Got a few questions[ Please (: ]

[7cardcha]

First of all I would like to thank anybody with enough patience to answer my questions.

• Does multiplayer difficulty scale(2x difficulty for 2x players)? I know it must scale some but how much and in what ways does it scale? Also does the amount of planets you will end up taking/AIP scale?  And does more players effect the time a standard campaign will take?
• I'm only in the middle of a 7/7 campaign of 5.5 hours(and another of 2.5 that I quit because 5/6 difficulty was too easy) and haven't found any AI home worlds yet. I heard that they really come after you if they know you have found them. Is that true and if so how bad is it?
• After you kill an AI can they reinforce or do the ships they have just stay?
• Regarding nuclear warheads; Can they blow up during transport; is it easy for this to happen; Anything else I should know about them? ;etc
• I know nothing about transports(Haha n00b). Can you please explain?
• How much do the expansions 1. Change the game and 2. Affect the difficulty.
• How much do the AI types affect the difficulty compared to just the difficulty number settings?
• How tactical are nukes, should I really be using them?
• Anything else I should know?[/i]
  

Thank you for greatly enlightening me.

Oh and yeah I did google most of this but for some reason can't find much. Too many pros not asking questions I guess (:

[Mánagarmr]

1. It's not entirely 1:1 on the scale, but it does scale with the amount of players to keep it challenging. You will need to work together. Time to play shouldn't be significantly affected.
2. The AI does not change its tactics depending on wether you've found the core worlds or not. That's entirely AIP based. There's some "plots" that can be activated that affects end game, but that is only after you destroy a core.
3. After you kill an AI, that AI is dead. It can no longer do anything.
4. Hmm, I didn't even know they could be transported. But if they can, no they can't be blown up inside the transport.
5. Put ships in them, take transport to where you want to go, unload ships somewhere semi-safe. Easy really They're FAST.
6.1. Umm...A LOT. There's a lot more ships, plots, AI-types and settings to toy around with. 2. Depending on expansion and settings you use: None to a lot.
7. Quite a bit. The difficulty setting affects AI intelligence up to 7, where it's at its full brain power. After that it's a pure "power-boost" up to 10. The AI-type can make for easier games (passive, defensive) or very hard (Special attacks/ships, overly aggressive). They're categorised though, so you shouldn't have trouble seeing which are hard and which are easy.
8. No. The general idea is that if you have to nuke, you're probably screwed anyway. Sometimes, they can be a life saver, but generally, they're more hurt than boon.
9. If you wonder; ASK. That's it.

Welcome!

[Minotaar]

Hi, and welcome to the forums! I'll try to answer as many of these as possible 

1. Check this wiki article, it has most of the answers.

2. Just scouting the homeworlds is not dangerous in itself. You should avoid putting them or the core worlds (planets next to the homeworld) on alert at all costs until you're ready to attack them, though. (A planet will be on alert if the command station has been destroyed on on adjacent planet, or as long as you have a significant military presence nearby)

3. Don't know 

4. They'll explode if destroyed by the enemy, yes, and it's probably real easy with just 100k hit points. Definitely don't build them unless you really need them (which is pretty much never, as 50 AIP is no joke)

5. You can store up to 200 ships in them (including starships) and they're pretty fast and durable, so they can make it easier to get your units closer to the target or scouts further out. You can't get too deep into the enemy territory, though, because they lose a third of their health for each wormhole outside of supply and can't be repaired (they regenerate in 30 seconds on friendly planets). The units are ejected safely if the transport is destroyed. You can also use empty transports as decoys so that the ones with units survive longer 

6. They add more things to use both by you and the AI, so the game is more diverse but the difficulty doesn't change much.

7. Quite a bit, some of the harder AI types can make a 7/7 game feel more like a 9/9. Within the moderate and easier ones it varies somewhat, but not by as much.

8. Not sure, but you're welcome to ask 

Got ninja'd by Moonshine, but will post this anyway. 

[Hearteater]

3. After you kill an AI, that AI is dead. It can no longer do anything.

I don't believe this is true.  Killing an AI Homeworld has no effect on that AI.  All it does is increase your AI Progress a lot.  Basically, killing a homeworld just pisses them both off.  You better kill the second one fast!

[Mánagarmr]

I was under the impression that the destroyed AI would no longer get reinforcements. But yeah I've been wrong before.

[Bognor]

Chris stated last year that killing one AI doesn't help you in any way.  His comment that the AI home planet that's been destroyed will no longer reinforce might have been mis-remembered as the entire AI no longer reinforcing. 

[Mánagarmr]

Chris stated last year that killing one AI doesn't help you in any way.  His comment that the AI home planet that's been destroyed will no longer reinforce might have been mis-remembered as the entire AI no longer reinforcing. 

That is quite possible. Thank you for that!

[7cardcha]

Wow guys this helps a lot. Thanks.

[7cardcha]

-snip-

I guess I do have one question.

My questions about nukes was a bit misguided. What I really wanted to ask was how do you use nukes. Do you move them into any friendly planet and then send them into a wormhole? I don't know

[Mánagarmr]

-snip-

I guess I do have one question.

My questions about nukes was a bit misguided. What I really wanted to ask was how do you use nukes. Do you move them into any friendly planet and then send them into a wormhole? I don't know

Oh. They're used as any warheads. You build them, move them to the planet you wish to kablooie and either let them get shot down (by anything other than a warhead interceptor) or self-destruct it. It will then explode.

[Wanderer]

Moonshine covered most of your early questions, but to confirm...

... Killing an AI Homeworld command center is the same as killing off one of the players in a 2 player game.  It does nothing but piss them off.  It's all or nothing.

MP: Scaling goes to roughly 2:1, but it's a degrading value as you add more.  With multiple players you have the advantage IF you work together.  Fail that and you're hosed.