Author Topic: Less road, more explosions!  (Read 3051 times)

Offline Aklyon

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Less road, more explosions!
« on: April 08, 2014, 06:01:29 pm »
The game I started yesterday went pretty well and I'm going to finish it, but Rocky's interested me in the very low planets thing. So...

15 planets, VE-Chivalric/SF Captain-Chivalric 6/6, same settings as Winding Road, without hybrids.


Since the map made this very useful triangle of isolated planets, I took all of them: Lightning Torpedo Frigates, Railpods, and Sentinel Frigates.
Harvester II, Railpod II, Heavy Beam, Spider Turret, and Minifort unlocked. Five Space Docks setup for Railpods.

1:47 - Murdoch right in front of me has an ASC, a Space Plane V fab, and an Armored Golem. Gord has a Nuke Eye, 9 Ebonite, 1 Adamantite, Needler Core Turrets, Botnet Golem, another ASC, Mirror V fab, and a Spire Archive. Duna has two Fabs (Exp. Decoy, Core Fighter), a Mini-ram backup, and a whole bunch of core guard posts. Auroch has a lot of things: Attractor V, Warbird fabs, Regen Golem, Lightning Core Turrets, Zenith power gen. Archangel is an AI homeworld, and holds the Factory IV.

5:06 - First Exowave in 2:53. So far, I've only got some ships, half the spider turrets, and half the heavy beams (in-progress), and unfinished miniforts.

9:32 - Miniforts finish just in time. The wave gets obliterated by the heavy beam array. Harvester III unlocked.

12:04 - Enclaves II/III unlocked, and here comes the other waves.

29:05 - Signal on Gord.


36:52 - Oh, hi there SF. Gonna have to say i don't have any starships out here for you to nom, but I do have a question for you: Why is there 3 ASCs on Murdoch?
37:50 - Ow. I'd forgot Dissasemblers could shoot back too. The Riots aren't helping things either.


38:56 - *shakes fist at timing* Not a huge problem I think but still, four waves at once.

42:00 - The first three waves die in a cascade of lightning turret awesome. The exo takes its time getting here but sufferes the same fate.

1:00:00 - Theres only two Spire civ leaders on this map, huh. Also unlocked MSDs from Murdoch knowledge, becuase Railpods are the best example of Maxim 37: There is no 'overkill.' There is only 'open fire' and 'time to reload.' If you replace 'reload' with 'rebuild via toggled MSD', part one kills guard posts or shields, part two cuts off the Nuclear Eye on Gord from exploding. ;D

2:15:56 - Waves incoming to Gord, and neither the Botnet Golem nor the Spire Archive are done yet. Nor has my economy recovered from entrenching Gord. Grabbed Railpod III's anyway for when it is!
2:17:12 - I should use this mass Lightning turret idea more often. Didn't know they were quite this helpful in masses, though usually I have to spread them out more per planet.

2:28:16 - Botnet Golem rebuilt, Spire Archive done, Mil II station get. Have a map while I decide whether to push on with FS, do something with the few asteriods there are here, or just push forward and try attacking the HQ of the Special Forces Captain. Perhaps try hacking on the homeworld for that Factory?

Offline RockyBst

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Re: Less road, more explosions!
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2014, 06:37:30 pm »
Tsk, Chivalric. Where's the fun in that, half the joy in low planet maps is taking something after a hard-fought battle and then having the AI just turn around and blow it right back up again.

Why is there 3 ASCs on Murdoch?

This is a consequence of the three homeworld start. 2 Adv. Facts and 2 starship constructors are seeded in the galaxy for every homeworld you have. Still, 3 on one planet is excessive.

Anyway, happy hunting!
« Last Edit: April 08, 2014, 06:45:48 pm by RockyBst »

Offline Aklyon

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Re: Less road, more explosions!
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2014, 06:43:45 pm »
Chivalric is mostly because I haven't actually used it since VotM released, as far as I can think of.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Less road, more explosions!
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2014, 06:50:14 pm »
37:50 - Ow. I'd forgot Dissasemblers could shoot back too. The Riots aren't helping things either.
You're welcome.

Quote
Maxim 37: There is no 'overkill.' There is only 'open fire' and 'time to reload.' If you replace 'reload' with 'rebuild via toggled MSD', part one kills guard posts or shields, part two cuts off the Nuclear Eye on Gord from exploding. ;D
I'm fond of the bumper sticker, "Keep honking, I'm reloading".

Quote
2:17:12 - I should use this mass Lightning turret idea more often. Didn't know they were quite this helpful in masses, though usually I have to spread them out more per planet.
Nothing quite like an atmospheric density of lightning and forcefields to warm up the welcome.

Quote
Perhaps try hacking on the homeworld for that Factory?
Kids these days have no respect for the AI's lawn.
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Offline Aklyon

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Re: Less road, more explosions!
« Reply #4 on: April 10, 2014, 01:56:23 pm »
2:33:00 - The AI spews about 700 reprisal laser gatlings at me and finds they are not properly grounded against space lightning.

2:46:18 - Armored Golem rebuilt and joins the Botnet at Gord. Duna gets bombarded with railpod fire sporadically while I go between plenty of metal and not enough metal.

3:03:03 - Having 70 odd shielded Riots does not make you invincible, SF. By the time it reaches the MSDs (who then recloak) they've lost about 50 of them and a single Core Flagship. At this point the forcefields are dead, so anything on Duuna when the MSDs are active that isn't snipe-immune is going to get pummelled from the edge of the system (or probably pummeled once in range of radar dampening) 'Reprisal swarm of laser gatlings' continues to be the phrase of the day. :)

3:09:18 - The Hunter/Killer arrives to a welcome of sniper fire. It is reduced to 66% before I run out of metal with all the other targets constantly appearing. A stream of cannon fodder Fighters is added to the build queue to draw the leech starships away.

3:15:31 -
The AI Hunter/Killer is shot in the head-analogue by the railpod array, piercing the armor!
Hunter/Killer, AI, has been struck down.

Fighters apparently favor shooting mini-rams that aren't moving over anything else in the system if FRD'd. Reprisal waves continue to pile on, but as bombers instead and less of them than the laser gatlings. Now, with the H/K out of the way, enclaves are sent into duna to help protect the hacker. I want me some mini-rams to punch Archangel with.

3:32:36 - Success, Duna is mine, and Auroch is missing warp gates. MSDs now also have decoy drones, Gord is making one asteroid of Spirecraft Scout IIIs so I can see what its like on Archangel before I wander in there. Forcefields II unlocked.

3:39:03 - 600 ship CPA in 14 minutes. Shard retrieval on Gord in progress.
3:41:42 - Brea Secondus has the Spider Turret Controller! And a second armored golem, and a Captive Settlement for some reason. Impor has another ASC, the Laser Gatling backup, Sabo V fab, and an ARS. Zeta Eta has one of the two Civ leaders, a Factory IV, Exp. Engineers fab, ARS, Data Center, 2 Artillery Golems, Leech Starship, Raid Starship, and Tank V fabs, along with the MLRS CTC, 10 more Ebonite, and 4 more Adamantium. San Chi has 2 more Armored Golems, an ARS, Sniper CTC, Flak CTC, Data Center, the other Civ leader, Factory IV, and Spire Archive, and 1 Adamantium, 11 Ebonite, 2 Titanite. For Fabs, it has Exp. translocators as well as Zevestator V, Hydra V, Anti-armor V, and Bomber Starship V.

Archangel has a Fort III sitting basically on top of the AI Home Command, a Core Booster post near the wormhole, a Core Arachnid post (owwwwww) near the Factory IV with a small barracks near it, a Core Missile post south of the wormhole, a couple core spire shields, Implosion Drone post near the home and one near the Cockroach spawner, a Radar Jammer, an Ion III, and twice as many types of starship and guardian than fleetship are sitting around.

3:46:44 - Some speedup later, the slow rock reaches Evoker.
3:53:04 - The survey and the CPA finish abotu 10 seconds apart, with VE's exo coming in a minute or so. Signal is still on Gord, and the CPA consists of 600 MkI ships.
3:54:54 - CPA ships decide to be lazy and stay on Archangel. Exowave and thier Spirecraft Siege Tower companion decide t oattack Duna and get bopped by a lot of ships. Refugee ship appears on Gord.
3:56:15 - Refugees who are also rocks retrieved. Archangel has slightly more than 1000 threat total sitting upon it.
4:04:00 - This time, its not on Gord. Duna.
4:06:04 - Onwards, shard! Try to be faster than the very shiny rock you are.
4:07 - The AI really wants to get to Gord, forcefield or no forcefield. Doesn't seem hugely interested in the big shiny rock.
4:08 - Which now makes sense, since thats where the shard is.
4:11:37 - Spire Implosion Guardian IVs sorta just explode with enough railpods around. Also congrats Raid starship, you flew through the forcefield! Your reward is Armored golem plasmafire. :P
Shard finally gets to Evoker.
4:14:04 - Spire Colony Ship is built, but before we go attracting more attention (the 300 ship normal wave announced doesn't count), things should get sorted out. map's basicalyl the same with more threat involved, but you can look at the map anyway if you want.
« Last Edit: April 10, 2014, 02:14:29 pm by Aklyon »

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Less road, more explosions!
« Reply #5 on: April 10, 2014, 04:54:20 pm »
3:15:31 -
The AI Hunter/Killer is shot in the head-analogue by the railpod array, piercing the armor!
Hunter/Killer, AI, has been struck down.
But I think it set your forward catapults on fire first.  That's a lot of smoke...


Quote
4:11:37 - Spire Implosion Guardian IVs sorta just explode with enough railpods around. Also congrats Raid starship, you flew through the forcefield! Your reward is Armored golem plasmafire. :P
Light at the end of the tunnel indeed.


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Offline Aklyon

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Re: Less road, more explosions!
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2014, 01:48:03 pm »
4:25:12 - Enclaves are not quite as fast as Champions. However, they do have far more disposable firepower, so the two sorta even out as far as kiting AI ships around Auroch would go if I had a champion while I restock on ammo metal.

4:37:56 - Auroch is cleaned out, after somewhere near 6 rather uneventful reprisal waves. Also I apparently got the 10k points achievement somehow. Huh.

Aside from that, I'm wondering if I'd actually be able to fit more than three cities on this map. Murdoch, Archangel, Renata 6, or am I going one jump too far each and could fit one on auroch or duna?
« Last Edit: April 15, 2014, 02:01:48 pm by Aklyon »

Offline Aklyon

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Re: Less road, more explosions!
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2014, 12:38:29 pm »
5:05 - City Hub underway! I guess I'll figure it out the hard way how many i can fit here.
5:06:32 -  Dire Spider guardians can be dangerous, quite yes. But a single one at once is not a major problem to the heavily fortified and Golem-wielding Gord.
5:10:30 - I thought it threw exos at you the entire way, like the chase spawns? haven't played ith FS in awhile, but the hub is only half-done and the attacks have already stopped. Three waves of some ships and a single dire spider guardian each.

5:15:33 - Hub built on Murdoch, Laser Turrets II unlocked. Also, I noticed that hubs now give additional metal storage. Helpful!

5:29:04 - Incoming AI Exoglalactic Strikeforce Detected (51%)

5:31:35 - Signal be about on Duna.

5:38:15 (I was a bit behind paying attention) - Go shard go! You only have to outrun the strikeforce. And the exowave. And the chase-exos. And the little baby wave from AI 2 because you are a slow rock.

...Y'know, badly timed shards ave to avoid quite a lot of things. I probably could've timed it much better.
5:39 - Shard recovered.

5:47 - Return of the Half-Ready Strikeforce. That would be a terrible name for a movie. :)

5:56:16 - I thought it was actually the SF until I noticed the group had no H/K. Good to know the exos can have Riots, i guess.

6:02 - First City finished building. As soon as the spire fleet is built we'll go have a crack at the AI.

6:16:21 - The Core Booster is the first to fall as the entire Reserve of AI 2 is deployed. Multi-sabotage and Factory IV hacking with no regard for the AI's lawn (or positive HaP outcomes) has been started.
6:16:55 - An Armored Golem appears! That'll kill the hacking for sure if I run out of ships. I'd forgot the strikeforce hadn't gone off before I attacked...

6:17:36 - Multi-sabotage successful: 2 Core FFs, the Fort III, and two Ion cannons. The AI responds with a H/K (or it just showed up, either way) a tachblast, and 4 ~100 ship hack response waves to the HW as soon as I unpause. HaP at -37, Hacking response spiked to 721. Under heavy fire and the Golem is not helping matters. My Armored Golem is back on Gord incase I lose all my ships here. The tachblast takes out my spirecraft scout, so i throw all of my normal scouts at the planet to see if any of them survive at all.
6:17:52 - Large Exogalactic Strikeforce Responding to Hacking. Thats new.
6:18 - Exogalactic Strikeforce Responding to Hacking. Um. Two of them?

MSDs given a variety of ships to spew forth to try to bulk up the remaining fleet on Archangel. Most of the Spire fleet is still intact.
6:18:36 - &%#@! Missed a Sabotage hacker when I was removing them. -93 Hap, 2168 response now, agh. Still 13 minutes until the Factory hack completes. The AI apparently has the same response to it, since again it tachblasts Archangel and throws a another set of 1 Large and 1 nondescriptive strikeforce at me.

Also Gord exploded, which means my energy is massively dead. Its accumulating quite a few allied zombies however.

6:18:40 -
Large Exogalactic Strikeforce Responding to Hacking.
Exogalactic Strikeforce Responding to Hacking.
Exogalactic Strikeforce Responding to Hacking.
Exogalactic Strikeforce Responding to Hacking.

&%#@! &%#@! I do not have enough energy to power a response to all of that yet!

6:19:34 - Power get! Hold the line, Spire City! Hold it until everything gets back! The golems died during the power outage, so you're the only non-turret thing left back there!

6:20:20 - &%#@. Apparently 270 various-mark Gravity Drains are too much for it to hold off along with the everything else. Its up to the Evoker of Defense now, which holds an entire half of the full defensive power I've got available, except for forcefields. It only has 8 of those.

6:21:25 - Checkmate indeed. I think mass-sabotage hacking was a bit overambitious of me if I wanted to continue with the Factory-hackory plan, but my ships were so close to catching up...

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Less road, more explosions!
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2014, 12:43:30 pm »
Hacking with negative HaP is a very, very dangerous proposition :)  When you see it go out of its way to specify that it is a "Large" response-exo, it's probably time to stop the hack.


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Offline Aklyon

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Re: Less road, more explosions!
« Reply #9 on: April 17, 2014, 12:46:49 pm »
Well, I'd been basing when to retreat on if my MSDs were dying, since I could've kept smashing things otherwise. I didn't lose a single one until the power cut out and I abruptly ran out of distractive force on the HW, then I lost about a third of them in one volley.

Offline Aklyon

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Re: Less road, more explosions!
« Reply #10 on: April 17, 2014, 02:42:28 pm »
Alright, lets hack less, smash more.

6:05:41 - Back where we were before the attack. This time with more paying attention to FS exos.
6:11:36 - The game is stuttering for a moment while the strikeforce bits appear with all these railpods hitting for massive damage. The golem hasn't appeared though.

6:21:32 - The fighting begins again. This time with only a single sabotager and factory hack, and a sensor hack to top things off.
::56 - Sensor hack complete. The other two continue on and see the H/K and a Black Widow Golem show up.
6:23:22 - Black Widow flew off into the edge of the gravity well and got smashed by chasing minirams. Radar Jammer sabotaged, Core FF sabotaged. H/K died at somepoint.
6:24:18 - Ion III sabotaged. Also apaprently the black Widow did not actually die, I just lost track of it. It takes over 66% damage and flees to Impor empty-handed.
6:25:18 - Dangit, tachyon blasts. Always with the killing my spirecraft scout. And my factory-hacker. and the Hacker itself. I hmmph in your general direction and sabotage your Ion II. Last target will be the Fort III, then we'll be around -11. Should be holdable until the factory hack refinishes.
6:26 - -7 is better than I'd guessed!

6:30:53 - The Homeworld is running out of threats, and the factory hack is back in motion at -3 HaP.

6:46 - 7 or 8 tachblasts, a dozen and a half or so response waves, and 15 minutes later, hack complete. AI 2 HW down.

6:50:56 - Auroch and Archangel claimed.

 

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