AI War Beta 5.015, "Martyred Forcefields," Released!

[Philo]

Yeah ok, if it's just a first revision I'm ok with it.

As for the FF's. With this I think they need to be buffed 2x as strong as before to really be helpful anywhere. Since even with the current method, the exowaves will just chew through your forcefields like nothing. And they will beeline straight to them before you have a chance to kill them is what I'm saying.

[x4000]

The exo-waves are really meant to crush forcefields, honestly; the force fields are pretty much paper when the spirecraft are around.  And actually if you have 50-100 bombers sitting outside a forcefield, it should be down in seconds.  Otherwise, forcefields are basically just "perfect invincibility except in extremely unlikely circumstances that don't even occur in every game."  Though if you're playing fallen spire, you'll obviously see that waaay more.

[Ozymandiaz]

My last spire game I had to layer 2 MK II and 2 MK III force fields to even hold of some of the nastier attackers before my main fleet could get there. Even then it was not always enough

Good times.

[TechSY730]

The exo-waves are really meant to crush forcefields, honestly; the force fields are pretty much paper when the spirecraft are around.  And actually if you have 50-100 bombers sitting outside a forcefield, it should be down in seconds.  Otherwise, forcefields are basically just "perfect invincibility except in extremely unlikely circumstances that don't even occur in every game."  Though if you're playing fallen spire, you'll obviously see that waaay more.

Hmm, now that I think about it, 100 Mk. III bombers should be able to take out a Mk. III ff in 2 or 3 salvos. I'll have to double check the math to be sure though. Thankfully, due to the somewhat slow firing rate of bombers, this can give you enough time to react. Now if you got 200 Mk. III bombers up near your ff, you've got a big problem on your hands.

[x4000]

Exactly.

[keith.lamothe]

The exo-waves are really meant to crush forcefields, honestly; the force fields are pretty much paper when the spirecraft are around.  And actually if you have 50-100 bombers sitting outside a forcefield, it should be down in seconds.  Otherwise, forcefields are basically just "perfect invincibility except in extremely unlikely circumstances that don't even occur in every game."  Though if you're playing fallen spire, you'll obviously see that waaay more.

Yea, small ff piles are not going to hold up in those cases.  But the defense of a spire city is based around the shield modules on the city structures, the shield modules on the capital ships, and generally (until you've researched the really high-end spire shields) a pile of human ff generators covering the core of the formation.  All piled on top of the wormhole that leads deeper into your territory

[x4000]

And that's fine: that's specific to that scenario.  But the general FFs aren't meant to hold up to remotely that firepower, is all I meant.

[keith.lamothe]

And that's fine: that's specific to that scenario.  But the general FFs aren't meant to hold up to remotely that firepower, is all I meant.

Oh yea, definitely.  A single human ff generator blocking a wormhole typically won't even be reached by the lead ships of an exo battlegroup before their firepower destroys it or at least knocks it to the point where they can traverse the wormhole.

[Philo]

Are there some special Spire forcefields then? We've been playing with both exo fleets on (and everything else) and the normal shields don't amount to much.
We haven't played the story very far usually because of the other exo and normal waves + expansion are eating all our resources usually.

[keith.lamothe]

Are there some special Spire forcefields then? We've been playing with both exo fleets on (and everything else) and the normal shields don't amount to much.
We haven't played the story very far usually because of the other exo and normal waves + expansion are eating all our resources usually.

Yea, the Spire structures and capital ships (larger than frigate) can mount shield modules, and higher-mark shield modules are available if you research the higher mark human forcefield generators.  In general they're quite a bit stronger than human generators, but you'll want to use those too.

[keith.lamothe]

Are there some special Spire forcefields then? We've been playing with both exo fleets on (and everything else) and the normal shields don't amount to much.
We haven't played the story very far usually because of the other exo and normal waves + expansion are eating all our resources usually.

Oh, and by "both exo fleets" do you mean "Spirecraft - Hard" + "Broken Golems - Hard"?  Or is Fallen Spire on too?  That would be three different sources of exo waves, and a very stiff challenge indeed.  Particularly if combined with roaming enclaves, preservation wardens, and hybrids.

I certainly wouldn't recommend it for your first FS game, at least, as it hasn't even started getting hard if you haven't reached the bit where you can build shield modules

[Philo]

I certainly wouldn't recommend it for your first FS game, at least, as it hasn't even started getting hard if you haven't reached the bit where you can build shield modules

Hahah, how much harder can this game even get ?

Well yeah, we've got all the three waves on + everything else from the left column. So no hybrids. But, we usually don't do well enough to go for the spire campaign as well as fighting everything else. But one day we will. Hopefully next game.

[keith.lamothe]

Well yeah, we've got all the three waves on + everything else from the left column. So no hybrids. But, we usually don't do well enough to go for the spire campaign as well as fighting everything else. But one day we will. Hopefully next game.

I know folks who can do it, but I don't think they did it without having played the FS campaign by itself first.

[Philo]

Have you any idea of the AI difficulty they had set? We're playing at 7/7 atm usually.

[keith.lamothe]

Have you any idea of the AI difficulty they had set? We're playing at 7/7 atm usually.

Varies from group to group, 7 to 8.3 is the usual range I hear from players.  Dunno if anyone tries anything that crazy on 9+, I think at some point skill ceases to be sufficient   Though until just now martyrs probably were.