AI Dreadnought killed my cloaked human colony

[Don Carsto]

Hello,

still playing AI War, but now I was very confused and shocked.
After prvocating an Homeworld-Raid-Engine the AI sends me a Dreadnought and this killed my human colony that was cloaked and saved.
After killing the Dreadnought, later (after provokating the AI again) he send one more and this killed my second cloaked human colony.
So my AIP goes up by 200.
Is this normal, that this evil Dreadnoughts can kill my saved cloaked human colonies or stil a bug?

Best regards,
DC

[keith.lamothe]

By Dreadnought do you mean "Plasma Siege Starship" or "Spire Dreadnought"?

If the Plasma-Siege; those can hit stuff under forcefields (or near the explosion if not under a forcefield), even if they're cloaked.

If the Dreadnought, then you're really up a creek because those things hit like a freight-train loaded with stars.  But I don't think the AI ones get plasma siege cannons on those.

[Don Carsto]

Hi,

I mean the spire dreadnought. This really big and evil ship that kills everything.
If there was some plasma siege ships near by I dont know, cause I was really busy by defeating the Dreadnought.
But it arrives my command station and the human colony and after leaving the system, my AIP was +100 and the colony and all around was only stardust.
I thought, that the human colonies are save if they are cloaked.
But for later games now I know, and I build my command staion far away from them, so they dont will be killed by collateral-effect.

[KDR_11k]

Photon lances collide with everything in their path, right?

[Don Carsto]

Very mysterious.. I found an old save-game where my rebellion colony is still alive and I provoked the Ai to send me a Dreadnought.
It still attacked the system with the colony but without killing it (killed all, but not the colony).
Now I dont know what killed my rebbelion colonies in the past.
Maybe the Dreadnought not and I am not able to try it out now, cause after 5 times replaying the arriving of the Dreadnought, my colony wasnt killed.

Ahh, found a later save and now after many replays I am sure. Not the Dreadnought killed the colony. But there was something that damaged the colony.
I guess maybe a mini ram.
Is this possible?

[keith.lamothe]

Photon lances collide with everything in their path, right?

I'm not sure if they hit cloaked ships.  But yea, that's probably what happened.

Anyway, Don Carsto, it sounds like you're facing a "Spire Hammer" AI, which means it's going to hit you very very hard if you provoke a high-tech wave (Core Raid Engines being one way to do that).

I don't think there's a bug inherent in the cloaked colony being damaged by aoe weapons, though it's possible the colony's max health is some old number that's basically irrelevant in the current balance...

Yep, 400k health, an afterthought.  Bumping it up to 5M in the next release

That probably won't save you against a Spire Dreadnought though, those things are incredibly powerful.  For those, you need to either not provoke their appearance, or kill them before they get in range of a rebel colony (or anything else you don't want to see very, very dead).

But it should keep a rebel colony from dying "by accident".

[Atomikkrab]

The Best way to save a rebel colony is to not build near it and let its cloak do the work.

[Lancefighter]

Yeah, I've used spire lances to clear out cloaked guard posts. They can easily hit cloaked things.

[keith.lamothe]

Yeah, I've used spire lances to clear out cloaked guard posts. They can easily hit cloaked things.

The Spire Janitor.

[TechSY730]

Yeah, I've used spire lances to clear out cloaked guard posts. They can easily hit cloaked things.

The Spire Janitor.

Hmm, better equip those sawdust modules.

[xX Eldest Xx]

How does the AI get Spire Dreadnoughts?

[keith.lamothe]

How does the AI get Spire Dreadnoughts?

Play against a Spire Hammer and trigger a raid engine on a MkIV or MkV planet.  Though the MkIV one might give you "just" a BB instead of a DN.

Honestly, Spire Hammer + Core Raid Engine is like probably worse than the Avenger plot (assuming you actually fight the Avenger).