI, away from home. Keep your distances with intruders.
FField, tractors and lightning didn't standed more that a handful of seconds. So much for turrets. At least the fleet is safe.
1:51:27
H/K twins passing by...
Fire and Ice fleets hit one after the other. MkIII and IV on the field. OCStation assasinated by some stray infiltrators. Maybe it's time to rebuild it as a military OCS.
1:53:06
Back is holding nice, thanks to the metal converters.
Disassembler fleet came after the twins and riot. They were scapegoat'ed and only 6 made it to the other wormhole.
The warhead is 20 seconds from completion but metal is now failing. Plan is to cancel it and wait for brighter days.
WHAT? I didn't get my metal back? IIRC, when I cancel a half-built starship, I get back all (I think) my metal. However, when I re-order an armored warhead construction, it starts at 20 seconds remaining (counting engineers). Well, so much for W.M.D. canceling.Three riot starships were late. None survived. I felt a bit guilty to bully the latecomers, but when I remember the twins passage, I don't any more.

2:00:00
Bridge fully captured. Energy back in positif; converters shut down.
One DNode was cracked open for helping rebuilding.
HaP: 61
AIP: 11 (floor 22)
Knowledge: 8,750 (+3,000 unclaimed).
Empire: 5 planets are under control (1 home, 1 nomad plus 3 other), 3 on RingI and 1 on RingII. BridgeI-II fully controlled. 11 hops from core.
Unlocks: unchanged.
Threat low but present. Only two planets under AI warp coverage: Back and RingII-bridge.

(http://gardn.fr/aiw_aar/CoreDive_02-00-00.png)
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 02, 2015, 06:49:01 AM
2:16:00
Raiders were neutering missile guard posts on RingIII near the bridges to the core. They were back home for some repairs when the twins came in the system they were hammering since roughly a quarter of an hour.
Plan is to start again the redirection hack on RingI and hope it will be complete by the time they get around the galaxy. Just in case, the armored warhead is ready, now.
However, with the hacker built a only the three raiders II, the two enclaves and one heavy bomber online, I'm left with only 208 energy! (Damn, the warhead use 50,000!)

2:23:31
Hacking has 3:30 to go.
10 marauders joined the hacking party. Tactical retreat was ordered to let the AI tank them.
Reprisal waves on the bridge are slowly increasing. Nothing overwhelming due to low AIP, but while I lack energy, there is not enough turrets to let me safely ignoring it. However, a bunch of missile-imune vampires just warped in. Troubles incoming.
Also, a bunch of disassemblers are currently under my fleet's fire. The twins were too far earlier but I expect some riot soon.
I dispatched my raiders from the hack to go after the vampires. If the power generator falls, we would be in great trouble.
2:23:48
Damn! Vampires are fast! Maybe I should consider them better next time I find some in an ARS. So much for energy. Luckily, my metal is good enough to stand some conversion.
2:25:24
Vampires are gone, power generator is back online, metal converters were deactivated but one.
Reprisal and regular waves are planed to hit the bridge just before the hack ends.
Emergency turrets are ordered on the bridge, thanks to the remaining metal converter. I hope it will be enough to hold the waves until the hack completes and frees my fleet.
Cheering up for Pablo Vegas: the music perfectly fits the fight!
RingI and RingII are entirely scouted, thanks to Nomad 2 roaming along them. Good news: nothing of interest past the ASC; I won't need to sprawl to the other side of the galaxy. Bad news: only two CoProcessors have been scouted so far.
2:26:12
What the hell?!? The twins are here!!!
Fall back! Load the warhead!
2:27:42
Twins are ashes!
Hacking is complete!
I delayed the warhead as much as I can to get the most ships under its impact zone. The twins, obviously, but I managed to get also all the final hacking response and half the riot starships. However, I'm left with barely no fleet, 11 riots and 17 missile guardians. And a big reprisal warning.
Oh, and one reprisal wave was able to target my home. Maybe a warpgate guardian. Never mind, it's defended enough.
Remaining metal converter supporting the warhead is set off. Little warhead ordered.
2:29:24
Total Special Forces escaping: 8 RiotCS and 18 MissileG.
Home reprisal warped at the edge of the planetary area. Decloaker is ordered. Fleet on its way back. (The fleet get rebuilt pretty fast; I've got enough metal to support a MkI fleet.)

2:30:56
Home wave was full of raptors and one siege starship. Easily handled, thanks to the decloaker.
Some more disassemblers were coming late to see what's going on; at least 7 of them. Noted on the SF intel.
However, the Fire just spawned a ZBombard Design Backup on the A-prime I just hacked. Are we out again? With 20 HaP for the first corruption, it's a yes. So sad I can't afford to download them.
Two flagships added, heavy bomber not rebuilt. Energy balance at 8. (Yap, one digit energy balance.)

2:35:54
Hacking triggered. I doubted because EtherJet somewhat counters ZBombard, but I let it go. After all, this is a hacking-themed game.
The decloaker joined us. It wasn't intended but I'm glad to have it in my blob.

2:38:27
Marauders backstabed the enclaves while I was microing the EtherJets: going forward while power-down and (moslty) cloaked, then powering up, grabbing everything from Fire's OCStation to my blob, ZBombard and other alike; then redo.
Decloaker took down. Ordered a new one.
Tiny waves hitting my fortified back. Never mind.

2:40:25
ZBombard corrupted.
Nomad 4 (IV; parasite eye) in range of Back.
Reprisal 2 trigger on back.
RingIII fully scouted: only interest is the Eye bot Backup, very lightly defended but has a DGLair and is adjacent to an Interplanetary MBooster on a side and a MkIV world on the other side. Good news: no eye there.
There is a core Spire SShip near, also. We'll see.
Oh, and Ice has infiltrators. I seems that each AI stores its own Backups on its own planets. I see Ice's infiltrator DBUp but not Fire"s one.
However, one hop after A-prime there is an Alarm under a bunkerer's Translocator OCStation. I'll need to unlock raiders MkIII to take it down before I can take over that damn twice-hacked A-prime.

2:42:33
Done. Cloaked Raid MkIII one-shoted the alarm without triggering it and was instantly pulled back.
A-prime took over and CSG destroyed.
ARS captured. I still hesitate between TLeech and PWlaver.
Uhoh... Special Force doesn't want to let this act unpunished. It looks like I stored the little warhead a bit early!

2:43:37
FField MkII midlife after only some hit of the missile guardians. These guys are to be underestimated under no circumstance.
The warhead was unter said FField but wasn't useful, finally.
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Red.Queen May 03, 2015, 06:19:26 AM
<rubs hands gleefully while looking over the insanity>

Took Spire Battleships.

Had a feeling that was the most logical choice for bonus in this scenario.

Plan is to use a lot of missile frigates (defended by some fighters) because the cloaked ships are mostly vulnerables to missiles.

Interesting, I never noticed that!  This AAR is already educational.

Anyway, EtherJet downloaded. If it wasn't on my mission list, I wouldn't have downloaded them, rather corrupted. "Pushing me out of my tracks": check!

My mission is accomplished then!  :D

Metal is still low, but I'm using the missile-immune Raid SShip to get rid of the MkIII missile guard posts (the Ions are already down) before the hack. It is doing wonders and I ordered the building of the two remaining.

Mk.II is a *huge* jump over Mk.I, possibly one of the biggest jumps in quality between tiers of anything I've seen.

Hunter/Killer unexpectedly spawning there: check. What?!?
Yap. I have only MkI fleet and barely no starship support (just the raiders, the two bombers and the two cheap-but-awesome enclaves) and I have a H/K denying my neutering. It is alone (a handful of riot control was busted earlier), but the whole balance just changed from "everything under control" to "we're doooomed" in a blink.

<cheers wildly while waving a little flag that says "Go H/k!">

These sudden reversals are one reason I love this game.

What to do? Fallback, wait for it to leave and go back to business? I may neuter the other side of the ring-bridge, but this A-prime planet was my very first target. Or go Red.Queen style and sent it an armored warhead.

 8)  When is it the right time for an Armored warhead?  Trick question, it is always the right time.  Same for nukes.

3 AIP for this? I'll fall back and resort to it if they let me no choice. Also, I don't have the metal for the ArmoredWH yet.

Drat!

An impressive amount of disassemblers came dancing around the furthest wormhole and followed the H/K in the fog of war. Just to let me know that my little H/K waltz wasn't meant to last long. Dully noted. Plan is to wait for AT LEAST one armored WH.
How is that possible. I hope I wouldn't have to send a pair of warheads each hour because it would cost me much more than the planned auto AIP.

Everything will be fiiiiine... Let those missiles fly, nothing will go wrong -- I promise...

Maybe a full SF guardposts hunting is going to be planned. I just discovered an AdvSsConstructor and checked the K-price for the MkIII raid SShips.

Nope, that won't save you from the Hunter plot.  The SF still gets comically huge.  Watch out for the Missile guardians, they do insane damage!

I hope the SF is on the other side of the ring, because I just launched the 10 minutes RRedirection hacking. I now have enough for an armored WH.

H/K1:  "Hey I just remembered I need to be somewhere RIGHT NOW."
H/K2:  "Me too!"

I was shorter than expected on metal and was unable to prepare a warhead.

<snaps fingers>  Drat x2!

F! Tachyon radiation hit five seconds ago. EtherJets were unable to grab the offending fleet fast enough. Plan is to try again with a true warhead, this time.

<giggle>

The bridge side on RingII is now neutral. On the destruction of the OCStation, the AI droped a "look behind you" as the whole hack response team invaded the friendly side of the bridge on RingI... by the undefended wormhole because of the gateraid. Silly me...
1:45:58
Vampire claws rushed the energy generator. FField is down, OCStation follow, I hear the shark roars and realize EtherJets are useless without energy. Great... At least, all

<more giggling>

17 (hand-counted) missile guardians are chasing the DataCenters' raiders. My multitasking is proving good enough to outmaster the SF one. They outweight me in sheer firepower, but... it feels good to know you're not behind your opponent on every topic.

<cue Benny Hill theme>  I know how you can solve a nice big blob of Missile guardians... Only 1 little itsy bitsy wafer-thin AIP point...

Okay, maybe the AI isn't that bad at multitasking either.

They've invested in multicore processors.  ;)

O.o?!? 28 Engi MkII are poping an armored WH in... more than 2 minutes?!? We're doomed.

<eats popcorn>

Ice H/K entered RingI. I repeat: H/K on RingI!

<excitement>

H/K twins passing by...

They just wanted to have a fleet parade.

The warhead is 20 seconds from completion but metal is now failing. Plan is to cancel it and wait for brighter days.
WHAT? I didn't get my metal back? IIRC, when I cancel a half-built starship, I get back all (I think) my metal. However, when I re-order an armored warhead construction, it starts at 20 seconds remaining (counting engineers). Well, so much for W.M.D. canceling.

Yup, I ran into that too in AS:II.  I was livid.

However, with the hacker built a only the three raiders II, the two enclaves and one heavy bomber online, I'm left with only 208 energy! (Damn, the warhead use 50,000!)

Now you see why I always run such a big buffer of metal and energy in my games.  :)  I like always being able to pull a warhead or three out of my hat at a moment's notice.

What the hell?!? The twins are here!!!
Fall back! Load the warhead!
2:27:42
Twins are ashes!

<cheer!>

However, the Fire just spawned a ZBombard Design Backup on the A-prime I just hacked. Are we out again? With 20 HaP for the first corruption, it's a yes. So sad I can't afford to download them.

I hate those things with a passion when the AI has them, they are inordinately dangerous unless you scare them with a few turrets on the backside of the wormhole to force them towards your main defensive line.  They are on my instant-corrupt list when they unlock.

Energy balance at 8. (Yap, one digit energy balance.)

LOL!

FField MkII midlife after only some hit of the missile guardians. These guys are to be underestimated under no circumstance.

Yup, they do astronomical damage.  I think the lower tier does something like 10,000 damage and it goes way up from there.  I found they were easily as dangerous as the H/Ks, the only upsides were they are lower health so regular Lightning warheads are fine to use on them, and they can be nuked.

Keep it up!  :D
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 04, 2015, 12:15:51 PM
I knew the H/K roaming would please you, R.Q ;)

Recently reopened that game but had to almost immediately close it because something came up, however I thought the tachyon turret line lacks a MkIII member (it's the only one to have a column of only two members on the build screen). I imagined it with a very large tachyon coverage but with a very low cap, like HBC or fortresses, something to put on a home or chokepoint planet. As it was a simple and precise idea, I directly posted it on mantis (http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=16500).

Anyway, this stealth-themed game is very entertaining. A bit low because of the MkIII/IV worlds line and few metal, but I'm not uncomfortable with that kind of slow game. Yeah, not very outa my tracks for a (s)low AIP player like me, but the teleport/stealth and fire/ice setup (+nomad +alarms +hack) is really disturbing (read " !!disturbing!! ").

Next hotnotes incoming soon!
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Red.Queen May 04, 2015, 03:08:43 PM
I knew the H/K roaming would please you, R.Q ;)

 >D

Recently reopened that game but had to almost immediately close it because something came up, however I thought the tachyon turret line lacks a MkIII member (it's the only one to have a column of only two members on the build screen). I imagined it with a very large tachyon coverage but with a very low cap, like HBC or fortresses, something to put on a home or chokepoint planet. As it was a simple and precise idea, I directly posted it on mantis (http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=16500).

It is kind of weird it stops at Mk.II.  Sounds like a Mk.III would pair nicely with a Logistics station if you were going with those instead of Military and were willing to pay the extra K for the Tach turrets.

Anyway, this stealth-themed game is very entertaining. A bit low because of the MkIII/IV worlds line and few metal, but I'm not uncomfortable with that kind of slow game. Yeah, not very outa my tracks for a (s)low AIP player like me, but the teleport/stealth and fire/ice setup (+nomad +alarms +hack) is really disturbing (read " !!disturbing!! ").

<g>  But everything is so peaceful and quiet, just look around, do you SEE any enemies?  No!  ;)

I expect you'll be jolted off your low-AIP tracks soon, after all, you'll be needing more HAP soon... Unless you plan on trying to brute-force hack?  >D

Next hotnotes incoming soon!

<eat popcorn>
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 04, 2015, 09:15:40 PM
Hotnotes

3:00:00
First A-prime down. Everything is quite.
HaP: 31
AIP: 36
Knowledge: 12,250
Empire: 6 planets (1 home, 1 nomad plus 4 other), 4 on RingI and 1 on RingII.
Unlocks: Raid Starship MkIII and older.
Economy a bit low; one metal converter online, not every starship MkI built, many turrets MkI on many planets.
Plan is to get Nomad 4 which is now adjacent to my territory. Raid SShips already did a great job; two Needlers (IV) and one SSSphere GPosts protecting a parasite eye.
Then continue capturing planets on RingI, spining clockwise; first of them is an Ice's bunkerer with a ZEBomber DBU which will be ignored, unfortunately; then a Fire's A-prime with a Vampire DBU that WILL be downloaded for 75 HaP that I plan to have by the time (with one more Alarm destroyed after the ASC world); and then the ASC world itself, maybe involving a DGLair epic battle.
Then capturing this A-prime on RingIV would be the first step toward an archipelago empire; I hope I'll find interesting stuff after this planet, under the scout-fog, near the A/A' bridges. More tachyon raid would be required because I think Nomad 2 won't dive to the core soon.

3:09:58
Sniper-beachhead on Nomad 4 was effective at getting the needlers and the eye down, with help of the starships.
However, the MkIV barrack opening turned pretty bad: many starships went off and the intervention of the (vastly outmarked) fleet was required. Big reprisal waves are declared, but with the current AIP level and my heavy (albeit MkI) defense, I decided to ignore it.
The battle started to balance in my favor when 40 marauders decided to come and bully my weakened fleet.
Cherry on the cake: Nomad 4 is currently under an Alarm range; I'll need to wait for it to move deeper in my territory before taking over it, which is why I absolutely need to maintain this beachhead against the (sniper immune) marauders.
3:12:16
Marauders are now mostly destroyed but they wreaked tremendous havock in my fleet. Luckily it was quickly rebuilt but a siege starship in a reprisal managed to take down Back's OCStation, which is currently the only supplyer of the Nomad-4's beachhead, which is now offline. Metal converters were emergency-built, and luckily there is no more big threat on Nomad 4. (I hope the SForces aren't plotting anything tonight.)
Such a pitty, the reprisal wave is already ashes. I feel like there is something unfair at stake: my defenses were more than enough to hold this, and yet I'm heavily punished (energy brownout and unsupplied beachhead). It's not like if siege starships were a very special pain-plot that I enabled...

3:20:33
Nomad Planet Wormhole Links Have Changed.
Time to take over my second Nomad.
Also, a 157 ships CPA is massing, hitting in 7:30.

3:23:24
Low metal. Such a pain. I need a MkIII raider to take down this MkI ion canon under the Bunkerer heap of guard posts (gravity, sniper, missile, ...) and (OMG) 4 MkIII FFields to setup another beachhead (this beachheading is quite out of my tracks, good). But my metal deposit per planet is 12 (home), 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and 1. This is near 2.5 per planet, not counting home. Seeded average quantity of metal per planet is usually around 4, ranging from 1 to 7~8. I feel particularly unlucky. Moreover, I need to supply two WJammer OCStations. Believe me when I say one MkIII raider is a huge investment.
My turrets on Nomad 4 aren't all out and my metal is already grounded.

3:38:38
Raiders were sent neutering the second A-prime (let's call it A-second), one hop after the bunkerer. As there is almost only Missile and MLRS GPosts (and one counterattack... MkIII), the plasma eye won't be a problem.
However, the 4 MkIII FFields will take an eternity to break. I hesitate between unlocking sniper MkII or the translocation-immune Zenith/Spire SShips pair (SStealthBShip are also translocation-immune), or maybe go for a sabotage, however my HaP is quite precious in this long run of downloads. (Also, I'm growing convinced that downloading at least 5 DBUp is beyond possible in a normal game. We'll see where we'll be when download cost would be astronomically high...)

3:40:30
15 Dissassemblers bumped in A-second.
Raiders on the run (one Missile GPost and the Counterattack were left alive). Armored warhead loading (and its own metal converter setup). Fleet commited to defense at Ice's bunkerer.
I was thinking this fourth hour was too quite. SForces and PVegas are in the place to make it !!fun!!
3:42:26
Scout reports SForces are gone. Better let this warhead finish, just in case the devil would be more evil.
Fleet waiting on Ice's bunker; raiders sent back to work.
3:45:08
Oh, look like I was wront by a factor of 10 about warhead's cost. MkIII raid starship is 328,000 and armored MkI is 1,000,000. ><
(Attack/Health were divided recently... I feel like it would be nice to divide metal by 10 for the next expansion.)
Obviously, warhead construction was paused. SForces aren't showning up any more.
Anyway, Counterattack triggered (10 minutes, targeting home) and plasma eye vanished.
For the 4 FFields bunker, I'll save-try a cloaked lightning warhead MkI.
3:48:47
The lightning did it! While the FFields are still mostly unafected by it, everything under them but the (Translocator) OCStation, the WGate and the DBUp is metal dust. Now it's time to throw everything that is translocation-immune at it! Wait... Forget about the translocation-immune; throw everything!
3:52:09
Okay, maaaybe it wasn't the best idea I had in my life. But job's done! Mostly thanks to the raiders, but they needed something to divert the translocation shots. A 228 ships reprisal wave is perfectly lining up with the counterattack. If I was fighting a human, I would hardly suspect him of using some sort of bot.
CPA just vanished, if you were wondering. I don't know when, but I once saw a carrier roaming my frontier but when I bring my fleet to play with him, he silently walked away. Now my threat indicator is very low and I can't remember an unexpected wave somewhere. Maybe my heavy energy investment in turrets is worth something, after all.
The Home Counterwave is only 16 ships, albeit MkIII. I'll concentrate my fleet on the reprisal one and come for help if things go badly... Wait, if things go badly on my homeworld... Never mind. I'll concentrate my fleet on the reprisal and I'm sure nothing would go badly on my homeworld. (::) I bet I can do politic like this.)

4:00:00
One more nomad planet; one more step on RingI.
HaP: 74
AIP: 79
Knowledge: 17,250
Empire: 8 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 5 other), 5 on RingI and 1 on RingII.
Unlocks: Zenith Starship MkI, Spire starship MkI and older.
Things are going accordingly to the plan, however a bit slow, I think. Ah, too few metal (12,5,4,3,2,2,1,1 now, and A-second will also be 2).
Also, I feel I stash too many knowledge, but I lack the metal and energy to supply everything. I unlocked the Z/S starships because of some idea passing by, but I didn't built them yet. This K isn't wasted, but I really feel tight in this game. I hope I'll be able to scrap some turrets on RingI when I'll reach the ASC to save energy for my fleet, but metal will always be an issue. The plan is to go starship and micro enough to optimise metal spent per kill.

4:00:13
Planet wormhole changed. 2 is on RingI and RingII, away from unscouted territory. 4's wormholes are all connected to my territory.

4:02:27
Vampire download on A-second with 74 HaP in bank, needs 75. Raiders gone on the Ice's DGLair world after Fire's ASC to blow up an Alarm. Raiders MkII were sent to escort MkIII which was sent to oneshoot the alarm. The MkIII fortress took it down in one salvo: warning reprisal and alarm death-triggered (on a MkIII world). Great.
4:03:24
Beachhead building, my fleet torn apart by EtherJets, Fire send 300 ships reprisal, Ice still has a level 1 warning, economy already faceplanted by MkI rebuilding (oh, beachhead!), Ice's alarmed ships joining... Oh, and some marauders are attacking my world just behind A-second (reinforcememnts are handling them).
SForce detected on RingIII heading... Away from the hacked world? On no, wait, there is only one AI-controlled bridge between RingI and RingII, so I guess they are going the long way. Make me think that if I take that bridge (at least one half), SForce won't be able to reach RingI and if I hunt down every SForce GPost on RingI, it'll be out of SForce reach... unless they use a nomad as a bridge. Ah, if the planet behind Back would have been neutered and I have more economy for a bigger army, I would have sent them a nuke on their path... (Intel gathering... Sooo important... I'll do AAR for every game, even if I don't post them)
Anyway, SForces Intel Report: 20 Missile MkII, 9 Riot, 2 H/K (mind you) but no Disassemblers for now.
4:05:56
Downloader took down one minute before completion, hacked following. Overwhelming EtherJets and pivot Spire Starship MkIII. Let's rebuild and reconsider this hack. Beachhead is ashes.
4:06:54
250 chameleons (and some MkIII nastinesses) on my tractors, one hop next to A-second. Turrets are doing wonders but offender is overwhelming. 130 ship reprisal toward RingII's bridge end, 550 on Back. Economy abysmal: don't even think about lightning warhead. Fleet nearely empty (good, I have energy!).
4:07:19
OCStation down. Good thing the sharks are not there.
4:09:47
Back's defense is doing wonders... BUT THAT DAMN SIEGE STARSHIP KEEPS KILLING THE OCSTATION IN TWO SHOTS!!! THIS IS UNFAAAAAIR!!!
80 HRFighters spawning on Back. RingII attack is ashes (but the damn missile-immule leech). 100 Chameleons and the MkIII Zenith SShip (22%) hammering my furthest world below A-second. Economy unable to keep up.
4:12:54
AAAAAAAAAAAH! THIS DAMN ZENITH SSHIP REFUSE TO DIE!!!
The HRFighters are loose and some decided get this far-end world back now. I sacrificed my half-fleet to suport them: the chameleons were already badly damaged and were quickly achieved, but the MkIII SStealth BShip are tough and THE ZENITH SSHIP IS 3% OMG KILL IT NOW!!! And the HRFighters continue to suicide one by one on it while tring to scratch the SStealth BShips. ><
4:14:14
Zenith SShip finally down, but HRFighters continue to suicide on SStealth BShips. I sent my pathetic fleet at them (maybe 20 units) and... oh, they are not immune to tractor beams... Come to my unscratched world one step behind, I'LL MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR ALL THE METAL YOU ARE COSTING ME!!!
4:16:00
Economy still below zero. I have no starship and barely 40 fleetships. I feel the game isn't giving me the weapon to fight it. No: I feel the game isn't giving the very basic tools to even play! I have more knowledge than I can spend, I have enough energy to support every single planet with full cap of all MkI turrets (I'm lacking energy for fleet but its a choice) but I'm lacking the very minimum metal to play! It's not the first time: I trully feel the earlygame economy is unbalanced. It's not a question of difficulty: it's a question of "I feel unable to PLAY"! And it's UNFUN!
(Sorry to rage, I'll calm down, but I'm sincere. It's not difficult, it unfun.)
Two 50 ship regular waves hit RingII bridge one after the other, but it's a breeze. FField isn't even scratched.
4:18:30
Sloooooooow rebuilding. And that damn stupid RRebuilder going back and forth between snipers and forward turrets. I should be having an epic hacking fight with the AI, and instead I'm looking at that morron.

4:22:31
16 Disassemblers spoted on the AI's RingI-RingII bridge, going toward RingII. Seems like the SForce abandoned the counterhack dutty.

4:24:32
"Fleet" rebuilt, 0 metal. Well, 5 caps of MkI ships (and no starship) that are barely able to hold the enemy for more than one minute. Call that a fleet if you want. I can't wait for the starships. I don't want to wait for the starships! Salvage is supposed to solve that "unfun waiting during rebuilding". Guess what? It's not.

4:30:25
ARS on A-second contains NYWeasel, Infiltrator and TackleDL. Know what? I'll redirect it to spare the latter expensive infiltrator download.
But what I need now is metal. More metal. I'll go for a tachyon carving and aim to take something near the distant RingIV A-prime to begin my archipelago empire. But wana know what? I'll need metal for the raiders!

4:35:03
Two MkII raiders are ready to launch for tachyon carving. (10 minutes for being able to play again.)

4:38:51
Tachyon rampage turned short: after one world, there is a OMDriver + Eye combo on Ice planet, just adjacent to RingIII A-prime.
SForces apeared on RingIII going counterclockwise toward RingII and maybe RingI. 2 H/K, 16 Disassemblers, 15 Riots, 20 Missiles. Is there a point in killing them? They seems to spawn as soon as down to reach a fixed amount.
Changing my mind about immediate capture, I wonder if I won't take over Bridges II-A and II-B: there is 3 core constructors and 7,7,6,6,5,1 metal deposits, and it would let only one bridge between RingII and RingIII for AI not that far... Maybe I'll won't play as stealth as planned. Being bullied like earlier makes me want to take revenge. I wouldn't go archipelago and low-AIP, but rather fully connected territory and high AIP. Moreover, taking bridges and cutting route to SForces would be my pleasure.
However, there is a CoProc on RingII and I want to find the other. So tachyon carving first. <sigh>

4:40:46
Twinws passing by the bridge after Back, still spining counterclockwise.
While looking at the tachyon carving possibilities, I realized that the OMDriver is on a wormhole, and if my raiders manage to get to it from RingIV and counterclockwise, they would warp on the OMD and eventually blow it up with not too much damages. While this is doable by taking Bridge III-B, it would a long road and considered a deepstrike. But now there is Nomad 1 making a shorter route. It also would be the ocasion of getting rid of the SForces GPost and Tachyon Sentinels on Nomad 1. Let's do this. The (lonely) raider MkIII just joined up the team.
Little update: 23 missile for the SForces.

4:44:25
OMD down! MkIII and one MkII sacrified, Ice reprisal level 2, Strategic Reserve deployed (Oh, I didn't told you? This bridge-end has the Superterminal!). Note to self: the eye is a translocator one; not the worst (albeit still bad as an eye).
So bad, I just have the metal for a second MkIII raider, and it would just be a rebuilding...

4:47:37
Strange: threatfleet follow the same path as SForces. I tried to intercept some Bridge II-A but find some StdFighters ahead on the bridge after Back.
Ice's reprisal is less than 200 ships: no problem.

4:48:50
Raiders neutering a Missile GPost while some Disassemblers came, going clockwise.

4:49:24
Marauders attacking Bridge II-B, waking some threat.
16 Disassemblers on same world, still spinning clockwise.
4:51:00
I love bullying AI when they are down. Marauders are down: my fleet enter the ring.
4:52:01
The twins enter the Bridge II-B ring too. Time to get out, but the bullying was paying.
The four raiders and the two heavy bombers are assaulting the fortress after Back. The bombers blew up two Missile Guardians and the MLRS GPost under the fortress but 200 bombers handled them. Red announce reprisal 1 but the trade seems ok to me. I'll bring my firgates next time. Let see how 2x cap and Mk+1 is weak against the matching triangle ship.
(Haha, enclave drones scratched the paint of the twins!)
4:55:12
Okay, 3 MkII leeches were more than enough to make the balance change. Also, many EtherJets were anoying but not very dangerous. Anyway, the 200 bombers are now 190, and there is 90 MkI firgates, but they provided a very efficient distraction: the heavy bombers were alone on the fortress... Until the Disassemblers came in. Fortress is 80% but I better move now; fortunately bombers are faster than the disassemblers.
4:55:49
Agh! Not fast enough. Turning around the wormhole, trying to lure the disassemblers away and manage an oppening, some HRFighters came suicide here and the disassemblers were going toward the wormhole.
4:59:10
One MkII Raider down, both bombers down again; Fortress 50%.

5:00:00
No progress in one hour. Not even on the scouting table. Bad hour. Very very bad hour.

5:00:39
Threat cleaning mission nearly turned to nightmare when 50 EterJets uncloaked and took my fleet away. Thankthfully, there weren't many more than my former frigates and some SStealth BShips.

5:04:37
Fortress after Back: busted. Mission accomplished.Double border aggression on BridgeI. My fleet was engaged with a regular wave on Back, but (1) the wase was easy enough for my turrets to handle it alone and (2) I doubt the combined little threatfleets would be able to overwhelm my turrets on BridgeI. Let see how they do if I hold my fleet back?
Arh! Two eyebots were enough to take the OCStation down under the MkII FField. >< Energy borwnout.
5:06:47
Two metal converters built; fleet warped in. Two MkII starleeches fled but were pursued and killed. Damn, even MkII and overwhelmed, they managed to take me some ships. Why my starleeches are never that good... Maybe I should unlock some high mark.
What did we learned so far? Eco OCStations on frontier sucks, but I can't afford to lose their energy and metal. Starleeches are great: unlock higher mark more often. Take more territory and more metal: you need it, badly. It's late, you're exhausted: you should go to bed... I'll post this before, it won't be too long.
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 05, 2015, 06:55:04 PM
5:18:40
The raiders were sent for some tachyon carving, just to the edge of the deepstrike threshold. Scouts were sent in the carved path and located a Spire Archived (with a DGLair) and a core world (with a DGLair too); one home is suspected to be on the far side of RingV.
Nomad4, spining clockwise, was in AI territory and is currently under Fire&Ice attack; I suspect threat from tachyon carving, because there is too few threatfleet near BridgeI. Turrets did their job and foes are fleeing Nomad4.

5:21:32
A threat cleaning after BridgeI turned short when the twins warped in. A barracks was poped earlied and its content is now mostly ashes; the twins just forced me to back a bit earlier (thankthfully their range is pretty short).
3 DataCenters and 3 CoProcessors are in scout range, but deeper than deepstrike range. Maybe I'll afford the deepstrike cost for some AIP reduction (86 is quite high for me, mind you ;)).
Oh, and the 6 MkII/MkIII raiders are online. My metal is still low but I plan on building the Z/S starships I unlocked (very) earlier.

5:24:07
Raid on Superterminal planet -> Strategic Reserve deployed -> note to self: there is Powerslaver and Spider Bots in the Reserve!

5:27:34
One raider MkIII was busted by a fortress on a wormhole, but the tachyon sentinel was blown. New scouting options available.

5:31:06
16 Dissassemblers, 20 Missile and 2 H/K in SForces; no data on Missile and Riot.

5:34:51
Ice home detected on expected far side of RingV.

5:39:10
The RingI end of the remote BridgeI is now under human control. RingI is now entirely cut from the rest of the galaxy. Time to hunt down SForce GPosts on RingI. "Back" now designate this planet.
There is two DBUp adjacent to this new Back: Autocanon on RingI that I must download and SStealth BShip on RingII that I must corrupt. I don't plan on doing that now but I would be able to beachhead-hack them later.
5:39:30
Disassemblers warped in. Hard times coming.
5:40:02
13 Disassemblers, 20 Missile, 25 Riot, 2 H/K.
6 Starships swallowed (Zenith and Spire are safe) and no frigate made it to former Back.
Needless to say, the new Back is now ashes. I can't afford 1,000,000 metal for a 2 MDeposit planet.
I thought taking a planet fast enough would prevent SForces from attacking it. WRONG.
5:41:29
SForces near BridgeII-B, spinning counterclockwise, away from Back. I would love to fast-rebuild Back but my metal faceplanted again.
One Resistance F/B just suicided on Back's ashes. There is only one left.

5:43:52
Starships digested, triggering reprisal level 2: 300 ships within 3 minutes.
Raiders sent to clean threat on Back.
5:48:04
The reprisal was 300 vampires. They passed through tractors and FField, scratched the paint of the OCStation and the ECollector, then flew. Is this a very-clever-AI-strategy? Making me thing it's dumb to better kill me latter? Then 40 marauders spawned, letting me know that human brain is better at recognizing bulling oportunities.
5:49:19
AI wave warp in: 150 EtherJet were insta-ashed by the MkI lightning turrets.
Let humans handle human problems, AI!
5:50:23
50,000 metal in bank and fleet rebuilt (but the starships; I just have the survived Z/S twins). And... MARAUDERS DON'T COUNT AS SCRAP!!!
Damn! This game is arid and give me nothing to fight it! Fast-rebuilding isn't for today (and WMD-busting the twins isn't for tomorrow neither).

5:52:34
Fast-rebuilding with 100,000 metal on Back.
Also, OCStations were switched to military (from economic) on BridgeI and near A-second.

6:00:00
One more planet, many carving.
HaP: 103
AIP: 108 (floor 41)
Knowledge: 17,250 (+3,000 available)
Empire: 9 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 6 others), 6 on RingI and 1 on RingII.
Unlocks: nothing new.
4 Hacking missions are adjacent to controlled planets:
- Research Redirerection for Inflitrator on A-second (will cost 52.5);
- Design Download for Vampire on A-second (will cost 75);
- Design Download for Autocanon after Back on RingI (will cost 112.5);
- Design Corruption for SStealth BShip after Back on RingII (will cost 30).
Total for adjacent hacking missions: 260.
AIP Reducers scouted: 3 CoProcessors, 3 DataCenters, 1 SuperTerminal.
Total metal deposits available: 32.
10 Planets unscouted (2 cores, 1 home, 7 others).

6:00:55
Raiders are deepstriking. Technically they're not, because Nomad4 is on the far side of RingI and RingII.
Two MkII are busted, one MkIII is back home with 8% health. 4 planets on RingI has been carved out from tachyon, SForce GPosts, and mostly neutered.

6:07:38
No more tachyon sentinel on RingI.
No more SForce GPost on RingI.

6:12:23
Lot of threat (no doubt due to the deepstrike) is attacking Nomad4. Let see how turrets MkI handle this 1,500 strength invasion.
Vampire claws assinated the EGenerator (the tachyon coverage on this planet is rather poor because of the moving nature of the wormholes).
Crap! Two heavy bombers MkII were enough to take down the FField MkI.
No more power supply on Nomad4. Turrets frozen with 1,100 strength remaining. I'm sure they could have coped with them if the OCStation has been covered by a MkII FField. However, I'm short on MkII FF; maybe I should unlock the MkIII? However, there is some planets that are now backwater: I can scrap some FF and put them on the nomads.

6:19:02
Threat cleaning party ended badly. Only the SShips made it to friendly space. Guess what's worst than EtherJets? Tractor Guardians!
Fire anounce a riprisal level 2 and drop below zero. However, I'm left with only half the fighters, half the bombers and some SStealth BShips to rebuild (the rest has been paid by my thin metal buffer).

6:24:29
Reprisal is scrap being salvaged, by now.
Also, the wreaked Nomad4 is used by AI as a bridge between RingI and RingII, however I see nothing scary by now. I need to rebuild and fortify it before I go back to hacking stuff on RingI. The fortresses would have been an option if their metal cost wasn't that high.
I figured out that there is a tachyon-free path to the planet with a CSG A-prime on RingIV; I sent a stealth lab to see what's in the ARS: Anti-Armor, NScapegoat and ZSiegeEngine. I think to remember that Anti-Armor are depreciated by most players...

6:28:09
Wohoo! Backstab! I was cleaning threat counterclockwise from RingII's bridge when threat attacked from clockwise from RingII's bridge. However, they're already fleeing; the military OCStation was useful.
Hey! Also one little backstab on Back.

6:28:32
CPA (the first? Yes, the first... Diff 7/7 was a bit shy, I admit it) declared. 472 ships within 13 minutes.

6:32:48
Alarm death-trigger two hops after RingII beachheading planet.
6:33:13
AI OCStation raid-sniped, alongside with a CoProc, one hop after RingII beachhead. 16 Disassemblers cross the way with the swallow-immune raiders. The twins are just some seconds behind.
6:36:18
This time SForces didn't came to stop the takingover. They are currently near Back's bridge.

(OMG there were two Alarms on Ice's adjacent planet! Well... I'll destroy it after and we'll say I didn't triggered, right? You know, related to the achievement and the 50% death-trigger chance...)

6:41:31
248 MkII ships freed in CPA. 224 MkI ships added from SReserve.
A carrier carrying 225 just spawned on RingII, adjacent to me. Let's go!
Hey?!? Did I see red TeleLeeches?
Hey! 80 ships dragged under my turrets by the EtherJets! Looks like I'm getting used to them.
Ouch, 24 Riot bapping by. Better stay off their way and watch out the twins!
30 SStealth BShips MkII >< They are supposed to be capped at 5. Ouch. The total cap a human player can have is 20 (MkI-IV, not counting V).
Oh, and 40 Marauders jumped in the fight. I'd better let them deal with the AI (and the AI deal with them): Fall back!!!
Some seconds latter, there is no more Marauders, and the SStealth BShips are 22; still a lot.
Also, 12 more Riot and 20 Missile are passing by...
My economy faceplant on fleet rebuilding again... I'm getting used to it too. At least, no starship was lost.

6:47:00
AI OCStation blown up past Bridge II-B. My metal isn't yet up to handle its fast-capture, but this part of the plan is done.
Also, while I now have more metal deposits (7 already and 5 on the very recently freed planet), I'll unlock the Harversters MkII. It's 4,000 K but this game is going to be Knowledge-intensive and I can't spend it elsewhere while my metal eco is so low.
6:47:28
The twins are there (plus 16 Disassemblers and 38 Riots); they made it fast! Raiders on the run, caught in the act.
6:48:14
A 247 Carrier is on the other side of the sector, near Bridge II-A.
6:49:54
Ready for the EtherJet trick. And yes, Fire got TeleLeeches, TeleRaiders, TeleBStations, and Ice's LGatlings. However, there is blue MFrigates and ZEBomber in the carrier. Strange.
6:50:49
Ouch. Not enough EtherJets. And they are way too fragiles for this job. Yeah, I know, that's why Spire Tractor Platforms were invented, but they lack EtherJet's speed.
75% Fleetwhipe. Luckily my metal buffer is (mostly) ready to handle this. But threat is still overwhelming on the other side of the wormhole...

6:54:40
Threatfleet split itself: a big part is waiting near Back's bridge, and a little part stayed near Bridge II-A.
The far end of Bridge II-B has been fast-built (and a core Impulse Reaction Emitter fab has been captured). My eco is lifting off! With the new harvesters and the upgrade, I more than doubled my income!
6:55:45
Threat on Bridge II-A was quickly hammered. Meanwhile, threat on Back's bridge invaded Back. Let see how the turrets handle them.
6:56:54
Well. My tractors are very well placed, but my snipers need relocation. They are build on the side of the planet and draw invaders away from the tractors: I need to place them far behind my OCStation. I already knew it, but it's okay now that I get the metal!
And threat is now below threatening threshold.

6:29:27
Such good times deserve a good reward. I have Knowledge: 19,250 +3,000 available. MkII are unlocked for SStealth BShips, EterJets and Frigates. No Starship is unlocked for now; I'm not decided on how to improve them. Maybe a leech, but it will wait until I get this ASC.

7:00:00
Two more planets, Two hops deeper, on step on RingIII; CPA handled; metal income increased. Good hour. Very good hour.
HaP: 175
AIP: 180 (floor 56)
Knowledge: 11,750 (+3,000 available).
Empire: 10 planets (1 home, 1 nomad (+1 busted) plus 8 others), 6 on RingI, 2 on RingII and 1 on RingIII.
Unlocks: same plus Harverters MkII.
AI Unlocks: NYCommando (Fire), Armor Ship (Ice). Very thematic! (Albeit the NYSrikes are the ones with stealth, a Youngling for Fire perfectly suits it.)

7:14:06
A good deepstrike and tachyon carving. Threat is a bit up bby now, but nothing like a CPA. I can handle. Scouts were sent in the breach: 3 more planets on RingVI, but despite Fire's infiltrator's DBUp (I'll get them by the ARS), noting of interest.
However, the energy is begining to be scarce. Plan is to scrap most turrets on inner worlds and having a hard shell of Military OCStation + full turrets.
Also, I've seen some SForces crossing Nomad4, using it as a bridge between RingII and RingI (Nomad 1 and 3 are orbiting deeper). And I didn't realized that now that the Warp Jammer OCStation is gone, it put planets on alert. This is not a bad thing because it dilute reinforcements. However, I'll need to take it back and fortify it much more (I plan on unlocking Fortresses for it) and deny AI and SForces to bridge in RingI (and maybe RingII, one day).
Anyway, time to go to sleep.
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Red.Queen May 05, 2015, 08:43:17 PM
3:00:00
First A-prime down. Everything is quite.
HaP: 31
AIP: 36

AIP 36 at the 3 hour mark.  :o  HOW.  I blow past that by the 30 *minute* mark!

(sniper immune) marauders.

Marauders are sniper immune?  <takes notes>

3:20:33
Also, a 157 ships CPA is massing, hitting in 7:30.
[/quote]

CPAs can be this small?  :o The smallest CPA I have ever seen was 10x this size...  Sub-80 AIP really makes a huge change in the game.

Seeded average quantity of metal per planet is usually around 4, ranging from 1 to 7~8. I feel particularly unlucky.

I feel your pain, current game for me is unlucky on resource seeding vs. capturables.  Hopefully you'll catch a break soon!

(Also, I'm growing convinced that downloading at least 5 DBUp is beyond possible in a normal game. We'll see where we'll be when download cost would be astronomically high...)

Could be, if it is, don't worry about it -- after all, my original challenge was 3x download. :)

Obviously, warhead construction was paused.

 :'(

For the 4 FFields bunker, I'll save-try a cloaked lightning warhead MkI.
3:48:47
The lightning did it! While the FFields are still mostly unafected by it, everything under them but the (Translocator) OCStation, the WGate and the DBUp is metal dust.

Yup!  Warheads go right through FFs, used that trick at the end of AS:II.  Makes me love them even more.

Now it's time to throw everything that is translocation-immune at it! Wait... Forget about the translocation-immune; throw everything!

<giggle>

CPA just vanished, if you were wondering. I don't know when, but I once saw a carrier roaming my frontier but when I bring my fleet to play with him, he silently walked away. Now my threat indicator is very low and I can't remember an unexpected wave somewhere.

Ugh, that is always creepy as hell when that happens.  Makes me paranoid for the next hour.

I'll concentrate my fleet on the reprisal one and come for help if things go badly... Wait, if things go badly on my homeworld... Never mind. I'll concentrate my fleet on the reprisal and I'm sure nothing would go badly on my homeworld. (::) I bet I can do politic like this.)

LOL!  :D

Also, I feel I stash too many knowledge, but I lack the metal and energy to supply everything. I unlocked the Z/S starships because of some idea passing by, but I didn't built them yet. This K isn't wasted, but I really feel tight in this game. I hope I'll be able to scrap some turrets on RingI when I'll reach the ASC to save energy for my fleet, but metal will always be an issue. The plan is to go starship and micro enough to optimise metal spent per kill.

Sounds like upgraded Metal Harvesters would work well in this game, even though I know a lot of people don't like them.  I personally don't think they're bad, just situational in when they are a good choice.

Vampire download on A-second with 74 HaP in bank, needs 75. Raiders gone on the Ice's DGLair world after Fire's ASC to blow up an Alarm. Raiders MkII were sent to escort MkIII which was sent to oneshoot the alarm. The MkIII fortress took it down in one salvo: warning reprisal and alarm death-triggered (on a MkIII world). Great.

Ouch!

Economy abysmal: don't even think about lightning warhead.

>>ERROR.  Bad command or file name.

Fleet nearely empty (good, I have energy!).

"Yay my stuff is dead!"  That's always depressing when that's the reaction.  :)

AAAAAAAAAAAH! THIS DAMN ZENITH SSHIP REFUSE TO DIE!!!

Yup, they have a staggering amount of hitpoints.  They just sort of tank your defenses to death.


And the HRFighters continue to suicide one by one on it while tring to scratch the SStealth BShips. ><

Ever wondered what you call the guy who graduated at the bottom of his Airforce class?  "Pilot." ;)

(Sorry to rage, I'll calm down, but I'm sincere. It's not difficult, it unfun.)

Yeah, this is definitely a case for Metal Harvester upgrades, since protecting Econo stations is problematic with this config.  Opening those up should hopefully make the fun come back, I don't want you to not be enjoying playing this challenge.

And that damn stupid RRebuilder going back and forth between snipers and forward turrets. I should be having an epic hacking fight with the AI, and instead I'm looking at that morron.

I know you're suffering right now, but dammit that was funny as hell.  :)  I just pictured the human commander leading this mission pacing around home command muttering this to himself, glaring out the window at the little Rebuilder innocently doing its job.

Threat cleaning mission nearly turned to nightmare when 50 EterJets uncloaked and took my fleet away. Thankthfully, there weren't many more than my former frigates and some SStealth BShips.

Interesting watching how much of a pain Etherjets in the AI's hands are.  I haven't had it use these yet but I am going to be very wary whenever it finally does.

Maybe I'll afford the deepstrike cost for some AIP reduction (86 is quite high for me, mind you ;)).

You are still under 90 AIP!  :o  Howwwww.

The RingI end of the remote BridgeI is now under human control. RingI is now entirely cut from the rest of the galaxy. Time to hunt down SForce GPosts on RingI. "Back" now designate this planet.

That should be a BIG help.

6 Starships swallowed (Zenith and Spire are safe) and no frigate made it to former Back.

OUCH!!

Total for adjacent hacking missions: 260.

Wow that is going to get expensive.

Threat cleaning party ended badly. Only the SShips made it to friendly space. Guess what's worst than EtherJets? Tractor Guardians!

The AI has almost every tractor ship...  Or did I miss them unlocking the tractor stations?

I figured out that there is a tachyon-free path to the planet with a CSG A-prime on RingIV; I sent a stealth lab to see what's in the ARS: Anti-Armor, NScapegoat and ZSiegeEngine. I think to remember that Anti-Armor are depreciated by most players...

Scapegoats would be a big help on conserving the fleet and avoiding the tight resources, if you can swing the HAP.

CPA (the first? Yes, the first... Diff 7/7 was a bit shy, I admit it) declared. 472 ships within 13 minutes.

Wow, still under 500 ships.  Mini CPAs are adorable.  :)

(OMG there were two Alarms on Ice's adjacent planet! Well... I'll destroy it after and we'll say I didn't triggered, right? You know, related to the achievement and the 50% death-trigger chance...)

 :o

30 SStealth BShips MkII >< They are supposed to be capped at 5. Ouch. The total cap a human player can have is 20 (MkI-IV, not counting V).

Yeah, these low-cap but not starship ships are kind of weird in the reinforcement scheme, I think they need tweaking.  They might be valued a certain way, but they effectively punch well above their weight when their numbers go over a certain point.

Also, while I now have more metal deposits (7 already and 5 on the very recently freed planet), I'll unlock the Harversters MkII. It's 4,000 K but this game is going to be Knowledge-intensive and I can't spend it elsewhere while my metal eco is so low.

Yes!  These should help a LOT.

The far end of Bridge II-B has been fast-built (and a core Impulse Reaction Emitter fab has been captured). My eco is lifting off! With the new harvesters and the upgrade, I more than doubled my income!

<cheer>

Such good times deserve a good reward. I have Knowledge: 19,250 +3,000 available. MkII are unlocked for SStealth BShips, EterJets and Frigates. No Starship is unlocked for now; I'm not decided on how to improve them. Maybe a leech, but it will wait until I get this ASC.

That is an incredible amount of K.  With how fast moving your fleet is, Heavy Bombers might be a good choice to upgrade more more precision problem exploding while your stealthy and teleporting ships tie up the fleet.

AIP: 180 (floor 56)

Yessss... climb that AIP scale!   >D
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 06, 2015, 06:49:12 AM

Now it's time to throw everything that is translocation-immune at it! Wait... Forget about the translocation-immune; throw everything!
<giggle>
I'll concentrate my fleet on the reprisal one and come for help if things go badly... Wait, if things go badly on my homeworld... Never mind. I'll concentrate my fleet on the reprisal and I'm sure nothing would go badly on my homeworld. (::) I bet I can do politic like this.)
LOL!  :D
;)

CPA (the first? Yes, the first... Diff 7/7 was a bit shy, I admit it) declared. 472 ships within 13 minutes.
Wow, still under 500 ships.  Mini CPAs are adorable.  :)
And it wasn't the first CPA. I totally forgot the first. They are so forgettable at this AIP level. I totally understand your reaction.

The AI has almost every tractor ship...  Or did I miss them unlocking the tractor stations?
Nope, they didn't... yet. And I hope they would never do. >:(

Scapegoats would be a big help on conserving the fleet and avoiding the tight resources, if you can swing the HAP.
Yeah, maybe. I never toyed with scapegoats. However, I think I won't take them this time; my eco is lifting off and my HaP is scarce (or highly demanded).

AIP: 180 (floor 56)
Yessss... climb that AIP scale!   >D
AIP Reducers scouted: 3 CoProcessors, 3 DataCenters, 1 SuperTerminal.
Sorry! ;D

But I will. This game is already one step toward not-so-low-AIP... And maybe I'll try true high AIP in my next OutaTrackGame. Maybe with Spire Civilian Leaders. I already played with them at 7/7, they are interesting in spicing up the early game (10 AIP per hour, its huge! :D), but as their effect is reversible, I feel much more mentally comfortable; I don't feel like each second is one step toward irreversible doom, even if I never achieve true AIP reduction because I keep capturing planets faster than they decrease AIP.
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 06, 2015, 07:14:35 PM
HotNotes

7:14:25
Impulse Reaction Emitters ordered. In need of energy, I built one metal converter.

7:21:16
During a threat cleaning party, the SForces came across. It's time to update data.
2 H/K, 31 Riot, 20 Missile MkII, 16 Disassemblers (8 MkI, 8 MkIII).
Sounds like a hard cap for H/K, Missile and Disassemblers. I suppose it depends on intensity of the plot, and if the plot concern one AI or both (I'm sure I can hand-count them, I'll find the same number for Ice and Fire). So it sounds useless to destroy them. Sad.
Meanwhile, another threatfleet backstabed me. The turrets handle it by far, but 3 DAMN VAMPIRE CLAWS MANAGED TO ASSASSINATE MY E-COLLECTOR! Time for a pair of Metal Converters... How unfun...
Well, at least that makes one less threatfleet to hunt.

7:23:09
Nomad 2 is also under threat attack. Didn't I said fortresses, earlier? 3,000 K spent! I got 5 of them? Well, two for each nomad and one for... home, maybe, if I have spare metal. (How its good to be able to think "if I have spare metal" and actually relying on it.)
7:24:04
Seriously. Two eyebots MkII took the OCStation down and froze everything. Speak of fairness... A MkIII Zenith Starship was held back by the MkII FField and the turrets were actively hammering it: this is fun, this is tension because I don't know it the FField will stand the time the turrets kill it, this is good game design. And then two pathetic eyebots came and the planet is ashes: this is bad game design. Command Stations should have more health; or at least not as ridiculously few as 1,000 (999, actually, just to be really ridiculous). I'm serious, and I'll take time to explain why I think so.
My MkII FField has 400,000 hp (MkI is 200,000); killing my OCStation require 401,000 damage to destroy, or 1,000 with two eyebots (or vampires). On attack, killing an AI OCStation isn't the issue, it's a go/nogo strategy, the issue is to neuter and afford the AIP cost, and it's fine that AI OCS has few hp, it's not unfun. On defense, however, OCStation is the main target of the AI; defending it takes turrets and FFields and it create a fun fight because the AI firepower is aiming at destroying the FField, and the turrets are aiming at destroying, and the winner is the faster at its task, so the winner is (mostly) unknown before and this makes the fun. But then a handful of FF/tractor immune ships get ignored by turrets, bypass all the fun situation and punish the player... of nothing, just punish him. IMO the solution would be to more balance hp between the FField (what you pay and add to the OCS hp, and what can be avoided by special ships, or hammered much more easily with bombers, for instance) and the OCS itself (the base hp that you don't pay or add, just what the game gives you, the minimum objective for the AI and that cannot be bypassed by special perk). A human OCStation is killed in only two circumstances: by overwhelming assault that wreak turrets, FField and fleet defending it (this is fair, the AI is stronger) or by vampire or eyebot or crap alike, and then it's unfair because their perk allow them to bypass 400,000 hp out of 401,000 (in our example).
However, they are counterable by tractors (and tachyon alone doesn't counter them because they get ignored by turrets); however this case is on a nomad planet where conventional
Military MkIII OCS solve this problem: they have 90,000 hp, near the half of a MkI FField. However, they cost 9,000 K (3 planets, 60 AIP) and they have low economy bonus (and no Warp Jamming capacity). I would be glad to be able to pay more K for a Warp Jammer that has hp, but maybe the core idea is to pull non-military-OCS from the ridiculous 1/100 hp factor. OCS should be take down by overwhelming firepower (fun), not by f* cheese (unfun).
Well, enough for my gamedesign commentary. Back to game.

7:27:14
The MkIII Zenith Starship is under the fire of the missile-immune raiders. I can't afford to lose this nomad that is going counterclockwise and away from my territory. (I'll catch and rebuild Nomad 4 when it'll be in wormhole range.)

7:34:24
Nomad 2 rebuilt. Fortress will need to wait for the metal to stash a bit more.
Counterattack GPost MkIII will be destroyed for the sake of eye destruction (running with scissors, they said... ::)).
7:35:27
The twins warped in as the eye implosed. Great timing, raiders!
7:36:49
Post-neutering threat was EtherJet'ed and hammered home. Then my threat indicator for this planet remained above zero. I checked stealth threat: none. Oh! 40 Marauders! Always up to bully the AI when it's down, right, pals?

7:41:47
Yet another attack on Nomad 2. Where is the point is purchasing a paper-string Warp Jammer if it get attacked every now and then?!? Everything is fine unless a MkIV flagship. Raiders sent, but the planet is further and further...
7:42:40
The flagship was hammered flat but the FField was deep in red and I had to microcheese it to optimize its area (make it patrol on top of the OCStation to center its area with said station).

7:45:30
Home counterwave is metal dust. It had one starship and only cloaked ships. Having a pair of decloakers in my fleet is invaluable!
Okay, go back to frontier neutering and tachyon carving.

7:46:19
SForces are using Nomad 4 as bridge to join RingI. I should pay attention to them because if they turn to threatfleet when Nomad 4 exit AI territory, I want to know it! We've got metal for a fortress? Forget the fortress, now we've got metal for a warhead! (I'm running with two metal converters and I'll need one more? Damn!)

7:49:32
What? SForces are on Nomad 1, which is currently RingIII and RingV. However, there is no H/K or Disassemblers, only a crapload of Missile and Riot. I hope there is no two separated SForce Fleets, now!

7:51:30
Well, Nomad 1 almost neutered (1 SSSphere remains, the rest was MLRS), and another frontier/fleet neutering is going smooth, while the SForce seems away.

7:56:22
16 Disassemblers passing from RingI to RingII by Nomad 4. Looks like the SForces splits itself in two, Disassemblers (and maybe H/K) in one half on RingI, and the other half with Missile and Riot near Nomad 1. Strange.

7:58:30
Ouch! 640 ship reprisal wave. Regular waves are around 60 ships, this one is 10 times bigger. I hope there is many younglings in it. Maybe some high mark raiders lost in a threatfleet cleaning mission. (Yeah, threat cleaning went above tachyon carving, recently.)
8:00:47
Yeah, two plasma siege MkI and the rest was NYCommando. BSN (Big Scarry Number) but nothing trully overwhelming behind.
8:01:01
The core Impulse Reaction Emitter constructor has been destroyed by a wave I neglected for the BSN wave. I'm not too sad, I didn't liked their face, anyway. (Seriously, a ship that hit harder the ships that use more energy...)
Oh, the hour report! And a Data Center was just assassinated by the ongoing tachyon carving mission.

8:00:00
Nothing fancy this hour, but many threat cleaning and frontier neutering.
HaP: 177
AIP: 162 (floor 56)
Knowledge: 11,750
Empire: (nothing new) 10 planets (1 home, 1 nomad (+1 busted) plus 8 others), 6 on RingI, 2 on RingII and 1 on RingIII.
Unlocks: same plus Fortress MkI.
Plan? More tachyon carving, end of frontier neutering, then I hope end of scouting (MkII scouts will be reassigned to frontier surveillance; I'm running short on frontier eyes). And then either RingI old plans (hacking and ARS) or deeper diving. Maybe one planet on RingIV? We'll see.

8:02:58
Hacking on RingI should be delayed because the previous carving mission gathered a lot of threat (Well, "a lot"... The counter display 300 and I have two planets above 1,000 strength while everything isn't gathered).
Ah, if only I have something to move my fleet around... Something that would increase their speed without being a structure (ZSTManipulator or Logistic OCS)... Something without guns...

8:06:41
I fear a good part of the threat is in route to Nomad 2. I still don't have the metal for the fortress, and OMD I'll need *2* metal converters to support it! Well, maybe it's time to scrap some backwater turrets.
Pause-done. Ouch! From 7,000 to 140,000 with a (almost) full MkI cap. Let's scrap two of these three converters that are eating my metal.

8:10:14
Last CoProc (and yap, I blew up one times ago) is found... on RingV, on a core world... with an OMDriver. One MkIII would sacrifice to destroy the tachyon sentinel, the two other would then sneak in and blow the CoProc.
The two others are on RingIV and RingIII but a pair of bridges connect them. I plan on sending a raid right now.
The hacks would be triggered once Nomad4 is in wormhole range and rebuilt.
8:12:59
MkII raiders are on their way home: the two CoProc and one Data Center were assassinated in the mission. However, threat is raising again!
Faster than Mass Driver! Wohoo! Forget about the sentinel, go-go-go! Only one MkIII was oneshot, the OMD fired a second time, the raiders flew at blazing speed through the void while the iron hulk rushed behind them; the cloak finally triggered and the projectile missed. Two MkIII raiders alive on core world! One will kill the CoProc while the other would stand near the exit, ready to pass through the tachyon field when the OMD would fire at the first.
Core raid engine? Ow crap...
8:13:32
CoProc down! AIP hammered to the floor (64)! One raider MkIII survived! Two MkII made it to friendly space!
The full SForce is rushing toward the offended core world. Never mind: my surviving raider would be in tachyon free space by the time it cross their road.
8:13:49
Ouch! Double reprisal, 5 seconds between each: 330 and 280 ships. Good news: they target my two adjacent worlds on RingII.
8:14:54
Threat attacked Nomad 2. Two Spire SShips MkI; the rest is ashes but the FField is 50%.
8:15:39
Nomad 2 clear and safe!
8:16:10
Ice's Beam Starship in threatfleet on RingIII. I fear this one backstab while the double reprisal hit. Time for some lightning warheads! Warp in 30 seconds! (goodbye, metal; good bye, fortress)
8:16:48
Each AI made a different reprisal wave. Ice's one is a schizophrenic teleporting wave that (mostly) bypass the tractors; no problem: my defense is designed to handle such case. Fire's one is autocanon only; unlocking the frigate was a great idea! Let see how it unfold.
8:17:16
Pffft! Done! Total rebuilt fleet is 12 bombers and 14 fighters.

8:18:33
The Beam SShip stay put. I'll save the little warhead for latter.
SForce passing by, data updating... 2 H/K, 62 Riot (these ones are not caped, for sure), 20 Missile, ... no Disassemblers? Maybe elsewhere or ahead the twins.
What? Core frigates in threatfleet? The Reserve can turn threatfleet? Good to know, I'll pay attention, next time.
Scout report: Fire's home isn't the middle of the galaxy! (The AI is less megalo than what I've thought...)

8:21:48
Main threat cleaned. The Beam SShip was escorted by some other MkIV SShips. The EtherJet trick got rid of everything that weren't tractor-immune before the engagement. Out of my tracks and very interesting!
Core world detected on the far side of RingVI (Ice, with a DGLair and an eye). 3 planets unexplored.
Nomad 4 in wormhole range. Rebuilding plan triggered.

8:23:44
Two more planet scouted, however the MkII scouts won't go any further without some more carving. The last planet is Fire's home.
Last A-prime detected on RingVI, aligned with the one on RingV and the one on RingVI. Look like the Bridges A would be preferred to the Bridges B.
Also found the second SArchive, in deep Ice territory. I bet this one would be a nightmare to get without triggering the alarms. Maybe I'll sabotage some, after all. But this game promise to be long. Maybe in the 15 hours.
Anyway! Nomad rebuilding and then hacking!

8:32:05
Autocanon download on RingI, behind Back triggered. Beachhead is sniper, missile and needlers piled on nomad wormhole. (I would have gone Fortress beachhead, but I'm already running 3 metal converters)

8:36:17
Galaxy cartography achieved! Screenshot! Gimp'it! Wohoo!

8:37:09
Design download complete! Hacking response was quite underwhelming. I know there is a bonus: when HaP is more than 100, the response is diminished.
Scrap the beachhead! Built another one on RingII! Bring the armored warhead! Wohoo! I'm having fun! (and I'm tired!)
The SForce has been seen crossing Bridge II-B inward.
8:38:19
Hey! 10 Marauders want to tax me: they came by the rear and over the wormhole. I'll need to pass in force.
And the energy collector on Nomad 2 has been assassinated. I need a MConverter soon or it'll be wreaked!
8:38:37
AAAARH! UNFUN! Energy was immediately sent, the FField jumped back, but one eyebot decided my reaction wasn't good enough for him. I HATE YOU!
6 hops deep by the shortest path! Damn! I wana cry! Why so unfun! I should have built this fortress... not sure it would have prevented the eyebot...
What to do? Send the raiders and wait for rebuilding before triggering next hack? However the next hack is the SStealth BShip corruption on RingII; the SForces would be able to come, anyway. So send the raiders and rebuild, but trigger the hack now.
(The RRebuilder has been destroyed, but as RingI is tachyon-free, I can send another one.)

8:44:49
Nomad 2 rebuilt.
Corruption complete.
SForce seen near Bridge III-B.
Threat rather high.

8:46:49
WTF! Twins passing by Nomad 2! Luckily I was there (supervising fortress's construction; ah, not enough metal) to hold my raiders back. They are traveling from RingII to RingI. I suspect they got their move order when Nomad 2 was busted, however there is no SForce GPost on RingI toward which route the twins... A SFGuardian, maybe. This is really a bad news because they'll cut themselves from the rest of the galaxy. I fear they become threatfleet and/or they attack RingI's hacking team. Good thing these hacks aren't triggered yet.
However, threatfleet is... threatening. Especially on RingI-Aprime. I think I'll post and go to bed now. We'll se that latter.
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 06, 2015, 07:17:38 PM
Aaaand the screenshot! Nothing to add, maybe. Oh, yeah, 5 DGLairs! And the three A-prime aligned :D The ZPG, also, because I wonder if I won't get one by the end of this game.

(http://gardn.fr/aiw_aar/aar_CoreDive_FullScout.png)
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Red.Queen May 08, 2015, 04:11:02 AM
Sounds like a hard cap for H/K, Missile and Disassemblers. I suppose it depends on intensity of the plot, and if the plot concern one AI or both (I'm sure I can hand-count them, I'll find the same number for Ice and Fire). So it sounds useless to destroy them. Sad.

Yup, seems to be a combo of plot intensity, time, and AIP.  I saw the SF hitting 48+ Missile Guardians in AS:II, don't know how much higher it would have gone because I kept carpet-bombing/nuking it around that point (in case it helps, up to around AIP 500 on 8/8 with Hunter 4, that was about every 90-120 minutes, though the H/K would rebuild about every hour.  Above that, SF building rate roughly DOUBLED in speed).  Nasty that it'll put Disassemblers in the SF, I'll remember that.  Warning -- it will put Zenith Siege Engines in the SF.  Hundreds of them.  You can guess what I did when I saw that.

<eyebot problems>

Moar tachyon coverage to reveal the little buggers!  (Maybe Tachyon Warhead?)  Hope you can find the Backup to corrupt these things, they are way too dangerous to leave roaming around.

Counterattack GPost MkIII will be destroyed for the sake of eye destruction (running with scissors, they said... ::)).
7:35:27
The twins warped in as the eye implosed. Great timing, raiders!

<laugh>

16 Disassemblers passing from RingI to RingII by Nomad 4. Looks like the SForces splits itself in two, Disassemblers (and maybe H/K) in one half on RingI, and the other half with Missile and Riot near Nomad 1. Strange.

Weird, never seen it do that.  I'm guessing it's caused by how the map is getting sliced up and the way the Nomads keep changing the available paths.  Could be useful though, divide and conquer.

Ah, if only I have something to move my fleet around... Something that would increase their speed without being a structure (ZSTManipulator or Logistic OCS)... Something without guns...

<whistles innocently and points at my "Not So Assault Transports" mod...>

Faster than Mass Driver! Wohoo! Forget about the sentinel, go-go-go! Only one MkIII was oneshot, the OMD fired a second time, the raiders flew at blazing speed through the void while the iron hulk rushed behind them; the cloak finally triggered and the projectile missed. Two MkIII raiders alive on core world! One will kill the CoProc while the other would stand near the exit, ready to pass through the tachyon field when the OMD would fire at the first.

Living dangerously!

Core raid engine? Ow crap...

<snicker>

SForce passing by, data updating... 2 H/K, 62 Riot (these ones are not caped, for sure), 20 Missile, ... no Disassemblers? Maybe elsewhere or ahead the twins.

Riots seem to go up to about 76 and then stop, no matter how high you drive the AIP up to, then the AI starts spending its points to buy other stuff.  Often low-cap fleetships or higher-cap stuff with something special like cloaking.  Watch out...

What? Core frigates in threatfleet? The Reserve can turn threatfleet? Good to know, I'll pay attention, next time.

Nope, the Reserve despawns when you leave, it had to have come from somewhere else.  I bet it's remnants of the Core Raid Engine attack that slipped away after attacking.

Scout report: Fire's home isn't the middle of the galaxy! (The AI is less megalo than what I've thought...)

I'm surprised I was sure one of the homeworlds was going to be the center.

Design download complete! Hacking response was quite underwhelming. I know there is a bonus: when HaP is more than 100, the response is diminished.

Good to know!

WTF! Twins passing by Nomad 2! Luckily I was there (supervising fortress's construction; ah, not enough metal) to hold my raiders back. They are traveling from RingII to RingI. I suspect they got their move order when Nomad 2 was busted, however there is no SForce GPost on RingI toward which route the twins... A SFGuardian, maybe. This is really a bad news because they'll cut themselves from the rest of the galaxy. I fear they become threatfleet and/or they attack RingI's hacking team.

Yeah, I confirmed in my last game that SF pinned in a small bit of the galaxy that's been cut off will definitely drop into Threat.  I got lucky when and where it happened, but if they did it in the wrong place and at the wrong time, and at full strength, that could be devastating.  Especially if the H/Ks went Threat.  <shiver>  Imagine 60K+ strength of Threat suddenly appearing out of nowhere...

Aaaand the screenshot! Nothing to add, maybe. Oh, yeah, 5 DGLairs! And the three A-prime aligned :D The ZPG, also, because I wonder if I won't get one by the end of this game.

Hey!  Your DGLs actually spread out!  I've tried turning those guys on twice now and they bunched up every time, it's why I keep turning them off.  I guess their seeding on the map gets weird if it's less than 80 planets.

Anyway, keep it up! :)  I'm curious to see how the hell you're going to pull this off.
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 08, 2015, 07:39:23 AM
<eyebot problems>
Moar tachyon coverage to reveal the little buggers!  (Maybe Tachyon Warhead?)  Hope you can find the Backup to corrupt these things, they are way too dangerous to leave roaming around.
Tachyon is not the problem. They are out of cloak from the wormhole to the OCStation.

What? Core frigates in threatfleet? The Reserve can turn threatfleet? Good to know, I'll pay attention, next time.
Nope, the Reserve despawns when you leave, it had to have come from somewhere else.  I bet it's remnants of the Core Raid Engine attack that slipped away after attacking.
You must be right. I knew Reserve despawn, that's why I was very surprised (but not alarmed, they were very few).

Scout report: Fire's home isn't the middle of the galaxy! (The AI is less megalo than what I've thought...)
I'm surprised I was sure one of the homeworlds was going to be the center.
Yes, me too. However, its entirely logic: the first AI Home is seeded at the furthest planet from any player home. As bridge toward RingVI is near the bridge toward the center planet, the far side of RingVI is the furthest.
[:D] (http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=16141)

Design download complete! Hacking response was quite underwhelming. I know there is a bonus: when HaP is more than 100, the response is diminished.
Good to know!
: Wiki
Past 100 HaP, having excess HaP reduces the response, but not below a minimum that increases with each hack.
[:D] (http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War:Hacking)
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 08, 2015, 03:50:29 PM
HotNotes

8:46:57
The twins attack Nomad 2. The half-built fortress has been insta-destroyed (bye-bye, metal) and they are routing toward the OCStation. Bye-bye again, Nomad 2. RingI hacking party would be disturbed.
8:47:58
Nomad 2 is ashes again. 62 Riots are passing by, toward RingI. Looks like the armored warhead won't be useless for long. (One metal converter would be freed! Yay!)
8:48:28
Reprisal warning level 2? My raiders survived! How? Where? Anyway, 250 ships on Back within 3 minutes...
8:51:43
Reprisal hit on Back. A handful of vampires shows under the tachyon turret, slip through the tractors and ffields, and assassinate the energy collector. Brownout, metal convertors... I'm getting used to it.
The eyebots were freed from the tractors by the short power shutdown and put a dent in the Military OCStation when my EtherJets saved the day. Micro, micro...
The wave was hammered flat, but 14 Marauders were attracted by the smell of blood.
Also, I realised I didn't built the autocanons! Again one download that put me out of my tracks. Oh, they have armor damage...

8:52:30
The RingI BigBrother plan is now achieved! Now that the galaxy is entirely cartographied, the scout MkII have been reasigned to frontier surveillance. So bad there isn't a Special Forces galaxy filter... (Mantis'ed!)
Looking at BSN (Big Scary Numbers), SForces are en route toward A-prime on RingI. The warheads are loaded on hop behind. I see no reason for not triggering the hacking...
8:54:43
Oh, looks like they finally quit RingI. Maybe it's time to seal the nomad bridge and save the warheads for another day.
8:54:30
Nomad 2 rebuilding, beachhead on A-prime rebuilding, vampire download triggered. I'll be left with 0.5 HaP; ARS Redirection will need to wait.
I'm running 5 metal converters and it's still not enough? Damn! Well, Nomad 2 colector isn't back online yet and I'm pulling all I can for fleet, turrets and beachhead (not counting the fortress and the warhead, requiring one planet for them alone: 90,000 for the fortress and 50,000 for the warhead).
8:59:30
Vampires are downloaded.
Economy is still faceplanting but the beachhead will be scraped soon.
The SForces were roaming around my RingIII planet like a shark in a fish bowl. Some threatfleet were passing by Nomad 2 to join the hacking party. Nothing big, but I wasn't aware they were allowed to do so.
9:01:19
Nomad 2 ECollector back on line; A-prime beachhead scraped; only two converters are running now and my metal is stashing again. Vampire claws added to build queue. Hourly report missed; never mind, I'll do it now.

9:00:00
So this ninth hour was rather good on many different tables. Galaxy was fully scouted, AIP was hammered flat, 177 HaP has been spent...
HaP: 2
AIP: 64 (floor 64)
Knowledge: 11,750
Empire: 11 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 8 others), 6 on RingI, 2 on RingII and 1 on RingIII.
Unlocks: nothing new.
AIP Reduction remaining: 1 DataCenter, 1 SuperTerminal.
Cost of adjacent Hacking mission: 52 (1 Research Redirection).
Plans: I would love to finish this job on RingI and go back to core diving. However, I'm 50 HaP short for the RRedirection. Ice's home position force me to take the A-Bridges path. This ain't a bad idea, after all: because 3 A-prime CSG are on this path. Hm, looks like I'll also take RingVI ZPGenerator and SArchive, and the center world with the AdvFacto. That would make 12 worlds to capture in a (almost) line toward the core that will put me adjacent to one Ice's core world and the Chameleon DBUp. 10 Alarms would be in the path. So, not counting the auto-AIP or the nomads, that make a total of 12*20+10*5 = 240 + 50 = 290. My genetic AIP fear made my heart skip a beat. Weeeeel, we're on 7/7, nothing can go wrong... Think at all this HaP and Knowledge! And think at all the metal and enegry (wow, the path is only 3 times (out of 12) under 5 metal deposit per planet; so they were there all this time!). Mmmkaaay, okay. Let's play "high AIP". (Well, "pumpkin-high" AIP; we're far from even "Red.Queen-low" AIP.)
However, there is a superterminal on the path. The more I think about it, the more I plan on destroying it. It will take away some HaP, spawn a response I'm not yet in position to handle as I would like (little economy, little fleet) and for now that I lie on the AIP bedrock, it will be of no immediate benefice.
OK, so there is the plan: I'll take two planets, blow two alarms, neuter two more worlds (this will lead me to my first step on RingIV) and then I'll come back to my hacking on RingI, take two planets (1 A-prime and 1 ASC) and neuter one more (this will lead me to crack open a DGLair; I hope I'll be geared enough for this, by the time).
Let's do this!

9:03:22
Raid on RingIV: first Alarm death-trigger, SuperTerminal sniped to prevent reserve spawning.
9:03:49
Second Alarm death-trigger too.
9:04:21
30 MkIII TeleLeeches took down the unprotected OCStation one hop behind Back. Well, it's the first time Ice is so aggressive.
9:05:12
OCStation on adjacent planet on RingIII (counterclockwise) has been assassinated by MkIII raiders. Time to handle threatfleet while avoiding SForces. EtherJets, go!
9:06:33
Back's back re-assassinated by TeleLeeches. Better turn this RRebuilder off and send the SFighters.
9:07:00
Back's attacked by threat. 60 Vampires MkIII on the go. New planet captured; its ECollector will provide replacement for Back's one that will soon fall.
9:07:28
What? Everything that is tractor and FField-immune (well, the vampires, indeed) passed to Back's back and are heading toward home. Okay. You wana play like this? We'll play like this. Lightning warhead loading!
9:08:30
Back is clear. Back's back contains 30 TeleLeeches MkIII and 60 Vampires MkIII, waiting.
Core TeleRaiders captured. Sweet, they are good against vampires.
FFields are scarce. Hardened FField MkI unlocked (1,000 K).
9:09:18
Back's back clear. Ready for rebuild.

9:16:40
Wave and marauders on my new world. Threat back in acceptable land.

9:20:00
One step in RingIV (former SuperTerminal world). Adjacent to A-prime CSG.
Omagad! SForces have been waiting there all this time. I was on the top of saying that I would take one Alarm and one more world to get the Anti-Armor ARS, but looks like I'll be back to RingI hacking soon.
Time to update their data: 2 H/K, 12 Disassemblers (7 MkIII, 5 MkI; there must be others somewhere else), 21 Missile MkII (one of them must be a regular guard here) and 62 Riots.
There is also 2 Ion Canons (1 MkI and 1 MkIII) and a Planetary Armor Inhibitor.

Special Forces massed on A-prime RingIV world.
(http://gardn.fr/aiw_aar/aar_CoreDive_special_forces_waiting.png)

9:22:39
RingIV planet is cheap-defended (sniper and missile only) and Nomad 2 has no fortress, but at least I'm now running without metal converter. I know I'll need one for RingI RRedirection's beachhead...
However, I'm 52 HaP and RRedirection require 52.2; I plan on setting off this alarm on RingIV, one step after the A-prime to let me enough HaP to be sure to avoid bruteforcing. Tachyon is carved long ago and the MkIII raiders would have all their way to avoid the stationnary SForce on A-prime. However, if it death-trigger, I'll have a hard time getting rid of the threat there.
While looking at the map, I felt good knowing the SForce and threatfleets now have more travel to do to reach one side of RingII from the other.
9:23:12
Wohoo! It didn't triggered!
9:24:05
All the 3 raiders MkIII are back home. The SForce made one step backward to see what's going on with this alarm, but found nothing and leaved the sector.
9:25:29
While they were away, I sent the raiders destroy RingIV A-prime OCStation. Strangely, the SForce came back immediately, but my raiders were already in safe territory. Very Tom&Jerry!
9:26:11
Disapointed, SForces went away. Time to neuter the planet and claim it.

9:27:19
RRedirection triggered on RingI. Beachhead incoming.
9:28:14
Oops. Un-micro raiders were took down on RingIV. So much for neutering. So much for multitasking.
9:37:21
RRedirection on RingI is complete. Neutering on RinvIV isn't yet (MkIII Needler GPost is harmful for raiders, there were two of them, there is one now).
RingI A-prime is adjacent to a troop-accelerator (Knife-fighter SubCommander), but I'll take it now.
9:38:56
Vampires in wave on Back provoked a brownout, but RingI A-prime was captured and its ECollector finished soon enough.
9:42:13
One DNode has been opened to speed up building.
9:43:31
Back is under a big border aggression (many MkIII). TeleRaiders were sent to defend.
RingIV A-prime is neutered. Ready for capture. Two tachyon and one PAInhibitor would be captured.
CPA announced. 700 ships.
I Micro Back's turrets just in time to take down the infiltrators before the OCStation fall.
9:44:23
Back survived! Wohoo! Core TeleRaiders were amazing!
9:45:54
Energy is good, but metal has trouble keeping up: Anti-armor and infiltrators have been added to the queue, and some turret (re)building are processing. One more DNode has been opened.
9:45:58
All cloaked fleetships has been unlocked MkII: Autocanons, Vampires and Infiltrators (7,500 K total). A second space dock has been built on Home to queue them all.
My fleet is piling on RingI near the ASC world. As it's a MkIV Knife fighter, I better be prepared.
9:53:34
Looses are heavy. But the ASC world is clear and the knife-fighter hammered flat. However, I commited to fight the Dire Guardians soon. Well, maybe not really soon, but soon enough.
A (relatively) big reprisal has been triggered (more than 350 ships). Better send the TeleRaiders before I forget.

Ready for knife-fight!
(http://gardn.fr/aiw_aar/aar_CoreDive_ready_for_knifefight.png)

Looses were heavy.
(http://gardn.fr/aiw_aar/aar_CoreDive_need_to_rebuild_after_knifefight.png)

9:56:34
Reprisal hit: a bit more than 2,000 strength. Half of my fleet has been detached to handle it; strength a very little notch below 2,000. With the turrets, it should be fin.
CPA also hit: 352 MkII + 352 from Strategic Reserve. I've got one carrier with 535 ships past the frontier on RingIII.
9:57:10
Reprisal is ashes. No a scrath and none survived, but my half-fleet wasn't useless.
For the first time I'm getting short on Tachyon turrets MkII and tractor turrets. Maybe I'll unlock tractor MkII, but 10 MkI per hostile wormhole sounds a lot. Maybe I shall micro a bit and downgrade every hostile wormhole to 8 or 7 each (31 tractor beams per turret on MkI, it sounds enough). But latter. 6 MkI tractors on ASC is fine for now.
SForces data update: 2 H/K, 20 Missile, 68 Riots, Disassemblers unseen.
9:58:12
Carrier unloaded 535 ships on RingIII. 3,000 strength, against 2,500 defenders, but turrets are not very well placed; this world was formerly a two-hostile-wormhole and I didn't moved the turrets with tractors/tachyon/lightning/FField combo in front of it. However, there is some (Fire's) teleporting ships...
Haha! How fun to look at the TeleLeeches and the TeleRaiders chase each other!
9:59:09
CPA'ed planet is down. However, no brownout: my fleet wasn't fully rebuilt yet because of low metal. Rebuilt soon; I will count it in the Empire summary albeit it's considered neutral for some minutes.

10:00:00
Wohoo! Conquest hour! Good hour!
HaP: 68
AIP: 183 (floor 88)
Knowledge: 16,250 (+3,000 available)
Empire: 16 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 13 others), 8 on RingI, 2 on RingII, 2 on RingIII, 2 on RingIV.
Unlocks: same, plus Hardened FField MkI, Autocanon MkII, Vampire MkII, Infiltrators MkII.
All Fleet Blueprints: SFighters, Bombers, MFrigates, AArmors, Core Teleraiders, Infiltrators, Vampire Claws, Autocanon Minipods, EJTractors, SStealth BShips.

Plans will be for the next time.
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Red.Queen May 09, 2015, 05:06:39 PM
Reprisal warning level 2? My raiders survived! How? Where? Anyway, 250 ships on Back within 3 minutes...

They were hiding behind a moon.

Some threatfleet were passing by Nomad 2 to join the hacking party. Nothing big, but I wasn't aware they were allowed to do so.

Might have been Roaming Planetary Defenders, sometimes the AI spawns ships in that mode and they wander around a small cluster of planets, looking for trouble.  They amuse me.
AIP: 64 (floor 64)

 :o

AIP 64 at hour 9...

>>Fatal Error!  Does not compute.

So, not counting the auto-AIP or the nomads, that make a total of 12*20+10*5 = 240 + 50 = 290. My genetic AIP fear made my heart skip a beat. Weeeeel, we're on 7/7, nothing can go wrong... Think at all this HaP and Knowledge!

Famous last words?  >D

Mmmkaaay, okay. Let's play "high AIP". (Well, "pumpkin-high" AIP; we're far from even "Red.Queen-low" AIP.)

8)

(this will lead me to crack open a DGLair; I hope I'll be geared enough for this, by the time).

I can't wait to see this.

Time to update their data: 2 H/K, 12 Disassemblers (7 MkIII, 5 MkI; there must be others somewhere else), 21 Missile MkII (one of them must be a regular guard here) and 62 Riots.
There is also 2 Ion Canons (1 MkI and 1 MkIII) and a Planetary Armor Inhibitor.

<wince>  The PAI is just the icing on the pain-cake.

Disapointed, SForces went away. Time to neuter the planet and claim it.

Very lucky!

CPA announced. 700 ships.

Adorable!

All cloaked fleetships has been unlocked MkII: Autocanons, Vampires and Infiltrators (7,500 K total).

Congrats! That goal's down. :)

Looses were heavy.
(http://gardn.fr/aiw_aar/aar_CoreDive_need_to_rebuild_after_knifefight.png)

OW!!!  I hope that fleetwipe came with a mop to clean up the wreckage!

CPA also hit: 352 MkII + 352 from Strategic Reserve. I've got one carrier with 535 ships past the frontier on RingIII.

Wow, it pulled from the SR to fill a 700 ship CPA?  The galaxy has to be almost empty!  Sounds like a perfect opportunity for shenanigans...

Haha! How fun to look at the TeleLeeches and the TeleRaiders chase each other!

<Benny Hill theme song>

AIP: 183 (floor 88)

Yessssssss...  >D
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 10, 2015, 09:46:27 AM
Might have been Roaming Planetary Defenders, sometimes the AI spawns ships in that mode and they wander around a small cluster of planets, looking for trouble.  They amuse me.
Roaming Planetary Defenders? I never realized there were such behavior. So it's a sort of little local SForces (militia?) I wish it would be more visible. For instance, passive "asleep" defenders are gray and the F3 key show threat with a colored outline. Maybe I'll mantis "please make F3 show SForces" and "please make behavior outline default and not F3/debug only". I think it would be great if the player(s) can better identify states of encountered foes. Players would be unable to make a difference between SForces and moving threat without the Hunter goodies and the very recognizable Riot pack. I still have trouble identifying fleetships following SForce's Guardians/Riot.

All cloaked fleetships has been unlocked MkII: Autocanons, Vampires and Infiltrators (7,500 K total).
Congrats! That goal's down. :)
Goal down? Who said 3 downloads? I said all cloaked downloads!
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Red.Queen May 10, 2015, 04:19:47 PM
Roaming Planetary Defenders? I never realized there were such behavior. So it's a sort of little local SForces (militia?) I wish it would be more visible. For instance, passive "asleep" defenders are gray and the F3 key show threat with a colored outline. Maybe I'll mantis "please make F3 show SForces" and "please make behavior outline default and not F3/debug only". I think it would be great if the player(s) can better identify states of encountered foes. Players would be unable to make a difference between SForces and moving threat without the Hunter goodies and the very recognizable Riot pack. I still have trouble identifying fleetships following SForce's Guardians/Riot.

A little more like patrolling guards in a stealth game -- they don't necessarily wander as an organized team like the SF does, since roaming defense is controlled at the invidual level from what I can tell so far.  If you mouse over them it notes they're in roaming defense mode.  Basically, the AI can use Ctrl+V too just like we can, including letting them wander around a small number of adjacent planets.  Most of the time they only wader on a single planet, but rarely they will decide to guard a few -- seems like they don't cover more than 3-4 at the absolute most, and they *must* be adjacent to each other and AI-controlled.

For whatever reason, I saw this interplanetary roaming routinely on AS:I, but only a little bit on AS:II (I mistook them for SF as well when I first saw them, until I captured a CSG planet and they didn't come).  The cluster of planets around Apophis had a little crew that liked to wander around it.  I haven't looked at the code to get the details, but I have a hunch this behavior is more likely to be chosen on planets with capturables or AIP reducers.  I also see it with starships more often.  Makes doing the EMP/uncloaked Lightning combo trickier.

Their assignment isn't as rigid as the SF, they can drop in and out of the other main behaviors depending on what happens -- actually, most of the planet defense ships can, it's pretty cool.  That's why when you go stir up a planet, only some of the annoyed defenders switch to Threat instead of all of them -- each ship gets to choose.  Some go back to sleep, some may decide to start patrolling.  I think patrollers can choose to settle back down, it's just hard to notice.

Goal down? Who said 3 downloads? I said all cloaked downloads!

Oops, thought you'd grabbed the last one!  Carry on, Agent!
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 15, 2015, 01:23:36 PM
HotNotes

10:16:02
Fire unlocked Youngling Shrikes. Ice unlocked MicroFighter. Looks like RNG feels very thematic, this game.
I slightly redesigned my territory; Economic OCStation MkII has been unlocked for this. Now each border planet has a MkI Military OCS and all planet-cap turrets MkI, with, in front of the (only) hostile wormhole, under a MkI FField, 1 StealthTachyonBeam, 10 TractorBeams, and all lightning and flak turrets, then, ordered by range from the wromhole, all the needlers, laser, MLRS, missile, and snipers on the other side of the planet. Then one FField (MkI/II or hardened, depends) on the Military OCS. The nomads have all MkI turrets around the WJammer OCS, a FField and one fortress on the middle; the MkI Tachyon turrets are split (8 on each) and scattered around the OCS. All non-frontier planet has a MkII Eco OCS, one Stealth Tachyon Beam near the wormhole, all snipers and a MkI FField. If you take a close look at the galaxy map, you'll see that only Back has two hostile wormholes, but they are aligned, so there is no problem. MkII Eco OCS (only one isn't deployed yet) added some metal but more importantly a good chunk of energy.
Fleet is slowly rebuilding; some turret moves have drained some metal. However, starships are not for today.
DGLair is slowly building. Maybe it would be my next target, now that I'm a bit more comfortable.
But some threatfleet need to be cleaned first.

10:24:21
Fleet and starships rebuilt; only MkIV raiders need to be built, now. I'm left with about 250,000 Energy (I support an armored warhead and no metal converter).
2,500 threat strength is spawning a warp relay (52%) on RingIV.
Some 100~150 ships wave here and there...

10:28:24
40 marauders spawn on RingIV during the threat cleaning.

11:00:00
Rebuilding and cleaning hour. Maybe I shouldn't play while thinking at something else. I have too much metal; I triggered the building of my personal strategic reserve: the mercenary space dock has been ordered to loop through triangle ships plus the beam frigate when metal is above 3,000,000 (my maximum capacity is currently at 3,340,000; Eco MkII OCS have enhanced storage capacity).
HaP: 70
AIP: 185 (floor 89)
Knowledge: 15,250
Empire: 16 planets (nothing new)
Unlocks: same, plus Economic OCStation MkII.
AI unlocks: same, plus NYShrike (Fire) and MicroFighters (Ice).
Plan is to get rid of the DGLair and continue the core diving.

11:02:42
DGLair world now neutered. Lair cracked open. Picks are: Needler, Shield and Spider. A very brutal pick: the shield and spider should do a great job at holding my fleet and the needler is just the firepower to benefit from shield/spider impunity.
11:03:40
Dire Guardians were busted with "only" 250 casualties. The shield was distracted by my enclaves and let its mates naked; the spider wasn't as efficient at keeping me at bay because I started the fight at close range (by fear for a sniper pick, mostly).
11:04:07
Back is (rather) ashes now: threatfleet (leaded by a MkIV flagship) that wasn't displayed on my galaxy map minutes ago attacked it during the dire fight. A 400 ships reprisal wave is targeting it for withing 2 minutes and my main fleet is on the other side of RingI. Great. Fleet rebuilt at home is sent to protect Back's back.
Oh, TeleLeeches are immune to snipers. Well, missile turrets MkI are added to every inner world as a standard measure.
11:07:14
Some threat backstabbed Nomad 4 but the fortress proved useful. Maybe Back deserve one.
Anyway, Back is now clear and rebuilding.
Well, now with the fortress on Back and the missile turrets on the five non-frontier worlds, I'm left with around 30,000 Energy.

11:09:49
Fleet and defenses fully operational. Metal stashed. Thread below ridiculous threshold. Ready to work.
I consider taking BridgeII-A. It would severely hinder AI's ability to navigate between RingII and RingIII, delaying threat backstabs and SForces interventions. Also, since I control BridgeII-B, it would put two of my worlds in the "intern" category. However, it will cost me 2 alarms and two more planets adjacent to my frontier to neuter, and there is only two late-game DGLair/hack combos on RingII and RingIII (SpacePlane and EyeBot).
Result of considering: interesting, but not now (and maybe never).
Immediate plan is to tachyon-carve a path for a stealth lab to scout ARS on RingV, while my main fleet will neuter worlds around BridgeIV-A/A'.

11:14:52
Tachyon carved. ARS scouted: translocator starship (default), saboteur, polarizer. Nothing interesting, IMO. At least not worth a hack.
A wave of around 250 infiltrators (and one starleech) was hard-stopped by defensive layout. All were decloaked and grabbed by the tractors under the range of all my MkI turrets. Needless to say that none survived, and the only damage they caused is some turrets paint-scratched.
One step forward, there was a fortress. I sent my whole fleet in the battle and there is no more fortress. Casualties are more than 700 ships (250 autocanons, 300 EtherJets, and some other) and a level 1 reprisal warning.
16 Disassemblers just warped in from RingIV where I have no scouts. Better run away before the twins join the party.
"Better run away before the twins join the party"... Sounds like a girlish manga.
11:15:53
8 starships swallowed; I was unable to rescue them before the twins come.
75 Riot are in the place. The 20 missile joined soon after. 7 MkIII disassemblers are being repaired, the other are busted hulls the ZMedic Frigates don't bother even try to repair.
I hesitate. Should I grab more territory and have a continuous empire, or should I go archipelago now? There is a MkIV planet adjacent to no alarm that I'll do better taking or letting out of alert; if I want to take the bridge, I'll need to take it. It would cut all BridgeIV-A and A' but there is other bridges between RingIV and RingV. However, I'll be adjacent to two planets adjacent to the core worlds around Ice's lair.
Okay, let's go empire and raise this AIP!

11:21:24
One more step on RingIV. Full turrets deployed.
Reprisal level 2 turned into a near 850 ships wave... on RingI (ASC). Great.
Here is the plan: fleet will rush toward ASC (I'll use transports... for this time. The road is pretty long... 11 hops, actually.) while the raiders will start to neuter the MkIV world on RingIV.
11:24:24
The transports made it just in time. The wave is only tachyon microfighters (almost all MkII, but the AI tech is I... strange) and two Plasma SShips.

11:30:09
40 Marauders spawned on RingIV/MkIV while my whole fleet was fighting the MkIV missile frigate armada here. They think I'm weakened by the fight? Not enough for them to take me. I wreak this MkIV Needler GPost and I'm coming for you.
Oh! The AI just reinforced the planet with 75 ships. Mostly frigates. Looks like this planetary AI-thread loves frigates.

11:31:43
Marauders and AI cleaned from the planet. OCStation built (military, of course).
However, I'm facing a little logistic problem: this planet has two wormholes and I don't have enough tractor turrets. Should I take one tractor from every hostile wormhole? 10 MkI seems too much. Let see. Each turret has 31 tractor beams, and regular waves these days have between 200 and 250 ships. 9 tractor turrets are able to hold 279 ships: it's okay for this AIP level. I have a total of 9 hostile wormholes (the two on Back are aligned and count as one; nomads don't use tractors) and I wish to have some on my homeworld (two wormholes). I have 96 MkI tractor turrets; if I want to put 9 on each, I'll be short of 3 turrets. I may consider homeworld wormholes less important ; I would put 10 on each 9 hostile wormholes (changing barely nothing), and distribute the 6 remaining on each home wormholes. Or I could unlock the MkII tractors for more turret cap and much more tractors, but I don't feel the absolute necessity of injecting knowledge in turrets right now.
For now: scavenge home's tractors.

11:41:05
The last AIP reducer is gone. I'm now stuck beyond of 200. RingV is mostly tachyon-free. Planet adjacent to Ice's core were easily neutered (they are <= MkII)
However, threat climbed up to 800. I remember many MkII but at least some MkIV. I don't know exactly where they are, but I'll find them. Or they'll find me; it depends! :D
Some high mark raiders were sent to rebuilding but my metal is nicely keeping up. (Yeah, early game low economy was really bad luck.)
I need to continue the core diving.

11:42:24
Disassemblers on RingV. SForce canceling threat cleaning. (No ship swallowed, they were just passing by, maybe going for the raiders' strike.)

11:50:15
EtherJets were doing some threat grabbing. Raiders assassinated two alarms to let me pass through (achievement related). I'll be able to grab RingV's A-prime and ARS.
Nomad 4 is taking a beating. Everything would be fine if the 34 Fire's MkIV space planes weren't radar dampening my fortress... Sounds like threat backstab. Fortunately, they hesitate to give the final blow and Ice's TeleThings keep suiciding on lightning turrets surrounding the WJammer OCStation.
11:51:43
Nomad 4 is fine. The fortress did help.
First step on RingV. Next step will be A-prime and ARS. Let's do this before the hourly report, for the sake of showing off.
And still in the path of showing off, let's build a missile silo and a MkI lightning warhead here instead of bringing home's one: this next A-prime/ARS has an Ice bunkerer that I don't want to bother busting "by hand". (However, a cloaker starship will be brought from home.)
Nomad 4 continue to tank Ice's teleporting stuff.
With all my scouts on the South-East quarter of RingIV and RingV, I can see the threatfleet passing by BridgeIII-B and massing for a backstab on my frontiers on RingII and RingIII. EtherJets on their way.
11:55:17
Wohoo! Pile of pain traded against pile of dust and one pain token (+1 AIP)!
Let clean this before admiral's arrival. You've got 5 minutes!
11:57:47
Ha! That's what I call cleaning a mess! This bunker was setup in no time like if it always belonged to us!
Some disassemblers passing by? Bha! Probably nothing.
(seconds latter)
Twins detected, one hop away.
How long does it takes to build an armored warhead? How many?!? Okay, forget about it. Leave the bunker, we'll take it latter.
11:58:04
Twins passed the wormhole. Everybody fall back!
11:58:36
The twins snapped their... things... and the bunker is ashes. 75 Riot Starships and 20 Missile Guardians applause.
Sniper turrets scrapped to make them leave sooner.
What? Nomad 4 station was destroyed? I didn't even get a "station under attack warning"! Well, two spire starships (MkI and II) and a MkIII StarLeech are dancing on its remains. So bad the planet is moving away from my territory. So much for the hourly report.

12:00:00
Weeeell... No-that-bad hour, despite its messy ending. First step on RingV. Ice's home is in reach and there is no more CSG, but I still have some tasks on my checklist. Like the ZArchives and maybe an AdvFacto.
HaP: 163 (wow, the hacking team has been busy!)
AIP: 258 (wow, the AI too!)
Knowledge: 23,000 (+ 4,750 available) (wow, the science team too!)
Empire: 19 planets (1 home, 1 nomad (+1 busted) plus 17 others), 8 on RingI, 2 on RingII, 2 on RingIII, 4 on RingIV, 2 on RingV.
Unlocks: same plus translocator starships (from ARS).
So bad I can't make a precise energy checkout now.
Wana know what? I'm thinking I'll expand the achievements. I'm here to get tech, not to consume it. I think I'll add "save as much knowledge as possible". Also, the "download ALL stealth DBUps" seems more and more in reach ; I think I'll bust Ice's home even before being in reach of Fire's home, capture it and use the AIP/HaP to download the remaining stealth DBUps. (I need 3 more, the next will cost 168,75 and I don't want to calc the total!) But maybe then I'll need to use more knowledge... Maybe "save K" would rather be "don't use the ZArchives' content". We'll see.
Red.Queen? What do you think? You setup this challenge in the first place.
Hey! Maybe if I manage to achieve this, you'll grant yourself some sort of bonus in your next AAR, like if I was actually working for the Red.Queen... Don't know how to justiry it yet... We'll see latter. ;)
(Oh, I already imagine crossed AARs where each player have a game on its own but where consequences impact next mate's setup... Calm down, Ppk, finish this one first!)
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 16, 2015, 08:39:44 PM
HotNotes

12:04:19
Alarm death-triggered on RingVI. MkIII TeleThings were on my OCS's FField before the raiders; they put a dent in it but fortunately they were handled before worst.
Makes me think I should put mines just around the FField because the TeleThings tend to stuck themselves to it.
12:05:09
A MkII wave warp on RingIII. Half of my fleet was waiting for it but 40 vampires managed to slip past the tachyon (tractors are useless against them) and sucked my ECollector. Fortunately, I'm far from low energy and they can do nothing to my command station.
12:05:50
The MkIII counterattack wave (from Ice's bunkerer SubCom) warped somewhere on RingI. The naked ecoII OCS was quickly killed by the telethings but the other half of my fleet is in the place. Yet again, no energy problem.
12:07:15
As the remains of the counterwave are cleaned, and before I even chose my next move, a 300 ships wave declares on RingIV. The IA is clearly taking advantage of its new Tech allowed. I wonder if I won't take some data reserved for the Red.Queen to defend the whole Knowledge booty (and survive enough to loot the rest). I was tempted to unlock all the stealth models to MkIII but it would cost me 20,000 K.
Let's do a full analysis of the hull types used by the AI.

Ice has TeleBS and STeleLeech (medium), TeleRaider (ultra-light), Infiltrator and LGatling (swarmer), ZEBomber (neutron), Armor (ultra-heavy), TachyonMF (light).
Fire has VClaw, EyeBot, Raptor and EJet (refractive), Infiltrator, NYCommando and ACannon MPod (swarmer), SPlane and NYShrike (ultra-light), ZMedicF (medium), Chameleon (close-combat).
Fire's SStealth BShip has been corrupted. Fire and Ice have both Infiltrator.
So: refractive (4), swarmer (4), medium (3) and ultra-light (3) are big targets. The other hull types have only one model each (but the light, which has TachyonMF and StdFighter).
Among the turret types, MLRS has swarmer and ultra-light, Missile and Sniper have both medium and ultra-light, Lightning has refractive and ultra-light. Laser can help against refractive and Flak against swarmer.
It's also to be considered that some ships are immune to tractor beams and others teleport: VClaw (refractive), SPlane and TeleRaider (ultra-light), TeleBS and STLeech (medium).
EyeBot and VClaw are immune to missiles, however Missile and MLRS turrets have no bonus against them.
The Missile and Sniper turrets have bonuses against all tractor-immunes/teleporters (but the VClaw, which is immune to missile; this is another problem); thanks to their great range, they would be able to target everything between the wormhole and the OCStation. One the right target and at MkI, Missile turret has (144*3/12*3=) 108 DPS and Sniper has (188/8*5=) 117 DPS, but sniper has half the cap of the Missile, so half the cap-DPS. However, sniper can target vampires and has full armor piercing; let see... TeleRaider and SPlane have none, STLeech has 12 at MkIV and TeleBS has 36 at MkIV. Higher range is irrelevant: most foes can teleport or cloak and stab. However, sniper has higher K-cost; if for more K I get less DPS, I'll take the Missile model. Choice done.
Then, what for the swarmer and refractive? For the swarmer, I already have the MkV Flak. The next choice will be around refractive. Laser, MLRS or Lightning? Lightning's bonus against ultra-light would be more rarely used because most ultra-light in this game are tractor-immune. MLRS would also cover the already-covered swarmer, handled by the Flak; no overkill is needed. So what? Laser? Lame vanilla laser? Well, it has bonuses against bombers (Lightning too) and most starships (while none against the plasma starship, so bad). However, lightning, while having the same bonus against bombers, has also a bonus against ZEBomber, which is part of the thread. But, hey! Why do I bother? More than the half of the stealth models (all except the Infiltrator, ACannon MPod and NYShrike, in fact) are refractive! I take them both! Lightning and Laser!
What?!? The lightning turret has 200 armor? Why haven't you said it before?! I would never again put them under a FField! And their range isn't that short! Don't make the same mistake as R.Q: never trust a tooltip.

Other question: are high mark turrets knowledge-efficient? What is the best: unlock two MkII turrets or one MkII and MkIII? Arh, wiki data is outdated.
The three short-range/non-AoE turrets (Needler, Laser and MLRS) have radar dampening at higher mark, MkIII being slightly better than MkII but MkIV being equal to MkIII.
They have all linear DPS (MkN being N*MkI dps). However, the flak is strange: it gains range with mark (4,000 + Mk*1,000) and its DPS is sub-linear. Maybe because it has AoE damage, however it's not written anywhere (only in the "lore" description).
Well, flak and sniper aside, let divide this by knowledge cost. MkII cost 750 and is worth 2*MkI; let say 375 K for the equivalent of 1 MkI firepower. MkIII cost 1,250 and is worth 3*MkI, which makes 416.666 K for 1 MkI. MkIV cost 1,500 for 4*MkI: 375 K for 1 MkI. Conclusion: MkIII is more expansive firepower than MkII; MkIV is equivalent to MkII. So sad, I wished "deep research" would be more interesting than "broad research". I would be if MkIII would cost 1,000 instead of 1,250.
I'll do the calc for the needler, just to see. MkII cost 500, so 250 per MkI firepower; MkIII cost 1,000, so 333.3 per MkI; MkIV is 1,250, so 312.5 per MkI. Conclusion: MkIII and IV are less interesting than MkII. SO SAAAD!
However, Sniper and Spider MkIV have the same K-cost as MkIII (and MkI spider has a non-zero K-cost). I won't do the calc, but these two appears more interesting to research in deep, but they are overall more expansive and less powerful (I'm speaking of raw firepower).
That means I would do better taking more MkII, but if I venture to unlock MkIII, the MkIV would be as K-efficient as other MkIIs.

Then? Conclusion? Missile against teleporters and tractor-immune; Flak against the swarmers; Lightning and Laser against the cloaked. Great! For now, only MkII; total K-cost is 2,250.
However I don't know if the energy will keep up. At least I'll replace the MkI Flak by the MkV: to energy consumption won't change; but I would like to pile MkI and II for the other, at least on the frontier worlds.

Staring at the galaxy map, looking at all the planets I would capture, thinking at all that AIP I would rise... I think I'm not done with turret unlocking. Coool!
Long long play (omagad, many hours for less than 10 minutes ingame). I love this game!
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 31, 2015, 06:58:22 AM
HotNotes

New objective: save as much knowledge as possible, at least two ZArchives worth of K (2*9,000). The role-play reason will be explained.

12:15:04
Wave tanking, threat cleaning, turret building... And still some thread is hanging out there. The number of ships displayed on the top-right of the GUI (350, currently) is quite misleading because there is many starships, guardians and high mark ships.
Now that the bigger part is done, I'll send all my cloaked fleet on Nomad 4 with a bunch of RRebuilders. The rest of my fleet would continue the threat cleaning duty.

12:39:52
Nomad 4 has been rebuilt and enhanced. My stealth fleet is back merged into my main threat cleaning / wave tanking fleet.
Threat is still at 350 ships, oddly enough, but the total strength is far below what it used to be.
Waves are scary-big these days. My fleet is going back and forth to defend here and there, but I will soon need some defenses improvements. 250 AIP is quite unusual for me, and I plan on rising it again.
However, I can still use my fleet for defense and letting offense to star-raiders, while being able to receive the threat and reprisal they would induce. If so, I'll need to change the OCStations along the way diving to the core from military to logistic. The speed boost will be useful for reaching waves from a side to another, but logistic OCS have less health and are much more sensitive to plasma siege starships. Or I could unlock the ZSTManipulator. Or I could gateraid the planet just after my ASC and having RingI mostly untouched by waves. We'll see.
Main problem for now: energy. I'm running one metal converter and I'm below 10,000 energy. The armored warhead is still near my Home OCStation, still eating 50,000 energy. I'm also supporting 3 fortresses at 90,000 each. I need more planets, but more non-frontier planets. I could also unlock the Economic OCStation MkIII, but it would take me away from the Knowledge achievement and I won't have place to put all them 6; I could replace the MkII but it still would be waste. My metal eco isn't bad, right now, so I guess I can run some metal converters until I find something better... like a ZPGenerator, maybe. There is one on RingVI, and it's near my path.

12:41:19
Gate raided on RingI after the ASC. Aaaand... there is a warp gate guardian. Crap!

12:42:11
AI OCStation blew up on the RingV side of the BridgeV-A, adjacent to my territory. There is a core starship constructor for a MkV heavy bomber. Nice, I'll blow fortresses with this!
Full fleet deployed; SForces are seen nowhere but I wait their strike before taking this planet.
Big 400 ships wave MkII declares... on RingI, ASC world. Sweet. Looks like the AI understand my plans. So bad: my raiders were chasing the WGate Guardian seconds before it declares.
Better back my fleet now (so much for the SForces bait) and transport it to  RingI as soon as possible. I hope it won't be too late. I have 2:30 until warp.
Crap! Not enough energy for the transports. Second metal converter online!
12:44:54
Wave hit ASC world. Transports are 5 hops away. TeleRaiders have been unloaded and sent ahead (why have I loaded them in the first place?); raiders are already here. Near 100 teleThings are on my FField.
12:45:18
Well, not that bad. MkI/II Missile turrets in range of the OCStation handled the teleThings (they have no bonus against TeleRaiders but it's ok); the tractor beams kept the non-teleporting things under the fire of my other turrets and the military OCS is keeping away the remaining starships (ah, not the Zenith one) while the missile slowly hammer them.
My TeleRaiders teleport in but the battle is already over. I panicked for nothing; looks like MkII turrets were a good investment.
Transports sent back to RingV.

12:48:16
Neutral planet on RingVI captured. (Core bomber starships are mine!) The SForce hasn't shown up.

12:49:56
An EJet threat-grab mission went well when 18 HRFighters came to... help? The "battle" took less than a second: the threatfleet was passing by the wormhole, the EJets did a warp-in/warp-back and the starships got naked in a blink. According to HRFighters this was a battle and they decided to join it. ::) (Minutes latter: a MkIV flagship and a MkI spire starship was too much for them... So sad...)

12:53:48
Wohoo! Full fleet assault on RingVI is shaking the hornet nest like a pinata party! A looooong procession of MkIII SFighters escaped during the ion-raid and is beelining toward RingIII, while a 600 ships Fire wave declares on RingII and a 450 ships Ice reprisal declares on RingIII (there is the core TeleRaider constructor on Ice's target). 2:30 before the pinat'hive explode. MkIII turrets? Nha, never mind, it'll be fine.
However, all turrets weren't deployed on the targeted planets. I pause-built them (one more MConverter); 30 seconds or 1 minute build time? I've got the metal; it'll be fine.
12:56:36
Ah, Fire's VClaws assassinated the ECollector; 3 MConverters ordered.
Oh, Ice's TeleThings are on the power-naked core constructor... 3 MConverters NOW!!!
Good team work from Fire&Ice. (I love this game!)
12:56:44
Phew! (Ouf!, as I would say) They were targeting the OCStation, but while it's a military one, it tanked the brief beating. Everything is fun... but my metal. Well, still 1,000,000 in bank, but I was 3,000,000 minutes earlier.
Yeah! The MkI/II missile turrets are doing wonders. I was afraid to see a bomber starship coming on the FField but they finished the TeleThings quickly and made short work of the offending starship.

12:58:01
RingVI assault is done; the other end of BridgeV-A is neutered. I have to admit that the FField immune VClaws + Infiltrators are good to hinder enemy firepower when the full fleet attacks a GPost+FField+fleet combo (they attack the fleet under the FField while the rest of my fleet hammer the FField through the GPost and spare them some reprisal). Maybe it's not a big difference, but it helps.
This bridge end has a core VClaw fabricator. Good! However there is an alarm on a MkIV bunkerer SubCom near. On the other side, there is the ZPGenerator just near, but a MkIV obstructionist SubCom one more hop away. Troubles on the way.

12:59:45
I lack energy. Really. I'm running 5 MConverters and I'm still in need of turrets and energy. Too many frontiers. I need the ZPGen, badly.

13:00:00
O.o 1,370 ships CPA declared on this precise second. (There already is a 600 ships Ice wave on the far side of RingIV, but it's routine.)
Long hour. A lot of theory and planning. But things are going along the road.
HaP: 195 (enough for the next download)
AIP: 290
Knowledge: 28,500
Empire: 21 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 18 others), 8 on RingI, 2 on RingII, 2 on RingIII, 4 on RingIV, 3 on RingV.
Unlocks: same plus Laser, Missile and Lightning turrets MkII, plus HBomber SShip MkV (fabricator).
When did Fire unlocked armor booster? This would fit more for Ice...
Nomad 2 and 4 are orbiting outside RingI, as always, and 1 and 3 are between RingV and RingVI. I'm a bit disappointed with their circular and regular pattern; I expected more chaos with them. Anyway, I'll need to deal with Nomad 1 and 3 because now I have a good graps on RingV and they are routing toward this "diving head". (More drilling than diving, after all.)

13:00:40
Nomad 1 is in wormhole-range of my territory, linked to a less-defended non-frontier world. Luckily it's very lightly defended because it was (almost?) never alerted. I has a 100 ships barracks and a MkIV SSSphere GPost. I'll also remove its warp gate, but I'm not sure if I'll capture it. At least not now.
Oh, and 78 RFighters joined a EJet threat-grab mission on RingIII. No SShip is fearsome here and they are numerous. Let's see how they'll do.

13:02:46
Nomad 1 WGate is down, but 200 TeleThings are on my raiders! Where do they come from? Threat? Or maybe Ice's RingIV warp? Probably because this wave has no TeleThings (unless TeleBS, but there is no TeleBS on Nomad 4). But if it's the case, they took the long path around the galaxy by RingV. Strange behavior. !!fun!! behavior!
I know that attacking ships have a logic where they can go for another target if the current planet is considered overwhelmed, but with teleporting ships, it made a very... !!emergent!! situation.
On RingIII, the HRFighters did a good job: they're 70 by now. But... and this but is huge... they are in route toward the RudeGesture SubCom's OCStation... which is a Troop-Accelerating one... with 10,000 strength sleeping around...

13:03:38
Fleet cleaned the tele-mess on Nomad 1; RingIV wave was handled by the turrets (the OCS was near-naked, though).
Funny fact: while the HRFighters are pinat'hive-ing the Troop Accelerating SubCom, SForce are passing by without taking care of them.
Time for a SF-update: 2 H/K, 16 Disassemblers (8 MkI, 8 MkIII), 20 MkII Missile Guardians, 75 Riot (only?), and many MkIII ZMedicF (around 30), some Chameleon, Bombers, Gatlings (around 30 each) and 75 MkII/III ZEBombers. Oh, and maybe these 150 MkIII Standard and Tachyon-micro Fighters ahead of the twins are SForces too. Fearsome. They are routing toward the core, maybe on their way to Nomad 1. I need to take this SSShpere GPost quick!

13:05:55
Done and out.
Intel confirmed SForces data. Fearsome, indeed.
I decided to build fleet and starship warpgates on my deepest world (11 hops from home), the one with the core HBomber SShip constructor.

13:07:47
I wish I could go out with my raiders and take down some alarms and command stations to progress in my diving, but the SForce is out there and I'm forced to wait for the CPA.

13:13:02
CPA hits. 1049 MkII ships freed + 321 MkII ships from SReserve.
A 800 ships carrier and a 250 one spawned on RingI; they can go for the ASC or for Nomad 4, and I can't defend none right now. That makes about 300 ships in CPA still invisible.
A near-400 ships will soon warp on Back; I hope it will hold it alone (fortress supporting).
An alarm was destroyed soon before, allowing me to make my first steps on RingVI. I'll do this after this CPA fighting.
13:13:30
The carriers on RingI seems to separate, the 800 toward Nomad 4 and the 250 toward ASC. Good; I prefer losing Nomad than the ASC.
A regular threat cleaning is processing on Nomad 1, between RingV and RingVI. (It was released by the last alarm raid.)
13:14:18
Threat mostly cleaned on Nomad 4; the SForce warps back. My fleet flew but many EJets came after them and grabbed many of my ships; fortunately, many swarmers (ACannon MPods and Infiltrators).
Energy brownout: 30 VClaws in the big wave of Back was attracted by the ECollecter like flyes by a lamp. But the lamp loose, this time. MConvertors ordered on home.
13:14:51
Back took a beating; the OCStation fell and many turrets were destroyed, but the heavy fire-rain of my turrets hammered them flat. When the last survivors were insta-killed all at once by the snipers, the two MkII plasma SShips decided do turn back, but they were caught up by the long range missiles. The fortress is already repairing all it can around it; it's good support unit.
When I look back at the fight, I think Fire has a good support team with the ZMedic and the ArmorBoosters, however I think the ZMedic are less efficient within the fight, and more interesting in post-fight, or as escort and occasional extra tankiness on retreat. But the ABoosters in the hands of the AI are a true pain (I'm fighting against some in a parallel game with a friend).

13:15:08
325 ships carrier detected on RingVI. 350 Fighters MkIII are threat-pilled on RingIII (the other half of the alarm-threat); I'll send the EJets, one day.
Also, I remark they tend to pile up on the clockwise side of RingIII. It's not stupid because to go from RingIV to RingIII, it's the shortest path. Maybe I should fortify this side rather than the other.

13:17:41
This time, while the EJets were grab-raiding threat, Marauders showed up (instead of HRFighters). I'm going to make a second and last cloak-grab raid but then let them deal with the other humans.
A near-500 ships Ice wave declared on RingIII... anticlockwise side; the one I just lightened in benefit for the clockwise side.
My cloaked ships are already in route to help Nomad 4 (and my EJets are threat-grabbing), and I can't dedicate all the rest of my fleet to this wave because the carrier on RingVI will backstab me just when the wave will warp. So I'll need to defend RingIII with a third of my fleet. I hope it will stand the knock.

Side note: I remember this parallel game with a friend where he went full fleet and I went full starfleet, the Leeches MkI-IV were much more effective than I supposed in the first place (seeing only the MkI) and I ended up with near as many fleetships as him. I think I'll steal some Knowledge from the Red.Queen's share and get some high-end leeches; it would be much more K-efficient than unlocking fleetships myself. However, it'll require one more MConverter (I'm already running 3).

13:20:37
The wave on RingIII was handled well, but I doubt the turrets alone would have saved the TeleRaider fabricator from the TeleThings or the starships.
("would have saved"? I wouldn't have written it on an English school test... Is that correct?)
Nomad wormholes changed. Nomad 4 continue to turn along RingI; the carrier follow it; my stealth fleet is ordered to go further. Nomad 1 and 3 are no more an annoying bridge (and a defense perimeter flaw) between RingV and VI.

13:21:06
The carrier on RingI, just after the ASC, unloaded its content as my invisible fleet pass by. The EJets are ordered to stop and deal with the unloaded fighters. Wait a second; they're not as many as the carrier told me they are. *check the planetary summary* 75 Raptors MkII? They're not tractor-immunes! Stick to the plan!
(seconds latter)
Ouch! I didn't notices the raptors have bonus against cloaked/refractive (they are refractive themselves, strange).
However, 32 HRFighters warped in.
Oh, and I've got two eye's warnings! Ah, it's ok, there is just two eyes (Parasite and Ion) on RingI, on my stealth-fleet path. Never mind. (You can't kill what you can't see.)

13:25:10
Pre-battle summary.
All my stealth fleet (but EJets) are on Nomad 4 (near 2,300 str), in front of a big part of the CPA (near 3,350 str).
The Ejets (near 600 str) are in front of the rest of the last alarm threat (1,000 str).
There is a part of the CPA (1,800 str) in front of my lonely ASC.
On BridgeV-A there is some CPA (more than 4,500 str) against my main fleet, fleshly StarLeech-enhanced (8,900 str).
On the eco side, I'm running 6 MConverters and my metal is below 1,000,000 but with a +3,400 m/s (no salvage).
Ready for the big fight?

13:28:35
Threat cleaned on RingVI, few casualties on my side. Interestingly, my leeches reclaimed a full cap (19) of ZEBombers MkIII and 66 SFighters MkIII, and some other little things. The Impulse Emitters MkV (their core constructor was destroyed a long time ago) are now 24 (out of 96).
Threat on RingIII flew when my EJets warped in; the EJets were assigned to another threat-grabbing mission on RingII, counterclockwise, this time.
A 400-ships Fire wave declare on back. It's far, my fleet is away, Back is well defended: it will hold without fleet support.
MFrigates (MkI-II) have been loaded into a transport and sent to threat-clean the world after the ASC: this threatfleet is mostly made of SFighters and Raprots and the frigates have bonuses against both.
Meanwhile, my main fleet will take out two OCStations on RingIV and fall back (hopefully) before SForces arrival, then capture them, then neuter the new frontiers.

13:31:41
Wave on Back stood. Some EyeBots put some FField-immune missiles in the OCStation and the ECollector, but nothing was destroyed.
Threat-grabbing on RingII went good; starships are still an issue, though.
The RingVI side of BridgeV-A is neutral; the MkVI world with the ZPGenerator is being neutered; the SForce is still patrolling two hops away on RingV. Strange...

13:32:07
The MFrigate assault on RingI went badly: there is still a lot of SFighters and Raptors MkII, and a StarLeech reclaimed 34 MFirgates MkII. I'll need to punch it harder; I'll do it latter.

13:35:38
The ZPGenerator world is neutered and neutral; my raiders took down a MkI ion cannon on the A-prime world that I plan on taking soon and the SForces decided to come and see. Two worlds fell and they didn't give a sh*t; some raiders destroyed one little thing on a A-prime and they all come after them. AI logic... Anyway, time to fall back.
Ow, rude: all (almost) my leeches have been swallowed! (one MkVI and some MkI-II haven't) My metal is away from full, sadly.
Ice declare 250 ships wave on RingII. My fleet has nothing to do for now; I'll wait for the SForce to get out of the neutral territory before capturing it, so I can go help on RingII.
Threat on RingI after the ASC are spawning a warp relay (52%, nothing important).
Makes me remember that my stealth-fleet and the remains of the last CPA are still waiting around Nomad 4.
Oh, while swallowed ships don't count in ship cap (I remember beta-testing DoW and reading many complaints about the new Power Slavers, leading to this feature), they still count in the energy balance? Mantis?

13:39:04
Wave on RingII is ashes, now. SForces are away from RingVI, but they seems to be in route toward RingIII, maybe RingII (clockwise side).
Threat on RingIII is spawning a warp relay? There is less than 1,000 strength... Maybe it's because they are here from a long time.

13:42:16
A Nomad wormhole change made the threatfleet displaced and I thought it would be a good idea to attack them just as they get out from the wormhole, away from any GPost. However, Infiltrators and ACannon MPods (swarmer) were quickly destroyed by the very numerous MkII MFrigates (x6 against swarmers). However, the SStealth BShips tanked a lot, even if they are now almost all dead. The my VClaws are either (almost) all alive (MkII) or half-reclaimed (MkI) but while they are missile-immune (I didn't remembered) they are holding the distance quite well. The MkIII StarLeech will be a concern on the long term, however, and there is 300 MkII MFrigates left.
Albeit the fight took place in Fire territory, Ice is sending a 1,000 ships reprisal wave on RingIII. Needless to say my whole fleet is in route.
13:43:22
No more VClaws to defend Nomad 4. However, there is "only" 200 MFrigates left on the AI side... And some more VClaws, I admit it.
Fire trigger a 800 ships reprisal on RingV (oops, no turrets here; I'll need metal and energy!) 2:30 after Ice's one. I guess the MkIII ZReserve will be useful.
13:45:18
Ice's reprisal on RingIII was overwhelming. The TeleThings busted the FField, core constructor (TeleRaiders) and OCStation (energy brownout followed up). Looks like Ice targeted my attempt to mimic its teleporting ability. Time to handle Fire's one and protect the core Flak controller.
Arh! I can't build more MConverters on home. 10 of them, already?
13:46:49
Guess what? Three warp relays are spawning and Fire decided to trigger a 750 ships wave on the other side of RingV (at least it's not far away from its reprisal target).
13:46:58
Fire's reprisal is 4 MkI HBomber SShips and... near 800 MkII ZChameleon. My fleet's strength is 3 time greater, so I won't get the ZReserve.
13:47:48
Wow... the Flak controller was scratched but nothing more. Time to fun to the second Fire's wave!
13:49:27
Okay, this one was more schizophrenic and handled more easily. This severely delayed my RingVI captures, and I still need to make some threat-cleaning. Great!!!

13:52:23
I neglected the warp relays and captured the two neutral planets on RingVI. I now have a ZPGenerator (I scrapped all my MConverters. My metal is back to 5,000 m/s!Phew!) and a MkV VClaws! (Wohoo! Their icon is very different from the MkIV one) It's time to rebuild the StarLeeches and clean that threat! Oh, and turrets placement time! (Ah, tractor, tachyon and FFields, why aren't you capped per planet?)
I scrapped all the needler and MLRS turrets (the one that I let to MkI for bonus choices) because I was near to entirely eat my ZPGenerator! So lightning, laser and missile turrets MkI and II on every frontier world, and no more needler and MLRS. MkI flak have also been scrapped; the MkV is so much more energy-efficient. Inner planets are left with MkI snipers and MkII missiles. Back, ASC and the two nomads have a special autorization for full turrets deployment.
Well, this is much better, energy wise, and with the clever turret types choice (at least I cogitated (oh sweet, this word exists in English!) on this) I think the firepower isn't too diminished.
However, I'm lacking FFields and tractors. While extreme knowledge saving is a personnal achievement in this game, I'm still refraining from unlocking tractors MkII and some more FFields.
FFields on tractors, I can go without them. However, tractors are a key component of my turret strategy, so I really need more. However, I think unlocking the tractors MkII would be a bit overkilling. *check their K-cost* Oh!? They're less than 1,000 K!?! They are twice as resilient (health, armor), have more than two times more tractors and a longer range! (And their build time is longer but their metal cost is the same... strange.) Well, I think I'll get the MkII, after all. Sorry, R.Q!
Sooo... How will we share these new tractors? I have 15 hostile wormholes to defend (not counting the nomads and counting as one the planets where there is two lined up, and counting the two on Home). And I will have more. Can I plan for a grand total of 20 wormholes? Let see.
First, I'll allocate an equal number of MkI and MkII tractors on each wormhole. With 10 (5 of each), I can cover 19 wormholes. That may sounds a bit short for my project, but provided I tried to stay with 10 MkI tractor per wormhole, I'll double the current capacity and improved already existing tractor packs with range and number of tractor beams. So 5 MkI and 5 MkII per wormhole sounds fine.
Also, with this improvement, I think I can remove the FFields from the tachyon/tractor/flak packs; I consider that if they get crunched, they're worth (barely) nothing, and if they don't, they were useless. It's a bit extreme, but as we're not playing Fallen Spire in a bottleneck, I consider this acceptable.

13:52:48
Ouch. While my metal economy faceplant under the burden of the many turret relocations, Ice declares a 1,000 ships wave on RingIII (9 hops away from the head of my core drill). Turrets on RingVI are not deployed yet but there is no threat here to backstab... However, the risk is the ZPGenerator and the VClaws MkV. Well, just L-divide the whole fleet? It sounds enough. Let divide the fleet.
13:56:28
The half-fleet was there in time. However, the many TeleThings put the OCStation's FField down and let the Military OCStation itself at 35% before being hunted down by the fleet and missile turrets. The non-teleporting part of the schyzophrenic wave destroyed almost all the 10 MkI tractors but were managed by the fleet and the turrets. However, three Zenith SShips tanked the heavy fire and achieved the naked OCStation. Tough wave for a regular wave. However, there is nothing important here, and my energy grid is now able to handle much more ECollector failures.

14:00:00
I'll count the rebuilding planet as already rebuilt for the clarity of the hourly report.
This game is a long game (and the AAR writing make it even longer), but it's fun and, while at difficulty 7/7, the unusual (to me) AIP level stresses my defense skill and pushes me out of my low-AIP tracks. Great!
For this hour, more specifically, there were some progress toward the core, while much wave tanking and threat cleaning. Also, my thin "drill empire" is hard to defend at this AIP level, but it's thematic, and anyway, we're just at 7/7.
HaP: 247
AIP: 342
Knowledge: 26,750 (+3,000 available)
Empire: 23 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 20 others), 8 on RingI, 2 on RingII, 2 on RingIII, 4 on RingIV, 3 on RingV, 2 on RingVI.
Unlocks: same plus Leech Starship MkII, Leech Starship MkIII, Tractor Beam Turret MkII (4,750 K spent this hour).

14:00:03
Threat cleaned near RingII; the half-fleet is on its way to clean the warp-relay-spawning threat after the ASC.
Two threatfleets of 1,500 strength each are piling around Nomad 4 on RingI (and maybe more on RingII that I don't see). Threatening, indeed.
Note to self: don't try (again) to grab MFrigates with EJets; the frigates have a x6 bonus against them.

14:04:19
While threat is being cleaned on RingI, after the ASC, Fire declares a 1,000 whips wave on RingV, targetting the core Flak controller. Good thing I let the other half of my fleet on RingVI.
Ah, still not enough metal for the Leeches and VClaws... but soon.

14:07:13
Fire's wave was handled. However, the supporting fleet wasn't too much; the Raptors and VClaws are immune to tractors. This fight make me remember that there is still a big hole in my defense: tractors+tachyon take care of the regular and cloaked annoyance while the missile and snipers can protect the OCStation from TeleThings. However, the VClaws are immune to both tractors and missiles: they spawn, be uncloaked by the tachyon, pass the tractors and suffer minor injuries from the turrets, get away, under the missile turrets' range but don't care, eventually re-cloaked before being decloaked again by the Military OCStation, some are pushed back by its translocator ability but most manage to get under the FField. However, all they can do then is to assassinate the ECollector (the OCStation and the core controllers are immune to fusion cutters). Is that very important, now that I have a ZPGenerator? Maybe this hole can be let open.
Some raptors and other nuisances made it back to AI space. Pursuing them would put a core world on alert. I'll neglect them, for now.
The other half of my fleet is massing on Back, waiting for Nomad 4 to come in range and clean the threat around it.

14:10:24
Ice wave on RingIV, 1,200 ships. I'll never be able to continue my digging, this way.

14:14:45
Too much armor ships in the wave on RingIV. Fortunately, there is nothing irreplacable here. Near 50 armor ships escaped and joined threat.
Speaking of threat, the on I neglected to defend against this wave is spawning a WRelay on RingII. Many MkIII SFighters so I think a EJet grab would be enough.
Tachyon was carved on the adjacent planet on RingVI and a MkII Science lab was sent to scout the ARS: armor booster as a first choice, ZDevastator and NRailpod as redirection options. I'll save HaP and take the ABooster. However, I first need to take down two alarms, one on the middle world and one adjacent to a core world. We're carving ice, today!
That make me realize that all the MkIV core worlds are under control of Ice. Very appropriate for the turtle of the two.

14:20:47
Aouch!!! 3 MkIII and 2 MkIV raid starships (all I sent) was destroyed by the bunkerer on the middle planet; Ice declare a reprisal warning level 1 ("only"; but it's because the AIP is already pretty high). Anyway, all the alarms I wanted down are down; I can take this ARS and the middle world (with an AdvFacto) without triggering anything. Now, I just need to take them... while handling the WRelays that are spawning on RingI and RingII.
Arh! Nomad3 is in range of both my two worlds on RingVI and the ARS world. Guess what? Nomad 3 is an Ice bunkerer with an alarm.

14:21:29
Threat grabbed on RingII. Excellent mission: there is only the starships left and the EJets sufferet very few casualties.
The MkIII SFighters were grabbed in human territory and brought under the turrets's fire. Seeing that, marauders thought it would be a good idea to attack now.
On the other side of the galaxy, Fire sends in a 550 ships wave after the ZPGenerator. Fortunately, the Nomad wormhole is almost lined with the other wormholes, so if they warp there they would be handled by the turrets.

14:21:50
Aaaand Ice sends a reprisal wave just next to the ZPGenerator (750 ships), 30 seconds after Fire's one. Nice!

14:24:28
Epic battles everywhere! Wohoo!
On RingI, two hops after the ASC, one hop deep in AI territory: the threat that was spawning a Warp Relay followed Nomad 2 and my half-fleet pursued them. Forces are barely equivalent but a Parasite Eye will soon change the balance if I don't fall back on Nomad 2 fast enough.
On RingII, maybe the less epic, but still uncertain: the EJets lured the ungrabbable Marauders in the turrets, but the Dagger Frigate stay out of range and I needed to engage them at closer range, sacrifying most of my tractors. The fighting isn't finished.
On RingVI, the VClaws made short work of the ECollector. Fortunately, the ZPGenerator is immune to them. But not to the eyebots. My other-half-fleet managed them but there is still living fire out there! Starships, ABoosters and ZMedicF are quite resilient. Howerer, under my MkII FField, I think the ZPGen is mostly safe.
Ice's reprisal will warps in 15 seconds on the planet next to this one but around 50 MkIII TeleThings are already chewing the FField protecting the core VClaw constructor. I need to move my fleet sooner than expected!
14:25:13
Good bye, MkV VClaws. On the long run, Ice proved much more lethal than Fire. I admit I expected Ice to be much harder on defense. More than the half of its wave is MkIII, despite it announced a MkII wave.
14:27:10
Tough times.
7 Dagger Frigates are out-ranging turrets on RingII (Radar Dampening > Range is cheating!), Parasite Eye is cancelling Nomad 2 retailation, Ice on RingVI is utterly (discouragingly) overwhelming (I had to shut down my warp gates) and its EJets are tearing my forces and bringing them under Nomad3's MkIII ion cannon, two warp relays are spawning...
14:28:22
Ice now warps 900 ships toward RingIV. 3 minutes to prepare and metal is faceplanted.
At least, the Eye on RingI was GPost-killed with starships and the rest of the fleet can come and clean the planet. At least on thing not so bad.
14:28:28
Ice followup on the deepest RingV world (with core HBomber fabrocator). Forget about the good thing. Time to blow up a pair of DNodes. Nuclear option is slowly raising in the list of conceivable options.
14:29:25
A lightning warhead was emergency-built but couldn't save the HBomber fabricator. It couldn't even make a serious dent in Ice's army. 80 HRFighters spawned but didn't lighten the night.
14:31:23
RingIV's target of Ice didn't stand a chance. The two DNodes' metal is already swallowed by my fleet's rebuilding and the high-end starships aren't out yet.
I realize I'm really not tailored for high AIP games. Next time, I'll do it my way.
14:32:15
Oh, turrets on RingIV disbanded the wave! The OCStation was first to fall, but even without the military bonus, they managed to tear through the MkII/III army. Impressive. I think it's because this planet is much closer to its hostile wormhole; tractors and lightning did wonders.
But now the army on RingVI is climbing back to RingV. The economic OCStation on the middle won't last long. My fleet is gathering on RingIII, originally preparing for RingIV.
Oh, and just to achieve pissing me off: RingI is already reinforced and a part of this reinforcement turned to threat as my fleet was exiting this theater. All that for nothing.
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin May 31, 2015, 07:09:38 AM
Future of the AAR

I pilled up some sessions of play and posted them in one hotnotes bundle, but as you can see I'm still active.

However, I'll be away from keyboard home for the next week and won't be able to continue this game and post hotnotes soon.

Also, Red.Queen has been strangely absent from the forum. (No more AAR, no more ATransport hacking...)
This is not totally unrelated to what follows.
The Knowledge-saving achievement is weighting on this game. I think I'll be forced to use some to fight back the raising AIP. I'm definitely not accustomed to this level of AIP. We need to discuss how many Knowledge I should save in the end. At least the two SArchives will be untouched and delivered to the Crimson AI, but how many more? Well see.

See you (not too) soon, everybody!
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin June 25, 2015, 06:32:44 PM
HotNotes

15:12:29
Back in the game after a while.
Threat attacks! Waves wave! OCStations fall! Energy brownout! Metal faceplants! Wohoo!!!
One HRFighters' spawn to defend the trail of a threatfleet that wreaked three worlds in a row. One HMarauders' spawn after a big wave on Back that was near to kill the OCStation.
A total of 5 MConverters were deployed. 4 human OCStations fell in different places.
The MkII turrets were upgraded to MkIII (laser, missile and lightning) and panic-dropped during the rush of the battles.
Hard time for a "welcome back".

15:15:51
Fire launched a 1,000 ships wave on RingVI. As it was just near the planet I want next (the middle planet, with an Ice bunkerer), all my fleet was here (near-fully rebuilt). The funny thing is the second after it warped it, I got 1,000 cloaked ships on the planetary summary. One frame after, my tachyon beamed the pack and the stealth blob divided into 7 different ship types.
15:16:09
65 VClaws assassinated the ECollector and... whoops: brownout. Bring back a MConverter online!
Arh! One second too late. The OCStation was took down before (by a Heavy Bomber, BTW).

15:20:33
Ow crap! Ice declares a wave (1,350 ships O.o) to an economic world on RingIV, one step behind the frontier, because of a warp relay I didn't checked. Rude!
If I send my fleet, it will delay my attack on the middle world. But even if I do, I'll lose the OCStation (no FField, barely no turret), and maybe I'll have telethings roaming freely on RingIV.
My two warheads (lightning MkI and armored MkI) are near the wormhole leading to the middle bunker.
Well, anyway, I'm not totally ready to handle this assault, and I'll need to be fully dedicated to it. Okay, let's defend this planet that will fall anyway.
... and send the raiders against that damn WRelay!!!
15:21:46
The WRelay is down! Easier than a gateraid!
Well, maybe because the planet was neutered, tachyon-free, and maybe also because I sent it 3 MkIV raid starships. When you dedicate resources (and tech and time) to things, they often become easier.
15:25:31
The wave is ashes. The OCStation was instantly destroyed, but nothing wandered off. As it was an Ice wave, the fact it spawned at the edge of the gravity well and half its army teleported into mine, it was a bit easier to take it down telethings first and regular ships after.
Energy stood still (above 0 but less than 100, however); metal cost is afordable (not cheap, but affordable... My metal is still faceplanted, but the good income keeps things going). However, the time cost annoys me.
Let's run a simulation and see what the warheads can do alone.
Second later: wohoo! The MkI lightning (1 AIP) took down all the nasty GPosts! The pair of MkIII FFields are barely scratched, however, and the munition boosting OCStation is still a concern, but it just dropped from "hazardous big fight" to "routine duty" in a glimpse. The armored WHead is sent back. So much for getting rid of this 50,000 energy sink! ^^

15:31:02
Middle assault is going along. Fire declares a 800 ships wave to RingIII. Turrets are upgrading to MkIII (I hope the metal will hold the burden). It'll be fin.
15:35:14
Wave on RingIII destroyed the ECollector and the OCStation (no brownout, I build MConvertors just before) and the remaining wave retreated. Routine...
Middle is being captured. I'll need to spend some K in MkIII ships to benefit from the AdvFacto. The Red.Queen is still silent.

15:40:46
All my cloaked ships have been upgraded to MkIII to unlock them up to MkIV. There is Infiltrators, VClaws, ACannon MPods, EJet Tractors and SStealth BShip. I don't have enough energy to build them all right now (yep, even with the Zenith PGen), and I'm seriously planning on taking a second ZPGen. There is two on RingI, the nearest is two hops after Back and would cost 45 AIP to capture (2 planets + 1 alarm).
But for now, my target is the SArchive on RingVI. It used to have a nuclear eye but my MkIII/IV raider starships neutered it. However, the SArchive is adjacent to a core world with an OMDriver and an alarm. I threw my raiders at the OMD. I also destroyed the tachyon sentinels, but the MkV plasma starships were much more powerful against the raiders than planned. Ice declared a big reprisal wave: 1,700 ships to RingII; I need to send my whole fleet back... Next step is to actually take down the alarm on the core world, then capture the SArchive with a WJammer OCStation.
Oh, and Ice was already sending a 1,100 ships wave on Back. Let see how it do without a fleet (all MkI-III turrets + 1 fortress).

15:42:49
OCStation on Back fell because of the many telethings, but the turrets wiped the wave shortly after. (Holly nova! The fortress was destroyed in the fight!!!)
And it seems that a big part of my army will be in time for the reprisal on RingII.
However, Nomad 3 is connected to my territory and it has its warpgate. I need to handle it soon after the reprisal.
14:43:35
Oh gosht, the threat on RingVI backstabbed! It's 10 seconds before reprisal hit and my AdvFacto is isolated from my empire.
At least the threatfleet isn't enormous and it's not immediately going for the throat, but there is two plasma siege starships MkV that will be impossible to take out quickly.
15:44:07
Sounds like Ice's reprisal is only TeleRaiders MkIII. OCStation is ashes and I'm running 3 MConverters. Good thing my fleet is here.

15:52:24
Threatfleet on RingVI was handled some minutes ago.
Fire sent 800 Raptors on my ZPGen planet. Quite fun to see the fight. I reclaimed full caps of MkII and MkIII but some escaped.
I have three warp relays spawning. However, two of them are on RingI and RingII and adjacent to nomad planets only, so I won't bother hunting them. However, the last threaten Ring IV and V. I'll need to deal with this threatfleet.
Ouch, my metal is faceplanted.

16:00:50
Oops, I missed the hourly report. Never mind.
Two big fight took place in two far places: Back handled a big Ice's wave (Fortress and OCStation went down, but the wave was finally wiped; Lightning turrets are fearsome, maybe not in true DPS, but each time they hit the AI feels it), and I captured the SArchive with a WJammer after a big fleet fight. I love this game!
Also, the threatfleet building a WRelay on RingV was grabbed by EJets (MkI and II only; they're very efficient, sometimes).

16:00:00
HaP: 330
AIP: 425
Knowledge: 12,500 (Not counting the SArchive)
Empire: 26 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 23 others), 8 on RingI, 2 on RingII, 2 on RingIII, 4 on RingIV, 3 on RingV, 4 on RingVI and the one in the middle.
Unlocks: Laser, Missile and Lightning turrets MkIII (3,750 Knowledge); Infiltrator, VClaw, ACannon MPod, EJet Tractor and SStealth BShip MkIII (20,000 Knowledge).
All the goals for this hour have been fulfilled! Juuust in time, but fulfilled! The ASC, the AdvFacto and the SArchive! Wohoo!
And damn, turrets are K-cheap! Well, I would need a second ZPGen to handle them all, but... Wait: 4,500 Knowledge and 45 AIP for three caps of MkIV turrets? Deal! That will be my new goal! And I think it won't be difficult, because RingI is already almost neutered.
On the other side of the galactic workdesk, I have one last SArchive to take, but on the far side of RingV (not counting the DGLair right on it). Maybe I'll take the two nomads and rope-drop on it. So sad the route of the nomads are so predictable, but it could serve me. However, taking the two nomads sounds like an overkill. Nomad 1 is already neutered; I didn't took it because it has the Beacon on it and I promised I won't capture it, but I can capture the planet and let the IA self-destruct the Golem. So this will be the second part of the plan: capture Nomad 1, drop on the second SArchive, kill the Dire Guardian Lair guarding it and WJam-capture it. Then I'll focus on killing Fire & Ice.
Also, I have some HaP stashed. I always end up being short HaP in early game, but once in late game, I tend to forget about it and win with a big HaP stash. I could make a design download right now. There is the Shrike, Plane and EyeBot designs out there, but they're deep in AI territory and the Hunters are still lurking. Maybe some border Knowledge raids, but I feel it would be more hassle for no true benefit. It would definitely be roleplay, however. I don't know, we'll see later.

16:07:03
Omagad! 3,700 ships in route to my ZPGen (Fire wave). I hope they're NYounglings!
16:09:46
Okay, they are ACannon MPods. No problem.

16:12:56
40 HMarauders show up after Nomad 1's cleanup. Poor guys.

16:13:38
Ice want to compete too in the ridiculously high numbers challenge: it declares a 2,500 ships wave to RingII. Full MkI-III turrets are already built on its target world, and I think I'll let things go.

16:15:19
Cloaked and TeleThings are delaying the Nomad's capture...
A CPA announce: 2,800 ships withing 13 minutes. Seriously? This is the size of a wave! Well, I know this time it won't be Minipods, but still... However, the global threat counter is already high. Maybe I'll invest in MkIV turrets earlier, and accelerate the capture of the ZPGen.
16:15:32
Oh! Nomad delay isn't a delay! It's a revenge! The cloaked and TeleThings were the vanguard of the SForces! Run for your life!
(Okay, only two starships have been swallowed.)
16:16:38
Ow crap! Ice's big wave was entirely made of MFrigates. I have no turret bonus against artillery and I bet they're immune to lightning turrets. Great!
16:18:12
What? HRFighters are roaming around RingVI? I didn't see them spawning. Oh, and they're kicking stray SForces' ships.
On RingII, the OCStation was quickly busteded by the carriers. The fastest ships of my fleet are already there.

16:20:53
Okay, Nomad 1 is fully disconnected from AI territory: I can (re)build it without the protection of a fleet.
And while my fleet is near RingI, I'll send it after the ZPGen. 7 minutes before the CPA!

16:25:44
Okay, BSN (Big Scary Numbers) are normal, now. Fire send a 1,700 ships wave to my ZPG, while my whole fleet is on RingI. Great.

16:28:01
Wohoo! Living fire all over the place! Big wave here, captures there, CPA everywhere!
Ahem. Sorry.
Rounded up: 2,500 MkII ships freed for CPA, +330 from SReserve. One 320 ships carrier on RingII, one 650 ships carrier on RingI (in the middle of nowhere... well, on top of the last AI-controlled ZPGen, but it should be a coincidence), aaand... that's it. The rest is invisible.
Ow, rude: the wave on my Ring VI ZPGen is retreating!
16:29:40
The CPA Carrier on RingII thought it would be a good idea to attack now. My turrets' answer: wrong!
Oh, and there is one on RingIV that had the same idea. This one seems more successful: tractor turrets cannot stop the overflowing bombers (both regular and ZElec, MkIII).
16:31:51
Is that a new carrier on the ashes of the RingIV world?
While I was neutering the planet just after my new ZPGen on RingI, I decided to gateraid it too.
Wow, impressive: the turrets on the busted planet on RingIV (the one that took 2 carriers, I think) finally defeated the AI ships: only Lightning (MkII-III) and Flak (MkV) are remaining.
Also, 1,250 ships wave to my RingVI ZPGen. Some ships of mine are already there.
16:35:25
Ouch! The wave on RingVI was not a joke: a lot of TeleThings and bombers. The tractor turrets were busy; a raid starships destroyed the OCStation; the MkII FField is 40%; some ships escaped. The ZPGen is untouched, however.

16:40:17
Turrets MkIV building everywhere, energy is overflowing, threat is high. I guess we survived the most part of this CPA. Well, it was not really dangerous, just wild because my empire is wide.
: Re: Outa Track MkII - Operation CoreDive
: Pumpkin June 30, 2015, 04:17:10 PM
HotNotes

16:41:11
Metal is low. Turrets on Nomad 1 aren't all built. I loaded all I can from my fleet on it (half my whole fleet); when the wormholes changed, some slow frigates were warped to Fire's homeworld instead, which has a gravity reactor (the core GPost version of the BHole machine).
Nomad 1 is also connected to Ice's homeworld, which has a core raid engine. (And the fact I loaded my fleet just in time is because I realized it first and reloaded an minute-older save.)
Threat backstab on RingIV; my turrets were MkI-II here, and maybe it's because they attacked here rather than elsewhere. Anyway, the turrets seems to be well placed enough to handle the attack. I'll upgrade them latter: I need
all the metal I can grab for Nomad 1's turrets (and fortress, one day).
16:42:16
Ow crap. While I remembered in time the raid engine belongs to Ice (and put my fleet near the OCStation, and not the wormhole), I didn't noticed the CPA's carrier on RingVI, just near the previously SArchive world, with the WJa
mmer (very lightly defended, due to metal shortage and WJammer). My second fleet half is in route, but I doubt the WJammer OCStation will hold more than a handful of seconds.
16:42:42
Nomad 1 is safe, despite the pair of beam starships (MkV). I gathered some MkIV ships; I hope they'll replace the loses, somehow, before my WGates get some serious reinforcements. (I'm speaking like an IA, lol.)
However Fire sent a 1,750 ships (regular) wave against a backyard world (barely no turrets) on RingIV. However, I can see no WRelay in range. A warpgate guardian, maybe? But I can't see it... I hope my half-fleet will handle the threat attack on RingVI fast enough to get there in time.
16:44:24
Nope. The battle on RingVI is lost. My metal can't keep up. All I have is a handful of MkI-IV firgates and full caps of MkIII-IV of missile turrets against 1,750 ships.
The raid engine will strike again and will be tanked if it doesn't strike harder than before. However, everywhere else, the pressure is too high. Too much threat (CPA wasn't over at all), regular waves are too bigs and I have to
o much territory to cover.
I feel like it's a defeat.

Closing Words

 :'(

I'll certainly write a post-mortem message (I'll edit the first post); I don't know when exactly. But for a short ending note: I'm far from comfortable on "high" (and it's not that high) AIP. Maybe the game pushed me a bit too much out of my tracks. Anyway, the Fire/Ice setup was great (for the first time I felt like fighting two AI, and not one with two homeworlds), the concentric wasn't new for me but I handled it poorly (very bad idea to go deep empire), using stealth ships was interesting but I think stealth could be a much more interesting (and useful) mechanism in human hands (for IA it's okay). The knowledge saving achievement, while interesting on the paper, wasn't fun to play: if the game gives you Knowledge for AIP, it's because you'll need Knowledge to tank AIP; trying to ignore this core, balanced rule is just a bad idea.
Anyway, I said I'll write it later.

No news from Red.Queen; I hope he/she is still alive, somewhere in this galaxy or another.