AI War "Tip of the Day" -- What do you wish you'd known?

[keith.lamothe]

Don't post that here! The developers will see it and fix the exploit! 

Density of irony causing singularity in 3... 2... 1...

[Red Spot]

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

[B45man]

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?

[BobTheJanitor]

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.

[Red Spot]

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

[Entrenched Homperson]

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.

_____________

So. Much. Knowledge. Doing. This. 

[BobTheJanitor]

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.

_____________

So. Much. Knowledge. Doing. This. 

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.

[Red Spot]

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.

[BobTheJanitor]

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'?

[Red Spot]

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.

[BobTheJanitor]

Oh, that makes more sense, thanks. Of course if you kill the command station, you're not exactly knowledge raiding any more. 

[Entrenched Homperson]

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

[BobTheJanitor]

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?

[B45man]

How do I get rid of the AI's external invincibility?

[BobTheJanitor]

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.