Do you use mobile ships on defense?

[Harry]

OK, downloaded the new pre-release, and will give it a go.  Amusingly, the line on CPAs in the changelog left me in a bit of suspense:

Lastly, cross-planet attacks are more than three times less frequent than before, but they are

But they are .... ?  Enquiring minds want to know what lurks at the end of the sentence!

[x4000]

Oops -- I was going to write "more powerful," but then that actually changed.  They are less frequent, but their power is the same as before.  The power is largely based off of the AI Progress, though, so if you AIP is higher then so too will the CPA be.  Interesting side note: I almost never saw CPAs in my own multiplayer games, since it seems they were bugged in multiplayer in some manner not clear to me.  So, I came to the realization that the game was really quite difficult enough without these being terribly frequent; some of the other "minor factions stuff" (base game and expansion) that is new kind of overlaps with the function of the CPA in creating larger battles of unusual sorts, anyway, so making CPAs much less frequent is a good thing on all fronts, I think.  They now won't occur more frequently than every four hours or so.

[Harry]

Sounds perfect to me!  Thanks.

[x4000]

Great!  NP.

[Harry]

Well, I've certainly learned the value of turrets!  In this game, one of the enemy AIs seems to be a sneaky type; it's using lots of cloaked ships -- Raiders, Raptors, Planes, Decoy thingies, all sorts of cloak and dagger.  So I invested in Laser Turret 1 & 2, and am I glad I did!  These turrets mow 'em down.  I even used Laser Turret 2's in my most recent system conquest.  I made a bridgehead with a mobile builder underneath a forcefield, supported by an engineer for repairs, and I constructed about 25 laser turrets while my fighters/bombers held off the opposition, and used that as a base to conquer the system.  The sweetest part was when I killed the enemy command station.  As always, the enemy guards immediately made a beeline for my wormhole -- but it was still guarded by a forcefield and those 25 turrets.  I cackled with glee as the enemy bounced harmlessly off the forcefield and my turrets methodically took them down -- 250 or so of them.  Not a one made it through the wormhole.

Conquest of that system was also entertaining.  I was busy congratulating myself on clearing the system, which had an Advanced Lab in it.  But I neglected to check the ship list for enemy cloaked ships.  So I proudly unveiled my shiny new colony ship and started building my station -- and then 50 raiders de-cloaked on top of it and blasted it to smithereens, lol!  (Gotta love this AI!)  On my next try, I escorted the colony ship with a Decloaker and some fighters, and I put my new Lab under the forcefield for good measure.  The kicker was my unlocked ship: anti-armor, in a game against cloakers!  Actually,  I'm sure it will come in handy -- I think the other AI may be using starships.

Anyway, now I have a large attack fleet and one smaller rearguard fleet protecting the other "end" of my empire, but the turrets are doing the lion's share of the work everywhere.

I'm also fascinated that the AI's choice of toys can make for such a different game from one to the next.  It's like the card game Dominion, as you said earlier.  I imagine the expansion multiplies the possibilities by a lot.

 

[x4000]

Glad to hear it's going so well, now that you're using turrets and the latest prerelease!  Yes, the game can really vary hugely from one map to the next, from one AI type to the next, from one selection of AI ships to the next.  Sounds like one of your current AIs might be that one that specializes in all the cloaked ships, for sure.   And yep, the expansion definitely adds even more permutations, capturables, etc.  In the base game alone, if you play full campaigns, it will take about 100 hours before you even see all the content -- my goal was to maintain a constant sense of exploration and experimentation, even for really experienced players.  The continuous updates and free DLC are aimed at keeping with that, too.  Anyway, glad it's going so well for you now, sounds like you've hit a new threshold of success with your conquests.