AI War Beta 5.070-5.071 "The Once And Fortress King" Released!

[Diazo]

Oh.

This was my 3rd scenario, it was 2 hops deep in AI territory, I could not 'charge and die', had to fall back when my Champions shield got low to allow it to recharge.

At diff 10/10 I was accumulating too much threat just rushing my champion through the AI systems.

D.

[orzelek]

I actually used the flying in square tactics after noticing that Neinzul Cruiser has vampirism and can self sustain a bit with no shields only missiles.

How you can do it in only 2 runs with shields? I used 4 Mk III launchers and there were enemies spawning on the fort in groups of 8+ - without vampirism I would die quite quickly especially when guys without beams spawned.

Also there are 2 different layouts of this mission I think. In one I had enemies started to fight each other actually after one of friendly starbases died and they had more or less clear line with no allied ships spawning between them. This let me fight the dark spire with no need to defend allied starbases.

[chemical_art]

I am able to do it with MK III shields and the zenith shield ability. I had mixed MK I weapons. The enemies came out in groups of 1 at the start, and when there are 2 left they come in groups of 4.

The last one has the groups of 8. That one is hard. Which is why I don't try to take it alone. I can do it, but it takes three full tries burning all the ability power I have. When it gets down to 1 I go defense till the zenith wear down the nenzul starbases, and after one or two are popped from them the tide turns enough to go offense again.

Also, I don't worry if one or two ally starbases fall if I am maintaining a good pace on attacking the enemy starbases. The reduced number of ally bases causes the two enemy factions to fight each other uninterrupted I find.

[Commiesalami]

How is the amount of unlocks decided for the Mourners Scenario?  I've killed roughly the same amount in advance for two run-throughs and the first resulted in 2 unlocks with the other resulting in 4.

[Diazo]

As far as I know it's time based.

So the quicker all the prisons die the better the reward.

No clue on numbers though, Keith would have to confirm those.

D.

[keith.lamothe]

Actually it's based on the largest amount of enemy XP "on the board" at once, though I may change that to better account for "pop-4, then let them all auto-pop" being easier than "pop 4, pop 4, repeat"

[orzelek]

Could you consider giving Vampiric to all neinzul champions not only cruiser?

It's a good defining ability for them and goes well with the fact that shields and cloak don't mix.

[keith.lamothe]

Update: 5.071 hotfix is out to fix several bugs with the Fortress King AI type.  Also fixed some other issues and packed in some further changes to CPAs and some funny business involving barracks.

[TechSY730]

Silly question, but you did make sure to make the barracks thing one time only, right? Like if you have a save from a game at 5.071 or later, it won't apply the retroactive seeding logic, right?

[keith.lamothe]

Could you consider giving Vampiric to all neinzul champions not only cruiser?

It's a good defining ability for them and goes well with the fact that shields and cloak don't mix.

I could, but I would prefer if the FF/DD got their regen via the repair ability, though perhaps the numbers on that don't work.

[keith.lamothe]

Silly question, but you did make sure to make the barracks thing one time only, right? Like if you have a save from a game at 5.071 or later, it won't apply the retroactive seeding logic, right?

Nah, it'll spam you with more barracks every time you savescum too

(kidding, yes, we have a standard method for the population of such things, and it sets a flag when that structure type group has already had its population done)

[Diazo]

Barracks into old saves?

Ouchies.

Looks like I'll have some clearing of my highways to do.

I'll get you some actual feedback tonight when I get a chance to play with 5.071.

D.

[TechSY730]

Silly question, but you did make sure to make the barracks thing one time only, right? Like if you have a save from a game at 5.071 or later, it won't apply the retroactive seeding logic, right?

Nah, it'll spam you with more barracks every time you savescum too

(kidding, yes, we have a standard method for the population of such things, and it sets a flag when that structure type group has already had its population done)

Thought so. You guys are usually good about that, but very occasionally, something slips through.
Just wanted to check.

Also, the release notes on the Wiki have not been update to show that 5.071 is out.

[keith.lamothe]

Barracks into old saves?

Ouchies.

Looks like I'll have some clearing of my highways to do.

I'll get you some actual feedback tonight when I get a chance to play with 5.071.

The barracks actually won't bug you unless:

A) you shoot at the barracks itself (they're not autotargeted)
B) you kill the AI command station on the planet
C) a CPA happens and that particular planet is tapped to contribute

Of course, when any of those things happen, it can potentially bug you a lot

[TechSY730]

Well, these AI changes don't really address the AI Homeworld thing. Sure, it gives the homeworlds more to work with, but if you do manage to neuter the planet, the AI won't really put more effort into "refleeting" it than normal alerted homeworld reinforcement rates would dictate (while no longer trivial, it is still not enough to recover in time to deal with the types of fleets the AI will face in the late game).

Is it safe to guess you are not done on that front though?

EDIT: Don't get me wrong. These changes are welcome. But they seem to be targetting AI as a whole, not the recently introduced concern about AI homeworlds after the first homeworld attack (or during a massive homeworld attack).