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Author Topic: Take Two  (Read 3999 times)

Offline Cinth

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Take Two
« on: August 01, 2012, 03:58:05 pm »
So I finally have another 10/10 at the point I started mt last AAR.  This one is pretty much the same in set up.

First off... my only gripe so far is with the Exos. I like the new mechanic with the Exos starting off stronger. I don't like the power creep they have when AIP doesn't go up. I sat with 15 AIP through 4 Exos and the first pair came with ~230 ships @ ~40k firepower. The last came with ~240 ships @ almost 100k firepower. So much for being able to control what the AI throws at me in the early game by keeping the progress low.  In one failed attempt, I did have Spire, Golems, and Botnet active. Needless to say, 3 Exos at the same time are especially brutal (game ended at the second Exo). The Botnet spawned 7 hops from my homeworlds, in a branch belonging to an AI homeworld so it wasn't even a planet I could consider grabbing early.  And I'm not entirely sure the Botnet would have helped much in defending against those waves anyway.

Ok, with that out of the way...

Seed 86909121, X map. All you see available is mine.  10/10 Tank(green)/ Vanilla(red) (Golems/Spire hard 4/4, DS 10, HRF 10, Fallen Spire 4, Z Trader)
no plots complex ships ultra low caps. 120 planets, 16 HW.

The campaign thus far...

Start by establishing the beachhead on Murdoch. Build the fleet caps and start raiding with Raid SS. First goal is to clear all Eyes and counter attack posts while the AIP is low (15). Secondary objective is to get scouts on most the planets. ~25 hours later... complete.

Goal 2: Free Dyson Sphere and get more K for unlocks.  I've popped 9 planets to clear a path from Murdoch(Ai controlled) to the branch that Dyson lives in. I've managed to grab 5 planets worth of K. Mk 3 turrets unlocked. I have 2 planets I can still gather K from without jeopardizing assets that will be critical for bolstering my defenses.

I have also grabbed 2 planets worth of asteroids, mostly Attritioners. 

Dyson so far has been disappointing. His gatlings are getting run over all the time. HRF is definitely a better set.  Hopefully when the NW branch is completely clear, Dyson will become a better overall help.

Right now I'm waiting on an Exo (206 AIP). Most the caps are built and waiting. 87%.... This one is going to be huge ::)
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Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2012, 04:30:23 pm »
Exo was ~125k firepower at 176 ships.  ~150 in the initial wave. The blockade at Murdoch handles it nicely. Time to rebuild and refleet. As soon as my Raid SS count gets back up, I'm going to go pop some more planets. Secondary is hitting the DCs and Co-Processors.
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Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2012, 05:37:42 pm »
For the curious... the AI will clear out isolated planets.

Funny enough though, placing a remains builder out away from your OC can keep AI units occupied rather indefinitely.

Almost done clearing the NW corner. 6 planets to go there.  Probably should pop the Co Processors next.
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Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2012, 06:46:28 pm »
Holy mother of micro....

I've cleared the NW area and moved into planets that don't have one shot constructors. I have and Exo building(75%) and I want to know that my line will stop any AI units from breaching that branch. If it does stop the flood, I'll have lots of goodies to use against the rest of the map.

556 AIP. waves come in around 30k ships. These feel a lot like Exos. Nothing I couldn't handle so far.

Still collecting K from my recent take... Unlocked a few more fleet ships, Fort IIIs and Econ Station IIIs. In the process of upgrading Econ Is to IIIs.

Things to do before the Exo hits.... build as many Fort IIIs at the blockade as I can. Produce as many Spirecraft as I can. Try to keep the fleet at caps. After the Exo (should I survive), pop the Co Processors and finish collecting the stuff from the NW area.


Edit: Exo 120 ships 192K firepower.  The blockade at Murdoch held.  Going to stop this game for now and pick it up later.
« Last Edit: August 01, 2012, 07:35:58 pm by Cinth »
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Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2012, 09:02:29 am »
And it is soon to start...

Shield network A is the last obstacle  remaining.  Soon I will take the fight to the AI homeworlds.

But first things first... those Co-processors. Then Network A. Then the first AI Homeworld (SW branch). Clear the AI presence from the SW branch and ride the ST down as far as I can.  The plan is to keep AIP below 800 if at all possible.
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Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Kahuna

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2012, 07:02:13 am »
LOL can't wait to see how many ships the Core Raid Engines send! Or the CPA Guard Post!
mmMMM-BWAHAHAHAHA

EDIT: IF you even get that far ;D
Logged
set /A diff=10
if %diff%==max (
   set /A me=:)
) else (
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Offline Cinth

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2012, 08:52:51 am »
Teaser  8) .

The shield network is down, so I can hit the HWs at anytime I need to.  Waves are damn near constant thought, 70k ships at about 50k firepower is nothing to sneeze at.  The last Exo I stamped out had almost 900 ships at 170k Firepower. It blended nicely with waves already deployed and probably ended up being over 200,000 firepower  :o.

If folks are interested, I'll post some more details when I get home later today.

Realized that the last game I AARed was lost early because I screwed up really big. Fixed that this go  8)

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Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2012, 11:27:10 pm »
Quote from: Kahuna on August 03, 2012, 07:02:13 am
LOL can't wait to see how many ships the Core Raid Engines send! Or the CPA Guard Post!
mmMMM-BWAHAHAHAHA

EDIT: IF you even get that far ;D

I hit those on both AI HWs when AIP was below 600... 71K ships from the RE and CPA (also killed a Parasite eye and an Ion Eye while I was there).  IF I was inclined I could finish the game now BUT... I still have planets to clear off.

I think I'm getting to the point where I'm going to start using Raids again to pop planets. Even with my econ being what it is, constant waves and strong Exos can keep my resources low for awhile. With the fleet there and able to assist in the defense, even Exo waves aren't able to do severe damage beyond the FF "fence". 

I'll grab some screens of a few incoming waves for giggles  ;D

 
Logged
Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #8 on: August 04, 2012, 01:29:52 am »
Just a few screens to throw up here....

In order I attached them:

Normal waves at that AIP....
4 minutes and change later .... Another wave... the first is STILL on the way ... The AI does a real good job finding ways to combine ways sent in short order ... nothing like 150k ships in your face  ::)

Few hours later an Exo ... 187k firepower ... need I say more?????

One down ....

And that is where I'll leave it for tonight  ;D
Logged
Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Kahuna

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #9 on: August 04, 2012, 02:45:21 am »
187k firepower? LOL
That means Golems and MarkV Hunter/Killers. I've never seen MarkV H/K. Does anyone know when the AIs start sending higher Marks of H/Ks? I think I've only seen Is and IIs. Maybe IIIs.
« Last Edit: August 04, 2012, 02:50:43 am by Kahuna »
Logged
set /A diff=10
if %diff%==max (
   set /A me=:)
) else (
   set /A me=SadPanda
)
echo Check out my AI War strategy guide and find your inner Super Cat!
echo 2592 hours of AI War and counting!
echo Kahuna matata!

Offline Cinth

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #10 on: August 04, 2012, 03:18:06 am »
Next Exo I will try and grab some data from the incoming waves ... it's at 85% and building fairly quickly so.. shortly

Edit: Full listing of HKs  ;D
« Last Edit: August 04, 2012, 03:27:50 am by Cinth »
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Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #11 on: August 04, 2012, 09:18:39 am »
This is about the point where the game window falls over at a 45 degree angle and starts flashing "TILT!" ;)
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Offline Cinth

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2012, 11:56:56 am »
LOL. That's probably an apt analogy. I had definitely hit the limits of what the engine can do smoothly... anything more than AI ships in Murdoch cause some seriously painful dragging.

Anyway  :D

Some random comments about my game so far.

Grabbing K from the NW branch of the map (and subsequently expanding my economy) is probably what is winning this match (and why I gave up on the last one). Having all those extra assets to contribute to defense is huge.

I did take advantage of the Trader.. but only for a few toys... No Ions this go (I can afford to place up to Ion IVs).

Aside from the few constructors I lost taking the CSG-A nodes deep in the SE/SW area, the only one shot items I have lost were golems. Artillery Golem and one Black-Widow Golem. They died during a particularly nasty Exo (had over 800 ships). The Hive golem has proved useful atleast. The remaining golems have pulled back from the front lines and sit unused.

I still have the ST to take but the AIP floor is over 500.... unsure if it is going to be worth the trouble to use.

I hate knowing that it is pointless to claim the planets I just cleared off from the AI... I hate backdoor hacker and I'm not willing to pull defenses off Murdoch to block that...

I control 45 planets. The AI controls 35.

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Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #13 on: August 04, 2012, 12:01:05 pm »
I really don't get how you can avoid dying against a Diff 10 Backdoor Hacker with 1400+ AIP.  I just don't get it :)
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Offline Cinth

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Re: Take Two
« Reply #14 on: August 04, 2012, 12:23:03 pm »
If I take Unafr (was an AI Homeworld) then I would have a backdoor hacker type situation....

I abhor Backdoor Hacker AIs. The fact that the AI still has easy access to that branch of the X means I can't keep the planets in it.  I am certainly going to take what I can from the region though :)
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Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.
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