Glad to hear you're enjoying the game
Always good to hear when someone else discovers it and goes "whoa"
I always have all AI Plots enabled.
There's your problem
More seriously, that's doable but is a way more challenging game (the hybrids and the beachheads, mainly; the trains aren't a big deal).
Broken Golems and Spirecraft are on Hard.
That can be ouch-time, as you'll get two different sets of exos coming in (both drawing strength from AIP). Plenty of people play with both on (and FS to boot) but it's definitely an "advanced" game.
I'm against Attrioner and Radar Jammer on 9 Very Hard difficulty on 120 planet map
Good grief you're a glutton for punishment
Diff 9, among other things doubles exo size (compared to diff 7). Also, 120 planets has somewhat more hybrid spawners than 80 planets. And Diff 9 has fairly punishing normal waves, compared to 7.
I think I need to change/fix my strategy.
The setup you've picked does indeed require a high level of both strategic thinking and tactical execution. If it was courage that led you this far, I salute you
So.. any pros have any ideas what went wrong?
That's a level of difficulty where you don't have to make mistakes to lose, you can lose by just not being really good. That said I think you're getting there. Here's a recent example of someone playing a brutal scenario and (eventually) prevailing, you may find the techniques helpful:
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,9635.0.htmlI don't usually use Starships since they're expensive and get destroyed quite easily.
You may want to investigate Riot Control Starships for crowd control on the little attackers. The other starships certainly have their uses too, it depends on the situation.
I had 5 Antimatter Starships to help against the hyrbids though
I do find them good for that.
Should I have been using the resources more and be more aggressive since I would have had the resources to rebuild my stuff?
Unused resources is usually a sign that you could be playing better. Not that I feel compelled to spend all mine, I just content myself with less brutal scenarios and not playing optimally
But if your defenses are crumbling and you've got m+c in the bank, it should have been on the field, not in the bank.
Or did I just mess up my researches?
That can certainly happen. More forcefields (deployed in overlapping stacks) might have helped hold enemies from entering a critical wormhole (by covering the entrance, not the exit).
Are Fortresses worth the price?
Depends, but in heavy defensive situations yes. I don't think I've seen anyone fighting this kind of game successfully without using fortresses. They're pretty beastly as far as non-superweapon units go.
Speaking of superweapons: make use of your spirecraft options. Martyrs, in particular, can do _incredible_ things on the defensive. The asteroids are a finite resource, of course, but if it's the difference between winning and losing...
I could imagine Fortress with Gravitational Turrets and Spider Turrets would work well.. yes? no?
It's certainly a combo that shows up in games like these
Raptor(fragile and low damage)
But cloaking and fast; some serious raiding can be done with these. But in a standup fleet fight... not their cup of tea
And I don't know that it's low damage; 333 dps/ship (on high caps) with 1.8 bonuses for a standard-cap-size isn't that low compared to others, iirc,
Autocannon(not very useful attack multipliers)
Structural is one of the most important multipliers, for taking down AI forcefields. UltraHeavy is also pretty nice on the offensive. Also, cloaked and moves fast. Again not a beefy blob-fighter, but even there they should contribute.
Nanoswarm(Wouldn't Parasite or Zenith Paralyzer be better?)
Nanoswarms are a very strange unit, but one of my favorites. My preferred usage is to set up a few space docks with assisting engineers on the other side of a wormhole that leads to the planet I want to attack, and set them to loop-build nanoswarms with an FRD waypoint sending them to the target planet. Doomshroom cannon
This tends to cause a ton of confusion on the enemy planet, and I can send in my normal attack and take fewer casualties, etc. A similar approach could help in some defensive situations.
Eye Bot(I love these but don't know what to do with them)
Being able to shoot through forcefields is important. That said, these are currently a bit hard to use for the human (they can be brutal in the hands of the AI), and we're looking at some ways to buff them. The trick is not simultaneously making them too nasty in AI hands.
MLRS(Just another Missile Frigate?)
Much more powerful than standard missile ships, in terms of dps. There's not supposed to be anything particularly special about them, they're just a good solid ship for fleet combat. Even if they were just missile frigates it's useful to have more cap
Tachyon Micro Fighter(Poor man's fighters? Yes they have tachyon beam but meh)
The tachyon beam isn't very significant (unless you're fighting an AI with a ton of nasty cloaking units... like Eyebots). But having more fighters is
And a cap of microfighters is more effective than a cap of fighters.
Impulse Reaction Emitter(Not sure about these.. are they any good?)
They're absolutely lovely against really big stuff with high energy use. Golems, H/Ks, etc. Not bad in a standup fight, either.
I think I'm going to try 8 Hard or 7.6 Moderate.. first 8 and if it's too hard then 7.6.. 2 Train Masters might be fun..
It sounds like you could probably handle 8, if you're prepared to savescum while learning. Train masters aren't too threatening, but that many trains could prove annoying.
Good hunting
