Advanced Factories

[x4000]

Worth a try but I've never used warheads before how do they work?

Build them at the missile silo, and then they pretty much have explanation text right there.  You just guide them where you want them to go, and then they go off when they are destroyed or when you scrap them.  Pretty easy to use, but also easy to nuke your own stuff if you don't protect them.  And pay close attention to the AI Progress increases that each one has (noted in their respective hover texts), as those are significant but sometimes worth it.

[Hyfrydle]

I have just nuked the planet that was getting in the way so I can now expand again on the other side. AI progress is now 284 so I need to be careful from now on.

Thanks for all your help guys it's much appreciated.

[Haagenti]

For the next Advanced Factory:

1) Clear everything from the planet: all command posts, ships, turrets
2) Use a mobile builder to build a forcefield around it
3) Use a small fleet to guard it, and possibly build some turrets
4) Then build your command station right next to it (under the forcefield)

The enemy will start raiding, you can never have too many turrets or forcefields covering it......

[Hyfrydle]

An update on the current state of play.

After nuking the world blocking my path I took the weakest defended and closest world to set up a base of operations. I then scouted all the worlds within 3 jumps. Whilst doing this I found another advanced factory which was defended by just over 1000 ships I had 800 or so at this point.

So I now knew what my next target would be. In the meantime I set-up defenses on all worlds with hostile wormholes and rebuilt any destroyed command stations. I then split my remaining fleets across the outer worlds of my domain.

The ai at this point was just giving me the odd wave which I could deal with without any problems so the stage was set for the attack I also had a little more knowledge so I unlocked some more ships.

We sent the invasion force through the wormhole with a mobile builder to attempt to get a forcefield in place on the other side. The first attempt was a failure so we had to retreat but we did take out a few hundred ai ships weakening them a little.

At this point the number and types of ships attacking our other border planets increased with the ai fielding ships that countered my defensive forces so some micromanagement was required to hold on to the systems. Things seemed to settle down and I went for another push on the main target planet.

This time I managed to get the forcefield in place and create a beachhead but it was difficult as the ai had five guardposts a special forces post and it's command station so reinforcements came thick and fast.

Priority one was to take out the special forces post and all five guardposts so I moved forces into position and took out the special forces and three guardposts.

Unfortunately I took my eye off the ball and while I struggled top gain new territory the ai was really causing problems on my other border planets so much so that I lost one of my command stations.

So this is where I'm up to now nearly 16 hours into the game which is against lvl 6 ai on a 40 planet map. Something I have found really difficult is gaining knowledge which creates a cap on the number of ships you can field. Perhaps 2000 per planet works well on 80 planet maps but maybe on 40 it should be slightly higher this would allow more techs to be utilised.

Also one quick question if the ai destroys a command station over time will it build one of it's own and start to reinforce? Also do destroyed guardposts get rebuilt by the ai?

Sorry for the long post but I really want as much strategic help as possible. This game continues to surprise me and constantly keeps me on my toes.

[Revenantus]

An update on the current state of play.

After nuking the world blocking my path I took the weakest defended and closest world to set up a base of operations. I then scouted all the worlds within 3 jumps. Whilst doing this I found another advanced factory which was defended by just over 1000 ships I had 800 or so at this point.

So I now knew what my next target would be. In the meantime I set-up defenses on all worlds with hostile wormholes and rebuilt any destroyed command stations. I then split my remaining fleets across the outer worlds of my domain.

The ai at this point was just giving me the odd wave which I could deal with without any problems so the stage was set for the attack I also had a little more knowledge so I unlocked some more ships.

We sent the invasion force through the wormhole with a mobile builder to attempt to get a forcefield in place on the other side. The first attempt was a failure so we had to retreat but we did take out a few hundred ai ships weakening them a little.

At this point the number and types of ships attacking our other border planets increased with the ai fielding ships that countered my defensive forces so some micromanagement was required to hold on to the systems. Things seemed to settle down and I went for another push on the main target planet.

This time I managed to get the forcefield in place and create a beachhead but it was difficult as the ai had five guardposts a special forces post and it's command station so reinforcements came thick and fast.

Priority one was to take out the special forces post and all five guardposts so I moved forces into position and took out the special forces and three guardposts.

Unfortunately I took my eye off the ball and while I struggled top gain new territory the ai was really causing problems on my other border planets so much so that I lost one of my command stations.

Seems like you were making sound decisions, although I suppose you learned the hard way that defending your borders can be tough! Make sure you send raiding parties to destroy at least some of the warp gates on adjacent AI planets - this will reduce the number of wormholes that the AI can launch waves through, reducing the number of planets that will require heavy defence. Unfortunately this won't help against cross-planet attacks, you'll have to keep a careful eye on your neighbouring planets to make sure you're prepared for those - they can also come from multiple directions at once, so they're tougher to manage too.

Forcefields and lightning turrets are particularly effective for defending your wormholes, as are electric shuttles. You can also station a few ships in attack-move mode at the wormhole to assist in defence, as these will chase down any enemies that make it past your defences. You could also use munitions boosting ships such as light starships and munitions boosters to bolster your wormhole defences, although those ships might be required for offence.

Make sure you have some engineers stationed near your wormholes (though not so close that the AI can immediately target them!), as these will help to maintain your turrets and reduce the resource costs of maintaining your border defences.

So this is where I'm up to now nearly 16 hours into the game which is against lvl 6 ai on a 40 planet map. Something I have found really difficult is gaining knowledge which creates a cap on the number of ships you can field. Perhaps 2000 per planet works well on 80 planet maps but maybe on 40 it should be slightly higher this would allow more techs to be utilised.

Perhaps, though the argument against that is that you should in theory require fewer ships to ultimately win the campaign, as you will, on average, capture fewer planets and the AI progress level will remain lower. Any other members care to comment on this? Personally, I'm of the mindset that the 2k knowledge per planet makes sense on all map sizes.

Also one quick question if the ai destroys a command station over time will it build one of it's own and start to reinforce? Also do destroyed guardposts get rebuilt by the ai?

No, the AI won't rebuild command posts or command stations, but that's not to say that X isn't going to introduce that in a patch at some point.

[Ashery]

So this is where I'm up to now nearly 16 hours into the game which is against lvl 6 ai on a 40 planet map. Something I have found really difficult is gaining knowledge which creates a cap on the number of ships you can field. Perhaps 2000 per planet works well on 80 planet maps but maybe on 40 it should be slightly higher this would allow more techs to be utilised.

Perhaps, though the argument against that is that you should in theory require fewer ships to ultimately win the campaign, as you will, on average, capture fewer planets and the AI progress level will remain lower. Any other members care to comment on this? Personally, I'm of the mindset that the 2k knowledge per planet makes sense on all map sizes.

Why would you need to necessarily capture more planets on a larger map? Your first goals are to a) capture enough planets for a decent economy and b) create a defensible position. Only the latter part would have the potential for requiring more captured planets in a larger map. If anything, I'd say that larger maps allow for lower AI progress due to their being significantly more data centers (I think? I haven't played many smaller maps, admittedly). Even after taking down both of the final structures in my last game on an eighty planet map the AI progress was only ~260 (Home consisted of six planets, captured all five advanced research, setup a permanent expansion on one of the advanced factories, and destroyed eight or nine out of twelve data centers).

That's not to say, however, that I feel the knowledge limit is too low for a forty planet map. One should still easily be able to knowledge raid and acquire max knowledge from at least thirty of the total planets, and 70k knowledge (60+10) should be more than enough to win. It would, however, be an issue on pocket sized universes (~15).

[Hyfrydle]

It's all over, after 20 hours I just didn't have enough ships and the ai seemed to have tons of reinforcements. AI progress at game end was 367 and they just steamrollered me. I have learnt some valuable lessons and now need to decide to either knock the difficulty level down or try the same difficulty on an 80 planet map. Any suggestions?

Still feel that it was the lack of knowledge that led to my defeat. I just didn't have ships that compared with the ai.

Enjoyed the game and I now know how ruthless this ai can be. When it gets upset it really gets upset!!!!

One last think on shortcut ref sheet it mentions ship selection filters how do they work?

[Haagenti]

It's all over, after 20 hours I just didn't have enough ships and the ai seemed to have tons of reinforcements. AI progress at game end was 367 and they just steamrollered me. I have learnt some valuable lessons and now need to decide to either knock the difficulty level down or try the same difficulty on an 80 planet map. Any suggestions?

Same level but find an easier map with 80 planets. Also 20 hours is too long: you need to finish in 8 or so. Start faster. The best ships at start are:
- II Cruisers (spend Knowledge on these immediately: they are WAY better than I Cruisers)
- I Fighters (cheap and extremely durable)

Build 20 cruisers and 80 fighters (should take a few minutes) and go hunting for bear, build all other II cruisers and I fighters before building anything else. Only start building bombers when a fighter raid comes in.

Other great start ships are:
- I Short range turrets: these cost almost nothing. Use them for defense.
- Exoshields: defend your crystal and metal

Still feel that it was the lack of knowledge that led to my defeat. I just didn't have ships that compared with the ai.

Rule 1: II and III Cruisers are must buys: they provide long range firepower
Rule 2: II and III Fighters are also must buys: fighters are very durable
Rule 3: Don't waste Knowledge on all kind of other frills: Starships are not needed for long time (perhaps I Dreadnoughts: these cost only a 1000)
Rule 4: Select a good special ship at start: I'd suggest Parasites, but these are hard to play

One last think on shortcut ref sheet it mentions ship selection filters how do they work?

You must hold the combination (e.g.: press N and 1 at the same time)
Drag a selection box around a bunch of ships
Release all: you now have all I ships selected.



[Edit by Fiskbit: fixed quoting mishap. So much more readable now!]