Author Topic: A few Questions from a New Fan!!  (Read 10691 times)

Offline DarrenK

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A few Questions from a New Fan!!
« on: March 17, 2016, 10:33:55 pm »
Hello guys.

I finally got to giving AI Wars a solid effort...... and am in AWE!!   

Game is a work of Art in so many ways.

Quick question:  How to understand all the requirements for the hacking to work.  I have an AI planet that has supply, from next door, but  wont initiate the timer count down on a blueprint hack??

I don't get it.  The Planet info states I have supply...what am I missing?

And is there a way to put down multiples of more than 10X  when throwing out turrets ect?  I'm getting carpal tunnel with this amazing game...

Thanks

Offline TheVampire100

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Re: A few Questions from a New Fan!!
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2016, 10:49:03 pm »
Blueprint hack? I guess you mean Design backup?
You have to make sure, the Ai planet has a design backup building otherwise the whole thing is pointless. You can only still something, that you have access to. If the planet DOES have however soemthing liek this, make sure you have done evrything right.

Build a hacker. Bringt he hacker to the AI planet. Select the hacker and build the hack program you need.

Offline Toranth

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Re: A few Questions from a New Fan!!
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2016, 03:02:43 am »
Vampire already said most of it, but each Hacker foldout serves a specific purpose.  I'll give a quick rundown of how Hacking works in AI War.

Hacking Progress, HaP, is used to pay for each hack.  You acquire HaP whenever you acquire AI Progress (AIP), but do not lose HaP if the AIP goes down.
HaP costs are fixed for the first hack of each type, then increase by 50% for each additional hack of that type.
The AI's response to your hacking is based on AIP, total HaP spent, and total HaP available.  More AIP or less HaP available means a stronger AI response.  If you allow the HaP to go negative, the AI's response will increase dramatically.  Going very negative is generally not recommended more than once.

- The Covert Knowledge Extractor serves to drain Knowledge from an AI controlled system.  This is the same Knowledge pool as you get from your own systems, so has the same 3000 K cap.
- The Research Redirector is used in systems with an Advanced Research Station to allow you to choose which of the three ship designs to unlock when you capture the system.  You can see the list of available ship types by bringing a normal Science vessel into the AI's system.  If you don't hack, you always get the leftmost one.
- The Fabricator Hacker grants you the ability to produce the Mark V unit that Fabricator produces, without controlling the Fabricator.  It can only be performed in an AI system with at least one Fabricator in it.  If the system has more than one Fabricator, one hack unlocks all of the units, but counts (for HaP costs and increases) the same as if one hack per Fabricator had been performed.
- The Advanced Construction Hacker allows you to produce Mk IV units of any ship type you have unlocked Mk III for, even if you do not control the Advanced Constructor.  The Advanced Factory allows Mk IV fleetships, and the Advanced Starship Constructor allows Mk IV starships.  This hacker can only be used in systems with a AF and/or ASC.  If both are present, it behaves like the Fabricator hacker, granting both, but costing two hacks worth of HaP.
- The Design Downloader allows you to unlock the Mk I of a new ship type.  This hack can only be performed in AI systems where a Design Backup is located, and the ship type unlocked is the one specified on the description of the Backup server.  If multiple servers or ship types are present, it acts like the Fabricator (multiple unlocks, multiple costs).
- The Design Corruptor behaves like the Design Downloader, but instead of unlocking a ship type, it prevents the AI from using that ship type.  Note that AI Homeworld have their own ship type pool, and cannot be prevented from using units through this hack.
- The Sabotage Hacker destroys the nearest notable AI structure in the current AI system, without imposing an AIP penalty if the structure destruction would normally impose one.  When you place a Sabotage Hacker, mousing over the foldout will tell you which structure will be destroyed.  This can be performed in any AI system, but will do nothing if there are no notable structure present.  The AI Command Station is NOT a notable structure that can be sabotaged.
- The Sensor Hacker gives a brief period that uncloaks all AI units, and applies cloaking to all Human and Allied units in that AI system.  This can be performed in any AI system.
- The Nomad Beacon Hacker is part of the Nomad Planets questline.  It can only be performed on an AI controlled Nomad 1 system, where the Nomad Beacon is present.
- The Exile Survey Hacker is part of the Exile questline, and can be performed in any AI system.

Finally, the last hack doesn't use a Hacker foldout.  The AI SuperTerminal can be 'hacker' by building a Human Command Station in the system that contains the AI SuperTerminal structure, after destroying the AI Command Station.  This hack uses HaP continuously as long as the SuperTerminal remains, and can only be stopped by destroying the SuperTerminal structure.

Offline tadrinth

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Re: A few Questions from a New Fan!!
« Reply #3 on: May 11, 2016, 03:14:22 pm »
If you hold shift while placing turrets, you don't ahve to reselect the turret type. Can combine with alt or ctrl, so shift+alt+spam click will repeatedly place 10 turrets at a time.

If you need to place a LOT of turrets, you should be able to use Line Place; be in turret-place mode, alt+right click, => Line Place.  Just crank up the number of lines and number per line, and enabled packed line.


Offline Pumpkin

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Re: A few Questions from a New Fan!!
« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2016, 05:56:29 am »
Ow, I tried to line-place all the turrets of a kind at once, with a 6x8 square (6 turrets on 8 lines or 8 on 6), with a very very short line. That makes a cool-looking square block of turrets and place them all at once. I wish there is an option for doing so with only one click. "place all available turrets in square". However I'm fine with the "heap" of turret made with shift+alt+click, held or spammed click.
Please excuse my english: I'm not a native speaker. Don't hesitate to correct me.

Offline Mánagarmr

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Re: A few Questions from a New Fan!!
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2016, 12:54:06 pm »
I seems like Hacking keeps coming up on the forums as something that is not very well explained.
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline Pumpkin

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Re: A few Questions from a New Fan!!
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2016, 05:31:38 am »
Maybe we need to improve the wiki page about hacking? The one I remember was ok, I guess, but maybe...
Please excuse my english: I'm not a native speaker. Don't hesitate to correct me.

Offline Toranth

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Re: A few Questions from a New Fan!!
« Reply #7 on: May 15, 2016, 08:18:48 am »
Maybe we need to improve the wiki page about hacking? The one I remember was ok, I guess, but maybe...
It looks pretty good to me.  At least, it seems to cover all the major points except how the foldouts work.

Maybe it needs some re-organization of the info, so it's easier to find, or some tutorials?  What do people think is missing?

Offline Kahuna

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Re: A few Questions from a New Fan!!
« Reply #8 on: May 15, 2016, 08:49:04 am »
The tool tips already tell what each hack does.
Quote
Design Downloader:
"If placed on the same planet as one of the AI's Design Backup Servers, this device can download master copies of the design(s) stored there and allow you to build them yourself"

"Please note: if the command station is destroyed, the backup server goes with it. Also, hacking causes it to explode (which means you cannot corrupt and download the same design)."

"..."

"..."
« Last Edit: May 15, 2016, 08:54:05 am by Kahuna »
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!