AI War Beta 5.034 "Is It Really A 'Minor' Faction If You Scale It That High?" Re

[TechSY730]

Why not something like we have with super-terminals? Say change it from -5 AIP to +2 AIP followed by -7 AIP (adjust numbers as needed to reflect how much AIP reduction they actually give)
This way they still give AIP reductions, but let them do their thing for too long, and although they would still be hitting the AIP floor, the floor would eventually start raising.
If this change is made, some way to stop them without destroying them would be needed. (Like maybe allow them to go into low power which stops that leader's timer, or allow them to become neutral to AIP if you lose the planet, allowing you to scrap the planet when you hit that point)

[Diazo]

One thing to keep in mind is that there are 3 states to an SCL, even though there are only 2 effective ones right now.

In my previous game (a few patches ago but I don't think these have been touched) destroying the AI command center in the system is all it took, you did not have to actually build a human command center to get the AIP reduction.

I had two of the SCL's 'freed' this way, the systems they were in were neutral but they were still reducing my AIP.

So, change them up so that freeing the SCL gives a small bonus and capturing the SCL gives a bigger one.

What about changing SCLs to +1/AIP if held by AI, -1/AIP if in a neutral system and -4 AIP if captured by humans? (The human captured version would need a -15 or -20 AIP penalty if destroyed to avoid making it too easy to cheese.)

That means you need to hold the system to really get the benefits, but holding more then 2 (3 if the RNG likes you) SCLs would make your defensive options harder. (Assuming 80 planet map anyway.)

I also like the idea of making it -2/+1 AIP so the floor does keep increasing, again to prevent them from being too powerful.

Some thoughts anyawy.

D.

[Volatar]

Question: Do the scaling difficulties on the minor factions also scale player score?

[keith.lamothe]

Question: Do the scaling difficulties on the minor factions also scale player score?

Doesn't affect score at all; honestly I have no idea how to make it all make sense in one scalar value

[lemons]

Well, I found a new cheese. Turns out that this lets you beat the Fallen Spire finale on 10/10 with 10/10 FS/Golems without any problem. For what it's worth, I did everything up to this legitly though.

[keith.lamothe]

Botnet Wins!  Fatality!

[zoutzakje]

yup, when used right you should be able to win any game with the botnet. Unfortunately, finding it or reaching it isn't always that easy...

[lemons]

I had quite a nice map. Other than the Mk4 world right in my path all the right golems were available (2x botnet, 2x hive, 2x armored, and some others). I used to think Golems were paper-thin and died as soon as something looked at them. Now I realize I was right, but all the important golems lose nothing when covered by several forcefields 

[keith.lamothe]

Hmm, maybe I should make the higher-intensities on exo-causing factions make stuff like EMP Guardians, Avengers, and Botnets eligilble for inclusion in an exo

[lemons]

Botnets can't reclaim zombies or other golems/cap ships/structures. They would have nothing to shoot at vs me but absolutely decimate someone who isn't abusing things. Don't add them.

EMP guardians would be a PITA, so go ahead and add them in. Just make sure it's priced fairly high. It would probably be a good idea to include some kind of advance warning about it too. When a thousand ships are evaporating every minute its hard to notice that one of them would lose the game for you.

Motherships are several times stronger than Avengers and available for exo waves already. In the finale I was getting one thrown at me every minute or so. I see no reason why Avengers shouldn't come up sometimes.

[keith.lamothe]

Motherships are several times stronger than Avengers and available for exo waves already. In the finale I was getting one thrown at me every minute or so. I see no reason why Avengers shouldn't come up sometimes.

Ah, but remember what happens when an Avenger dies?

[lemons]

Ah yes. I forgot because usually I kill it on the AI homeworld and losing a few fleetcraft there isn't a big problem. Sitting in the middle of your worlds, on the other hand...

Yeah that's probably a bit much. Unless you want to make it a special attack that contains no other units and happens 1% of the time. Mixing it in with regular forces would do bad things to us. But then, if you want difficulty 10 to be unbeatable...  :OhBoyWhatHaveIDone:

[TechSY730]

Speaking of new things in exo waves:
"Other Spirecraft in Exo-waves:" http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=3810

[TechSY730]

Just saw the Riot Mk. III changes. Looks awesome, but I'm a little scared of it being OP. Then again, you do have to pay a chunky amount of knowledge to get them, so maybe that balances out.

[keith.lamothe]

Just saw the Riot Mk. III changes. Looks awesome, but I'm a little scared of it being OP. Then again, you do have to pay a chunky amount of knowledge to get them, so maybe that balances out.

The grav generator is no more OP than grav drains, I imagine.  And the grav-tazer is just a tazer with a halting effect for immune-to-paralyze (but not immune-to-gravity) units; I don't think the effect will be overly significant, but it at least keeps the IIIs from having less overall utility than the IIs.