That commander is still hacking.

[Trandrin]

Once more I challenge the commander and his hacking companion. The last round I met my end to raid engines. Lets see if I can do better.

Expansions: Zenith Remnant
Size: 80 Planet, Simple Hubs.
AI Types: Star Fleet Commander, Backdoor Hacker, 10/10
Ship Choice: Grenade Launcher
Seed: 832668268
Ships Available: All
Game Options: Normal, Normal, Full Fog of War
AI options: Human Marauders 5, Human Resistance 5, Human Colony Rebellion 5, Zenith-Trader/Miners/Dyson/Devourer all 5, Broken Golems Moderate
AI Modifiers: Schizo
AI Plot: Avenger x2, Astro Trains



00:01- I unlock my normal harvesters and grav turrets. Area mines and spire star ships follow. First wave of the AI includes Tanks and Snipers. Second has Polarizers and shield bearers. I discover the dyson world. I leave the scout on it to cause its spawn to clear worlds for me. The fleet hits Ifirev, this will be a bait planet leading to the home world/whipping boy. I expect alot of damage to come towards my home system in the coming hours. Fortification is underway to compensate.

The defense plan is as follows. I will have 1 warp gate, the bait planet, and a exo-wormhole allowing attacks on the home world. The Bulk of my defenses will be layed down heavily on the obvious vital portion of my empire. The three entry portals into the system proper are mined with nearly the entire cap of the Area mines and many normal ones. Layered grav/tractor turrets will hopefully break up some of the masses clamoring for my demise. Large numbers of spider turrets will also eventually be deployed to engine stall many before they ever get to me.

Honestly I expect this sort of defense approach to be unsustainable as time goes on. That is what the eventual golem or two will be for. I can take some AiP hits for them, and a Z-gen or two will be sure to fall into my hands to power them.

00:30- Heavy investments into the safety of my homeworld are going well. Scouts continue to fly forth to try and feed me fresh information. Scouts mk2, HBC mk1 are both unlocked. Desire for better scouting and HBC are always good investment.

The general plan for external worlds I wish to keep a hold of will involve warp jammers or gate raiding. Using the warp jammers will stop about 70 or so AiP from not having to gate raid.  Worlds of lesser importance will be sacrificed by having neither. They will buy time and cause large amounts of dispersion to enemy wave numbers.  A meager wave spawns to test the defenses. 3/4s of them die before they get halfway to the homeworld.

The mine wall is complete. I have spent all but 10 of area and normal mines around three wormholes on the home world. Raid Star ships tears the warp gate apart on Ticnobang, I will save up for a second and send them at a Data Center I have found. Scout examination of the worlds neighboring the dyson world reveal the extent of its damage. Those gatlings are going to town on the AI forces nearby.

The AI sends a wave at the Bait Planet. Per what will become normal it will die. Wave funnels to homeworld and in turn is scrapped. Most of my turrets never even fired a shot and 500 some ships died. Only ones to actually see combat were the long range missile and sniper turrets. This looks well for a decent defense. I send out a few raid star ships to destroy the DC. The job gets done. They don't make it out again but that is alright.

Hour 1-
Unlocks: Harvester mk2/3(Crystal,Metal), Grav Turrets mk1, Spire Star Ship mk1, Area Mines, Scout mk2, HBC mk1
AiP:25 Planets:2
AI Ships: Tank, Sniper, Polarizers, Shield Bearers.

Map Key: P1-Barracks, P5-Adv Factory, p7- Desired Planets p8-Co-Processors, p9-DC, p0-Golems



01:01- My forces blow up a barracks near the start of the hour sending 543 mk3 ships to attack me. A wave for 241 ships follows half a minute after. They both hit at relativity the same time. First 300 ships through the wormhole decided to snack on 20 area mines and became ash. Rest pushed forward through my endless fields of mines, all while being pelted on by long range missile turrets. Once they got into firing range of the bulk of my turrets and fleet ships they ceased existing. Re-builder and Engineer teams head to Ifirev to restore it.

A 332 ship wave is announced to the homeworld. All its defenses are rebuilt so the wave should hopefully die en-mass. It does exactly as it says on the tin. The wave dies right at the wormhole. My fleet is deployed to and takes Fimas. I encounter a weird situation where many ships just enter its system after I colonize and destroy it. Afterwards they are no longer threat or attacking ships? They then just move off to other systems. This was not a wave, maybe special forces being late to the party?

01:30- I rebuild the command station and unlock Spider Turrets. I place a few on all worlds to cause all sorts of trouble. I also unlock Zenith Star ships. Raid starships hit another DC and barracks throwing 545 ships at me. A wave happens right after for double trouble. Dyson gatlings meet the barracks spawn and begin tearing ships apart. They still make it to the homeworld were they are finally destroyed.

The Z-trader finally gets around to my world and I place a few goodies. Z-gen, Radar Jammer mk2, and 2 Orbital Mass Drivers. Another wave tries to get through the gauntlet of my homeworld. 500 ships and they died within feet of the entrance.

Map Key: P1-Barracks, P5-Adv Factory, p7- Desired Planets p8-Co-Processors, p9-DC, p0-Golems



Hour 2-
Unlocks: Harvester mk2/3(Crystal,Metal), Grav Turrets mk1, Spire Star Ship mk1, Area Mines, Scout mk2, HBC mk1, Spider Turret, Zenith Star Ship mk1
AiP:25 Planets:3
AI Ships: Tank, Sniper, Polarizers, Shield Bearers.

[Trandrin]

02:01- I break another barracks a few minutes in. Hostile all gatlings are starting to be seen entering my worlds. Most of them are badly damaged, but the fact they are getting here at all means they have killed everything from their dyson to me. Scouting confirms most of the worlds near the dyson planet are clear of enemy ships. Those barracks spawn reach two of my worlds and destroy one.

I fight on the other with the fleet and as the battle progresses I notice my threat is not going down... Then I see the regen train. That is not good. I win the fight, but the threat is still mostly intact. Then mining golems appear. They are targeting two of the worlds that I must stop them at. The third is of no use and will be let loose. The barracks spawn return to Ifirev for a second attack and are fought off due to the assistance of the resistance which came in full force. 160 ships.

My fleet starts a attack on Ifikill. I want the broken Cursed golem. My Star ships move in and destroy guard posts to kill the eye. Followed by the fleet to kill everything else. I clean the system and set my base down. I explode a Distribution node and begin repairing the golem. Scouts reveal another ARS, there is a broken golem there as well. I will have to own them both apparently. Research is spent for Mk2 Fighters. Within a short amount of time I get the Golem online.

02:31- The cursed one instantly sees action as a 1k wave overruns two of my worlds. It kept ahead of the forces chasing it, until two Speed booster trains entered the system. I had to retreat the golem to the homeworld as the enemy ships hit my command center on Ifirev. Waiting a moment I sent the Golem back in and it finished off the wave. A second wave of 500 ships appears in system shortly after and the golem works on destroying them.

Meanwhile my repair teams are bringing the other command stations back online. Unnoticed to me Ai snipers had taken out my mass driver cannons that I was building. Darn. I re-fleet and get the Z-gen up to 70%. Little more to go and I won't need to worry about cycling through energy converters when I lose planets. I have taken to using Military Command Centers for the majority of my worlds. Only because of the delay in recolonizing being lessened to 1 minute.

Map Key: P1-Barracks, P5-Adv Factory, p7- Desired Planets p8-Co-Processors, p9-DC, p0-Golems



Hour 3-
Unlocks: Harvester mk2/3(Crystal,Metal), Grav Turrets mk1, Spire Star Ship mk1, Area Mines, Scout mk2, HBC mk1, Spider Turret, Zenith Star Ship mk1, Fighter Mk2
AiP:56 Planets:4 Golem:1(Cursed Golem)
AI Ships: Tank, Sniper, Polarizers, Shield Bearers.

03:01- A 2,439 ship CPA is massing. There is no Raid engine hitting me, and I have a golem. I will live through this. I send some fighters to a barracks mk4 to aggravate it. They strike it and unleash the 400+ ships inside. A little fighting later and I destroy them all. The CPA hits, I lose outer worlds, they lose nearly 500 ships accomplishing this before reaching my homeworld. Another Wave announces to the homeworld through the Exo-wormhole. They both strike the homeworld and are obliterated.

I sent out re-colonization fleets to my outer worlds. I have to juggle some of my economy my turning off rebuilding stuff and specifying energy collectors as the first thing rebuilt so I can destroy my energy converters.

03:31- My planets have been recolonized and base defenses are back up. My current goal for the hour is to get the Z-gen built. The energy it will provide will prevent blackouts from lost collectors. It is completed at the 46 minute mark. A wave of 1k strength hits and burns my three worlds before falling apart against the homeworld. Even while fighting my re-builders and engineers rebuild each world as the wave left it.

My next 2 planets will also have golems. Not because I want more golems, but because there are Core shield generators on both the worlds and their resources are higher then other Core Generator worlds. I can't stand putting a good golem to waste. So far my game is looking better.

Map Key: P1-Barracks, P5-Adv Factory, p7- Desired Planets p8-Co-Processors, p9-DC, p0-Golems



Hour 4-
Unlocks: Harvester mk2/3(Crystal,Metal), Grav Turrets mk1, Spire Star Ship mk1, Area Mines, Scout mk2, HBC mk1, Spider Turret, Zenith Star Ship mk1, Fighter Mk2
AiP:56 Planets:4 Golem:1(Cursed Golem) Survived CPA:1
AI Ships: Tank, Sniper, Polarizers, Shield Bearers.

[Trandrin]

04:01- My golem and fleet take considerable time destroying the Neihag command center. 2 fortresses, 1 Counter Attack Guard-post, 1 radar jammer mk2 and hundreds of special forces later I finally whittle most of the defenses away from the planet. A few waves have me divert my forces to defending but I finally claim the world.

As I try to build my hive golem ships start pouring into the system. No wave, no threat, just ships appearing then going on the attack. As I fight them, I see the regen train nearby. It recovers the destroyed enemy ships, but my threat does not rise.

My hive golem takes a beating as it gets repaired but it survives the thrashing as my forces clear the system. The Counter attack wave is ticking down with 786 ships to ifikill.

04:31- 3 minutes in and I get my Hive golem online another 20 AiP to the plate. But a hive of fun is always welcome. Two waves attack me equaling around 2300 ships. They hit one of my outer worlds and clash a bit with the fleet. Three of my worlds are destroyed in the fighting withdraw and the ships cycle onto my home world were they die.

They love chasing my golems. Even through minefields. I deploy rebuilding teams to outer worlds to get them back up as the counter attack wave warps in and destroys my bait planet. They are destroyed by the home world defenses. Scouting finds me another DC which I mark for destruction. I also see a Interplanetary munitions booster next to a prime shield generator. Lastly I spot another Z-generator.

Hour 5-
Unlocks: Harvester mk2/3(Crystal,Metal), Grav Turrets mk1, Spire Star Ship mk1, Area Mines, Scout mk2, HBC mk1, Spider Turret, Zenith Star Ship mk1, Fighter Mk2
AiP:98 Planets:5 Golem:2(Cursed Golem, Hive Golem) Survived CPA:1
AI Ships: Tank, Sniper, Polarizers, Shield Bearers.

05:01- First act of the hour is to destroy that DC, followed by golem combat on Pejerchu to pave the wave for my forces to claim the world. A new wave announces. 300 ships. I suspect treachery. Another wave for 2k ships appears. Distracted I almost lose my cursed golem. He sat there active shooting astro trains while several raid guardians chipped nearly 60% of his life away.

Oh the treachery of that small wave is 300 snipers. All base defenses die instantly followed by anything else in system. Then they moved on to my other world. It had anti sniper turrets. A announcement for a 4.1k CPA appears. I believe that I will use the Hive golem on that when it fully masses at my lines.

I have also taken to storing said Hive golem off my home world on a neighboring world under cloak protection. The AI refused to send any ships towards any planet it was on so I finally made a home away from home, for it to reside in until the time was right. Mining golems can three more planets. Nothing of value lost. The mk2 CPA is released and I ready my golems.

05:31- While the CPA brings destruction to all of my worlds I get another 1.4k wave thrown on top of it. Noticed odd behavior with AI ships trying to redirect to my Rally points. Devourer eats 500 some ships of the CPA, hive golem deploys on Ifirev and brings great ruin destryoing about 2k ships before all the wasps are destroyed.

I fight the survivors on my homeworld with the fleet and my cursed golems. After the fighting the rebuilders get to work. The recent change in their targeting makes them rebuild stuff super fast. My economy tanks. I had many dozens of the re-builders before the update. I think I might need to par that down a bit. Getting most of my stuff back online I gate raid for two of my planets and change them to econ stations for more resources. I had to deploy my Hive golem twice to clear worlds. 200 wasps usually kills any defenses. Love the little guys.

End of the hour sees me living nicely as I rebuild and repair the variety of damage inflicted by the CPA. Expansion is ongoing.

Hour 6-
Unlocks: Harvester mk2/3(Crystal,Metal), Grav Turrets mk1, Spire Star Ship mk1, Area Mines, Scout mk2, HBC mk1, Spider Turret, Zenith Star Ship mk1, Fighter Mk2
AiP:108 Planets:5 Golem:2(Cursed Golem, Hive Golem) Survived CPA:2
AI Ships: Tank, Sniper, Polarizers, Shield Bearers

Map Key: P1-Barracks, P5-Adv Factory, p7- Desired Planets p8-Co-Processors, p9-DC, p0-Golems

[Trandrin]

06:01- Research is spent on mk2 engineers and Warp Jammers, I take control of Pejerchu and begin colonizing. My ARS is sentinel frigates. Another small wave appears. 500 ships. Almost all snipers. My fleet has to engage them as they ignore mines and out range my turrets. Hive golem deploys on another world to clear it of AI defenders.

A note is artillery guardians+Interplanetary Munitions booster ruins cursed golem fun time. The golems get heavily damaged and were forced to retreat.

Scouting uncovers another DC that is just out of my reach. Looking over some nearby planets I see mk5 ships on a few random planets. That is new. Transports with fighter squads are used to get my scouts out further by destroying tachyon posts. They breach a barracks for 500 mk3 ships before succumbing to enemy fire.

06:31- The slaying of several layers of Tachyon guardians allows my scouts 3 more jumps out. They find 3 more DCs. The Hive golem is sent against the Barracks spawn. 2k wave tries to destroy my bait planet. Using golems I broke them. The hive golem is again deployed, this time to hit the Interplantary Munitions world.

It has a ARS/A-CSG. So I must take it. The wasps clean it and a small strike team kills the Command Center. I continue sending full caps of fighters in transports to kill Tacyon Guardians.
The tactic works well. 

Hour 7-
Unlocks: Harvester mk2/3(Crystal,Metal), Grav Turrets mk1, Spire Star Ship mk1, Area Mines, Scout mk2, HBC mk1, Spider Turret, Zenith Star Ship mk1, Fighter Mk2, Engineer mk2, Warp Jammer, Sentinel Frigate mk1/mk2
AiP:158 Planets:7 Golem:3(Cursed Golemx2, Hive Golem) Survived CPA:2
AI Ships: Tank, Sniper, Polarizers, Shield Bearers.

07:01- I capture the ARS and get Zenith Chameleons. I use my knowledge on fortress mk1 just in time for a 3.2k wave to appear. The Hive golem and the fleet handle the wave sparing my base defenses. Another wave drops right after causing a massive fight with wasps,fleet ships, resistance fighers and marauders all having a go at it. Scouting finds me another ARS world, next door is a special forces alarm. That is a scary structure now.

07:31- Mining golems show up once more, target three unimportant worlds, I construct a fleet of parasite mercs, starships and a few  triangle ships. These  begin harvesting build up of enemy ships on nearby worlds. They get up to 170 ship fleet. They work quite well in combat and I clear a few neighboring worlds of many space craft. I plunk down two forts onto the Home world. Another CPA is announced for 6k ships. They are half mk3.

Hour 8-
Unlocks: Harvester mk2/3(Crystal,Metal), Grav Turrets mk1, Spire Star Ship mk1, Area Mines, Scout mk2, HBC mk1, Spider Turret, Zenith Star Ship mk1, Fighter Mk2, Engineer mk2, Warp Jammer, Sentinel Frigate mk1/mk2, Chameleon mk1/mk2
AiP:149 Planets:7 Golem:3(Cursed Golemx2, Hive Golem) Survived CPA:2

08:01- Extensive damage to outer worlds. They are all destroyed. CPA arrives at home world wormhole and waits till I move my Hive Golem. I send my Reclamation Merc fleet around the bulk of their forces with rebuilders and engineers and they quickly get my satalite worlds back online. Once I have a steady resource flow coming back in I send the golem out of system.

5k AI ships swarm onto the homeworld. Golem comes right back in, Wasps are let loose and cut down some before being destroyed. The CPA marches through almost all my defenses, destroying everything. 3/4s of my mines are used up. 1 fortress explodes under concentrated bomber fire. AI begins hitting my home world force fields, then I send in the fleet right at the ball of ships bashing away at them.

Some of the CPA forces pull away and begin going after my Cursed Golems who have just entered the system. Massive amounts of losses, but I break the enemy fleet. Looking around there are very few turrets left standing. One fortress at half health, a few mines at a unused wormhole, about 400 ships and both cursed golems are in the red.

No rest for the wicked. A 3k wave appears out of the Hacker wormhole and tries to finish what the CPA started. It eats golem supremacy and dies. I see the human rebel colony now. It is on Arrannowvold. Just need to cut through the tachyon posts to get there. Fighters in transports are sent to do the deed.

08:31- The fighters clear cut through a few systems, even killing a DC for me. With the tacyhon guardians out of the way I send in scouts and take a look at the rebel planet. It has a ADV factory on it. Another sniper wave appears. Fleet meets them, and is completely destroyed. Even with scout starships I was getting shot by snipers. The loss of 1k ships will set me back heavily.

I try again a bit later with golem support and this time anti sniper coverage worked.  Looking back I think a few of the enemy star ships must have destroyed my scout star ships maybe? The cursed go on to working their way to the Rebels. They manage to destroy everything in the system but special forces arrive and evict them. I hold my ground one jump away until the SF are gone.

Hour 9-
Unlocks: Harvester mk2/3(Crystal,Metal), Grav Turrets mk1, Spire Star Ship mk1, Area Mines, Scout mk2, HBC mk1, Spider Turret, Zenith Star Ship mk1, Fighter Mk2, Engineer mk2, Warp Jammer, Sentinel Frigate mk1/mk2, Chameleon mk1/mk2
AiP:160 Planets:7 Golem:3(Cursed Golemx2, Hive Golem) Survived CPA:3
AI Ships: Tank, Sniper, Polarizers, Shield Bearers.

Map Key: P1-Barracks, P5-Adv Factory, p7- Desired Planets p8-Co-Processors, p9-DC, p0-Golems

[keith.lamothe]

Once more I challenge the commander and his hacking companion. The last round I met my end to raid engines. Lets see if I can do better.

Brave.  I think

I send out a few raid star ships to destroy the DC. The job gets done. They don't make it out again but that is alright.

The Raid Starship labor union is composed of very angry and shortlived members.

I encounter a weird situation where many ships just enter its system after I colonize and destroy it. Afterwards they are no longer threat or attacking ships? They then just move off to other systems. This was not a wave, maybe special forces being late to the party?

Yea, probably special forces, since they keep their wormhole path until they reach the end of it (I may change it to clear that when the special forces target planet changes, though I kind of like that they get in "late hits" after the command station goes down) and don't take new wormhole orders while they have anything around to shoot at.

My fleet starts a attack on Ifikill.

What about its neighbor, Butwhatifidont?

As I try to build my hive golem ships start pouring into the system. No wave, no threat, just ships appearing then going on the attack. As I fight them, I see the regen train nearby. It recovers the destroyed enemy ships, but my threat does not rise.

Yep, more special forces.

A new wave announces. 300 ships. I suspect treachery.

You gain wisdom.

Noticed odd behavior with AI ships trying to redirect to my Rally points.

Really?  I don't know how it would think to do that.  Do you have a save?

After the fighting the rebuilders get to work. The recent change in their targeting makes them rebuild stuff super fast. My economy tanks.

Haha, everything's a tradeoff, I suppose.

Even with scout starships I was getting shot by snipers.

Within the counter-sniper range?  I can take a look if you have a save.


Very well played thus far.  Sounds like it gave you a run for your money with that last CPA, so good to see it's not just rolling over

[Trandrin]

I reloaded the save with the counter sniping oddity. Watched closely and saw it was a astro train+ Non-snipers that destroyed the scout star ships. So it was working normally at first. Then they died. Also is it normal for SF to respond to Dyson Gatlings? Have a amusing situation were the two are trying to destroy one another.

Lack a save around the time of the Rally Pointy. Basically the situation was the world it happened on was destroyed, had a rally post up and parts of a wave were moving through the system to attack a adjacent world of mine.

They popped out of the wormhole started going to the right where my rally post was then stopped and continued on their original course. Thinking back I don't know if I had much else other then maybe a turret or two at that world still alive. It got hit pretty hard.

[keith.lamothe]

Also is it normal for SF to respond to Dyson Gatlings? Have a amusing situation were the two are trying to destroy one another.

I'm surprised it's considering minor faction stuff, but I guess it makes sense.  Not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing.  As you say, it's amusing, and I try not to squash the emergent behavior stuff unless it's actively hurting the game.

Lack a save around the time of the Rally Pointy. Basically the situation was the world it happened on was destroyed, had a rally post up and parts of a wave were moving through the system to attack a adjacent world of mine.

They popped out of the wormhole started going to the right where my rally post was then stopped and continued on their original course. Thinking back I don't know if I had much else other then maybe a turret or two at that world still alive. It got hit pretty hard.

Hmm, it may be that they were just trying to destroy the thing, but I like the theory that they were trying to rally to it.  Kinda like they popped out of the wormhole and a rabbit in a groucho-marx disguise pops up and points at the rally point saying "they went thaddaway!".  And off the AI goes... and a few seconds later, "hey, wait a minute..."