AI War Beta 5.064-5.067 "Abilities Unlocked" Released!

[orzelek]

I'm playing my first 3 way scenario now.
And it seems like exercise in frustration a bit.
It's my second scenario - I finished one with Epsilon Eridani.
So I have my zenith frigate with all modules at Mk II (I have mixed setup with shield, missiles and 2 of each small turrets). And my attempts at helping seem to be futile. Frigates firepower is not really enough to dent enemies in significant way on both sides to make my allies to actually attempt an attack. And trying to dodge spire lances to hurt forts is... not so good. Mainly due to very large amount of fort hp and almost no dps I can apply to it.

Also a question:
Are your allies not meant to patrol your planets any more?
I think I had some patrol ships from them but after they died there are no more produced.

[platinawolf]

Any chance we could get the (AI's) tackle drone's to be affected by the gravity well of the planets?

On planet Boatqa one tackledrone launcher is waay off into nowhere playing with a dyson gatling,,, And there's no way for me to deal with it other than to bring in snipers,,, Sure, the tackle drone's are powerful but,,, When they are causing ships to be bounced off that deep into far space there's nothing you can do about it unless you happen to have snipers available.

[keith.lamothe]

I'm playing my first 3 way scenario now.
And it seems like exercise in frustration a bit.
It's my second scenario - I finished one with Epsilon Eridani.

It's probably the scaling from having completed a scenario, and I'll adjust that for the next version.

Another thing is the tactics are a bit different; the more you can get the neinzul to fight the spire in that one, the better, but it can certainly be tricky.

One thing to try if you haven't is figure out what ship-type is causing your allies the most trouble, then fill all 6 small slots with the module that has a multiplier against them, and focus them.  Also use your shadow shields to protect allied units under fire to prolong their usefulness.

Are your allies not meant to patrol your planets any more?

That's still the unit behavior, unless I misunderstood it from the beginning.

I think I had some patrol ships from them but after they died there are no more produced.

Yea, it's never produced more after the scenarios are over, because if it was deep in AI territory having to deal with the fallout from the initial "burst" after winning/losing is "interesting" enough

But you can use the player-owned structure that spawns after you win to build some of their designs for yourself.

[Cinth]

The Shadowblades in that scenario are brutal.

[keith.lamothe]

The Shadowblades in that scenario are brutal.

The lances hurt, yes, but don't have multipliers against you (or anyone), at least.  And the ships themselves are pretty fragile and have Light hulls so the human champion main guns shred them quite effectively (though you have to close to nearly point-blank range for them to fire).  Needler modules also have bonuses against them. 

One thing you could try is to pick the human champion (unless you have a bigger zenith hull), fit needlers on all small slots (probably shields on all large slots unless you have something very powerful for them) find a clump of shadowblades in a pitched battle (so not moving), move right on top of them, project a shadow shield to block their shots for a few seconds, and unload with your main gun and needlers.  If you survive they'll die fast.

[Cinth]

It's the way ships pile-on on both sides that really make those lances effective.

[Trandrin]

Glad that change came through with the salvage bug. Was such a dangerous thing to find while playing. Also abilities sound nice. There going to be more after these or just the one for each flavor of champ ship?

[RCIX]

The trick I've found is that you can just chuck your champion at the spire stuff over and over and get a lot of mileage by circle-kiting their beam-weapon-equipped starbase while launching missiles from the missile module (don't forget to attack it once to give it priority). Once the Spire is gone, the Neinzul fall pretty easily with your help.

[RCIX]

Do tackle drone launchers seem a bit powerful on defense? I was able to defend 3 consecutive knowledge hacks (yay, i now have my doomsday cannon!) with nothing but tackle drone launchers, Spirecraft Attritioners, and Spirecraft Shield Bearers (probably could have done without the shield bearers too). I didn't even have to worry; it was just "lol none of your ships are even in the planet gravity well area")

If anything, Tackle drone launchers are the strongest argument yet for giving AIs back some turrets...

[Toranth]

To add to the list of unintended consequences to the nebula, the weak wormholes are being considered for Spire City Hub placement.  This allowed me to place a city in an otherwise dead-end system.  I don't think this is a bad thing, in fact I consider it just an extra little benefit of the nebula.  But just in case, I'm reporting it.

I also don't know if you would be able to "grow" the Spire city if the nebula scenario had not been cleared.

[keith.lamothe]

To add to the list of unintended consequences to the nebula, the weak wormholes are being considered for Spire City Hub placement.  This allowed me to place a city in an otherwise dead-end system.  I don't think this is a bad thing, in fact I consider it just an extra little benefit of the nebula.

Hmm, I might be willing to let it go   Though I probably need to fix it anyway since the nebulae are actually there (but invisible) even if you have no champions on, as long as expansion 4 was enabled when the game started.  Thanks for letting me know, in any event.

I also don't know if you would be able to "grow" the Spire city if the nebula scenario had not been cleared.

Only an AI warp gate of some form will prevent the growth, so all nebulae would be considered clear.

[Lancefighter]

Are there currently any nebula events that on an unfavorable conclusion will end up with many enemy nebulaships flowing into normalspace? I'm talking irrevocably; thered be no way to stop the signal once you screwed up that hard.

I am trying to decide if this would be an awesome thing (fail a nebula event by design to spew forth enemies into ai space), an awesome thing (nebulaships in normalspace means turrets can help your spireship farm), or a terrible idea (should nebulas be hostile ever to a 'normal' player? If you really wanted I'm sure there are other ways to grief multiplayer games though)

[Cinth]

Are there currently any nebula events that on an unfavorable conclusion will end up with many enemy nebulaships flowing into normalspace? I'm talking irrevocably; thered be no way to stop the signal once you screwed up that hard.

I am trying to decide if this would be an awesome thing (fail a nebula event by design to spew forth enemies into ai space), an awesome thing (nebulaships in normalspace means turrets can help your spireship farm), or a terrible idea (should nebulas be hostile ever to a 'normal' player? If you really wanted I'm sure there are other ways to grief multiplayer games though)

This was interesting enough that I checked it out in game. Once an encounter is lost the spawners shut down. My guess would be as that it is has as much to do with why the allied spawners stop when we win an encounter.

Something I also found was that the scaling for multiple champs is happening dynamically. I had one champ watching the FFA and the SP were holding there own (kicking butt really) I sent in my other champs and the spawn rate jumped up dramatically in favor of the Neinzul and Spire.  Scrap off the excess champs and the SP make a dramatic comeback.  I didn't even have to fire a single shot.

[keith.lamothe]

Are there currently any nebula events that on an unfavorable conclusion will end up with many enemy nebulaships flowing into normalspace? I'm talking irrevocably; thered be no way to stop the signal once you screwed up that hard.

As Cinth pointed out, the spawners stop when the scenarios end.  But there can be enough enemies left to raise a fair ruckus when they come out.  If you really want to see a big enemy force pop out, find a mourners scenario and just shoot as many of the controllers as you can; once the allies die all the other controllers will blow up and release the rest of the enemies.  Should cause fireworks.

In theory that could actually work in your favor if it's next to some massive Hybrid-chokepoint.  You lose nebula rewards to make it happen, so I think it's a valid strategic choice to stage a "jail break" to let lose the wrecking ball

Though bear in mind that the Neinzul in the SP FFA are actually AI-ally; if you lose that one you want to make sure the Spire "win" the showdown between the enemies, or the neinzul will specifically come looking for you.

[Cinth]

Or Pizza the Hut will come looking for you