Anti-Deep-Strike Hunter/Killers Discussion Thread

[x4000]

From here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,7803.msg65970.html#msg65970

The idea on this one is also a bit nebulous, so will require further refinement from the community.  But the general idea -- I think -- is that when you kill an AI Planet (or attack it?  hmm) that is more than, say, 4 planets away from your home, a Hunter/Killer gets spawned.  HKs are wicked strong, and there are five various mark levels.  This idea isn't complete enough for actual implementation yet, and I'm honestly not feeling that inspired on it.  If you have better ideas on what the spawn rules should be, please comment.

[Yuugi]

This sounds a bit like a "Well, then I'll just neuter the systems and leave the command centers" mechanic.

How about making them not quite as "powerful" (how powerful are we talking, anyways), and instead let them spearhead small and fast fleet ship groups, that generally try to strike player territory while the player has a large fleet romping around deep in AI space.

This should either force the player to pull back, force the player to split his forces or at least leave a decent turret defense, rather than romp around with most of the fleet deep in AI territory until a bigger wave warning happens or he accidentally runs into a raid engine.


Note that this is mostly written from the perspective of someone who has only played against diff 7 AIs at the highest.

EDIT: Of course they shouldn't just throw themselves at well fortified chokepoints, either, but rather do some smart-ish cherrypicking of targets. If the player-area is too turtled in they could try to get the deep-strike fleet of the player instead. Whichever is less suicidal.

[Lancefighter]

I was thinking less kill planets, and more like leaving a planet;

As in, the AI watches your fleet leave your systems, and spawns an attack force to hit your base while your fleet is away. I would say its spawn size would be influenced by the size of your fleet, and linearly by how many systems you go though - as in, if i deep strike 8 planets deep, this fleet would spawn on the 5th 6th and 7th planets and head to my worlds

[Yuugi]

Maybe have it keep an eye on how much of your mobile firepower is tied up away from your own systems to make decisions like that.

One could also throw in a mechanic like these strike groups taking away from the next reinforcement wave or something, so the AI has to weigh wether or not spending their resources on a strike like that is a smart thing. Unless that makes the mechanic exploitable.