Arcen Games
General Category => AI War Classic => AI War Classic - Strategy Discussion => Topic started by: x4000 on October 06, 2010, 07:52:58 pm
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Please see this feature idea for reference: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=317
Or, to quote Winder Born:
A sticky on the main board inviting members to post their favorite tip or a "I wish Id known this sooner" tip could go a long way to populating a tip database.
So here we are. Please post either in this thread, or as suggestions in the new Suggestion - Tip of the Day Ideas category on the bug tracker (in this case, either is fine with us, as the maintenance to add these is pretty low).
What did you wish you'd known sooner than you did, when it came to AI War?
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- on the galaxy map, pressing 'q' shows the number of ships you have in all the planets, while pressing 'k' shows the knowledge you've harvested from each planet
- on the 'normal' planetary screen, pressing 'd' selects your space dock, pressing 'b' brings up the build menu and 's' selects any science vessels: means you don't have to find those buildings
- while you have ships selected, holding the 'v' key while right clicking somewhere will put those ships into 'free roaming defender' mode, which basically puts them on automated guard mode on that planet
- in a multiplayer game, each player can have a separate set of power stations on each planet, so gift each teammate a set every time you take a planet
- in a multiplayer game, you can gift fabricators to share them around the team
- if you put 2 or more shields over a key asset (eg your home command center), in an emergency, you can repair one while the other is being hit, buying you the time you need for your fleet to come back and rescue it
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The "L" key
Select some ships - Hit the "L" key and now you have 1/2 the original selected ships, again 1/4th
I often use it to select some engineers to assign to a task or ot grab a few scouts to send on a mission.
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that ctrl-L took 1/3 of units..
and thus you can make 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8, 1/9.... etc. (damn you prime numbers! 5, I'm looking at you)
Or, that scout starships are ideal to bring with your main fleet (countersniper + tachyons) all the time. No more losing your entire fleet to spider turret fire..
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After clicking the "reactors" button to bring up a list, you can shift-click to turn them on or off.
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- If you place a forcefield over a wormhole entrance you can push enemy units directly onto minefields.
edit, remembered a couple more!
- Zenith Space Time Manipulators can be used to make "highways" between the various battle fronts of your empire.
- Cloaker Starships can be combined with Transports to cloak HUGE numbers of units at once.
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oh yes, on that - cloaker starships provide counter-sniper and counter-dark matter fire. Oh yeah, and cloaking super-boost.
Dont underestimate the use of any of those abilities either :p
(fun missile delivery system - cloaker starship + warheads. Once you clear out the wormhole tachyon emitters, including the cloaked ones, you can send the entire group through cloaked. Makes for some fun surprises when hybrids get lightning warheaded back to the clone vat..)
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You can press the F12 key for screenshots that will be saved within the game folder.
(I actually suggested this in our weekly polls and just noticed last week that it made the cut! :D)
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- on the 'normal' planetary screen, pressing 'd' selects your space dock, pressing 'b' brings up the build menu and 's' selects any science vessels: means you don't have to find those buildings
Would like to extend this tip with "t" as well to select the starship constructor. The space dock, science vessel and starship constructor are the most used structures on your planet. Having a quick access to those are excellent!
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Forcefields can "free" your units from tractors :)
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Transports can load tractored units. Click on the tractored units and tell them to load in a transport, fly the transport over the ships and they will load into the transport. The sweet spot is small so several slightly different passes may be required to recover them all. Also works on ships with dead engines.
Dragable planets / Custom galaxy maps for each player in multiplayer in the galaxy view. Organize your galaxy map so that it makes sense for you. Group stars and have your teammates look at your map to see your priorities/suggestions.
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if you destroy your command post on a Dyson sphere planet, the Dyson sphere reverts to being your friend. if you can handle a few hostile Dyson gatling guns, this is a great way to capture advanced reasearch or golems.
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Free Roaming Defender works on engineers :)
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Don't put ships on FRD mode for offense. ;)
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- on the 'normal' planetary screen, pressing 'd' selects your space dock, pressing 'b' brings up the build menu and 's' selects any science vessels: means you don't have to find those buildings
Would like to extend this tip with "t" as well to select the starship constructor. The space dock, science vessel and starship constructor are the most used structures on your planet. Having a quick access to those are excellent!
Most of these shortcuts no longer apply! ;)
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Although "S" still applies, but all constructors are now selectable by "D" alone to cycle through.
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There is a handy-dandy context menu.
Edit: Does the alternate galaxy-map layout still exist? That's useful.
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The alternate-galaxy-layout stuff (and most of the context menu) has not yet been ported; not many people were missing it, and we're a bit short on time ;)
But they should be reappearing relatively shortly after the official release (which is scheduled for Wednesday).
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I hate to be bugging you in such an awesome thread, but this (http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=612) still needs looking at.
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Yes, I was just looking at that. I just put in a change to hide those context-menu-related keybinds to avoid the confusion.
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New ones:
* Don't "pop your head in" to an AI planet with military forces, unless you're prepared to deal with the wrath of the AI. Use scouts instead, as they won't stir the AI into a frenzy.
* Having trouble scouting? Send scouts in larger groups, and/or with group-move on to keep them all together. Still having trouble? Unlock higher-tier scouts.
* Always being caught by surprise with nearby AI forces? Leave a scout or two just sitting hidden out in the middle of nowhere on AI planets of interest, so that you have ongoing visibility into what is going on there.
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Okay, everything up to this point has been put in the new tip of the day system that will be in the next release. :)
I'm attributing each individual tip to the player who suggested it, by the way, so you'll see your forum handles in there for the tips. Think of that as an incentive to provide more excellent tips. ;)
I didn't include the tips that don't currently apply in the current versions of AI War 4.0: for instance, the draggable planets aren't in place at the moment, so I left those out. And I also altered wording a bit and corrected unit names when slang was used for them, and I added a few clarifying bits or added tidbits, where relevant. If anyone has a problem with one of these being attributed to them, do let me know and I'll take it out, but I think everyone will be pleased with what they see. :)
So far, 32 tips. We need more!
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*Transports are incredibly important. They can get your military ships past wormhole defenses, allow deep strikes several worlds into enemy territory, and boost your scouting range by slipping scouts past strong front line defenses.
*You can use force fields to block enemy access to wormholes leading deeper into your territory. Force fields can't block ships from entering a system, only exiting one.
*You want every Advanced Research Station on the map if it's at all possible to secure them. It's not necessary to hold the system, it only has to be captured for a moment for you to get access to a new ship type and the new cap that comes with it.
*Caps are per ship level, not per ship type, so unlocking higher tier ships means both better ships and more ships. Always continue building lower mark ships to keep your fleet numbers up, you'll need them!
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Thanks, I'll add those :)
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Well, with a bit of effort to make sure it's not totally a duplicate ;) We have quite a few "transports are critical" ones already, haha.
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Well, with a bit of effort to make sure it's not totally a duplicate ;) We have quite a few "transports are critical" ones already, haha.
I also put in something like those force field ones already. The transports one isn't a duplicate quite, though, as it focuses on a bit different aspect than many of the other ones (such as boosting the scouting range). I'd include all three except the force fields one.
As a side note, you CAN block ships from entering a wormhole with a force field if you put it on the far side.
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As a side note, you CAN block ships from entering a wormhole with a force field if you put it on the far side.
That's what he meant by "Force fields can't block ships from entering a system, only exiting one.", I think :)
By the way, I've got support for it recognizing a hyperlink at the end of the tip and providing a button to open it in a browser, so if there are any particularly critical wiki articles (people are probably more likely to dive in that way than go to the front door), or that sort of thing, we can put tips in for those.
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Well, with a bit of effort to make sure it's not totally a duplicate ;) We have quite a few "transports are critical" ones already, haha.
There aren't any in this thread, but presumably there are several in Mantis (which I foolishly neglected to check :-[). I thought that was a strange oversight. :)
And yes, you've correctly read me on the force fields, I was trying to be clear there but apparently failed. Of course, if it's a duplicate, I suppose that doesn't matter.
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I think I added them belatedly. :)
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Ok, I've added those, and in general have it up to 53 tips, largely by linking specific beginner-oriented wiki articles. Oh, and one that links to Tidalis's press-reaction page ;) Shameless plug, and all.
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Nice. :)
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Having a Leech Starship in a fleet guarding a wormhole can get you many free ships, but first make sure you have enough energy available to power them.
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Hmmm tips of the day....
-Ever wonder what the cloaked AI ships are that your constantly shooting? Have your ship target one and the target it will prefer will be the type of the cloaked ship!
-If you like your offensive cloaked ships to sneak into an AI planet without uncloaking themselves to shoot, then put them in low power mode.
-Gravity turrets have the potential to delay an AI Raid starships long enough to destroy them.
-Logistics Command Station will divide the speed of the enemy by half. Enemies under a Gravity Turret MKI will move at 8 speed. Together the AI ships will move at a speed of 4.
*"All tips based on version 3.189"*
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There's a tip that mentions the z and z+x keys to see ranges. Unless I missed it within the other tips, I might suggest including the z+a combo, to see the ranges of your ships at the mouse cursor, in that same tip. My fingers are almost permanently on those keys.
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^This reminds me.
Holding down V + Shift will make a ship go into free-roaming mode while going to the points you've selected. This is especially useful for decloakers.
Whenever a decloaker comes upon a cloaked ship, it will stop to engage the new target then continue back on its designated route after the target is destroyed.
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-Ever wonder what the cloaked AI ships are that your constantly shooting? Have your ship target one and the target it will prefer will be the type of the cloaked ship!
This sounds more like a bug than like a tip ;-)
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-Ever wonder what the cloaked AI ships are that your constantly shooting? Have your ship target one and the target it will prefer will be the type of the cloaked ship!
This sounds more like a bug than like a tip ;-)
(http://files.myopera.com/freejerk/files/bug-feature.jpg)
Is there really a difference?
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*Want your ships to travel as a group? Press G while issuing the order
*Have you tried attack-move? Press alt while issuing a move order. This way ships will stop moving to their destination when a target is in firing range until they are clear again.
edit: @Fox Nice image, looks like it was taken from a programming textbook :-) Was it?
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edit: @Fox Nice image, looks like it was taken from a programming textbook :-) Was it?
I dunno, some guy kept using it on the minecraft forum.
I thought it was funny.
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It's a pretty common expression in Dwarf Fortress as well.
"Is this a bug or a feature?"
"You're playing Dwarf Fortress...there isn't much of a distinction."
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Noticed alot of tips regarding cloaker starships, so I'd like to add one of my own. :)
*- Put your ships in low-power mode (default shortcut: K) to prevent them from firing while under a Cloaker Starship's protection and attracting unwanted attention. Take them out of low-power mode once they have reached an ideal firing position. This is especially handy when using Siege Starships for covert, long range strikes!
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You folks are sneaky ;)
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add a "submit your own tip of the day, help others, and get your name here" tip to the in game tip-o-day list
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Noticed alot of tips regarding cloaker starships, so I'd like to add one of my own. :)
*- Put your ships in low-power mode (default shortcut: K) to prevent them from firing while under a Cloaker Starship's protection and attracting unwanted attention. Take them out of low-power mode once they have reached an ideal firing position. This is especially handy when using Siege Starships for covert, long range strikes!
IIRC that tip also works for any cloaking ship that can also fire (ie Eyebots).
Also, Winter Born's handle is misspelled in the first post of this thread.
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-Thanks to Winter Born for this tip
--Thanks to Vinraith for Correcting Winter Born's hand :D
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attack move is no longer alt, it defaults to x nowadays
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whatwhatwhat?
Apparently i don't play the game enough atm..... But thanks :)
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question: are these tagged by expansion? for instance, stuff regarding cloaker starships or hybrids would only come into play when ZR or CoN is enabled
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also, one of mine mentioned spider guardians.. I'm fairly sure that was spider-nest era, but I'm not sure any guardians do engine-damage. Yet. Add them soon ;)
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Tip:
Defending the path between a strategic target and a wormhole is often similar to "Tower Defense." Experiment with FRD mode for ships (V+ right click) and different turret placement to build incredible defensive outposts.
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Tip:
*You can prioritize planets on the galaxy map. This helps you to plan your long-term strategy by marking high-value targets.
*Tired of the standard planet names? Create your own list of planetnames and insert it into the altplanetnames.txt in the game directory. Any game that you start afterwards will take the names from your list instead of randomly generating them.
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When faced with a cross planet attack, keep a few transports near your largest concentrations of ships. If you need to rapidly redeploy those ships to deal with unexpected AI movements, the extra transport speed may make the difference between keeping and losing whole systems.
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The F1 key lets you look at all the ships in the game and their tooltip descriptions. Keep hitting F1 to cycle through all the mark levels and back to the current planetary ship summary. You can also use Shift+F1 to jump right back to your planetary summary.
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You can add written notes to the galaxy map as well. This can be useful if you need to remember something important over a long game.
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Bring some Mobile Repair Stations with you if you use Leech Starships or other capture units.
Maybe a given for old vetereans, but handy to know fior new players I guess :)
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Keep a transport near your fleet when attacking a hostile planet. If a high-value unit (like a siege starship) is being targeted and running out of health, you probably won't be able to repair it as it's being hit too often. Load it into the transport, then unload again a moment later -the attackers will have moved to a new target (if available), giving you time to repair the damaged ship back to full health.
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You can use the new Reference Tab backwards to figure out how to kill a tough opponent like a superfortress.
Q: If I have something hard to kill like a Superfortress how can I find the best ships to kill it?
A: Select the target (Superfortress) in the drop down, then sort the Win/Loss column for "Loss" These are your winners (the ships you want to use) because the target(Superfortress) will lose against them.
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You can micromanage the teleporting ships to avoid getting hit by any projectile weapons (ie non-instant hit weapons). Put the teleporters into their own control group, teleport in to the target to hit it, teleport away straight afterwards, and then teleport back in to hit again once they are ready to shoot again. Keep repeating until there are too many enemy shots and missiles following your teleporters, then exit that planet via a wormhole. All the shots that were following your teleporters will disappear and you can start fresh again.
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Capturing Ion Cannons really helps out in the early part of the game and for planets that you think will get a lot of enemy traffic.
Bringing Leech Starships (or parasites) and Engineers (preferably Mk III on free-roaming-defender mode) with you when you attack a higher tech level planet early on the game can get you a bunch of nice Mk II and III ships before you'd otherwise be able to get them.
I almost always research Engineer Mk III off the bat so I can have a fast-moving repair crew go with my primary and secondary attack fleets.
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Watch out for AI Eyes!
These not only operate as Warp Gates for the AI but will respond with extreme force to any incursion of a player army outnumbering the AI ships on the planet by more than 2:1. High level AI ships will continue to warp through the Eye until between a 2:1 and 1:1 ratio has been re-established, so be careful!
Of course, some skilful players will no doubt see this as an opportunity...
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The dificulty of Waves is set by the dificulty setting of AI #1 -- If you want easier waves keep AI 1 at a lower dificulty.
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Something to the effect of "Don't alert level III or IV planets until you are ready to capture them." As we all know what happens if they get to sit and fill up. Or at least that's how it used to work.
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The dificulty of Waves is set by the dificulty setting of AI #1 -- If you want easier waves keep AI 1 at a lower dificulty.
Is this true? I thought both AIs sent waves more or less independently...
Tip:
** Have you tried the mobile repair station (MRS)? Repairing your ships is much cheaper than rebuilding them. Fix your ships with engineers or repair stations between fights to conserve your resources.
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This one is more for newer people but:
Don't ignore Gravitational Turrets! These guys can really save your bacon, especially against enemies that are immune to tractor beams and in systems where you have only a few, or even no ships for defense (as your ships are also slowed by these). Use Z+X to aid in placing them for good fields of coverage. The extra time it takes the enemies to move through these gives your defenses longer time to react to large waves. They affect all ships passing through their AoE so are a very good investment.
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I like how tip of the day no1 is an advertisement for tidalis ;D
alot of these tips just deal with the interface or broad stratergy.. it would be nice to have more tips regarding the usage or countering of specific units, especially those that are not immediately obvious
ie, beam turrets, teleport raiders, paralysers, raiders, raid starships, cloaking starships
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I like how tip of the day no1 is an advertisement for tidalis ;D
The tips are randomized on each run, but yea, I thought that one was amusing :)
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"If a Devourer Appears , Get Everything out of there And run like as if Your Life Depended on it Unless you Want a Mouthful of Scrap Metal"
Real Experience , I Tried to Eat on a Devourer when i First got ZR Until i noticed that It One-Shots Small Units with Masses of Bullets/lasers/blasters/plasma/rockets and Ignores The Larger Ships , i Pulled Everything out of the Planet After that
"If a Hostile Planet Seems to be Receiving More then Normal Amounts of Reinforcements , Hurry in and Destroy The Warp gate Before They Build up and Swarm you with Ships"
No Real Experience , But it Should be Common Sense , Right? Right?
"Don't Stop Moving , a Sitting Army is Target Practice for Anything that Can shoot"
Why , Yes
"When Retreating , Leave Atleast a Few Ships Behind so that the AI Fleet Isn't on you when you Get out of there"
Obvious , But still Unknown
"If Everything is Hopeless for your Invasion Force , Don't Waste more Ships and Thus more Resources Trying to Turn the Battle right , Just Get out and Attack Another Time , The Losses will Outweight the Gains if you Decide to Do a Last stand"
Common Sense Knocks , i See way too Many People Fighting a Hopeless Battle And Way too Less People Retreating to Fight another day
"Agressiveness Results in Heavier Losses and Fewer Gains"
Yes , i am Agressive , But i Know when to Stop
"Be an Oppotunitist , The AI's not going to Fall down if you Keep Striking Where or When they have the Advantage , Oppotunity Knocks , But once , If you are Going to Even Win the War , You'll Have to Answer"
Perhaps not for Veterans , But It's a Excellent Advice for Begineers
"Always Keep a Defense Line up To make Sure the AI doesn't Simply Roll over with Impunity and Destroy your Base Once your Attack Force Falls"
DEFENCE - an Overlooked but Effective Stratergy
"Make Sure you Attack from Several Directions if you Can , And it's Even Better if you can Split up the Defending Force with Shooting at The Main Attackers and The Flankers"
Trust Me , i Won a Many good Battles with this
"Ensure your Attacking Force isn't Funneled Down in One or Three lines And Try to Split them up"
Gettin' Tired of People Rushing their Fleet in Lines , This is not the American Civil War or the Reniasence Age , Where Having Soldiers in Lines is Effective , This is the Future Era of Space combat
"To Ensure that Hostile Area of Effect And Directional Weaponry is Kept at it's Minimum Effecienificy , Try to Split your Attacking Force So that the Enemy can't Catch All at once"
....But don't Split them too Far!
"If the AI Starts to Confuse you , Remain Calm and Bunch Up your Ships at the Required Building/Ship"
I Ran a Test With this Before , if i Were to Panic and Sent ships in all Directions attempting to Destroy the AI ships , i normally Get Nothing but Scrap metal , If i Didn't Panic and Placed all in one , The (AI)Attack Normally Fails
Feel free to Mess around with my Tips to Create your Own Tips , I mean , I Would Care less if My Tips Were Stolen and Messed up with
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My...eyes! What's up with the wierd capitalization?
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Because i have a Weird Capitalization Habit
OR DOES CAPITALS SCREW YOUR EYES OVER?
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As a matter of fact, they do. It makes the text much harder to read, and is an incentive for me to simply say "eff it, not gonna read it". So in the future, I think most of us would be grateful if you wrote "properly".
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As a matter of fact, they do. It makes the text much harder to read, and is an incentive for me to simply say "eff it, not gonna read it".
As a non-native speaker I have trouble with the correct capitalization from time to time. However, it really makes the text much harder to read. The weird capitalization breaks the flow of reading... The easiest thing for english is usually to not capitalize anything except the beginning of phrases and names :-)
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As another non-native speaker, I heartily agree with you Ktoff ;)
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The Universe isn't Of a Single Kind , You'll Have to Accept Diversity If you Were to Live in this Universe
Now let's Get on-topic Before we Get a Mouthful of Warnings
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I had no intention of giving any warnings :)
As far as capitalization and politeness on this part of the scale, it just falls within the bounds of "if you don't like it, don't read it", though it would help if there were an easier way to have it not pop out at you as you scroll through a thread.
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The Universe isn't Of a Single Kind , You'll Have to Accept Diversity If you Were to Live in this Universe
Now let's Get on-topic Before we Get a Mouthful of Warnings
That aside, why would you want to put most people off reading what you've written?
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The Universe isn't Of a Single Kind , You'll Have to Accept Diversity If you Were to Live in this Universe
DivRsiTyYyYy
I recently was playing with a wide arrange of ship specials, so I was thinking for a tip...
"Don't underestimate certain ship specials."
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"Don't underestimate certain ship specials."
How insightful.
Here's my tip: "Build ships."
I used to give this tip to other players in Sins of a Solar Empire multiplayer. "You should try building some ships." But they never would, and pretty soon they'd get steamrolled. You see, a large number of even the weakest ship is better than no ships at all.
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Consider keeping a small cache of warheads in your home system or other critical planets (such as those with mark IV factories). Using these carries an AIP penalty but if the situation is serious enough they can help turn the tide of battle for you. It's generally better to increase AIP than to lose a critical production facility or your home world to a determined AI assault. You may not have time to build them before a large wave or cpa arrives.
Maintaining a stockpile does mean they could be detonated without your consent, though...
If that's used it may need a few lines cut out I should think, but I think it's a nice risk versus reward tip :)
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A warhead stockpile a day keeps the AI away
i Suppose that's what you are aiming for?
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If an item says "+AIP If killed - AI ONLY", that means its perfectly safe to scrap it after you capture it, if you dont like the effects
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Getting swarmed by large ammounts of small units? E.g. Neinzulships.
Grav turrets and AOE weapons like beam turrets is a nice counter.
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"AI Eyes also count as warp gates.. Duh"
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"AI Eyes also count as warp gates.. Duh"
Along those lines:
*Any AI structure with the trait "Warp Gate - Full" allows the AI to bring reinforcements to the system as well as launch waves against neighboring worlds. These include warp gates and AI Eyes. Any structure with the trait "Warp Gate- Reinforce Only" allows the AI to bring reinforcements to the system, but not launch waves. These include Spec Forces posts and Barracks.
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Here's a "Tip".
Capturing the Nenzul cockroaches with Leech starships then turning it on the Ai's Home Base = Instant Win. ;D
King
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Another tip: Place at least 3-6 Spider turrets in each of the systems you own, spaced in a ring around the very edge of the area you're allowed to build in. These have saved my bacon more times than I can remember by knocking out the engines of attacking ships, leaving them isolated and hopefully out of range of anything important.
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Another tip: Place at least 3-6 Spider turrets in each of the systems you own, spaced in a ring around the very edge of the area you're allowed to build in. These have saved my bacon more times than I can remember by knocking out the engines of attacking ships, leaving them isolated and hopefully out of range of anything important.
Now that's a good tip!
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Tip:
If you tell your ships to fire on a specific target, that type of ship becomes their preferred target. However, if you want to *clear* their preferred target, give your ships the 'stop' order (default hotkey: End)
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An eminent member told me this could be a tip of the day, so I'll post it here.
This could seem like a basic thing you can find in the manual but i personally press these commands thousands of times in a campaign, and "drag boxing" can be a liability if you inadvertently do it twice or press [Ctrl] at the same time (leading to FF/Rally posts/Engineers leaving their intended position).
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"If you need to select more than all Military units in the planet, like MRS/Engineers/Scouts/Mobile Builders/Transport Ships/Force Fields etc, you have to [Ctrl+,] to select all Military Ships idle or not then [Shift + Left Click] on the Support Ships/Structures you need -on the Planet Summary- to add them to your selection (For instance, to select your forces and include Mobile Repair Stations).
On the other hand you can also [Ctrl+,] then [Alt + Left Click] on the Military Ships -on the Planet Summary- you want to remove from your selection (For instance when you want to separate your main force from specific ships you want to send after or will use for other purposes like Raid/Bomber/Siege Starships etc)."
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When used to it, it doesn't take more than 3 seconds of manipulation.
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I'm not sure if this is still true, but I remember playing an AI War game a long time ago and then realizing that Advanced Research Stations can move.
This was a facepalm moment for me because the system was under attack and I'd abandoned it to enemy forces. If I knew I could fly it around other planets I'd have been using it as the flagship of my science vessel fleet!
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Do you have cloaked enemy ships in your systems that even tachyon warheads can't find? Take a fleet of ships to an adjacent system and then detonate an EMP warhead in the offending system! Once the nefarious enemy is revealed (the EMP shuts their cloaks off among other things), bring the aforementioned ships back to mop the little gits up. I had Red Cossack laughing in vent the other night when I cleaned out 3 systems of cloaked Raptors this way. ;)
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I had this happen to me in a game. I just couldn't find them and they didn't attack me, so I asked on irc what to do about it. I ended up replacing my logistical station with a military station, killing them and then rebuilding my logistical station :)
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Do you have cloaked enemy ships in your systems that even tachyon warheads can't find? Take a fleet of ships to an adjacent system and then detonate an EMP warhead in the offending system! Once the nefarious enemy is revealed (the EMP shuts their cloaks off among other things), bring the aforementioned ships back to mop the little gits up. I had Red Cossack laughing in vent the other night when I cleaned out 3 systems of cloaked Raptors this way. ;)
Not that they hurt you or anything, but it's creepy enough just having them sitting around in your system. WATCHING. ALWAYS WATCHING.
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Do you have cloaked enemy ships in your systems that even tachyon warheads can't find? Take a fleet of ships to an adjacent system and then detonate an EMP warhead in the offending system! Once the nefarious enemy is revealed (the EMP shuts their cloaks off among other things), bring the aforementioned ships back to mop the little gits up. I had Red Cossack laughing in vent the other night when I cleaned out 3 systems of cloaked Raptors this way. ;)
Not that they hurt you or anything, but it's creepy enough just having them sitting around in your system. WATCHING. ALWAYS WATCHING.
Tachyons wouldn't decloak the raptors? Do you have a save of that? Permacloaked things require EMP'ing since they're, well, immune to tachyon. But raptors aren't permacloaked ;)
I made some changes roughly a month ago to cut down on the permanent cloaked residents, like having it auto-detonate stealth tachyon emitters left by the AI when you take the planet. Though I guess those went away with AI turrets.
Anyway, yea, those enemy units permanently stuck on your planets are bad both for OCD players (like myself) and the CPU due to extra processing that your units will frequently be doing ("Enemy! Can I shoot it? Awww" ... "Enemy! Can I shoot it? Awww" ... "Enemy! Can I shoot it? Awww" ...). So I want them gone.
I'm just referring to the truly permanent stuff, as in it's an hour after you capped the planet and the cloaked number is still there.
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I'm not sure if we have any of these little buggers left in our systems as I can't stand having the blighters hanging around in my worlds. I thought it was odd when everything I found was Raptors which don't say they are perma-cloaked. Red Cossack had detonated a tachyon warhead earlier and it didn't uncloak the Raptors in that system so I used EMPs in the three systems while hunting them down with my Spire Gravity Drone group.
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How do we know they aren't mines?
I think both of my current games have this, keith you might be able to use my save from http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=1605 It's pre-conversion to LotS but the stealth count is still there if I'm remembering it right. I can check my current copy when I get home if it isn't there, it should be in the upper half of the map. The snake chain makes a 90 degree turn to the right (from the upper left side), the corner system has an Adv. Factory, the one you will want is within 1-4 jumps distal from there and there may be more than one in that area.
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How do we know they aren't mines?
I believe I made AI mines auto-die when you claim the system. It's a tad of a gimme but that's ok.
Anyway, I'll try to take a look at that save soon :)
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To permanently enable planet names on galaxy map:
Press 'Esc' -> Settings ->Interface tab -> Enable : 'Always show planet names in galaxy map'.
Alternatively press Ctrl to show the names.
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Tachyons wouldn't decloak the raptors? Do you have a save of that? Permacloaked things require EMP'ing since they're, well, immune to tachyon. But raptors aren't permacloaked ;)
I made some changes roughly a month ago to cut down on the permanent cloaked residents, like having it auto-detonate stealth tachyon emitters left by the AI when you take the planet. Though I guess those went away with AI turrets.
Anyway, yea, those enemy units permanently stuck on your planets are bad both for OCD players (like myself) and the CPU due to extra processing that your units will frequently be doing ("Enemy! Can I shoot it? Awww" ... "Enemy! Can I shoot it? Awww" ... "Enemy! Can I shoot it? Awww" ...). So I want them gone.
I'm just referring to the truly permanent stuff, as in it's an hour after you capped the planet and the cloaked number is still there.
Would it be possible to have your stuff that can detect cloaked units set in a "search for any cloaked units"-mode? When I encountered this, I initially wanted my microfighters to fly around the planet and detect the enemy, but doing that manually is quite tedious. I also didn't succeed. Would be cool if FRD would trigger detectors to search for cloaked ships if you know that there are cloaked ships in the system.
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I've thought a fair bit about an automatic "sweep for cloaked units" thing, and it does sound cool (not to mention useful for this particular case), but honestly it seems like something more appropriate to a tactical-level game rather than grand-strategy. It would also be a significant CPU cost to keep a ton of units moving like that. My desire in AI War's case is that you shouldn't need to spend mental cycles cleaning up cloaked stuff left by the previous occupants and that poses no real threat to you. If the AI has legitimately invaded with a bunch of cloaked units that's another story, but it should shortly be using those against you rather than just sitting around.
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They sit around for hours sometimes unfortunately. If you can read my most recent video, you'll see I often have red numbers on of most of my planets all the time. Those are cloaked units.
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Forcefields can "free" your units from tractors :)
i assume this mobile tractoring units?
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They sit around for hours sometimes unfortunately. If you can read my most recent video, you'll see I often have red numbers on of most of my planets all the time. Those are cloaked units.
What about adding an aspect to the tactical/strategic AI's logic such that it rounds up its idle cloaked units in player territory and, I don't know, does something with them?
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Those rebuilders just like to stick around, just incase you want to hire them to rebuild what their brothers just nuked ;)
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When you can build different lvl's of shield on top of each other, when your mk3 FF has been damaged enough to become smaller than than the mk2 FF your engineers can repair it while the mk2 FF take the damage, once the mk3 FF has been repaired enough the mk2 FF can be repaired, and so on. Your engineers will do this by themselves if left alone near the FF's.
This can make a planet under attack by several 100 mk2 ships last quite some time for it will fall, giving you ample time to get reinforcements in, or even build them at the spot.
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Oh, I so abuse layered-ffs with engies ;) It can get even worse: you can "circumvent" the cannot-repair-within-x-seconds-of-being-damaged rule by scrapping a mostly-depleted ff and flash-building a replacement with a ton of engineers. Fully exploited (lots of pausing, a fair bit of resources, dodgy ethics) this can defend against an almost infinite amount of incoming damage. Almost.
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Oh, I so abuse layered-ffs with engies ;) It can get even worse: you can "circumvent" the cannot-repair-within-x-seconds-of-being-damaged rule by scrapping a mostly-depleted ff and flash-building a replacement with a ton of engineers. Fully exploited (lots of pausing, a fair bit of resources, dodgy ethics) this can defend against an almost infinite amount of incoming damage. Almost.
Don't post that here! The developers will see it and fix the exploit! ;D ;D ;D
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Don't post that here! The developers will see it and fix the exploit! ;D ;D ;D
Density of irony causing singularity in 3... 2... 1... ;)
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Only am using this since very recently but it works absolutelly brilliant.
1 of each mk of FF, 2 MRS, and about 10 mk1 engies. They kept about 200+ enemies at bay without seeming to go down, a bit more and it becomes a sloooow war of atrition.
Oh, and 26 mk2 engies in a transport under the FF's (part of a knowledge harvesting team :)) might have been helpfull if needed :D
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Hi all, loving the game so far since I bought it for cheap from Steam.
Just wondering, what's an easy way to detect Space Planes?
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Just wondering, what's an easy way to detect Space Planes?
You can uncloak any cloaking unit, like space planes, with a tachyon drone. They have a pretty tiny uncloak range though, so you have to build them right on the wormhole to get any use out of them. Also you only get a very small number of them. If you're dealing with a lot of cloaked units though, I'd suggest unlocking decloakers. Their uncloaking range is much larger. You don't get a very high ship cap of them either, but you won't need them that much, and you can always scrap them once you've cleared a planet with cloaked ships hiding in it. I like to build one and then send it on a meandering path around the system by shift + right clicking a few times in a big circle. That usually finds any pesky cloaked ships that are hiding out. Scout Starships also uncloak enemies, but their range isn't really big enough to make them very good at finding things. In general I find them to be hardly worth building.
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Just wondering, what's an easy way to detect Space Planes?
You can uncloak any cloaking unit, like space planes, with a tachyon drone. They have a pretty tiny uncloak range though, so you have to build them right on the wormhole to get any use out of them. Also you only get a very small number of them. If you're dealing with a lot of cloaked units though, I'd suggest unlocking decloakers. Their uncloaking range is much larger. You don't get a very high ship cap of them either, but you won't need them that much, and you can always scrap them once you've cleared a planet with cloaked ships hiding in it. I like to build one and then send it on a meandering path around the system by shift + right clicking a few times in a big circle. That usually finds any pesky cloaked ships that are hiding out. Scout Starships also uncloak enemies, but their range isn't really big enough to make them very good at finding things. In general I find them to be hardly worth building.
Combine that setup with a cap of mk1 starship leeches. Now clear an area of mk3 planets where any escaping units have to cross that gate = free cap of mk3 engies :)
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You don't need to capture a planet to harvest Knowledge from it, only destroy the AI Command Center. Try using a Cloaker Starship teamed with a Science Lab for powerful results.
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So. Much. Knowledge. Doing. This. :o
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You don't need to capture a planet to harvest Knowledge from it, only destroy the AI Command Center. Try using a Cloaker Starship teamed with a Science Lab for powerful results.
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So. Much. Knowledge. Doing. This. :o
You don't need to destroy the comm station to do this. You just need to be ready for it to start spawning ships almost as fast as an angry AI Eye while you are knowledge raiding. A big fleet helps. I very much suggest cloaking or putting up a force field or two over your mobile builder/engineers/science station. And keep in mind the AI ships start spawning as soon as you place the science lab, NOT as soon as it's built. That was a fun surprise the very first time I tried this.
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The only requirement there is for gaining knowledge is that the planet has to be in supply, wether you use the regular R-stations of the knowledge raiding ones, both need supply.
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The only requirement there is for gaining knowledge is that the planet has to be in supply, wether you use the regular R-stations of the knowledge raiding ones, both need supply.
I'm not sure I understand what you're referring to, but only the Mk3 Science Lab can gather from hostile worlds. Mk1 and 2 can't, nor can the ARS. But maybe I'm just confused by what you mean by 'regular r-stations'?
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That for "general gathering of knowledge" the only rule is that the targeted planet has to be in supply.
Doenst matter if you nuke the CC and use regular Research stations(mk1-2s), or knowlegde raid the planet using the advanced Research stations(mk3s, not the capturable one), the only given in any case is that the planet has to be in supply.
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Oh, that makes more sense, thanks. Of course if you kill the command station, you're not exactly knowledge raiding any more. ;)
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Sometimes I dont always want to commit to taking a system, but a cloaker and science stations can get the whole 3000 just fine :)
Thats all I wanted to add as I found this totaly useful
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Sometimes I dont always want to commit to taking a system, but a cloaker and science stations can get the whole 3000 just fine :)
Thats all I wanted to add as I found this totaly useful
I have actually not used the cloaker method, does this avoid the AI spawning a bunch of angry ships at you?
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How do I get rid of the AI's external invincibility?
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How do I get rid of the AI's external invincibility?
Depends on what type you're talking about. If it's a regular command station then there's probably a command station shield guard post somewhere, or a counterattack guard post providing it with invincibility. If it's the AI home command station you'll need to destroy basically all the core guard posts on the homeworld and the network of core shield posts throughout the galaxy. Any of these that you've scouted out will show up on the objectives screen so you can check there to see if you've missed some.
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I'm not sure, I've only been using the mobile science stations. I'll experiment with what a cloaker and mobile builder can achieve.
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Mobile science labs shouldn't be able to gather on AI worlds, only friendly worlds. If they are doing so, that's either a bug or a tooltip that needs to be updated!
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You misunderstand me. I'm talking about neutral worlds. A mobile science stations can gather on neutral worlds, but not AI worlds.
And I just tested, the Immobile advanced Science Stations does indeed trigger the zombies, and additionally can't be cloaked, at least while it's building.
And you should experiment with cloakers Bob! There so cheap for what you get!
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One of the things I learned the hard way: Always carefully check what you're up against when attacking a planet.
E.g. one overlooked zombie guardian can easily turn the tide of battle against you. Or a counter-attack fleet which seems harmless at first and then completely destroys your planet because they are accompanied by an EMP guardian.
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You misunderstand me. I'm talking about neutral worlds. A mobile science stations can gather on neutral worlds, but not AI worlds.
Doh! Second time I've made that mistake. I'm sorry, but I get confused as to why you'd need to use cloaking or any tactics at all to gather knowledge on neutral worlds. Just plop down a command station and build your science labs, done.
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Oh, for me it's about my play style. I spend considerable time planning my invasion strategies. I spend hours looking for a good, interesting map. Usually one with a choke point of enclosed system that I can make my stable base from. Then I rename all the points in the galaxy I'm going to take to form my borders, and heavily fortify those. When there is a planet, I think very carefully how many planets I'm defending, I like being somewhere around 1 or 2. ;D ;D I don't normally think it's worth all the extra resources to have one extra planet if it's gonna extend my front from 2 to 3 planets or what not, so I take down planets and then capitalize on them.
Thats really why I like this game, you can get awesome front battles with some very cool logistics. I spend 80% of my time in the Galaxy Map.
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When there is a planet, I think very carefully how many planets I'm defending, I like being somewhere around 1 or 2. ;D ;D I don't normally think it's worth all the extra resources to have one extra planet if it's gonna extend my front from 2 to 3 planets or what not, so I take down planets and then capitalize on them.
Why turn the planet to neutral if you're only doing it for the knowledge? As far as I see, the benefit is only that you'll lose less ships this way compared to defending a knowledge raid. But you'll incur the increased AIP, which in my opinion is usually the thing that's harder to replace.
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When there is a planet, I think very carefully how many planets I'm defending, I like being somewhere around 1 or 2. ;D ;D I don't normally think it's worth all the extra resources to have one extra planet if it's gonna extend my front from 2 to 3 planets or what not, so I take down planets and then capitalize on them.
Why turn the planet to neutral if you're only doing it for the knowledge? As far as I see, the benefit is only that you'll lose less ships this way compared to defending a knowledge raid. But you'll incur the increased AIP, which in my opinion is usually the thing that's harder to replace.
Never do ANYTHING to bump up the AIP unless it's really worth it. The only time taking a planet just for the Knowledge is worth it is when you're 3,000 or less away from getting a Mk. III ship and you have a Mk. IV factory or something, and even then, it's usually not worth it. Heck, even blowing up a distribution node (Which only gives +1 AIP) isn't worth it too often.
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I tend to play kind of fast and loose with my AIP. If I skip over planets to try and be conservative, I find that I get aggravated by the impaired troop movement. Usually I leave a command station up on intervening planets for a few hours and then finally just get tired of transporting back and forth across it and just blow up the stupid thing. I try to scout out a superterminal early and then save it for when the waves are really starting to hurt. The later you take that thing, the further you can ride its AIP reduction. But almost every distribution node and zenith cache I see ends up getting blown up eventually. Although maybe that means it's just time to go to 7.x AI instead of flat 7 difficulties.
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Might want to make a mental note that the S-terminal wont be seeded on to every map, I have never had the chance to use it in a full out game ...
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Might want to make a mental note that the S-terminal wont be seeded on to every map, I have never had the chance to use it in a full out game ...
Hmm that could complicate things. I thought it always went in as long as you had TZR turned on. How does the seeding work on that then?
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That armored warheads are seemingly unaffected by warhead interceptors. You can go for an easy checkmate if you just rush nine armored warheads into an AI Homeworld and just blow up everything (Of course, after weakening it a bit first).
Also, mantis issue here: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=2973
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Never do ANYTHING to bump up the AIP unless it's really worth it. The only time taking a planet just for the Knowledge is worth it is when you're 3,000 or less away from getting a Mk. III ship and you have a Mk. IV factory or something, and even then, it's usually not worth it. Heck, even blowing up a distribution node (Which only gives +1 AIP) isn't worth it too often.
Oh hey, don't I know you? :P
I wish I had known to build more ships than you'll think you'll need, then build some more. My first game, I was way too conservative with my ships and ended up meeting a 250 ship attack, to which I couldn't build enough forces in time and ended up losing my home planet. >_>
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Nice to see a new femme join the ranks. :-*
Me? I'm not that new, but it's been too long and way out of practice. :P
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Nice to see a new femme join the ranks. :-*
Me? I'm not that new, but it's been too long and way out of practice. :P
Not sure how to respond to that ::)
Oh hey, don't I know you? :P
I wish I had known to build more ships than you'll think you'll need, then build some more. My first game, I was way too conservative with my ships and ended up meeting a 250 ship attack, to which I couldn't build enough forces in time and ended up losing my home planet. >_>
Only 250? Come on, that's not THAT many ;D Loop build ALWAYS.
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I don't know if this has already been mentioned: "Alerts can be clicked to directly go to the planet view"
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I wish I had known I could select the location of my homeworld and pick whichever bonus ship type on the map when starting a new campaign. I didn't know I could chose my starting location(s) until I read people talking about it on the forum. Before then I would just start a new campaign and the computer would randomly decide wherever I would start out.
So...
when creating a new campaign, you can chose the bonus ship(s)you want to start with by simply clicking on one or more of the ship icons at the big galaxy map. Note that clicking on one of these icons will also make the selected icon the location of your homeworld, so be carefull of selecting a spot with to many wormhole exits.
... or something like that :P
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I wish I had known earlier that turning off your more inefficient reactors, like your mark III reactors, can help boost your economy! You have no need for extra energy, and the reactors have an upkeep. If you want to have more resource income, you can simply temporarily turn off a mark III generator or two, and then turn it back on when you need the energy!
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Something I just came up with.
I kept losing a planet I didn't intend to actually keep but it is needed to make the jump to the next planet so I wish to keep it, even if just to keep the adjacent planets in supply.
So I put a cloaker starship nextdoor, hiding a transport with in it a colony ship. When the CC got nuked I just send in the transport, build a new CC, build a new colony ship, hid it in the transport and send the transport back to the planet where the cloaker is waiting to hide it for the AI :)
Put a couple of mk1 engies in the transport to speed up the procedure a bit.
I came to this as I was hiding my Zenith Space Time Manipulators at the edge of planets under a cloaker, and they stay alive even if a planets defences fail :)
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I wish I had known that you can rename planets. It's a great help for me now. I simply rename my homeworld "HOME" and all adjacent planets "HOME-1", "HOME-2" etc. Now I immediately know if my homeworld is in danger!
(not sure if this has already been mentioned :) )
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I wish I had known that you can rename planets. It's a great help for me now. I simply rename my homeworld "HOME" and all adjacent planets "HOME-1", "HOME-2" etc. Now I immediately know if my homeworld is in danger!
(not sure if this has already been mentioned :) )
WHAT? How do you rename planets? that would be so useful...
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Go to the galaxy map and then click on notes. When you write a note about a planet, you can change the name of that planet.
It is indeed very useful to give your planet names like "Home", "Home-1", "Frontline 1", etc.
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Go to the galaxy map and then click on notes. When you write a note about a planet, you can change the name of that planet.
It is indeed very useful to give your planet names like "Home", "Home-1", "Frontline 1", etc.
That helps alot, thanks.
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Not really game-related... but if you happen to want to skip a track of music (*cough* that one ill-fitting guitar song), you can click settings and disable/enable music, and it starts a new track.
(I haven't done it myself, but I read that for a more permanent solution, you can delete the actual songs off your computer.)
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Not really game-related... but if you happen to want to skip a track of music (*cough* that one ill-fitting guitar song), you can click settings and disable/enable music, and it starts a new track.
(I haven't done it myself, but I read that for a more permanent solution, you can delete the actual songs off your computer.)
Just delete the .ogg file if you don't want it in the rotation :)
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Not really game-related... but if you happen to want to skip a track of music (*cough* that one ill-fitting guitar song), you can click settings and disable/enable music, and it starts a new track.
(I haven't done it myself, but I read that for a more permanent solution, you can delete the actual songs off your computer.)
Just delete the .ogg file if you don't want it in the rotation :)
I would just rename it, that way if you change your mind or need it again for whatever reason, it is still there. The files are pretty small, so space shouldn't be concern.
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Not really game-related... but if you happen to want to skip a track of music (*cough* that one ill-fitting guitar song), you can click settings and disable/enable music, and it starts a new track.
(I haven't done it myself, but I read that for a more permanent solution, you can delete the actual songs off your computer.)
Just delete the .ogg file if you don't want it in the rotation :)
I would just rename it, that way if you change your mind or need it again for whatever reason, it is still there. The files are pretty small, so space shouldn't be concern.
You would need to move it in that case; it just takes any .ogg file it finds in those folders.
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Not really game-related... but if you happen to want to skip a track of music (*cough* that one ill-fitting guitar song), you can click settings and disable/enable music, and it starts a new track.
(I haven't done it myself, but I read that for a more permanent solution, you can delete the actual songs off your computer.)
Just delete the .ogg file if you don't want it in the rotation :)
I would just rename it, that way if you change your mind or need it again for whatever reason, it is still there. The files are pretty small, so space shouldn't be concern.
You would need to move it in that case; it just takes any .ogg file it finds in those folders.
Sorry, I meant renaming as in changing the extension. Unless it tries to play any ogg file regardless of extension.
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You can manually set targets for turrets.
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If you've split your fleet into several control groups, you can select multiple groups by holding down shift.
(Example: have teleporters in group 3, bombers in 2, and everything else in 1? Hold shift and hit 1 2 3 to select them all.)
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Figure out about how many turrets you think you'll need. Multiply this number by 5-10.
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Go into the stat menu and look at the objective tab. Clicking on any of the objectives and it will center your camera onto that specific point of interest. Never knew this until recently. :)
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When playing with Spire Civilian Leaders on, you don't have to control the system the leader is in to get the -3 benefit; it is sufficient to take out the AI in the system. This way, you won't "own" the leader and it won't become an AI target.
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Did you know you can select the availability of many additional ship types when starting a new campaign? The vast majority of ships are locked by default so newer players don't get overwhelmed.
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Research and Build Advanced Warp Sensors in your border systems. When a wave is approaching that system, the wormhole that is staging the assault will chance its color, giving you time to fortify the correct position.
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Research and Build Advanced Warp Sensors in your border systems. When a wave is approaching that system, the wormhole that is staging the assault will chance its color, giving you time to fortify the correct position.
note that logistics command stations also have that ability. I believe Sentinel Frigate ships have it too.
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Engineer mkIIIs can build new defences anywhere in your empire, essentially instantly.
Spirecraft Jumpships can redeploy starships anywhere in your empire, essentially instantly.
These are especially useful in the middle of an attack.
Riot Control Starships can be adapted to many situations, but are most valuable dealing with huge waves of small ships.
When stuck: consider warheads.
AI Progress is to be feared. This number makes almost every aspect of the game more difficult, particularly enemy reinforments and wave sizes.
Hack carefully.
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Hmmm.
Not so much gameplay tips but strategy advice:
1) Don't forget about the niche units.
Missile Frigates ruining your day? The AI unlocked a bonus ship that fires Missiles? Unlock those counter-missile turrets and laugh at them.
That resource node next to a hostile warp point and being destroyed every 2 minutes? Get the Harvest Shields and upgrade it so it does not get destroyed again.
It is worth you time to take 5 minutes, pause the game and just read through everything you can build. There is nothing 'hidden', everything you can build shows in the build menus, it is just grayed out until you research them.
2) You've only lost once you lose your Home Command Station.
Several of my early games I would end up losing half my empire to the AI but my mobile fleet would catch up and destroy the AIs forces before they could finish my Home Command station off. I would then go "I can't rebuild this in time" and start a new game.
Now I know better, after killing off an AI's attack you (usually) have 5-10 minutes of free time to rebuild which gives you quite a large window to recover and go on to win the game.
In other words, everything is expendable no matter what it costs, as long as you don't lose your Home Command Station you can still win the game.
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I'm wondering, why are we noobies writing these wishes / tips if they never show up :(
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I'm wondering, why are we noobies writing these wishes / tips if they never show up :(
You know, you have a point ;)
One of the last phases of a new official release is updating the tutorial (I've updated it to reflect some changes as I made them, but it needs more attention than that for an official), and there's been a number of tips I've had to replace as they became irrelevant. During the tutorial work we can pare out any other obsolete tips and bring in the various gems that have come up in this thread since the last time :)
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You know, we need to get Josh on updating these, rather than you, Keith. That would really help out a lot, I think!
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You know, we need to get Josh on updating these, rather than you, Keith. That would really help out a lot, I think!
Yea, for one thing, Josh actually knows how to be on the ball! ;)
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:D
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Heh, good point there. But I seem to remember some new tips making it in. For instance, I saw a new one yesterday that touched on a new mechanic that wasn't there before.
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Spirecraft Attritioners are extremely powerful defense units.
At ship cap:
MK1 1500hp/s
MK2 2400hp/s
MK3 2700hp/s
MK4 2400hp/s
MK5 1500hp/s
Multiply by 10 to get what they will kill in 10 seconds, 100 to kill what they can kill in a little over a minute and a half.
This is not limited by number the way lightning turrets are, so a wave of 1500 enemy ships with 400,000 hitpoints will die to a full cap in 40 seconds. Move them into position for high level counteratack waves, exogalactic waves, or CPAs and your turrets will be much happier.
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They also have their feedback ability, which does attrition damage to all enemies whenever an enemy unit dies. Combine with a grav drill for effective invincibility.
Also, welcome to the forums.
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Wait, what? You have a new guy named josh too? What did I miss in my absence..
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if you destroy your command post on a Dyson sphere planet, the Dyson sphere reverts to being your friend. if you can handle a few hostile Dyson gatling guns, this is a great way to capture advanced reasearch or golems.
elaborate because i dont get it lol sounds like a cool trick though?? whats a dyson sphere planet?
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1) Destroy AI Command Station...Dyson Sphere is now your friend, but you still can't repair the golem, use Advanced Factories, or whatever because they are still owned by the AI
2) Build a Command Station
3) As soon as it finishes building, the following happens: The Dyson Sphere hates you and starts spawning hostile Gatlings, all capturable structures become owned by you
4) Destroy your own Command Station...The Dyson Sphere is friendly again and all the structures that you captured remain captured by you, so you can repair the golem, use the Advanced Factory (might require supply from a neighboring system) and so forth
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Stay on step 3 for a while.
Then capture as many Dyson Gatlings as possible.
Redirect step 4 into 'conquer the galaxy'
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whats a dyson sphere planet?
A Dyson sphere is a minor faction which you can enable if you have the Zenith Remnant Expansion. If the faction is enabled, exactly one planet will have a Dyson sphere, and the sphere will spawn beefy ships called Dyson gatlings. These are either enemy-to-all (if the AI controls the world), human-ally (if no one controls it) or AI-ally (if humans control it).
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An easy (albeit AIP-increasing) method of dealing with a gate wave is to park a Lightning Warhead on top of the wormhole the wave will appear on. Unless it's a pure Missile Frigate wave, you can count on 80-90% of the enemy ships evaporating without firing a shot.
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An easy (albeit AIP-increasing) method of dealing with a gate wave is to park a Lightning Warhead on top of the wormhole the wave will appear on. Unless it's a pure Missile Frigate wave, you can count on 80-90% of the enemy ships evaporating without firing a shot.
This is a very powerful tactic that can nullify a wave, however it is a dangerous one also.
Because of the AIP increase warheads cause, using one of these to kill wave results in the next wave being larger, it is very possible to get into a spiral of death where you have to keep warheading waves because the AIP increase from the warheads means your defences never catch up.
So yes, in an emergency situation this can save you from death by killing off an entire AI wave, but if you are using this as a regular tactic the AIP increase will make the waves big enough that eventually even the warhead will not be enough to stop it.
Yes, I learned this the hard way, why do you ask?
Like everything else it is about the tradeoffs you are making while you play the game.
D.
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An easy (albeit AIP-increasing) method of dealing with a gate wave is to park a Lightning Warhead on top of the wormhole the wave will appear on. Unless it's a pure Missile Frigate wave, you can count on 80-90% of the enemy ships evaporating without firing a shot.
This is a very powerful tactic that can nullify a wave, however it is a dangerous one also.
Because of the AIP increase warheads cause, using one of these to kill wave results in the next wave being larger, it is very possible to get into a spiral of death where you have to keep warheading waves because the AIP increase from the warheads means your defences never catch up.
So yes, in an emergency situation this can save you from death by killing off an entire AI wave, but if you are using this as a regular tactic the AIP increase will make the waves big enough that eventually even the warhead will not be enough to stop it.
Yes, I learned this the hard way, why do you ask?
Like everything else it is about the tradeoffs you are making while you play the game.
D.
I got into this situation with myfirst FS game, it screwed me over big time.
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I once nuked a planet to progress with my FS game.
It wasnt a good idea. It also made me very sad on the inside.
Dont nuke planets, its not good for you.
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Dont nuke planets, its not good for you.
What? I can't hear you! Something about using warheads? Sounds good!
Warheads are a valuable ace in the hole. Don't hesitate to use them to resolve crises and assist the HW attacks.
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But, don't nuke the home planets, right? I mean, given the mark V nature of the everything on them.
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I often nuke the HWs. It kills all the mkIV ships there, removes the eye if one is present, and puts the fortress mkIII out of supply. But I mainly use the other kinds of warheads there.
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Oh wow, point taken. 50 AIP to remove the Eye, the Fortress (basically), and a whole load of anything that happens to be lower level sounds like at least a decision to make.
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Oh wow, point taken. 50 AIP to remove the Eye, the Fortress (basically), and a whole load of anything that happens to be lower level sounds like at least a decision to make.
And if I remember correctly, killing supply also disables forcefields. Hmm. I gotta try this whole homeworld nuking thing. So far I've only used lightning warheads to help clear the Neinzul Cockroach spawns.
...
Actually my primary tactic against them was to send an Armored Golem who is immune, and have them expire naturally because they won't leave the HW unless you give them a target of opportunity. Any tips on less cheesy ways to deal with them?
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Oh wow, point taken. 50 AIP to remove the Eye, the Fortress (basically), and a whole load of anything that happens to be lower level sounds like at least a decision to make.
And if I remember correctly, killing supply also disables forcefields. Hmm. I gotta try this whole homeworld nuking thing. So far I've only used lightning warheads to help clear the Neinzul Cockroach spawns.
Actually it doesn't, or at least didn't in my last game. I had thought it would knock them out too.
Actually my primary tactic against them was to send an Armored Golem who is immune, and have them expire naturally because they won't leave the HW unless you give them a target of opportunity. Any tips on less cheesy ways to deal with them?
Enclave Starship youngling/drone spam? Oh, less cheesy... I think if you park your fleet on the other side of the wormhole to the AI HW at max range then have something go in and snipe the post the cockroaches get shot down as they pop through the wormhole.
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Actually my primary tactic against them was to send an Armored Golem who is immune, and have them expire naturally because they won't leave the HW unless you give them a target of opportunity. Any tips on less cheesy ways to deal with them?
Unless it's placed extremely close to the wormhole, try sniping the spawner with Implosion Artillery or Artillery Golem.
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important to note that core forcefields dont require supply.
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Actually my primary tactic against them was to send an Armored Golem who is immune, and have them expire naturally because they won't leave the HW unless you give them a target of opportunity. Any tips on less cheesy ways to deal with them?
Unless it's placed extremely close to the wormhole, try sniping the spawner with Implosion Artillery or Artillery Golem.
Will it prevent the spawn?
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important to note that core forcefields dont require supply.
Ah, so it won't work. Pity, I've seen forcefields go offline when AI planet was destroyed by a mining golem.
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Will it prevent the spawn?
It was a long time I encountered one, but I think so, since it dies prior to launching it's load. But I might be wrong, I've never gone that route. I've always had to grind it down.
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I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't, since Neinzul Enclave drop their load on death.
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It does not prevent the spawn. Having a lightning warhead parked next to it when it dies will, however, kill all of them.
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Actually my primary tactic against them was to send an Armored Golem who is immune, and have them expire naturally because they won't leave the HW unless you give them a target of opportunity. Any tips on less cheesy ways to deal with them?
Unless it's placed extremely close to the wormhole, try sniping the spawner with Implosion Artillery or Artillery Golem.
Negative - core guard posts are immune to Artillery Golems.
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- Battleship-level Neinzul champions are gravity immune.
EDIT: Correction: Applies only to the Neinzul one...
Also:
- The Wrath Lance is not triggered by cloaked ships.
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New tip for Ancient Shadows: Turn circles around Dark Spire starbases. That's all I have to say.
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Here's a trick that can help you place Turrets properly.
Move ships next to your Command Station and pause the game. Then order them to go trough hostile Wormholes. Now start placing Turrets while holding Alt. You will see the paths the AI Waves will take when they attack because they always travel in straight lines. So now you can place the Turrets so their range covers those paths.
(http://i.imgur.com/a6IQSXN.png)
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It is probably best to just accept that your rally points and drones are joined together in eternal robotic matrimony. Splitting them up is more trouble than it is worth, plus they get a bodyguard!
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Place your command center in a place where the AI will not surround it. This let's you place turrets behind your command center and forcefield where they will shoot at full power and be ignored.
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Place your command center in a place where the AI will not surround it. This let's you place turrets behind your command center and forcefield where they will shoot at full power and be ignored.
Are you saying it's a good idea to let the Command Station and the Force Fields protecting it to work as cannon fodder for your turrets? It should be the opposite.
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Good point, my tiny brain had not thought about that yet :), all I was thinking about was how to preserve turrets, I guess on lower levels waves are rarely strong enough to take down a turret
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There are hotkeys you can set for "load ships onto transports" and "special unload".
The load command makes everything you've currently selected hop into whatever transport they can, prioritizing nearby ones, but if there's enough space they'll find one somewhere. No more micro!
The special unload lets you unload SPECIFIC ships. Click once to unload one, ctrl for five, alt for all. Yay, now you can select your whole fleet and unload all the bombers! Or only the MkII+ to deal with an ion cannon. Or only one of your colony ships. Etc.
All of a sudden, transports are a joy instead of a pain, and using them to get things routinely from point A to point B feels much more natural.
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Military command stations do not grant all your units 100% fire under shields, only themselves....
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turret remains do not count against turret caps. this bit me in the butt a little on a planet that had both a grav drill and a log station as i was frantically slam-building closer defenses as the outer defenses got overrun. A few remains re-builders on the outer defenses had somehow survived and went about doing their job thereby resulting in seemingly magic cap depletion.