Author Topic: 15 Minute & Transport waves of death  (Read 17027 times)

Offline doomlord52

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15 Minute & Transport waves of death
« on: January 25, 2013, 01:14:22 pm »
Hey,
Unfortunately, a friend challenged me to try and beat 15 minute defense on the hardest difficulty I could manage (but over 7.3) with all game options on (darkspire, neinzul, etc.). So far, I've ran into some absolutely insane problems.

The setup: 9/9 (Random Harder) - started with 10/10, it's just not possible (at least for now).
All game option on (set to hard and/or 4/10)
One planet with one wormhole access
10 planets

Am I crazy?

Firstly, at 8/8, they send what I call "the wave of death" at 1:54. It consists of about 4,000 ships and several transports... all with 1,000 ships. How is this even possible? I've tried massing shields, but the firepower from 4-5 fully loaded transports obliterates them in a few seconds. Camping the wormhole doesn't work either, as the transports simply ignore tractors (or I'm doing it wrong). Does anyone have any ideas? The only viable strategy I can think of is to simply nuke the planet they're coming from a few seconds before they attack.

Detailed list of things that have failed:
Camping the wormhole with that "Doomsday" cannon (mark IV), mark 3 turrets, shields, etc. Problem: Transports simply eat everything
Camping my based with doomsday cannons, turrets, ALL the shields in the game, etc. Problem: Transports simply eat everything
Building a massive horde (well, as big as possible in 1:54) and attacking them. Problem: Transports simply eat everything
Champions? Upgradable/moddable ships? Same issue




Also who came up with 10/10 on 15 minute defense? How does one stop 44,000 ships AND about 15 transports (all 1,000) when they attack 2 minutes in? Don't even get me started on that Raid Engine type...
« Last Edit: January 25, 2013, 01:24:09 pm by doomlord52 »

Offline Hearteater

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Re: 15 Minute & Transport waves of death
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2013, 02:59:38 pm »
I believe to actually have a chance at defender mode, you need to pick multiple starting planets.  I don't know the ideal number, but try 4 and see if that helps.

Offline Aeson

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Re: 15 Minute & Transport waves of death
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2013, 12:52:09 pm »
With a 15-minute defender mode game, I'd suggest using the largest map your computer can handle and taking as many worlds to start with as possible, upgrade the metal and crystal harvesters to mark III, and set multiple planets to repeat-build every combat ship you can. I'd also suggest doing this on an easily choke-pointed map (like X or Snake), and making certain the AI can only reach you at one or two worlds.

Immediately start building a fortress world at a decent chokepoint (not one of the worlds right next to the AI homeworlds - those will fall with the first wave - but rather one four or five worlds farther back). X might be a better map choice than Snake, as there are worlds that the AI might divert ships to that are more or less dead ends. Preferably, most or all of the worlds you have building ships will be streaming ships either to or through the fortress world, and will not be closer to the AI than the fortress world.

Warning: I tried this once on a 120-planet X map, where I held 118 worlds. The first wave contained more than 50,000 ships, and by the second or third wave the game was running so slowly that I abandoned the attempt. However, if your computer can handle a 120-world 15-minute defender mode game where you start with 118 of the planets, it is possible that all you would need to do is wait for the countdown to end, because the AI might not be able to hit all 118 worlds in 15 minutes.

I would also agree with Hearteater that, in Defender mode, you really do need to have more than one home planet, and a 10-planet map is probably way too small for high-difficulty defender games, because even if you take the 8 planets you're allowed to have, the AI has a decent chance of overrunning every world you own with its first wave (in the game I mentioned above, the AI's first wave took the border world, and then proceeded to overwhelm the three neighboring dead-end worlds and start on one of the worlds leading towards my fortress world by the time the second wave was announced - this despite delays caused to AI fleet movements by ships that I'd set to constantly build and immediately send in free-roaming defender mode to the border world - and by delays, I mean the AI fleet went 'Oh look, another ship to kill - let's lay waste to it with this whole part of the fleet').
« Last Edit: January 26, 2013, 12:59:42 pm by Aeson »

Offline Burnstreet

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Re: 15 Minute & Transport waves of death
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2013, 01:16:36 pm »
I've won a 100planet 15 min defender mode without doing anything on a simple map - simply because the AI ships were too slow to reach my last planet.