In my current game, the AI has decided to send a massive (!) wave of ships at me. It was 77,120 Mk1 Bombers plus 860 Arachnids. It seems too many for the game to actually handle, because the game nearly halts, only updating every 45-60 seconds or so, and then crashing with an out of memory exception after maybe 7 or 8 minutes.
I'm actually not very far into the game - about 5 hours in, with Total and Effective AI Progress at 163 (I). The previous wave was something like 800 Mk 1 bombers, so this was a bit of a surprise.
This was my first actual non-tutorial playthrough of the game, so I'm trying to figure out what my have caused this and hosed the game. (This is v3.0.16 with the Zenith Remnant expansion) The AIs were Entrenched Homeworlder and Grav Driller, both at level 7.
I got off to a bad start extremely early in the game and decided to use the money and knowledge cheats to play around, learn the units better, experiment with high end units, etc. I bought and built a few expensive toys from the Zenith Traders when they passed through. Things were gong fine when I cleared my 4th planet and established a command station there. The system had a Core Zenith Reserve in it, and AI Progress was 73. AI waves were generally small: 1000 Mk1 units or less. My own fleet was about 1000 ships or so: Mk 1-3 of the basic types, maybe 15 Sentinel Frigates (my starter bonus unit), and about 20 assorted Starships.
I wanted to check out what ships the Reserve gives, but it said you needed tons of energy, so I used the energize cheat (gives about 3000000 energy via 10 Zenith Power Gens at my Homeworld - way way too much, but destroying the extra ones would progress the AI, and I couldn't find a way to even power off the excess Zenith Gens). So anyway, I destroyed the reserve and hit the jackpot - about 55 each of 7 different Core Zenith ships: Mirrors, Paralyzers, Chameleons, Electric Bombers, Polarizers, Bombards, and Z-Beam Frigates. Wow, do the Reserves always have that many awesome ships?
Destroying the reserve took my AI Progress from 73 to 163. I then spent a bunch of time just sorting out the new units and establishing the new base. An AI wave eventually came in to a different planet (not homeworld or where the fleet was) with around 800 AI bombers. While I was planning which way to strike with my new massive fleet, the notice for the 77120 ship bomber wave to my Homeworld came in.
I was curious how my defenses there would handle it. I only had a smallish fleet there (~250 ships mostly Mk1-2), but I had beefed it up with a Fortress plus a whole bunch of the Z Trader toys: a Superfortress, 1x Ion Cannon Mk1, 2x Ion Cannon Mk2, 1xMass Driver, Planetary Shield Inhibitor, and a Planetray Shield Booster.
So I left my Zenith enhanced fleet where it was and waited for the massive wave to arrive. Crash!
Reloading from a save before the wave arrives crashes similarly. Then I tried loading from a save from before the wave was announced, and the next time a wave came, it was 68000 Mk1 fighters, again to my homeworld.
Clearly something caused the massive wave, and I'm hoping to understand what it might be, so I can avoid causing it again. Does opening a Reserve provoke a massive, delayed response? Does the Superfortress, Mass Driver, or Ion Cannons provoke stronger waves against that planet?
Now as I type this, I see that the Zen Power Generator says it causes 2x waves against the planet. Does that stack, so the cheat-given 10 Zen Gens causes a 20x wave? (Wow, that makes that cheat rather an unfortunate booby trap if so). But even it that's the case, the previous wave (at the same AI Progress level of 163) was 800 ships. Even if this one was 1000 ships, that should make it a wave of 20000, not 77000. So it seems like something else is going on also.
Any ideas?
