Author Topic: Superterminal Spawn distance?  (Read 3967 times)

Offline Draco18s

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Superterminal Spawn distance?
« on: August 04, 2012, 10:24:53 am »
I was under the impression that a superterminal couldn't spawn adjacent to a player homeworld.

Although I am not sure what the rules are.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2012, 10:31:15 am »
Having looked at the code recently I think it only required 1 distance from human homeworlds.  I'm not sure if that means one or two hops in practice, but I think it means 1.
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Offline Hearteater

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2012, 10:53:49 am »
I have one adjacent to my homeworld right now.  Created the game in 5.051.

Offline Draco18s

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #3 on: August 04, 2012, 11:42:07 am »
I have one adjacent to my homeworld right now.  Created the game in 5.051.

My current game as well.  What I meant was:

Is this intended behavior?

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #4 on: August 04, 2012, 11:51:15 am »
I don't know the intention, it was written something like 2 and a half years ago, before I worked here :)

It is something of an advantage to start nearby to the ST, but it also makes it a more dangerous hack because you have less buffer room to defend your homeworld if it gets out of control before you kill it.
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #5 on: August 04, 2012, 12:09:02 pm »
I don't know the intention, it was written something like 2 and a half years ago, before I worked here :)

It is something of an advantage to start nearby to the ST, but it also makes it a more dangerous hack because you have less buffer room to defend your homeworld if it gets out of control before you kill it.

Its first wave is like 4 units.  Each additional wave is 4 plus a cumulative 1% more units (so the 10th tick is 44 units).

It does not get out of control quickly, and the ST itself has almost no hit points.

It's a joke, even in the early game and with a fleet one has by the mid-game, it's a walk in the park.  The last one I pestered (not counting last night) we let it run so long we were actually increasing AIP because of the AIP floor, and even then the waves it was throwing at us weren't all that significant (yeah, we brought the AIP floor up to like 200).

Not like the first ST I ever ticked off, where it ran for maybe 3 minutes before overwhelming a late-game two-player fleet, killing the command station, and an adjacent world before getting brought under control.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #6 on: August 04, 2012, 12:12:12 pm »
The last one I pestered (not counting last night) we let it run so long we were actually increasing AIP because of the AIP floor, and even then the waves it was throwing at us weren't all that significant (yeah, we brought the AIP floor up to like 200).
What version was that?  Specifically, before or after 5.030?
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2012, 12:17:59 pm »
The last one I pestered (not counting last night) we let it run so long we were actually increasing AIP because of the AIP floor, and even then the waves it was throwing at us weren't all that significant (yeah, we brought the AIP floor up to like 200).
What version was that?  Specifically, before or after 5.030?

The one where we increased the AIP floor above the current AIP was before 5.030.

We could have done the same last night (5.051) but stopped because we were interested in performing an ARS hack and didn't want to raise the hacking threat too much.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #8 on: August 04, 2012, 12:20:27 pm »
We could have done the same last night (5.051) but stopped because we were interested in performing an ARS hack and didn't want to raise the hacking threat too much.
I think you might find it gets a bit more wild than that nowadays ;)

Starting from zero-previous-hacking does let you squeeze a goodly amount of AIP reduction out of it, but it reaches a point where it gets so many rolls on the wild magic table that it gets unmanageable.
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #9 on: August 04, 2012, 12:46:45 pm »
Starting from zero-previous-hacking does let you squeeze a goodly amount of AIP reduction out of it, but it reaches a point where it gets so many rolls on the wild magic table that it gets unmanageable.

In which case, it doesn't happen soon enough.  I think we pulled ~50 AIP out of it and the craziest thing that happened was a non-localized spawn.

I know what it can do.  I just never saw any evidence.  I don't think it got up above 1 wild roll.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #10 on: August 04, 2012, 12:54:24 pm »
50 AIP is fine for that much hacking cost and the use of the ST.
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Offline Cinth

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #11 on: August 04, 2012, 01:25:12 pm »
114 AIP decrease before I got kicked off the ST in my current game lol.

The response, if your interested, is attached.   8)
Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2012, 01:37:20 pm »
114 AIP decrease before I got kicked off the ST in my current game lol.

The response, if your interested, is attached.   8)
You had 16 HWs in that one, right? ;)
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #13 on: August 04, 2012, 01:46:42 pm »
114 AIP decrease before I got kicked off the ST in my current game lol.

The response, if your interested, is attached.   8)
You had 16 HWs in that one, right? ;)

900 ships (given that the text file is poorly formatted) is trivial if he does.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Superterminal Spawn distance?
« Reply #14 on: August 04, 2012, 02:01:16 pm »
114 AIP decrease before I got kicked off the ST in my current game lol.

The response, if your interested, is attached.   8)
You had 16 HWs in that one, right? ;)

Yes 16 HWs.. It is the game I currently have in AAR.

114 AIP decrease before I got kicked off the ST in my current game lol.

The response, if your interested, is attached.   8)
You had 16 HWs in that one, right? ;)

900 ships (given that the text file is poorly formatted) is trivial if he does.

The text file was attached as is. I just threw it up here as I thought it might be interesting or relevant.
Aside from the fact that it is a 16 HW game.. It was a hack started from practically zero response.
I'm sure something useful can be gleaned from the file  :)
Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.