Interesting End Game Hacking Behavior

[DelphiAegis]

Running version 7.045:

Apparently there is a behavior where if a Design Backup server is destroyed (Rather than hacked/corrupted), the design it held will be transferred to another server somewhere else in the galaxy.

So, 3/4 of the way through the game, I hacked a server and downloaded 6 (!!!) separate blueprints for ships. My hacking progress was around ~200, my cost to hack was 253.13. Finishing the hack on this server gave me three separate messages, one telling me I got 3 blueprints, the second with 2, and the last with the final blueprint downloaded. However, all six blueprints were "counted" as downloaded for the hacking progress, making my new requirement for downloading a blueprint 2883 (!!!) and giving me a new hacking progress of -5000 or so.

After clearing one or two more planets, I found the final design backup server. However, attempting to hack this with such high negative values the AI tried to do literally everything it could about six to 15 times over in response to hacking. I.E.: It summoned 6-7 exogalactic waves, reprisal waves AND tachyon radiation on the hacked planet, all at once. Needless to say, this locked the game quite hard. It was funny, though!

[DelphiAegis]

To clarify what I mean, I'll give an example with math. I was laughing too hard at the super waves dropped on me, and I'm better now.

Lets say you have 100 hacking progress. You have not hacked a design backup server, so it costs 50 progress to download a design. This particular backup server has three (3) blueprints. Upon finishing the hack, you will be charged 50 progress for the first design, 75 for the second and 112.5 for the third, leaving you at -137.5 hacking progress (Or just -137/8 due to rounding). Using this to gain absurd levels of negative hacking progress all at once, and then initiating another hack will spawn so many ships even on a single player campaign as to run the game out of memory straight up.

[Gemzo]

Well, now someone has to fight an Everything AI and see how big of a negative HaP they can get with this...and then see if they can keep their game running long enough to witness the carnage.

[Draco18s]

Well, now someone has to fight an Everything AI and see how big of a negative HaP they can get with this...and then see if they can keep their game running long enough to witness the carnage.

Combine with What Memo

[Toranth]

Well, now someone has to fight an Everything AI and see how big of a negative HaP they can get with this...and then see if they can keep their game running long enough to witness the carnage.

Once you get below about -10,000 HaP, the game usually crashes when the AI tries to respond.  The game engine can only handle so many units, and when the response would be spawning 100,000s of them every second, it just doesn't do well :/

[keith.lamothe]

At one point I had it do a different response below about -9000.  One designed to end the game with a relatively small amount of units.  But perhaps that's no longer working like it used to

[Peter Ebbesen]

Well, now someone has to fight an Everything AI and see how big of a negative HaP they can get with this...and then see if they can keep their game running long enough to witness the carnage.

Combine with What Memo

In my "What memo" game, I reached -11.5k HaP after downloading 8 designs from a design server, starting at around +1k HaP before the hack. It was glorious! (8 appeared to be max, as I tried transferring all designs in the galaxy to that server, and some got lost when the second to last was blown up)

...but I didn't dare try hacking anything after that (and besides, all that was left to hack in the universe were the stuff left on the remaining AI homeworld).