AI Eye on home planet! And a couple other questions

[brianc]

Well, I've finally made my way up to level 7 difficulties and on my current game I'm fighting some sort of Turtle AI if not two and there is an AI Eye on one of the home planets.  I've read lots of suggestions and strategies about taking them down but often the responses are Spirecraft(!) or Golem(!) and I only have the base game.  Does anyone have any advice for me?  Also, if I buy the expansions (Which I definitely will) will it make the game easier?  That was the impression I was getting based off strategies people were recommending for this situation.  I know we get new craft but does the AI as well and overall do you think it makes things easier, harder, or retains the amazing balance of the base game?  Thanks for any help, I really don't want to give up on this galaxy!

[Coppermantis]

Firstly, the expansions make the game easier, or harder depending on what you want. For instance, Golems and Spirecraft come with Easy, Medium and Hard variants. Fallen Spire, from what I've heard, brings in some astronomically powerful AI Waves and such, but you also get some serious hardware. (Although, each one does include Guardians/Guard Posts/Ships for the AI to use that aren't toggleable. (EMP Guardians, for instance.)

Getting the AI Eye out will be tough with only base game ships, though. My strategies always involve either Cloaker Starships or Golems, neither of which you have. Missiles will be useful for clearing the guards around the wormhole you will be attacking from, and then you can begin guerrila raiding the core guard posts with merc ships/starships/cloaked ships such as autocannons or Space Planes if you have them. The cloaked option is only good if you have a ton of mk. I-IV of them, since they have low firepower and health. Core Guard posts will pribably eat through Space Planes or Autocannons like cake.

[x4000]

Heh -- generally speaking, the consensus is that the expansions make the game a lot harder.  Sure, there are various tools that players are talking about using that are expansion-only.  BUT, and this is a big but, the AI also has loads of new tools.  So I wouldn't feel like you are missing anything in terms of ease of use with just the base game.  There are also options in the expansions that do make the game easier if you choose to use them, or that make it VASTLY harder.  So really you can use the expansions to tune the difficulty however you want, same as the base game.  But just item for item, if you're not enabling a lot of extra special stuff in the expansions, they tend to be harder.


For the AI Eye, remember that you don't have to brute force it.  You really want to hit it with some focused firepower if you can, but that could mean loading some starships up into some transports and dumping them out near the eye, then bum-rushing it.  If you're on the latest beta versions (which we all highly recommend), you could even choose to use an armored or lightning warhead for cheaper if you're really stuck.

I'm sure others will be along with more tips, but hopefully that's enough to get you some things to try.

EDIT: Ninja'd, I see.

[keith.lamothe]

I'd suggest bomber starships, raid starships... basically starships   Whatever the strongest individual units you can muster are, and pack in as much as you can without triggering the eye, and just kill the guard posts one by one (probably will take several tries).  Alternately go over the cap but still only bring ships that will contribute, and stuff all the hard-target-killing stuff into a few transports and rush them over to the targets and unload (if you have supply I think you can just scrap the transports, but it may be not-on-hostile-planets-at-all for that); most of the stuff on the planet will chase the other loose stuff you brought in and your heavy-hitters can get in the most damage.

Ultimately if you have a strong enough defense to catch the AI Eye's backlash you shouldn't have to worry about it too much.  If they all stack up on a wormhole waiting for you there are lightning warheads to smash them (at AIP cost, true).

And I'm sure folks around here have much better strategies.

Also, if I buy the expansions (Which I definitely will) will it make the game easier?

It depends.  TZR, maybe.  CoN, kind of 50/50 depending on how much you like throwaway attack ships.  LotS almost definitely not, those new bonus ship types are an object of hatred once they fall into the hands of the AI   Though we have toned them down quite a bit.

Each gives you new toys, but also gives the AI new toys.  If you play with something like "Broken Golems - Easy" or "Spirecraft - Easy" that definitely will make the game easier, but if you play the hard variants of either the AI will definitely give you a challenge to go with the superweapons.


Ninja'd.  Twice.

[zoutzakje]

do something that lures all enemy ships to attack you (make sure you can handle it), like sending a small force in for a while (like half till equal the amount of enemy ships), let it fight a bit and then retreat. Take out all the attacking ships and send a small starship fleet (I prefer Raid Starships) in to take out the Core guard posts. you'll probably have to try a couple of times, since Core guard (and enemy reinforcements) can still kill your ships. AI eye blows up when guard posts are down. Of course, Golems and Spirecraft makes this process easier (a lot easier), but it works (at least for me )

[brianc]

Thanks for the responses!  I'm very stubborn so I definitely want to do this and I'll report back with my results

[brianc]

Ok, so now I can give my own advice if anyone on vanilla is having this same problem.  My nearest planet to the enemy's home was 5 jumps away (I play very conservatively, usually 7 or 8 planets on a 60).  It was on a straight line fortunately so I managed to use the planet as a really hardcore whipping boy by docking a bunch of lightning warheads, a fortress, and tons of turrets.  I found sending in bomber fleets was not getting any progress and would have taken lots of attempts so I decided instead to fling all of my ships into the home planet.  Lots of zombie ships spawned but having such high numbers allowed me to very quickly mop up all but one guard post before losing all of my ships.  Now there were about 2,500 AI ships and zombies rushing towards my home base (since I ordered my ships to completely ignore every target but guard posts).  They blew up my wormhole turrets, completely ignored my fortress, and went to my command station.  Fortunately having my planet so far away from theirs I was able to find time to build a few more shield generators so once they reached me I let them clump together and sent out a few lightning warheads and BAM! I took that home planet within 30 minutes after pushing back their counterattack (one guard post on a nearly empty planet was no problem of course)

This game is amazing.

[zoutzakje]

heh gz on the victory ^^
Next step: dif 8/8 technologists

[keith.lamothe]

Very glad you're enjoying it   There's plenty of variety to be had, too, so the game's willing to keep it up as long as you are

Next step: dif 8/8 technologists

Oh be nice

[Hearteater]

Very glad you're enjoying it   There's plenty of variety to be had, too, so the game's willing to keep it up as long as you are

Next step: dif 8/8 technologists

Oh be nice

He was; he didn't suggest 8/8 Technologists + Hybrids